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334,561 | naturalnews--2019-02-07--EVIL MEDICINE Med school uses live pigs for medical training completely disregarding ethics or suf | 2019-02-07T00:00:00 | naturalnews | EVIL MEDICINE: Med school uses live pigs for medical training, completely disregarding ethics or suffering (this is how they treat humans, too) | (Natural News) Sometimes, doing things the “old-fashioned way” is the best approach — but when it comes to animal testing, the days of yore are best left behind us. In today’s world, there are plenty of alternatives to the cruel and unethical practice of testing on live animals. Now, Brown University is under fire for using live pigs in the course of medical training, even though experts say human body simulators are actually a better choice. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is petitioning the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, calling upon the agency to investigate animal use at Brown U’s Warren Alpert Medical School. PCRM is known for advocating against the use of live animals in any sort of medical training, favoring the use of human body simulators instead. According to reports, the medical school is using live pigs for emergency medicine training. Dr. John Pippin, director of academic affairs for PCRM, says that Brown U is violating the federal Animal Welfare Act because alternatives do exist. This means that the school’s use of live pigs is neither justifiable, nor unavoidable. In the United States and Canada, the overwhelming majority of medical training programs exclusively use human-based training methods — some 90 percent. Instead of abusing living animals, these programs use human-body simulators and cadavers. Pippin also says that Brown U’s animal care and use committee does not oversee the use of the pigs properly, which is another violation of the welfare act. The power of the elements: Discover Colloidal Silver Mouthwash with quality, natural ingredients like Sangre de Drago sap, black walnut hulls, menthol crystals and more. Zero artificial sweeteners, colors or alcohol. Learn more at the Health Ranger Store and help support this news site. “The purpose of all of these training programs, including at Brown, is to produce the best possible physicians in the field of emergency medicine. Everyone agrees on that,” Pippin contends. “What I’m claiming, and I think I can prove, is the best way to do this does not include the use of animals.” As Dr. Pippin, a cardiologist in Dallas, explains, alternatives to animal testing have many benefits. If students make a mistake while placing a chest tube, they can do it over again, for example. He contends further that human body models are more similar to humans than live pigs; pigs have thicker skin and their organs may be placed differently. According to reports, a spokesperson from Brown U has stated that they knew nothing about PCRM’s complaint. There was no immediate response to questions about the school’s use of live animals, either. Pippin says that when he first contacted the medical school, the residency director told him she wouldn’t have time to even consider the issue of animal testing alternatives for at least six months. After a few more failed attempts, Pippin went straight to the USDA. The problem of animal testing remains widespread even today. In the past, many universities have been caught doing unspeakable things to the animals they test on — including operating on them without providing proper anesthesia and not providing animals with pain medication post-op. Even the USDA has been in hot water for their cruel and highly contested medical experiments on kittens. In mid-2018, a shocking report revealed that the federal agency had senselessly murdered hundreds of innocent kittens following medical experiments. A USDA spokesperson said that the kittens had been purposely infected with Toxoplasma gondii, the parasite responsible for causing toxoplasmosis. The kittens were supposedly infected “in part” so the USDA can assist in the development of a vaccine for the infection. Internal documents from the USDA show that up to 100 kittens are killed every year. Veterinary experts agree that a simple round of antibiotics is all it takes to treat toxoplasmosis in cats — which raises even more serious concerns about the USDA’s treatment of these animals. Not only are they raising these kittens just to infect and kill them, they are killing kittens that could have easily been adopted. See more coverage of stories like this at MedicalExtremism.com. | Vicki Batts | http://www.naturalnews.com/2019-02-07-evil-medicine-med-school-uses-live-pigs-for-medical-training.html | 2019-02-07 13:09:17+00:00 | 1,549,562,957 | 1,567,549,324 | health | medical profession |
502,484 | sottnet--2019-06-19--Women exceed men in fair exam for Juntendo University medical school | 2019-06-19T00:00:00 | sottnet | Women exceed men in fair exam for Juntendo University medical school | Female applicants outperformed their male counterparts in the entrance exam for Juntendo University's medical school, which had previously rigged the system to give men an unfair advantage toward admission.Of the 1,679 women who took the fiscal 2019 exam, 139, or 8.28 percent, passed. Among the men, 170 of 2,202 applicants passed the exam for a success rate of 7.72 percent, Juntendo University said on June 17. It was the first time in seven years for women to have a higher pass rate than men at the private university in Tokyo. "This is a result of abolishing the unfair treatment of female applicants and repeat applicants," the university said in a statement.The dean of Juntendo University's medical school in December last year raised a few eyebrows when he tried to justify the rigging of the exam system.he said at a news conference.The university said it corrected its unfair practices for the fiscal 2019 exam and added female teachers to the teams that conducted interviews with the applicants.From fiscal 2013 to 2018, an average of 9.16 percent of male applicants passed the medical school's exam, far exceeding the rate of 5.50 percent among female applicants.The men's success rate was 1.67 times higher than that for women, the largest gap among 81 university medical schools in Japan that were investigated by the education ministry.In fiscal 2018, the male pass rate was 1.93 times higher than the rate for females trying to enter Juntendo University's medical school.Under the fair exam for fiscal 2019, the women's success rate was 1.07 times higher than that for men.Overall, the male applicants' pass rate was 11.89 percent, 1.08 times higher than 10.99 percent for female applicants.For the fiscal 2018 exams, the men's pass rate was 1.22 times higher than the rate for women. | null | https://www.sott.net/article/415287-Women-exceed-men-in-fair-exam-for-Juntendo-University-medical-school | 2019-06-19 18:54:15+00:00 | 1,560,984,855 | 1,567,538,815 | health | medical profession |
1,050,051 | truepundit--2019-04-10--University To Stop Considering Race In Medical School Admissions | 2019-04-10T00:00:00 | truepundit | University To Stop Considering Race In Medical School Admissions | A Texas Tech University System school plans to stop considering race when admitting medical students. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC)’s School of Medicine will end affirmative-action as part of an agreement made with the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in February, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The deal ends a 14-year investigation that began in 2005 after anti-affirmative action group Center for Equal Opportunity complained. The resolution agreement “does not constitute an admission by TTUHSC” of any violations or laws enforced, but is meant to address “compliance concerns.” The university plans to take out material mentioning race and national origin as admission factors by Sept. 1, according to the resolution agreement. The school stopped raced-based admission in its pharmacy school in 2008 and in undergraduate admissions in 2013. The medical school, however, said considering race in admissions would allow Texas to have diverse doctors who could serve various communities, WSJ reported. “The more schools that don’t use racial preferences, the harder it is for the remaining schools to justify their use of it,” general counsel of Center for Equal Opportunity Robert Clegg said, WSJ reported. Education Department spokeswoman Liz Hill said the school chose to stop using race altogether, but the organization was not requiring the institution to completely halt race consideration, according to The Washington Post. TTUHSC can resume race consideration with limits, however. The OCR has opened investigations into Yale and Harvard University over alleged discrimination against Asian-American applicants, according to WSJ. The U.S. Supreme Court has revisited affirmative action in college admissions several times since the 1970s. The court upheld raced-based admissions by a 4-3 vote in 2016. Retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, however, wrote that colleges must go over the “positive and negative” results of their affirmative action policies regularly. TTUHSC did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected] | admin | https://truepundit.com/university-to-stop-considering-race-in-medical-school-admissions/ | 2019-04-10 19:21:13+00:00 | 1,554,938,473 | 1,567,543,366 | health | medical profession |
383,341 | npr--2019-01-20--Medical Students Push For More LGBT Health Training To Address Disparities | 2019-01-20T00:00:00 | npr | Medical Students Push For More LGBT Health Training To Address Disparities | Medical Students Push For More LGBT Health Training To Address Disparities When Sarah Spiegel was in her first year at New York Medical College in 2016, she sat in a lecture hall watching a BuzzFeed video about what it's like to be an intersex or a transgender person. "It was a good video, but it felt inadequate for the education of a class of medical students, soon to be doctors," says Spiegel, now in her third year of medical school. The video, paired with a 30-minute lecture on sexual orientation, was the only LGBT-focused information Spiegel and her fellow classmates received in their foundational course. "It's not adequate," Spiegel remembers thinking. By her second year, after she became president of the school's LGBT Advocacy in Medicine Club, she rallied a group of her peers to approach the administration about the lack of LGBT content in the curriculum. Spiegel says administrators were "amazingly receptive" to her presentation, and she quickly gained student and faculty allies. As a result, the school went from one and a half hours of LGBT-focused content in the curriculum to seven hours within a matter of two years, according to Spiegel. Spiegel says she doesn't think the change would have happened had the students not pushed for it. According to a number of studies, medical schools do a poor job of preparing future doctors to understand the LGBT population's unique needs and health risks. And, a 2017 survey of students at Boston University School of Medicine found their knowledge of transgender and intersex health to be lesser than that of LGB health. Meanwhile, LGBT people — and transgender people in particular – face disproportionately high rates of mental illness, HIV, unemployment, poverty, and harassment, according to Healthy People 2020, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And a poll conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found 1 in 5 LGBT adults has avoided medical care due to fear of discrimination. "The health of disparity populations is something that really should be the focus of health profession students," says Dr. Madeline Deutsch, an associate professor of family and community medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Deutsch directs UCSF's Transgender Care program, and she says medical schools already do a fairly good job of addressing some disparities, like those based on race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. But, she says, "Sexual and gender minorities have historically been not viewed as a key population, and that's unfortunate because of the size of the population, and because of the extent of the disparities that the population faces." (About 0.6 percent of the U.S. population – or 1.4 million adults – identifies as transgender.) The extent of LGBT education medical students receive varies greatly, but a 2011 study found that the median time spent on LGBT health was five hours. The topics most frequently addressed include sexual orientation, safe sex, and gender identity, whereas transgender-specific issues, including gender transitioning, were most often ignored. And some medical students receive no LGBT education at all. "There's not really a consistent curriculum that exists around this content," says Deutsch. As a result, physicians often feel inadequately trained to care for LGBT patients. In a 2018 survey sent out to 658 students at New England medical schools, around 80 percent of respondents said they felt "not competent" or "somewhat not competent" with the medical treatment of gender and sexual minority patients. Even at UCSF, which has long been at the forefront of LGBT health care, Deutsch says there's still a need to insert more transgender health care into the mandatory curriculum. Right now, when medical schools teach about LGBT health issues, it's usually through special elective courses or lectures taught at night or during lunch, and often by the students themselves. "How do we take it out of the lunchtime unit?" asks Jessica Halem, the LGBT program director at Harvard Medical School. That question drives Harvard Medical School's new Sexual and Gender Minorities Health Equity Initiative, a three-year plan to assess the core medical school curriculum and to identify opportunities to better instruct on the health of sexual and gender minorities. "Students are getting the information. But some of them are having to do a lot of extra work to get that during their medical school experience," says Halem. The Harvard initiative, announced in December 2018, has been ongoing for about six months, says Halem, thanks to a $1.5 million gift from Perry Cohen, a transgender man. According to Halem, Cohen hopes that Harvard's learnings will be shared with medical schools across the country, especially with ones with less robust LGBT health education programs. Studies have shown that when medical students learn about transgender health issues, they feel better equipped to treat transgender patients. For example, when Boston University School of Medicine added transgender health content to a second-year endocrinology course, students reported a nearly 70 percent decrease in discomfort with providing transgender care. And now, Halem says, each incoming class at Harvard Medical School is increasingly adamant that they learn about LGBT health. "The main first driver truly was medical students organizing and saying 'Hey, I need the curriculum to reflect the kind of medicine that I came here to study,' " Halem says. Those were the thoughts running through Spiegel's head in her own preclinical years at New York Medical College. Shortly after becoming the president of her school's LGBT health club, she joined The American Medical Student Association's Gender and Sexuality Committee as the LGBTQ Advocacy Coordinator to bring curricular change to other medical schools in the New York area. Conversations with her transgender partner also inspired Spiegel to introduce more trans-specific topics into her school's curriculum. "His experience definitely varied by how much providers knew," Spiegel says. It was often as simple as getting his pronouns correct, she says, and even then, the same doctors' office would mess that up again and again. Spiegel says in the past couple of years, certain disciplines have added trans-focused topics into their specialties. In the school's behavioral health unit, for example, professors have started to address how doctors can diagnose gender dysphoria – when a person feels their assigned gender does not align with their gender identity – in their lectures. By contrast, some disciplines have been more hesitant to change, or add content to, their existing curriculum. Spiegel's student task-force had more difficulty influencing the pharmacology department, for example. That's the content area where hormone therapy might be taught, Spiegel says. One course includes a lecture about the endocrine system, Spiegel says, when the professor talks about a drug to treat precocious, or early puberty. That drug can also be used for kids undergoing transgender hormone therapy. Therefore, Spiegel says, including transgender health in the lecture might be a matter of just saying an extra sentence. "There's an opportunity there – they would just have to mention that it could also be used for transgender kids," says Spiegel. But the professor says this secondary use of the drug was "off the book," and thus, he wouldn't include it in his lecture. So Spiegel researched the drug herself, and sent the professor the Endocrine Society's guidebook that talked about how the drug can be used for transgender patients. He began including the information in his lectures. Spiegel says her interactions with this professor exemplify the challenges that medical students all over the country face when trying to introduce changes to their schools' curricula. "We're getting there, but it's slow," says Spiegel. | Rachel Cohen | https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/01/20/683216767/medical-students-push-for-more-lgbt-health-training-to-address-disparities?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news | 2019-01-20 13:02:48+00:00 | 1,548,007,368 | 1,567,551,669 | health | medical profession |
79,880 | buzzfeed--2019-06-04--This Is What 10 Doctors And Medical Students Think About Abortion Rights | 2019-06-04T00:00:00 | buzzfeed | This Is What 10 Doctors And Medical Students Think About Abortion Rights | "I left and got my medical training ... and now I’m back to serve the women of Alabama, and they deserve better." With the recent rash of states restricting abortion rights, doctors are often left out of the conversation around this highly politicized medical procedure. Photographer Melissa Golden attended the March for Reproductive Freedom in Birmingham, Alabama, on May 19, 2019, and spoke with doctors and medical students about their views on the new restrictions. Here are their thoughts. “I’m here for one reason: advocating for my patients and just making sure that they have the rights to get a safe abortion in the future. Nobody should have that right taken away from them.” “I was born in Alabama, I grew up here. I left and got my medical training in other parts of the country — and now I’m back to serve the women of Alabama, and they deserve better. That’s why I’m here today." “I decided to become an abortion provider when I was in Africa in a country that had an abortion law that is very similar to the one that Alabama just passed, and I saw a woman die from an unsafe abortion. … It is an absolute honor and a privilege to get to do what I do. "I have trained most of my adult life to learn how to take care of women at every stage of their life, whether that’s when they are 12 and getting their first period, if they’re 35 and having a hard time getting pregnant, if they are in their twenties and having a baby for the first time, or they’re in their sixties and they’re being diagnosed with cancer — it’s an absolute honor to get to take care of women during every single part of their reproductive life. "Abortion is just as much a part of that as any of those other absolutely incredible milestones and parts of their life. If we the physicians who understand the nuances and the importance of abortion don’t stand up for our patients, then who’s gonna do it?” “I’m a GYN oncologist at UAB Birmingham and I did my residency at Columbia, where I was very involved in family planning there and [I] owe a ton to the women who trained me to be able to safely give abortions to first and second trimester women who need them. "I continued my passion in women’s health care and as an oncologist. The fact that I could potentially have a woman with cervical cancer or some other type of cancer in their first trimester and not have the option to cure them because of a law — and if I did I would go to jail for 99 years — is extremely upsetting. So I’m here to represent women, my patients, my colleagues.” “I’m here today as a women’s health care provider. Crazily, this is the first time I’ve actually been to a rally or march of any sort and it’s been a really impactful experience, and I’m here trying to fight for women’s safety and the ability for them to make evidence-based, patient-centered decisions about their health care, including their reproductive freedoms.” “I’m really passionate about women’s health, about women’s issues and women’s rights, so that’s why I’m here today. I came to medical school and I wanted to be a physician because I really cared about women and their health care, and I care about everyone in general. I really wanted to impact the state of Alabama and its health care, so that’s why I’m here today — because I’m really passionate about it. "I wanted to say that abortion is health care, obstetrics is health care, and contraception and family planning is health care.” “I’m here today because I think as a future physician I have an obligation to be informed on issues that affect our patients, and I also have an obligation to stand up for what’s right for them. So whether that’s abortion, whether that’s expanding Medicaid, whether it’s access to quality education — all those affect my patients’ health and so I think that I should be an active participant in the discussions.” | Kate Bubacz | https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katebubacz/what-10-doctors-think-abortion-rights-alabama | 2019-06-04 01:57:35+00:00 | 1,559,627,855 | 1,567,539,174 | health | medical profession |
150,308 | drudgereport--2019-07-25--SHORTAGE Medical students less likely to become primary care doctors | 2019-07-25T00:00:00 | drudgereport | SHORTAGE: Medical students less likely to become primary care doctors... | Despite hospital systems and health officials calling out the need for more primary care doctors, graduates of U.S. medical schools are becoming less likely to choose to specialize in one of those fields. A record-high number of primary care positions was offered in the 2019 National Resident Matching Program — known to doctors as “the Match.” It determines where a medical student will study in their chosen specialty after graduation. But this year, the percentage of primary care positions filled by fourth-year medical students was the lowest on record. “I think part of it has to do with income,” said Mona Signer, the CEO of the Match. “Primary care specialties are not the highest paying.” She suggested that where a student gets a degree also influences the choice. “Many medical schools are part of academic medical centers where research and specialization is a priority,” she said. The three key primary care fields are internal medicine, family medicine and pediatrics. According to the 2019 Match report, 8,116 internal medicine positions were offered, the highest number on record and the most positions offered within any specialty, but only 41.5% were filled by seniors pursuing their M.D.s from U.S. medical schools. Similar trends were seen this year in family medicine and pediatrics. In their final year of medical school, students apply and interview for residency programs in their chosen specialty. The Match, a nonprofit group, then assigns them a residency program based on how the applicant and the program ranked each other. Since 2011, the percentage of U.S.-trained allopathic, or M.D., physicians who have matched into primary care positions has been on the decline, according to an analysis of historical Match data by Kaiser Health News. But, over the same period, the percentage of U.S.-trained osteopathic and foreign-trained physicians matching into primary care roles has increased. 2019 marks the first year in which the percentage of osteopathic and foreign-trained doctors surpassed the percentage of U.S. trained medical doctors matching into primary care positions. Medical colleges granting M.D. degrees graduate nearly three-quarters of U.S. students moving on to become doctors. The rest graduate from osteopathic schools, granting D.O. degrees. The five medical schools with the highest percentage of graduates who chose primary care are all osteopathic institutions, according to the latest U.S. News & World Report survey. Beyond the standard medical curriculum, osteopathic students receive training in manipulative medicine, a hands-on technique focused on muscles and joints that can be used to diagnose and treat conditions. They are licensed by states and work side by side with M.D.s in physician practices and health systems. Although the osteopathic graduates have been able to join the main residency match or go through a separate osteopathic match through this year, in 2020 the two matches will be combined. Physicians who are trained at foreign medical schools, including both U.S. and non-U.S. citizens, also take unfilled primary care residency positions. In the 2019 match, 68.9% of foreign-trained physicians went into internal medicine, family medicine and pediatrics. But, despite osteopathic graduates and foreign-trained medical doctors taking up these primary care spots, a looming primary care physician shortage is still expected. The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts a shortage of between 21,100 and 55,200 primary care physicians by 2032. More doctors will be needed in the coming years to care for aging baby boomers, many of whom have multiple chronic conditions. The obesity rate is also increasing, which portends more people with chronic health problems. Studies have shown that states with a higher ratio of primary care physicians have better health and lower rates of mortality. Patients who regularly see a primary care physician also have lower health costs than those without one. But choosing a specialty other than primary care often means a higher paycheck. According to a recently published of physicians conducted by Medscape, internal medicine doctors’ salaries average $243,000 annually. That’s a little over half of what the highest earners, orthopedic physicians, make with an average annual salary of $482,000. Family medicine and pediatrics earn even less than internal medicine, at $231,000 and $225,000 per year, respectively. Dr. Eric Hsieh, the internal medicine residency program director at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, said another deterrent is the amount of time primary care doctors spend filling out patients’ electronic medical records. “I don’t think people realize how involved electronic medical records are,” said Hsieh. “You have to synthesize everything and coordinate all of the care. And something that I see with the residents in our program is that the time spent on electronic medical records rather than caring for patients frustrates them.” The Medscape survey confirms this. Internists appear to be more burdened with paperwork than other specialties, and 80% of internists report spending 10 or more hours a week on administrative tasks. The result: Only 62% of internal medicine doctors said they would choose to go into their specialty again — the lowest percentage on record for all physician specialties surveyed. Elsa Pearson, a health policy analyst at Boston University, said one way to keep and attract primary care doctors might be to shift some tasks to health care providers who aren’t doctors, such as nurse practitioners or physician assistants. “The primary care that they provide compared to a physician is just as effective,” said Pearson. They wouldn’t replace physicians but could help lift the burden and free up doctors for more complicated care issues. Pearson said more medical scribes, individuals who take notes for doctors while they are seeing patients, could also help to ease the doctors’ burden of electronic health record documentation. Another solution is spreading the word about the loan forgiveness programs available to those who choose to pursue primary care, usually in an underserved area of the country, said Dr. Tyree Winters, the associate director of the pediatric residency program at Goryeb Children’s Hospital in New Jersey. “The trend has been more so thinking about the amount of debt that a student has, compared to potential income in primary care,” said Winters. “But that’s not considering things like medical debt forgiveness through state or federal programs, which really can help individuals who want to choose primary care.” | null | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DrudgeReportFeed/~3/QJYBQ0cyXyw/ | 2019-07-25 23:28:37+00:00 | 1,564,111,717 | 1,567,535,887 | health | medical profession |
705,155 | theguardianuk--2019-07-06--Edinburgh gives female medical students their degrees 150 years late | 2019-07-06T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Edinburgh gives female medical students their degrees – 150 years late | Seven women who were among the first females to be admitted to a British university have been awarded posthumous degrees 150 years after they started their studies. The group, known collectively as the Edinburgh Seven, enrolled to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869. But they faced substantial resistance from their male peers and were ultimately prevented from graduating and qualifying as doctors. Their campaign against their treatment won them national attention and prominent supporters such as Charles Darwin. In 1877, legislation was introduced to ensure women could study at university. The seven women – Mary Anderson, Emily Bovell, Matilda Chaplin, Helen Evans, Sophia Jex-Blake, Edith Pechey and Isabel Thorne – were awarded posthumous honorary bachelor of medicine degrees as part of a ceremony at the university’s McEwan Hall. Seven female students from Edinburgh Medical School picked up the certificates on their behalf, with the graduation among a number of events being held by the university to honour the achievements of the women. Simran Paya, a third-year medical student who collected an award on behalf of Jex-Blake, said: “We are honoured to accept these degrees on behalf of our predecessors, who are an inspiration to us all.” Prof Peter Mathieson, the principal and vice-chancellor at the University of Edinburgh, said: “We are delighted to confer the degrees rightfully owed to this incredible group of women. “The segregation and discrimination that the Edinburgh Seven faced might belong to history, but barriers still exist that deter too many talented young people from succeeding at university. We must learn from these women and strive to widen access for all who have the potential to succeed.” | Press Association | https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/06/edinburgh-gives-female-medical-students-their-degrees-150-years-late | 2019-07-06 16:32:24+00:00 | 1,562,445,144 | 1,567,536,672 | health | medical profession |
159,722 | eveningstandard--2019-01-16--First-year medical student delivers his first baby at Warren Street Tube station | 2019-01-16T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | First-year medical student delivers his first baby at Warren Street Tube station | A medical student has delivered his first baby — at a Tube station. Hamzah Selim, 21, came to the aid of the woman after hearing her cries at Warren Street station yesterday afternoon. The first-year UCL student told the Evening Standard how he saw the mother leaning against a wall by a Northern line platform. After rushing over to her, he realised she was in the middle of giving birth. “It was just instinct,” he said. “The whole experience was unbelievable. It was such a mad coincidence.” Mr Selim was about to take the Tube home after an anatomy lecture at the nearby UCL campus when he heard the woman in distress. He said the mother told him she had been on a shopping trip with her sister and had to take the Tube when she failed to flag down a taxi. She realised she was going into labour in front of passengers shortly before 2pm, and she told him she had given birth to three other children. Mr Selim told the Standard: “I heard one of them shout for help. There was this woman standing there, screaming for help. “I went over to help because it looked like she was about to faint. “I thought ‘Oh my goodness, they didn’t teach us how to do this — how to give birth on the Tube’.” Mr Selim said his training from the time he spent working on a maternity ward kicked in. “The mum did absolutely great given it was the first birth I was involved in outside the textbook,” he added Paramedics came a few minutes after the boy was born and cut the umbilical cord, Mr Selim said. The child was later taken to hospital by medics. A Transport for London spokesman added: “We’d like to thank the staff at Warren Street station, who did a fantastic job in assisting the customer who gave birth. “London Ambulance Service attended and both mother and child were taken to hospital." | Adebola Lamuye | https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/firstyear-medical-student-delivers-his-first-baby-at-warren-street-tube-station-a4040196.html | 2019-01-16 09:50:00+00:00 | 1,547,650,200 | 1,567,552,177 | health | medical profession |
59,996 | birminghammail--2019-04-05--Incredible new BBC series shows inspirational Birmingham surgeons remove AWAKE patients brain tumou | 2019-04-05T00:00:00 | birminghammail | Incredible new BBC series shows inspirational Birmingham surgeons remove AWAKE patient's brain tumour | A series showing what goes on in a Birmingham hospital's operating theatres is returning to BBC Two. Surgeons: On The Edge of Life is back for a second series and shows viewers what goes on on the operating table whilst you're asleep. Or in one patient's case, whilst you're still awake! The first episode shows surgeons operating on a 20-year-old man with a brain tumour but in order for the consultant neurosurgeon to remove as much of the tumour as possible, the patient must be awake and talking. Viewers get a behind the scenes look at how different members of the NHS have to work together during the awake craniotomy, including a speech therapist. Part of the therapist's job is to prompt the patient to talk and perform word tasks whilst the surgeon probes the patient's brain using electrical stimulation. Whenever the man's speech is affect, the surgeon knows he must avoid that area of brain tissue when removing the tumour. But having your brain operated on whilst you're awake is, understandably a scary experience and when the patient becomes distressed the surgeon has to pause the procedure. Brain surgery isn't the only complex operation we see in the first episode. Viewers will also see a consultant cardiac surgeon take on a risky aorta repair on a 71-year-old woman. The patient's aorta is described as a "timebomb" and could rupture at any moment, so the surgeon has to open up her entire torso to perform one of the most extreme operations the body can handle. The six-part series was filmed at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and made by Dragonfly Film and Television Productions - the same producers who made Ambulance and One Born Every Minute. Surgeons: On The Edge of Life will air on BBC Two at 9pm on Tuesday April 9, 2019. | Katie Brooks | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/showbiz-tv/incredible-new-bbc-series-shows-16081553 | 2019-04-05 10:25:54+00:00 | 1,554,474,354 | 1,567,543,839 | health | medical profession |
61,226 | birminghammail--2019-04-23--Birmingham surgeons remove womans six stone growth hanging below knees in BBC2 documentary | 2019-04-23T00:00:00 | birminghammail | Birmingham surgeons remove woman's six stone growth hanging below knees in BBC2 documentary | The latest episode of a brand-new BBC documentary showcasing Birmingham surgeons will question whether a risk is worth taking. In this week's episode of BBC2's Surgeons At the Edge of Life consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon Sunil Thomas will perform the largest tissue removal ever carried out at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The operation is for a patient, named Judy, who requires surgery to remove a huge growth on her abdomen. This apron of excess tissue is thought to weigh around six stone and hangs down below her knees, leaving her to live a severely restricted life. The operation brings with it unprecedented challenges for Sunhil and the 15-strong surgical team. At the same time, consultant neurosurgeon and spinal surgeon Navin Furtado will attempt radical corrective surgery on a patient's back. It involves breaking Chris's spine to remove a wedge of bone from one of his vertebrae, and then realigning his back using an extensive array of metalwork. The operation is within millimetres of his spinal chord and risks damaging important nerves, or worse, paralysing him. But if it goes well, Chris could eventually live a pain free life and walk again. Surgeons: At The Edge Of Life is on BBC Two on Tuesdays at 9pm. | Katie Brooks | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/showbiz-tv/birmingham-surgeons-remove-womans-six-16169867 | 2019-04-23 16:16:30+00:00 | 1,556,050,590 | 1,567,541,983 | health | medical profession |
61,923 | birminghammail--2019-05-07--Birmingham surgeons remove womans oesophagus and use stomach to replace it in BBC2 documentary | 2019-05-07T00:00:00 | birminghammail | Birmingham surgeons remove woman's oesophagus and use stomach to replace it in BBC2 documentary | The latest episode of a BBC documentary showcasing Birmingham surgeons will see a woman have her oesophagus removed and replaced by stretching her stomach. BBC2's Surgeons: At the Edge of Life introduces AnnMarie who was just a toddler when she accidentally drank bleach and severely damaged her oesophagus. She's been struggling to cope ever since and has to visit hospital several times a year to have her oesophagus stretched. It's an uncomfortable procedure and has led the 44-year-old to opt for an oesophagectomy. It's a high operation and carries a 30% chance of patients suffering serious post-operative complications. Carrying out the procedure is one of the Queen Elizabeth’s leading Consultant Upper Gastro-Intestinal surgeons, Ewen Griffiths. He's spent years mastering what is one of the most complex and risky operations in his field. In this three-stage procedure, the patient’s oesophagus – the 25-centimetre feeding tube, which joins the throat to the stomach - is removed and their own stomach is used to replace it. The procedure can last up to eight hours and involves three different operating sites in the neck, chest and abdomen. It's hoped the risky procedure will enhance AnnMarie's life. Meanwhile, Simon Radley a consultant colorectal sugeon also performs highly specialised operations in his field of complex colorectal cancer. His patient is 64-year-old retired grandmother Hazel, who has a colon tumour that's spread into her liver and abdominal wall. Without the operation Hazel will have only a few months to live, but there's a possibility that surgery could remove the cancer entirely and cure Hazel of her disease. It’s not yet clear if the cancer has advanced into other internal organs and Simon will only find out once he operates. If it's spread further, then Simon knows he won't be able to remove it entirely but if it's confined to the bowel, liver and abdominal wall then it could be removed completely. Surgeons: At The Edge Of Life is on BBC Two on Tuesdays at 9pm. | Katie Brooks | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/showbiz-tv/birmingham-surgeons-remove-womans-oesophagus-16239707 | 2019-05-07 16:27:08+00:00 | 1,557,260,828 | 1,567,540,940 | health | medical profession |
158,493 | eveningstandard--2019-01-09--Former BBC war correspondent Martin Bell tells how surgeons rebuilt his shattered skull after he tri | 2019-01-09T00:00:00 | eveningstandard | Former BBC war correspondent Martin Bell tells how surgeons rebuilt his shattered skull after he tripped over suitcases at Gatwick | Former BBC war correspondent Martin Bell had his face rebuilt by surgeons after tripping over his suitcases at Gatwick airport. Mr Bell, 80, a former independent MP known as the man in the white suit, “face planted” into the concrete floor at the airport’s train ticket office concourse. He said he resembled “Dracula’s grandfather” after fracturing his right maxilla bone, right and left eye sockets, nose and an area at the base of his skull. Today he joked that he looked younger and “like I’ve had Botox” as a result of two-and-a-half hours of NHS reconstructive surgery at St George’s hospital, in Tooting. He said: “I have come through 18 wars almost unscathed and I trip up at a railway station. I have no-one else to blame for this. I feel a complete idiot.” The incident happened on November 5 as Mr Bell returned from a cruise to publicise his new book, War And The Death Of News. One of the suitcases had been full of books, which he sold on board the ship. He was taken to East Surrey hospital, in Redhill, before being transferred three days later to St George’s, a specialist maxillofacial centre, for surgery. “I was not a pretty sight,” he said. “I looked like Dracula’s grandfather.” Mr Bell, who served as MP for Tatton from 1997-2001 and later became a Unicef humanitarian ambassador, is best known for his coverage of the Vietnam and Gulf wars and the Bosnia conflict in the early Nineties, when he was wounded by shrapnel while reporting in Sarajevo. The operation was carried out by a team led by Helen Witherow, consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeon. She said Mr Bell had suffered a “phenomenal amount” of damage. She used a surgical saw to cut through his left maxilla to reposition his jaw bones and ensure his teeth met correctly. Four surgical plates and 16 screws were used to re-attach his upper mouth to his jawbone and repair the fractures. “I have never seen anyone sustain these type of fractures,” Miss Witherow said. “This is a high impact car injury-type fracture. “The surgery involved repairing Mr Bell’s fractures using titanium plates and screws, and these remain in place permanently. We are pleased to hear he is so well, and so positive about his experience of the care our team provided.” Mr Bell, who lives in Hampstead, said he “wanted to sing the praises” of the staff who cared for him at East Surrey and St George’s. “I have not led a sheltered life, but like most people I know little about the specialist branches of medicine until I come to need them, usually at short notice,” he said. “So it was with maxillofacial surgery and the people who practice it – and we are truly lucky to have them.” | Ross Lydall | https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/former-bbc-war-correspondent-martin-bell-shatters-skull-in-five-places-after-tripping-over-suitcases-a4034051.html | 2019-01-09 09:38:00+00:00 | 1,547,044,680 | 1,567,553,243 | health | medical profession |
590,949 | thedailybeast--2019-01-26--Most Doctors Are Burned Out But Not Plastic Surgeons | 2019-01-26T00:00:00 | thedailybeast | Most Doctors Are Burned Out, But Not Plastic Surgeons | Nearly half of America’s physicians feel completely wiped out from their high pressure jobs, to the point where one in seven has reported suicidal ideations. Such were the grim findings from Medscape’s annual report on burnout, depression, and suicide risk among doctors across the country, which the online resource for medical professionals released earlier this month. Only one set of doctors in the study seemed pretty happy about their jobs: plastic surgeons. The Daily Beast reached out to plastic surgeons across the country to figure out why they appear to be happier than their counterparts. Their answers offered a glimpse into how the doctor burnout crisis could be tackled, and broke many misperceptions the public might have about plastic surgeons. Here’s why plastic surgeons might be happier than their counterparts in medicine: Plastic surgeons who practice cosmetic surgery have an advantage over most of their colleagues: much of what they practice is elective. That means that, to a certain extent, cosmetic surgeons are able to handle scheduling on their own terms rather than life being dictated by the rhythms of a hospital. “Much of our surgery is planned ahead of time, unlike traumatic surgery,” Alan Matarasso, who owns a private practice in Manhattan and is a spokesperson for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, said. “Depending on the characteristics of your practice, you can dictate which types of operations you can have, which can be satisfying.” It’s important to note two caveats here. Reconstructive surgeons are also part of the plastic surgery umbrella and aren’t necessarily able to take advantage of scheduling elective surgeries. More importantly, the fact that there is flexibility in planning surgeries might create the false impression that cosmetic surgeons swoop into their office whenever they want for a few hours, do their magic, then skip home in time to pick up the kids and live their lives. Every plastic surgeon who spoke to The Daily Beast worked long hours. Jeffrey Janis, a professor of plastic surgery at Ohio State University, said that he takes issue with any public misperception that plastic surgeons are living a cushy 9-to-5, saying he often gets to bed at midnight, is up at 3 am, and in the office by 4 am. Another plastic surgeon, Debra Johnson, based in Sacramento, said she’s spent “nights and weekends [and] time away from family.” Still, plastic surgery’s higher happiness rates could be related to what Janis calls “the commoditization of medicine.” “Hospital administrators often mandate how many patients we need to see per hour, using RVUs [relative value units, a common measurement of work produced amongst physicians and hospitals systems],” he explained. “Delayed gratification and long hours and not hearing the words ‘thank you’—that’s not what motivates us. Some people can take advantage of that. When we’re asked to see more patients we are being asked to document everything as if we are giving a deposition. That’s why burnout rates are up.” In a private practice, though, that pressure for constant churn isn’t there. “I think we are less stressed by issues other physicians face, like electronic medical records, hassling with insurance companies, dealings with hospital bureaucracies, and taking care of emergency patient problems,” Johnson said. “We have those same issues, but because a percentage of our patients are private-pay that we can care for in our own comfortable surgery suites, we just have more control over our lives. “I think what takes a lot of docs down is the loss of control.” Matarasso said that many private practices for cosmetic surgery are able to take advantage of payment outside of insurance. Fees for services can be competitive, and without insurance, more of that pay can go to the surgeon than other middlemen. “Truthfully, we don’t have to deal with insurance companies as much as other specialties might,” confessed John Layke, a plastic surgeon who, with partner Payman Danielpour, is a co-founder of Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery Group. “That has made it much tougher for other physicians.” “I think generally we do well financially in the spectrum of what doctors make,” Matarasso agreed. Then there’s the old adage about making a difference. Of course, all doctors take the Hippocratic Oath and are bound to save lives. But plastic surgeons who talked with The Daily Beast said the effects of their surgery are immediately visible to the world—and to the patient. “For lack of a better term, we see the fruits of our labor right in front of us,” Matarasso said. “You see the results. There’s fairly immediate feedback. The positive reinforcement is very quick.” Layke agreed. “Regardless of whether or not you are dealing with a 16-year-old that is getting a rhinoplasty for a lack of self-confidence, or a woman who is getting her breasts reconstructed for cancer, this profession can change lives for the better,” he said. The same rings true for reconstructive surgery. Johnson said that her work traveling around the world has been profound. “The thing that particularly drew me in was the ability to travel and provide free reconstructive surgery around the world,” she said. “In just this past year I’ve worked in Tanzania, Guatemala, and Myanmar. Throughout my career I’ve spent about a month a year working in developing countries providing surgery and teaching. It’s incredibly gratifying.” Sure, there are plastic surgeons who focus solely on breast reconstruction, but most of the plastic surgeons who spoke to The Daily Beast work all over the body for both cosmetic and reconstructive surgeries. “My practice is about 60 percent cosmetic and 40 percent reconstructive,” Johnson said. “I perform all types of cosmetic surgery (face, breast, body) and breast reconstruction, breast reduction, skin cancer/reconstruction, scar revision, and pediatric plastic surgery (cleft lip and palate).” That variety helps make the day-to-day a bit more exciting and different for these plastic surgeons, who say their colleagues in other specialties don’t have this kind of flexibility and freedom. By contrast, many other doctors will specialize only in one specific area of the body, or even one specific medical condition. Layke, the only plastic surgeon who is completely focused on cosmetic surgery, echoed these sentiments. “Plastic surgery is a specialty that allows us to operate from head to toe, has a creative and artistic side, and can be life-changing in both cosmetic and reconstructive cases,” he said. Plastic surgery was once a secret shame that patients did not disclose. And many plastic surgeons reflected that embarrassment, sometimes being less open about their specialty. But in recent years, pop culture has smashed that shame. More celebrities have opened up about their work and owned it, and reality TV and Youtube have made plastic surgery as normal as any dating or food competition show. Layke, whose practice is in Beverly Hills, said that it’s certainly been a boon to business and allowed him and his partner to not be embarrassed about the fact that they are plastic surgeons. “It has become more widely accepted to change the way you look, admit to cosmetic procedures, and discuss personal habits to preserve youth,” he said, agreeing that pop culture had “definitely” made the practice more acceptable for patients and doctors alike. There’s also been a fight to prove plastic surgery isn’t just boob jobs and butt lifts. “I think that most people think of plastic surgeons as just cosmetic surgeons, so we get taken as perhaps a bit more frivolous,” Johnson said. “Plastic surgery is the hardest residency training to get into, so we really attract the best and the brightest. Plastic surgeons have been incredibly innovative: a plastic surgeon, Joe Murray, performed the first kidney transplant back in the '50s, and we’re the ones doing face and hand transplants today. We take care of kids with birth defects, burn patients, cancer victims, traumatic injuries… the whole shebang.” The growing attention has a dark side, though. “I think that in this era of social media, apps which alter photos, and the advent of influencers, realistic expectations have been altered, making our jobs extremely difficult,” Layke said. Janis agreed, saying that the pop culture acceptance is a bit of a Catch-22: The popularity of plastic surgery and more openness around it have increased the number of patients and working hours. He said that in itself has led to burnout among plastic surgeons, even if burnout rates are still lower than that of other specialties. “More people are are working longer hours because of supply and demand,” he said. “We all struggle with work-life balance.” One aspect of plastic surgery in pop culture that has silently become apparent is a stereotypical divide in who gets surgery done (women) and who does that surgery (men). Johnson identifies as a woman and said she’s noticed a bit of a male-female divide. “Female plastic surgeons share that patients tend to be more chummy with them than male colleagues,” she told the Daily Beast. “Sometimes patients call me by my first name, want to take me to lunch, etc., which they never do to my male partners.” One surprising secret to happiness and satisfaction, according to Janis, past president of the ASPS? A hard focus on wellness. Upon getting elected to the ASPS in October 2017 (his tenure was over the following year, in October 2018), Janis established a wellness taskforce. The movement towards wellness, however, had been ongoing for several years. “We’d had several initiatives in our society over the last four to five years,” he said. “I would consider us early adopters. We figured there was a trend in this and we wanted to do something about it. It’s not worthwhile to complain if there are no solutions.” Janis described the society as looking to European cultures and noticing a very different way by which they handled something as simple and straightforward as their annual meeting. In the U.S., annual meetings of plastic surgeons were handled much like you’d imagine any other professional gatherings to be like: held in stale, freezing, dreary meeting halls, filled with PowerPoints and fluorescent lighting, catered with plenty of cookies and treats, with long hours and not much socialization during the day. Janis, along with a team of other ASPS members, brought experts into the fold to figure out how to prioritize wellness. “We didn’t treat this as a back-burner issue,” he said. “We actively germinated solutions for this.” What are meetings like now? Inspired by their European counterparts, they’re a lot less sedentary. There’s a wellness lounge and physical activity is encouraged at meetings (“Nothing bores you more than sitting in a windowless room for a few hours to earn your credits”). Meetings start later and end earlier. Participants are encouraged to go outside, which has a domino effect—more movement, more face time with others, and the opportunity to eat healthier. Group activities, like a 5K run, help bond people together and encourage more movement. “We’re still serving the patients at the same time,” he said. But when conferences get a bit more tolerable, the mindset is brought back to clinics and can help encourage healthier workplaces that offer stressed out doctors a way to cope with burnout and depression. Every plastic surgeon that the Daily Beast spoke to said that while the “happiness” numbers for plastic surgeons are probably true, they were hesitant to say that plastic surgeons are at their peak. “If you go back to 2013 and look at the Medscape surveys, trauma and critical care were #1 [in terms of burnout] on the list,” he said. Janis scanned down to see where plastic surgery was and it was near the bottom, “about fourth or fifth from the bottom.” But the data showed that while plastic surgery occupied a lower level on the burnout scale at the time, the spread between those who were most burned out and least burned out was just 10 percent. “The conclusion to me wasn’t that plastic surgeons were happiest,” he said. “It was that it doesn’t matter what specialty we’re in, we’re still burned out.” The latest Medscape data suggests the burnout rate among plastic surgeons is 36 percent. That’s pretty good compared to the 50ish percent rates for other specialties. But Janis said that even those numbers are pretty dismal. “It’s not an end, it’s a beginning,” he said. | null | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thedailybeast/articles/~3/ZMrcdHqKh2Y/most-doctors-are-burned-out-but-not-plastic-surgeons | 2019-01-26 05:02:53+00:00 | 1,548,496,973 | 1,567,550,708 | health | medical profession |
60,080 | birminghammail--2019-04-06--First UK dog dies from harrowing new killer disease leishmaniosis - and it can infect humans | 2019-04-06T00:00:00 | birminghammail | First UK dog dies from harrowing new killer disease leishmaniosis - and it can infect humans | A dog's life has been claimed by a harrowing illness being branded a "killer dog disease". According to reports, a Shih Tzu dog from Herefordshire has died from a tropical parasitic disease, leishmaniasis. The dog is the first in Britain to be put down by the disease, which is caused by parasites which spread through dogs after the bite of infected female sand flies. The tropical disease is caused by parasites which spread through dogs after the bite of infected female sand flies. It is behind up to 40,000 deaths annually, mainly among the poorest people in the world. It causes lesions, weight loss and kidney failure, The Mirror reports. The three-year-old Shih Tzu apparently became increasingly ill over three weeks, with symptoms including vomiting, diarrhoea and weight loss. The dog was treated at the Royal Veterinary College in Hatfield. The team have published a report in the medical journal Vet Record. Dr Myles McKenna and colleagues said: "This dog had been in the owner’s possession since it was a puppy, had no travel history outside of the UK and had never received a blood transfusion or been used for breeding. "However, another dog in the household, that had been imported from Spain, had been euthanased six months previously due to severe leishmaniosis. "Given the previous diagnosis of leishmaniosis in another dog in the same household, direct transmission between these dogs is considered the most likely route of infection." To their knowledge, they said it is the first case of its kind in the UK and vets should consider leishmaniosis as a diagnosis when appropriate symptoms are present. This applies even if the dog has no travel history, but might have been in contact with one that has travelled from an endemic area. The researchers said: "In an era of increased foreign travel of dogs and increased importation of dogs to the UK, it is likely that the number of dogs positive for leishmaniosis will continue to increase. "Infected dogs may present a risk to other dogs, even in the absence of natural vectors, as direct transmission between dogs is possible." Dogs have been known to pick it up the infection after being wounded by an infected animal. But up to now, this has not been reported in the UK. Cases to date have involved blood transfusions, breeding programmes or overseas travel to an area where the infection is endemic. Another dog in the household that had been imported from Spain had to be put down six months earlier after developing the disease. Reporting the case in Vet Record, experts warned extra vigilance is now needed to guard against the spread of the infection. The dog was taken to the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals at the Royal Veterinary College, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, with a three-week history of weight loss, vomiting and diarrhoea. They said this is not the usual route for this potentially fatal infection which is zoonotic - meaning it can also be passed on to people. They called for further research to determine the risk and potential routes of direct dog-to-dog transmission. Dr McKenna added: "It is important to take note of this first reported case of likely dog-to-dog transmission of Leishmania infantum in the UK. "Historically we had considered this to be a condition affecting dogs with a travel history to areas where Leishmania infantum is endemic. "Dog-to-dog transmission in non-endemic areas has previously been reported, for example in the USA, but this case serves as a reminder to UK veterinary surgeons that we must be vigilant for conditions such as Leishmania in non-travelled dogs and that alternative transmission mechanisms do exist." A recently published letter in the same journal revealed a second case diagnosed in another dog with no obvious risk factors - in a different part of the UK. Vets said the three year-old fully vaccinated male neutered English pointer was struck down even though it had never travelled beyond the borders of Essex, where it lived. But its owners had lived in Spain and visited the Jalon Valley, between Alicante and Valencia, last summer - without their pet. Unlike the first case, this dog was not living, or in regular contact, with another infected dog. It may be infected sand flies were inadvertently brought back in the owners transport, luggage, or clothing. Ian Wright, a veterinary surgeon and the UK and Ireland head of the non-profit group of European vets specialising in parasitology, said: "This case demonstrates it cannot be assumed that because a dog has no history of travel, leishmaniosis can be ruled out. "It also serves as a reminder that we should not be complacent about the risk of leishmaniosis establishing in the UK, even in the current absence of the sand fly vector." | Mark Waghorn, James Rodger | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/health/first-uk-dog-dies-harrowing-16088993 | 2019-04-06 14:19:14+00:00 | 1,554,574,754 | 1,567,543,738 | health | non-human diseases |
63,596 | birminghammail--2019-06-25--Twisted puppy farming gang jailed for selling sickly and diseased dogs | 2019-06-25T00:00:00 | birminghammail | Twisted puppy farming gang jailed for selling 'sickly and diseased' dogs | Two members of a "callous" puppy farming gang have been jailed for selling dogs they fraudulently claimed were bred in a family environment, when they were actually "sickly and diseased", with some dying within days of being sold. Norwich Crown Court heard that the puppies were advertised for sale as being healthy, socialised and treated for worms and fleas. But when police raided one of their premises in 2017 they found dogs in cages, some in "pitch-dark sheds with no access to light" and others "in a caravan at temperatures of up to 30C", prosecutor Hazel Stevens said. "They were being bred in a commercial environment, not in a family home as advertised," she added. Michael Rushmer, 27, of Low Road, Thurlton, Norfolk, his sister Zoe Rushmer, 26, of no fixed address, and her partner Jacob Murphy, 27, of The Street, Norton Subcourse, all admitted conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation between June 1, 2016 and June 18, 2018. Michael Rushmer admitted continuing the offending while on bail for the offence, pleading guilty to a further count of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation between July 15 2018 and March 16 2019. Michael Rushmer and Murphy were both jailed for three years and six months. Zoe Rushmer was given a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years and ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work. Judge Andrew Shaw told the mother-of-four: "It's your children and only your children that have spared you from going to prison." He said the fraud, which began "at least as early as 2015", "strikes at the very heart of this nation's love for its pets, dogs in particular". "A family's decision to buy a puppy is not one that is ever taken lightly," he said, adding that "to sell (people) sickly and diseased dogs, so poorly that many do not survive, is about as callous and meanspirited a fraud as I have come across for some time". He described Murphy as the "ringleader", Michael Rushmer as "his deputy if not his equal" and Zoe Rushmer as "the legitimate face of your brother's and partner's criminal enterprise" who "even lent (her) own children to the affair as part of (her) efforts to lend a veneer of respectability" to what they were doing. Ms Stevens said that the dogs had an average price of £675 and the gang made £300,000 from the fraud, though they claimed it was nearer £150,000. She said: "When visiting, buyers were often met by a female and there were often children present, giving the impression of a family they (the puppies) were supposed to be part of." Statements were taken from 31 purchasers who described how their puppies "looked lifeless and ill", and some died within days of getting home after they were diagnosed with parvovirus, a highly contagious disease. One buyer was told by the sellers that their puppy died "due to their negligence" and were refused help with their £2,000 vet bill, Ms Stevens said. "These defendants exploited the emotional vulnerability of potential purchasers, especially those who attended with children to see the potential new member of their family," she said. She added: "This fraudulent activity succeeds as the people who want to buy these small-type breeds, or cross-breeds, want to do something for their family, and because once they see the dog they want to rescue it or buy it. "Once they've fallen in love with the puppy, regardless of the circumstances nine times out of 10 they buy the puppy, even if they think something is going on." She described it as a "sophisticated offence" which required "significant planning", with defendants using false names and addresses and multiple SIM cards so different phone numbers could be used in adverts. Barrister Andrew Oliver said in mitigation that Michael Rushmer took over the business from his late father, started to use cocaine and made the "foolish decision" to buy dogs from travellers, which introduced parvovirus to the farm. Zoe Rushmer was remorseful and Jacob Murphy was trying to fund his drug habit, the court heard. Michael Rushmer also admitted 10 animal welfare offences, and operating a pet shop and breeding establishment without a licence. Zoe Rushmer admitted four animal welfare offences and Murphy admitted three. Jean Boyes, 67, also admitted conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation between June 1, 2016 and June 18, 2018, but the court heard her role was limited to taking a litter of seven puppies to be inoculated on a single occasion. For the latest on trials and court cases from across Birmingham and the West Midlands, join BirminghamLive's Court Facebook group . Boyes, whose given address is The Street, Bramerton, but the court heard was now living in a car, was given a two-year conditional discharge. RSPCA inspector Amy Pellegrini, lead investigator, described the farm as a "puppy factory". She added: "The way the adverts were worded suggested to prospective purchasers that these were litters of home-bred puppies in good health and were well-socialised. "The reality, sadly, was far from it and the sellers were running a commercial, unlicensed puppy farm on an industrial scale." | [email protected] (James Rodger) | https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/twisted-puppy-farming-gang-jailed-16483508 | 2019-06-25 12:57:38+00:00 | 1,561,481,858 | 1,567,538,124 | health | non-human diseases |
377,708 | newyorkpost--2019-06-28--Dog food may be putting your best friend at risk for a fatal disease | 2019-06-28T00:00:00 | newyorkpost | Dog food may be putting your best friend at risk for a fatal disease | There may be a link between the food your pooch is eating and potentially-fatal heart disease. The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday they’re investigating whether certain dog foods cause dilated cardiomyopathy, which can lead to congestive heart failure. There have been 560 reports of dogs diagnosed with the condition, many of which were “breeds of dogs not previously known to have a genetic predisposition to the disease,” according to the agency. At least 119 of the pets have died from the disease. Around 91 percent of these dogs consumed pet foods labeled as “grain-free” — while 93 percent ate food with peas or lentils, the department said. “We understand the concern that pet owners have about these reports: the illnesses can be severe, even fatal, and many cases report eating “grain-free” labeled pet food,” the department said. “The FDA is using a range of science-based investigative tools as it strives to learn more about this emergence of DCM and its potential link to certain diets or ingredients.” | Jackie Salo | https://nypost.com/2019/06/28/dog-food-may-be-putting-your-best-friend-at-risk-for-a-fatal-disease/ | 2019-06-28 21:52:48+00:00 | 1,561,773,168 | 1,567,537,746 | health | non-human diseases |
505,908 | sottnet--2019-09-08--Unexplained disease kills dozens of dogs across Norway | 2019-09-08T00:00:00 | sottnet | Unexplained disease kills dozens of dogs across Norway | Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm. But the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it. Because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves. | null | https://www.sott.net/article/419995-Unexplained-disease-kills-dozens-of-dogs-across-Norway | 2019-09-08 13:42:09+00:00 | 1,567,964,529 | 1,569,008,987 | health | non-human diseases |
641,898 | thedailyrecord--2019-01-03--Dog owners winter warning over deadly flesh-eating disease Alabama Rot | 2019-01-03T00:00:00 | thedailyrecord | Dog owners' winter warning over deadly flesh-eating disease Alabama Rot | Dog owners are being warned to keep an eye out for deadly disease Alabama Rot, which could be triggered following a spell of cold weather. The mystery affliction can lead to a dog's flesh rotting away and irreversible kidney failure. The horror condition can affect any breed or age of dog, with some going on to develop acute kidney failure, which is often fatal, reports the Liverpool Echo. And with the flesh-eating bug flourishing in chilly weather, pet owners have been asked to remain vigilant during the chilly winter months. Alabama Rot, also known as Cutaneous and Renal Glomerular Vasculopathy, or CRGV, was first detected in the UK in 2012 and is most prevalent between November and May. Whilst the disease is very rare, affecting an extremely low percentage of dogs in the UK, the condition is very serious and potentially life threatening. A case was confirmed in Scotland in May, after a retriever in Galashiels contracted the disease after playing in a river. To lower any risk of your dog contracting Alabama Rot, it’s also advisable to keep your dog away from very muddy areas, wash wet or muddy dogs straight after a walk and regularly check your dog’s body for anything that’s different. Caroline Kisko, Kennel Club Secretary said : "While a distinct seasonal pattern is suggested, we must continue to research this deadly disease and ensure all dog owners are aware of the signs and symptoms so they are able to seek veterinary advice immediately." | dailyrecord | https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/dog-owners-winter-warning-over-13807719 | 2019-01-03 14:02:59+00:00 | 1,546,542,179 | 1,567,554,117 | health | non-human diseases |
644,243 | thedailyrecord--2019-02-07--Kilmarnock dog owners issue warning after pet pooch contracts horrible disease on Ayrshire walk | 2019-02-07T00:00:00 | thedailyrecord | Kilmarnock dog owners issue warning after pet pooch contracts 'horrible disease' on Ayrshire walk | A Kilmarnock couple is warning dog owners to be aware of a “horrible disease” that looks set to cost them almost £10,000 in vet bills. Nick and Lorna Bye relocated recently from Berkshire back to Ayrshire to enjoy a more relaxing way of living – and with them they brought Murphy, Molly and Katie, their three rescue collies, and Sox the cat. Everything was going well until late autumn when Murphy started sneezing a lot, with a constant discharge from his nose. Lorna told the Kilmarnock Standard : “We became really aware he was sneezing a lot and he had one nostril that was always running so we took him to the vet and they referred him to Glasgow University Vet School.” Once at the vet school, it was diagnosed that Murphy had caught a fungus infection, likely from being out for a walk in Ayrshire. Nick said: “Murphy contracted Aspergillus in his nose which is a fungal infection which causes symptoms including nasal discharge, bleeding as well as destroying the bones. “It is likely he has simply just picked it up whilst out a walk and his immune system hasn’t been able to fight it.” Aspergillosis is a condition caused by aspergillus mould. There are several different types of aspergillosis and in humans, mostly affects the lungs and causes breathing difficulties. Nick added: “Murphy’s CT scan showed a large amount of bone loss in his nasal passages. “The treatment involves boring into the front of Murphy’s head, inserting catheters and applying the flush treatment.” Six-year-old Murphy got his first injection at the end of January, costing £2000. The rescue dog is expected to need a further two sessions and although insured, Murphy’s pet insurance has an overall benefit limit of £4000. With the initial drugs already costing over £2100, Nick and Lorna are asking generous dog owners and businesses to help ‘Save Murphy’. “We all would appreciate any donations whether it is large or small towards Murphy’s veterinary fees,” Lorna said. “We want to save Murphy. “But as much as we want Murphy to get through this, we want to spread awareness about the disease and if your dog starts to sneeze, don’t ignore it as it could really be something as bad as this horrible disease.” Read more news from the Kilmarnock Standard | Emylie Howie | https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/kilmarnock-dog-owners-issue-warning-13966980 | 2019-02-07 15:55:26+00:00 | 1,549,572,926 | 1,567,549,338 | health | non-human diseases |
98,683 | cnbc--2019-03-19--American pigs and cattle are vulnerable to deadly foot-and-mouth disease government warns | 2019-03-19T00:00:00 | cnbc | American pigs and cattle are 'vulnerable' to deadly foot-and-mouth disease, government warns | LOS ANGELES — America's swine and cattle populations are vulnerable to the deadly and highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease, and "efforts to prepare for a potential outbreak could be strengthened," according to a U.S. government watchdog's new report. The Government Accountability Office report said the U.S. Department of Agriculture "may not have a sufficient supply of FMD vaccine to control more than a small outbreak because of limited resources to obtain vaccine." It also said an epidemic could prove costly to the nation's livestock industry and the federal government. Foot-and-mouth disease, or FMD, in livestock is found roughly in about two-thirds of the world, but the U.S. hasn't experienced an outbreak since the 1920s. "The United States is vulnerable to FMD transmission, given the large size and mobility of the U.S. livestock sector," the GAO said in the report published last week. "An FMD outbreak in the United States could have serious economic impacts, in part because trade partners would likely halt all imports of U.S. livestock and livestock products until the disease was eradicated." The agency said exports of U.S. swine, cattle and dairy products totaled more than $19 billion in 2017. It warned that those shipments after an outbreak "would likely stop or be sharply reduced. Moreover, in a widespread outbreak, the scale of federal compensation payments could be substantial." The disease affects domestic and wild cloven-hoofed animals including cattle, swine and goats. FMD is not considered dangerous to humans but is frequently fatal to younger animals. The 2018 Farm Bill signed into law in December by President Donald Trump included more funding for USDA's animal health and disease preparedness programs, such as money for an expanded animal vaccine bank for FMD. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, a 2020 Democratic presidential contender, last year introduced the provision more animal disease funding and cited it in an op-ed piece last week talking about the Farm Bill. | null | https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/19/gao-raises-concern-about-us-preparedness-for-deadly-livestock-disease.html | 2019-03-19 14:36:00+00:00 | 1,553,020,560 | 1,567,545,692 | health | non-human diseases |
230,042 | globalresearch--2019-07-19--From Mad Cow Disease to Agrochemicals Time to Put Public Need Ahead of Private Greed | 2019-07-19T00:00:00 | globalresearch | From Mad Cow Disease to Agrochemicals: Time to Put Public Need Ahead of Private Greed | The first part of this article documenting the development of BSE in Britain was written by Rosemary Mason and is taken from her new report ‘Why didn’t the UK media report the documentary on Mad Cow Disease?’ It is fully referenced and cites sources and evidence in support of her claims. Additional reporting for the second part of the article was provided by Colin Todhunter. Mad cow disease is a fatal epidemic neurological syndrome created by the agricultural industry, farmers and food processors. In 1987, an epidemic of a fatal neurological disease in cows suddenly appeared in Britain. Cows became uncoordinated, staggered around, collapsed and finally died. The disease was called Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) because there were holes in the brain where prion protein cells became folded, had linked up and then split to cover the surface of the brain. There were more than 1,300 cases of BSE spread over 6,000 farms. For at least 40 years, infected slaughterhouse carcasses had been rendered down and recycled into animal feed. Not wanting to waste anything, pressure cooking of the spinal cord and brain produced a sludge known as ‘mechanically-recovered meat’. The regulators allowed it to go into meat products. This processed meat and bone meal was turned into a coarse powder and was fed back to cows. Cows are herbivores and this way they were turned into cannibals. By 1990, BSE had spread into 14 other species, including cats. Politicians, the food industry, media, the government, farmers and vets said BSE couldn’t jump species to affect humans and it was safe to eat beef. Advertisements were taken out in newspapers and politicians were shown eating steak tartare in the Houses of Parliament to boost the sales of beef. At an agricultural show, the Agriculture Minister John Gummer was seen offering a beef burger to his daughter. In 1995, the first human under 40 contracted what became known as new variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (new vCJD, related to BSE and belonging to the same family of diseases). By March 1996, there were five cases and the government was forced to alter its advice. Kevin Maguire, a journalist, was lunching with someone in Westminster who said that scientists had discovered that ‘mad cow disease’ could jump species and had been found in humans. Maguire said that it was a scandal in an effort to get every penny out of a carcass. His newspaper, ‘The Mirror’, was the first to break the news to the public, saying that humans could catch mad cow disease from eating infected beef and that the government was about to do a U-turn by finally accepting that the brain wasting disease may have been passed to people. This U-turn by ministers – who for 10 years had insisted it was impossible – was a devastating indictment of the British government and probably one of the worst examples of government since the war. During 1996, 10 more cases of new vCJD in people under 40 were diagnosed. All died within 13 months and there was no cure. In 2005, the authorities thought the disease was over, but in 2009, a case was discovered in a 30-year-old man. Another case appeared four years later. Today, people are living with uncertainty, not knowing if they are incubating new vCJD. The parents of children who had died from new vCJD said “We trusted government advice.” Each Christmas one mother had sent an e-mail to those she thought responsible with a photograph of her daughter and said your actions have deprived me of my daughter. Another parent from Scotland who had lost his 30-year-old son to the disease had tattooed on his arm the name of his son followed by: ‘murdered by greed and corruption’. In the documentary ‘Mad Cow Disease: The Great British Beef Scandal’, first broadcast on BBC 2 on 11 July 2019, Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University London, said: The following is taken from a publication compiled by the European Environment Agency, ‘Late lessons from early warnings’ (Patrick van Zwanenberg and Erik Millstone): “Many of the UK policy makers who were directly responsible for taking policy decisions on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) prior to March 1996 claim that, at the time, their approach exemplified the application of an ultra-precautionary approach and of rigorous science-based policy-making. We argue that these claims are not convincing because government policies were not genuinely precautionary and did not properly take into account the implications of the available scientific evidence. “… It is, however, essential to appreciate that UK public policy making was handicapped by a fundamental tension. The department responsible for dealing with BSE has been the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), and it was expected simultaneously to promote the economic interests of farmers and the food industry whilst also protecting public health from food-borne hazards. The evidence cited here suggests that because MAFF was expected simultaneously to meet two contradictory objectives it failed to meet either.” The UK introduced legislation banning the use of contaminated ruminant protein for use in ruminant feed in 1988. By then, a million cows had entered the food chain. At the height of the scandal, British beef had lost around 60% of sales. Prior to the ban, microbiologist Stephen Dealler challenged the government’s claim over safety and was moved from his research lab. However, Britain continued to export meat and bone meal to Europe. The European Commission asked the UK to introduce an export ban on feedstuffs, but the UK refused to do so. It was not until 1996 that the EC banned these exports. From mad cows to GMOs and pesticides Where glyphosate (and other agrochemicals) and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are concerned, we again see commercial interests being prioritised and the public interest sidelined. Monsanto’s glyphosate-based Roundup was originally sprayed on crops in 1980 and on grazing land in 1985 (recommended by Monsanto scientists). GMOs entered the commercial market in the US in the 1990s. As shown in the report mentioned in the introduction to this article, the authorities did not heed the advice of key scientists and went ahead regardless. Readers are urged to consult the report as it documents the duplicity that underpins the agrochemical/GMO agritech sector and describes how science and regulatory processes have been corrupted. In Britain, the government is saying that GM crops and Roundup are safe and intends to introduce these crops after Brexit. Of course, heavily compromised industry-funded scientists and other lobbyists say the science is decided on GM and that glyphosate is safe. They say anyone who rejects this is anti-science and doesn’t care about world hunger because we can only feed the world by rolling out more GM crops and more agrochemicals. But this is little more than propaganda and emotional blackmail, part of an industry strategy designed to tug at the heartstrings of public opinion and sway the policy agenda. We need to turn to author Andre Leu who has outlined major deficiencies in pesticide safety protocols. He offers a more realistic appraisal: Washington State University researchers recently found a variety of diseases and other health problems in the second- and third-generation offspring of rats exposed to glyphosate. In the first study of its kind, the researchers saw descendants of exposed rats developing prostate, kidney and ovarian diseases, obesity and birth abnormalities. The study’s authors say: And where GMOs are concerned, they are little more than a flawed technological panacea that ignores the structural causes of malnutrition and hunger. An increasing number of prominent reports and voices are now arguing that we do not need toxic chemicals to feed the world and that if we maintain our economic and agricultural course we are headed for disaster. FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva recently called for healthier and more sustainable food systems and said agroecology can contribute to such a transformation. Moreover, the new report from the UN High Level Panel of Food Experts on Food Security and Nutrition – Agroecological and other innovative approaches for sustainable agriculture and food systems that enhance food security and nutrition – argues that food systems are at a crossroads and profound transformation is needed. Many high-profile reports and figures have been saying similar things for years. It is therefore disconcerting that the British government seems oblivious to the need of the hour and remains intent on pursuing an obsolete neoliberal, water-polluting, soil degrading, health destroying, unsustainable model of food and agriculture at the behest of corporate interests. Mad cow disease did not just suddenly appear from nowhere. It was created by humans, particularly the farming industry and food processors. The British government kept on maintaining that eating beef was perfectly safe. A scientist who spoke out was silenced. The interests of the beef industry were paramount. Evidence suggests there could soon be a second wave of cases affecting humans. It will be among people with a genetic predisposition towards longer incubation periods than the first patients had. This genetic predisposition is shared by half the British population. Some 177 people (as of June 2014) have contracted and died of vCJD. That number is dwarfed when it comes to the spiralling rates of disease and illness that we now see among the British population. This too hasn’t happened for no reason. We see clear trends between the rising use of agrochemicals (especially glyphosate) and rising rates of morbidity, while much of the media and policy makers remain silent on this connection. From the ‘great British beef scandal’ of the 1980s to ongoing pesticide issue, the profit motives of rich corporations continue to trump the public interest. Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Colin Todhunter is a frequent contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research. | Rosemary Mason | https://www.globalresearch.ca/mad-cow-disease-agrochemicals-time-put-public-need-ahead-private-greed/5684032 | 2019-07-19 12:15:41+00:00 | 1,563,552,941 | 1,567,536,382 | health | non-human diseases |
1,021,076 | thetelegraph--2019-11-25--Pakistan to vaccinate stray dogs in a bid to stamp out rabies | 2019-11-25T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | Pakistan to vaccinate stray dogs in a bid to stamp out rabies | A province in Pakistan aims to vaccinate and sterilise half a million stray dogs in a bid to curb rabies deaths. Officials in Sindh said they would stop poisoning street dogs to try to control the terrifying disease and instead attempt to catch, vaccinate and neuter them. Hospital doctors in the city of Karachi have said they see dozens of dog bite cases each day and the media in recent months have carried horrific reports of young children dying from rabies because of a lack of vaccine used to treat the disease. Rabies kills around 60,000 people a year and is present in more than 150 countries, but is considered a neglected disease, mainly affecting the rural poor. Gavi, the alliance trying to increase access to life-saving vaccines, said in November that its strategy for the next decade will include investment in rabies treatment. | Ben Farmer | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/pakistan-vaccinate-stray-dogs-bid-stamp-rabies/ | Mon, 25 Nov 2019 15:45:40 GMT | 1,574,714,740 | 1,574,697,529 | health | non-human diseases |
70,692 | breaking911--2019-11-20--Raccoons Keep Attacking People In Polk County, Florida; Dept. of Health Issues Rabies Alert | 2019-11-20T00:00:00 | breaking911 | Raccoons Keep Attacking People In Polk County, Florida; Dept. of Health Issues Rabies Alert | On Thursday, November 14, 2019, PCSO Animal Control responded to the Providence neighborhood in Davenport, in reference to a 15-year-old boy who was bitten by a sick raccoon. The boy’s grandmother told Animal Control that he was bitten on the hand after he saw the sick raccoon and approached it. The raccoon was sent to the state laboratory in Tampa to be tested for rabies, and was confirmed two days later. The child’s grandmother was notified of the results and she indicated that the boy would be receiving medical treatment for exposure. “It is imperative that children are told to avoid animals like bats, raccoons, and foxes out in the wild, and let me be clear—these animals are wildlife. If you see one in distress, leave it alone and contact Polk County Animal Control immediately,” Grady Judd, Sheriff said. So far this year, the ten rabies cases in Polk County have consisted of five bats and five raccoons. In 2018, there were only three cases of rabies confirmed in Polk County. | ---- | https://breaking911.com/raccoons-keep-attacking-people-in-polk-county-florida-dept-of-health-issues-rabies-alert/ | Wed, 20 Nov 2019 01:08:09 +0000 | 1,574,230,089 | 1,574,251,252 | health | non-human diseases |
368,874 | newyorkpost--2019-01-18--NJ county warns of rabies threat after raccoon attacks man | 2019-01-18T00:00:00 | newyorkpost | NJ county warns of rabies threat after raccoon attacks man | A New Jersey resident was attacked by a raccoon in their own backyard this week — and now officials are warning residents about a possible rabies threat. “Following the report of a raccoon attack in Belmar, the Monmouth County Health Department reminds residents that rabies in wildlife continues to pose a risk to pets and people,” said agency officials in a press release Friday. The “suspected raccoon” — which was later captured by Belmar Police with help from the Monmouth County SPCA — is being tested for rabies and its victim is receiving post-exposure treatment, according to officials. Since the virus can be fatal, the MCHD decided to issue its warning along with a set of guidelines for residents to follow in the wake of the incident. “Protecting your pets by keeping them current on their rabies vaccine is an important safeguard between wildlife rabies and human exposure,” explained freeholder and health department liaison Patrick Impreveduto. “Not only does the vaccine keep your pet safe, but it can help keep you and your family safe as well.” Avoiding wildlife and “animals you do not know” was also one of several things that residents could to do to protect themselves, as was never feeding or touching them in the wild. “If you are bitten by an animal, wash the wound immediately with soap and water and seek medical attention,” said Monmouth County Public Health Coordinator Christopher Merkel. | Chris Perez | https://nypost.com/2019/01/18/nj-county-warns-of-rabies-threat-after-raccoon-attacks-man/ | 2019-01-18 22:52:35+00:00 | 1,547,869,955 | 1,567,551,922 | health | non-human diseases |
485,381 | skynewsus--2019-05-30--Bat hidden in iPad case bites pensioners finger leaving him with rabies | 2019-05-30T00:00:00 | skynewsus | Bat hidden in iPad case bites pensioner's finger, leaving him with rabies | The bat had been hiding inbetween an iPad and its case An 86-year-old man is being treated for rabies after being bitten by a bat wedged between the back of his iPad and its case. Roy Syvertson, from New Hampshire in the US, told WMUR-TV that he had been using the tablet for about an hour before the creature popped its head out and nipped him. The pensioner said it felt like a bee sting at first, adding: "I looked, and the bat was coming out of here, between the cover and the back of the pad." "And then I got up, still squeezing it, which I'm sure he wasn't happy about, and I took him outside." The next morning, Mr Syvertson said the bat was still there and alive, but he later discovered that it died later that night. "Then I knew I might have a problem," Mr Syvertson said. Concerned the bat might be infected with rabies, he called the New Hampshire Department of Fish and Game. He was instructed to go to hospital to be immediately tested, and it later turned out that the bat was rabid. Doctors told Mr Syvertson that he will be fine, though it remains a mystery how the bat got into his house and into the iPad case. "It will remain a mystery, and my joke of, 'He probably knew my password' won't last forever. That won't be funny for a long time," Mr Syvertson said. If left untreated, rabies can lead to brain disease and death as the virus attacks the central nervous system. Early symptoms include fever, headache, weakness and discomfort, and the disease can also cause hallucinations and difficulty swallowing. All mammals can carry rabies, but it is most common in dogs, bats, raccoons and foxes. According to the NHS, post-exposure treatment involves cleaning and disinfecting the wound, a course of the rabies vaccine and in some cases, a medicine called immunoglobulin. | null | http://news.sky.com/story/man-treated-for-rabies-after-bat-hidden-in-ipad-case-bites-his-finger-11731322 | 2019-05-30 02:18:00+00:00 | 1,559,197,080 | 1,567,539,781 | health | non-human diseases |
714,738 | theguardianuk--2019-11-15--Rabies breakthrough offers fresh hope in battle against deadly virus | 2019-11-15T00:00:00 | theguardianuk | Rabies breakthrough offers fresh hope in battle against deadly virus | Researchers have discovered a way to stop rabies from shutting down critical responses in the immune system, a breakthrough that could pave the way for new tools to fight the deadly disease. Rabies kills almost 60,000 people each year, mostly affecting poor and rural communities. It is hoped that the discovery could lead to new and improved vaccines, including oral vaccines for dogs – which are responsible for the vast majority of transmissions to humans. The study, published in Cell Reports and carried out by teams at Monash University and the University of Melbourne, provides crucial information about how the rabies virus targets the body. The researchers believe they are the first to observe how a particular protein made by the rabies virus binds to a critical cellular protein known as Stat1, halting key parts of the immune response. The discovery has allowed scientists to make a modified, vulnerable version of the virus – which could be used to make a new, safe and effective live vaccine. “You can very specifically change the rabies virus and change the sequences and structures of the proteins,” said Dr Greg Moseley, from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute, a lead author of the study. “The modified virus can still reproduce, but is no longer able to stop strong antiviral immune mechanisms,” he added. “It is weakened and also should make a very strong immune response. Used in a vaccine, this would protect against infection by the deadly virus.” Scientists plan to test these modifications in vaccine strains against rabies. If successful – and if regulatory hurdles are overcome – a modified vaccine could be administered orally to dogs through bait. “If you can get high enough immunity in the dog population, rabies will die out. Safe and highly effective live oral vaccinations for dogs would make a great contribution to elimination,” said Moseley. In up to 99% of cases, domestic dogs are responsible for transmitting the rabies virus to humans, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The disease is almost always fatal following the onset of clinical symptoms. Even if people manage to get medical treatment quickly, the cost of treating rabies exposure is often financially devastating for families. Last year, the WHO announced a global strategy to eliminate dog-mediated rabies disease by 2030. Efforts by governments to tackle the disease have been hampered by a lack of funding and poor implementation. Sarah Cleaveland, professor of comparative epidemiology at the University of Glasgow, said a new oral vaccine for dogs could provide a helpful additional tool in fighting rabies – especially in areas where injecting dogs is challenging. But she added that the vast majority of dogs in Africa and Asia are owned and can be restrained for vaccination, and that there are high quality injectable vaccines available. “These are not being applied effectively, largely due to a lack of resources and support to government veterinary services in low-income countries to deliver mass dog vaccination campaigns,” she said. “We should not let the promise of new vaccines distract us from the urgent need for scaling up mass dog vaccination now,” she added. The discovery by researchers at Monash University and the University of Melbourne not only offers hope in the battle against rabies, but could help tackle other diseases – such as the Nipah virus, related to the measles virus – that target the immune response in a similar way. The same tools that were used to study rabies could be used to tackle Nipah, paving the way for antiviral drugs or vaccines. | Rebecca Ratcliffe | https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/nov/15/rabies-breakthrough-offers-fresh-hope-in-battle-against-deadly-virus | Fri, 15 Nov 2019 09:00:03 GMT | 1,573,826,403 | 1,573,820,717 | health | non-human diseases |
923,668 | thesun--2019-01-07--Woman dies after anxiety attack turns out to be RABIES from puppy bite on holiday | 2019-01-07T00:00:00 | thesun | Woman dies after ‘anxiety attack’ turns out to be RABIES from puppy bite on holiday | WHEN a woman went to A&E with shortness of breath, anxiety and swallowing difficulties, medics thought she was having a panic attack. But it turned out that the 65-year-old was actually suffering from rabies. She had contracted the infection from a puppy who bit her while she was on a yoga retreat in India. Six weeks after returning home to Virginia, USA, she started to experience pain and a tingling sensation in her right arm while gardening. Doctors diagnosed her with carpal tunnel syndrome but the next day, she returned to the hospital with panic attack-like symptoms which became increasingly severe. A heart examination suggested a problem with blood flow, and she underwent an emergency procedure to thread a catheter through the blood vessels to her heart. Later the next day, she became "progressively agitated and combative" and was seen gasping for air while trying to drink water. Difficulty swallowing and having a fear of water are both symptoms of rabies. That's when doctors asked the woman's family if she'd been in contact with any animals, and they told them about her being bitten by the puppy broad. You can be vaccinated against rabies but once you've got symptoms of the condition, it's often too late to do anything about it. What are the symptoms of rabies? Rabies occurs in more than 150 countries and more than 59,000 people die of it every year. Dogs are responsible for 99 per cent of human rabies deaths. India has more cases of the disease than anywhere else in the UK and most cases tend to centre around south and south-east Asia. In the UK, however, it's extremely rare. In fact, only four people have died of it here since 2000 - and all of those were people who were bitten by dogs abroad. a high temperature (fever) of 38C or above in some cases, discomfort at the site of the bite producing lots of saliva or frothing at the mouth Once those later signs appear, the disease is almost always fatal. If you're travelling to a country where rabies is present, talk to your GP about whether or not you need a jab, and avoid contact with animals where possible. If you are bitten, licked or scratched by a mammal, wash the affected area immediately with loads of soap and water and seek urgent medical advice. As a last resort, the Virginia doctors tried an experimental protocol for treating rabies, known as the Milwaukee protocol, which involves giving antiviral drugs. But the woman's condition worsened, and she died shortly after the family decided to withdraw advanced medical support. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), she's only the ninth person in the past decade to have died from the disease in the USA after picking it up from abroad. Over the course of her treatment, the woman came into contact with around 250 medical staff - 72 of which were recommended to undergo rabies vaccinations to ensure that she hadn't passed on the condition. The CDC recommends that travellers talk to their GPs before travelling to see if they need certain injections. In this tragic case, the woman didn't arrange a pretravel health visit even though a rabies jab is common practice for people travelling to some developing countries. In November 2018, a British dad died after being bitten by an infected cat on holiday in Morocco. Omar Zouhri, 58, also struggled to swallow or breath after getting pain in his finger. He died nine weeks after initially being nipped by the feline. "These events underscore the importance of obtaining a thorough pretravel health consultation, particularly when visiting countries with a high incidence of emerging or zoonotic pathogens," such as rabies, the report concluded. It's always best to check with your GP the moment you book an exotic holiday *just in case*. Even in Europe, there are certain conditions you can catch that you might not normally be exposed to at home - so always check before you travel. We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours | Miranda Larbi | https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8137671/anxiety-attack-rabies-puppy-bite-holiday/ | 2019-01-07 12:38:41+00:00 | 1,546,882,721 | 1,567,553,618 | health | non-human diseases |
1,010,242 | thetelegraph--2019-07-04--Rabies fear stalks Pakistan as hospitals run short of lifesaving vaccine | 2019-07-04T00:00:00 | thetelegraph | Rabies fear stalks Pakistan as hospitals run short of lifesaving vaccine | Pakistan is reportedly short of hundreds of thousands of doses of anti-rabies vaccine with growing numbers of stray dogs leaving dozens of people with potentially deadly bites each day. Health officials in the province of Sindh said doctors in the city of Karachi were seeing as many as 150 dog bite cases a day and 11 people have died so far this year. The country is short of at least 800,000 doses of vaccine which can be given to dog bite victims after they have been bitten, Dawn newspaper reported. The shortage was disclosed amid similar shortfalls in neighbouring India where public hospitals across the country are reported to be lacking life-saving vaccines. Rabies kills around 60,000 people a year and is present in more than 150 countries, but is considered a neglected disease mainly affecting the rural poor. The virus is spread almost always by dog bites and once it reaches the nervous system and victims start to display symptoms, the disease is nearly always fatal. Survival can depend on prompt washing of the wound and vaccination after a bite. “An 11-year-old boy, Kashif Sohrab, suffering from rabies was brought from Thatta to our hospital last week and died within hours,” Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre’s Executive Director Dr Seemin Jamali told Dawn. | Ben Farmer | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/07/04/rabies-fear-stalks-pakistan-hospitals-run-short-lifesaving-vaccine/ | 2019-07-04 09:58:08+00:00 | 1,562,248,688 | 1,567,536,900 | health | non-human diseases |
1,041,084 | theweekuk--2019-06-02--Bat lurking in iPad case gives rabies to pensioner | 2019-06-02T00:00:00 | theweekuk | Bat lurking in iPad case gives rabies to pensioner | An octogenarian is being treated for rabies after he was bitten by a bat lurking in his iPad case. Roy Syvertson, from New Hampshire in the US, said it felt like a bee sting initially. But added: “I looked, and the bat was coming out of here, between the cover and the back of the pad.” An author claims he met Marilyn Monrie 22 years after her death in 1952. John Baker says: “Marilyn Monroe did not die in August of 1962. Her death was staged. She was kept in a mental institution for about 20 years then released into the general public alone. Nobody, including the staff to the institution knew who she really was.” A UFO hunter says he has spotted alien fighter jets on the Moon. Scott C. Waring says he made the dramatic discovery while trawling through photos of the moon. He says a triangular object “looks like a stealth fighter triangle”. He also says he can see “a dish, a really large satellite dish”. | Tim Edwards | https://www.theweek.co.uk/odd-news/101528/bat-lurking-in-ipad-case-gives-rabies-to-pensioner | 2019-06-02 15:39:29+00:00 | 1,559,504,369 | 1,567,539,328 | health | non-human diseases |
921,500 | thesun--2019-01-03--Declan Donnellys dog Rocky rushed to Supervet for emergency treatment after back injury | 2019-01-03T00:00:00 | thesun | Declan Donnelly’s dog Rocky rushed to Supervet for emergency treatment after back injury | DECLAN Donnelly’s dog Rocky was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment after injuring his back. The TV presenter made sure the Dachshund was in the best hands possible – taking him to The Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick. Sharing a picture of himself cuddled up with his pooch alongside the well-known TV vet, Dec branded Noel and his colleagues “heroes”. He wrote: “Another thank you to this legend and the amazing staff at @fitzpatrick_referrals for taking care of Rocky after the silly sausage hurt his back again! “We never fail to be impressed by the kindness and care shown by all. You’re heroes! D x #dachshund #dachshundsofinstagram #supervet.” Dec’s fans were very impressed that the dog got to visit Dr Fitzpatrick and wished him a speedy recovery. One person wrote: “Awww your dog is so cute and I hope this is going to be on Supervets sometime soon.” A second commented: “He is brilliant vet! Get well soon rocky.” And a third remarked: “Hope you’re feeling better Rocky.” Rocky previously had to visit the vet in 2017 and at the time Dec thanked him for saving the dog’s life. Dec, who now a dad-of-one with wife Ali, is so close to the dog that he accompanied him for the BGT finals this year when his co-star Ant McPartlin was forced to pull out. He told fans at the time: “Rocky has come to keep me company and show moral support as I’ll be on my own tonight, although I’m getting the feeling he’s not as excited about the start of the BGT semi-finals as I am.” Meanwhile Rocky is best friends with Ant’s beloved dog Hurley – who currently spends his time between Ant and his estranged wife Lisa Armstrong. He said previously: "We had a bit of time off last summer so we thought it would be good to get dogs and spend time with them while they were puppies. “Now are dogs are best mates… It's nice because we've got the excuse that we need to take the dogs for a walk now and then we stop for a pint." Got a story? email [email protected] or call us direct on 02077824220. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours. | Fay STRANG | https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/8112970/declan-donnelly-dog-rocky-hospital-back-injury/ | 2019-01-03 16:04:28+00:00 | 1,546,549,468 | 1,567,554,110 | health | non-human diseases |
584,979 | theblaze--2019-08-28--Street dog fakes injury in order to receive treats affection from passersby | 2019-08-28T00:00:00 | theblaze | Street dog fakes injury in order to receive treats, affection from passersby | Street dog fakes injury in order to receive treats, affection from passersby | Sarah Taylor | https://www.theblaze.com/news/street-dog-fakes-injury-to-receive-treats | 2019-08-28 16:09:37+00:00 | 1,567,022,977 | 1,567,543,634 | health | non-human diseases |
1,109,973 | wnd--2019-11-01--Quarter of world's pig population 'to die of African swine fever' | 2019-11-01T00:00:00 | wnd | Quarter of world's pig population 'to die of African swine fever' | (LONDON GUARDIAN) About a quarter of the global pig population is expected to die as a result of an epidemic of African swine fever (ASF), according to the intergovernmental organisation responsible for coordinating animal disease control. In the last year the spread of the disease has taken policymakers by surprise, and has been particularly devastating in China – home to the world’s largest pig population. The disease is also established in other Asian countries such as Vietnam and South Korea, and continues to wreak havoc in eastern Europe, where the current outbreak began in 2014. The severity of the crisis means that global pork prices are rising, spurred largely by the demand from China, where as many as 100m pigs have been lost since ASF broke out there last year. In recent months, China has been granting export approval to foreign meat plants and signing deals around the world at a dizzying rate. US pork sales to China have doubled, while European pork prices have reached a six-year high. | WND News Services | https://www.wnd.com/2019/10/quarter-worlds-pig-population-die-african-swine-fever/ | Fri, 01 Nov 2019 03:05:29 +0000 | 1,572,591,929 | 1,572,612,693 | health | non-human diseases |
231,451 | globalresearch--2019-10-16--The African Swine Fever Outbreak, Devastating Impacts on Food Supply | 2019-10-16T00:00:00 | globalresearch | The African Swine Fever Outbreak, Devastating Impacts on Food Supply | You cannot get away from it, at least in print or in Google land. African swine fever is doing its rounds, cutting through the swine population of Asia with remorseless dedication. Since its deadly debut in China last year, it has done away with some 25 percent of the globe’s pig population. The symptoms are dramatic and lethal (mortality rates range from 95 to 100 percent), with the infected animal haemorrhaging and perishing between a period of five to fifteen days. This decline has sparked all manner of comment: a feared deprivation of pork dishes, a spark of hope in exports of pork untouched by the disease and alternative meat supplies, and the more serious issue of food security. In China itself, the decline of pork is causing a strain of desperation, though it is always marked by reassurance and stiff-upper lip confidence. Pork supplies, both domestically and internationally, had been seen to be something of an essential in Chinese food security. In September, the country’s pig population, numbering some 440 million animals, had shrunk by 41.1 percent. While figures coming out of various Chinese ministries should be viewed with a healthy dose of scepticism, the numbers from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs have caused a stir. Such contractions are perpetuating and will continue to perpetuate a loss in the global consumption of protein. On Monday, China’s Premier, Li Keqiang did something uncharacteristic for the politburo: he ventured to a roadside stall to test the vox populi on the subject of rising pork prices. Not that the episode lacked its fair share of choreographic sense. The owner was suitably stoic; it simply would not do to panic. “Our prices have also risen a bit accordingly. The effect on business hasn’t been too big.” Bravely dishonest for party and country, perhaps? The disastrous wasting of domestic herds, one that sees no ebbing, has caused a spike in imports in pork. The PRC saw some 1.3 million tonnes coming into the country in the first three quarters this year. Other countries are also showing a certain fear in the face of rumour and speculation. In Europe, the fever is being held at bay, though pork consumers are seeing prices rise. But in Asian countries, the response is graver, and slightly panicked. South Korea, for instance, is mobilising snipers and civilians in an effort to shore up its border with North Korea. Drones equipped with thermal vision will also be deployed. All of this is in aid of one thing: targeting infected pigs near the line of civilian control. The South China Morning Post is positively apocalyptic. “The intensified measures aim to exterminate feral pigs in areas including Incheon, Seoul, Goseong and Bukhan River.” As far as North Korea is concerned, the concern is that the fever is doing its worst, though official figures suggest the opposite. The North Korean agriculture ministry claimed in a May 30 report to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) that animal deaths had been modest, with only 22 recorded on a cooperative farm some 260km north of Pyongyang. For those in the Asia-Pacific region as yet untouched by ASF, nerves are catching. Countries like Australia have demonstrated that terror characteristic of island mentalities: Be wary of what you import and what you let in. Biosecurity is a tic of the Australian policy mindset, though it does not come without its ironies: the Australian scientific and agricultural sector has been arguably more devastating and disastrous for the country’s ecology than any malicious or accidental introduction. Be that as it may, Australia’s $5 billion pork industry is nothing to sneeze at, keeping something in the order of 36,000 people busy. But off Australian shores, the fear is that the fever is making its marauding march, with news that East Timor had become the tenth Asian nation to be added to the list. Customs officials are proving edgier than usual, and the federal Agricultural Minister Bridget McKenzie is getting a tad judgmental. On Saturday, a Vietnamese woman was sent packing after arriving at Sydney Airport with quail, squid and raw pork. The unfortunate had her visa cancelled, the result of amendments made in April. As the Department of Agriculture described it, The biosecurity and vet gate keepers have their eye on one aspect of Australia’s pig population. The 2.5 million domestic population might well be one thing, but imagine, fears Chief Veterinary Officer Dr Mark Schipp, the prospect of 15 million feral pigs being infected. (This figure, it should be said, varies – another estimate puts the number at 24 million.) But where crisis presents itself, there are salivating opportunities. Australian Pork Limited chief executive Margo Andrae is one who is drooling at the prospect that Australia can “increase production and prices to fill gaps that other markets can’t supply.” What then, to do? From a thriving epidemic, ASF has become an enthusiastic pandemic. It is cutting through protein consumption and posing a risk to food supply, but as yet, there are no cures nor vaccines. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has also noted that the disease’s impact is complicated by “the range of pig production systems coexisting in the different countries.” Such instances, if they do at least conjure up a world without pork, may well encourage a world less reliant on the staple. But till then, individuals such as Dr Hirofumi Kugita of the OIE are punting for the border control and biosecurity obsessives. Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research. Email: [email protected] | Dr. Binoy Kampmark | https://www.globalresearch.ca/piggish-problems-african-swine-fever/5692183 | Wed, 16 Oct 2019 17:43:15 +0000 | 1,571,262,195 | 1,571,263,725 | health | non-human diseases |
45,429 | bbcuk--2019-11-23--Greta Thunberg to guest edit Radio 4's Today programme | 2019-11-23T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Greta Thunberg to guest edit Radio 4's Today programme | Environmental activist, Greta Thunberg is to appear as one of the Christmas guest editors of Radio 4's Today programme. The 16-year-old campaigner will be one of five high-profile people who will take over the programme during the festive period, as is tradition. The others include Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry and Supreme Court president Baroness Hale of Richmond. George the Poet and journalist Charles Moore will also take the reins. They will each guest edit an edition of the Radio 4 programme between Boxing Day and New Year's Eve. Thunberg was nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, after spearheading a global movement demanding world leaders take action over climate change. It led to co-ordinated school strikes across the globe. The Swedish activist's name is synonymous with the fight to save the planet. Thunberg's voice appears on the opening track of the forthcoming album by the popular UK rock band, The 1975. "We are right now at the beginning of a climate and ecological crisis. And we need to call it what it is: an emergency," Thunberg is heard saying on the track. Thunberg will speak to the world's leading climate change figures and hear from frontline activists, the BBC said. She has also commissioned reports from the Antarctic and Zambia, as well as a Mishal Husain interview with the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney. Elsewhere, Baroness Hale will give Today a tour of the Supreme Court and explore the concept of coercive control. while Perry will help to examine stereotypes and conventional thinking. Moore will focus on freedom of expression, and spoken word artist-turned-podcaster George will report from Uganda and explore issues around identity. Previous guest editors of the show have included the Duke of Sussex, Angelina Jolie, former House of Commons speaker John Bercow and David Dimbleby, as well as Sir Lenny Henry, Nicola Adams, Tracey Emin, Professor Stephen Hawking and Sir Richard Branson. Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-50515081 | Sat, 23 Nov 2019 01:13:26 GMT | 1,574,489,606 | 1,574,511,859 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
3,464 | abcnews--2019-12-24--Newspaper publishes secret report on former W.Va. bishop | 2019-12-24T00:00:00 | abcnews | Newspaper publishes secret report on former W.Va. bishop | CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A newspaper has published a secret church report about a former West Virginia bishop ousted for alleged sexual and financial misconduct that details how he allegedly groomed and inappropriately touched young men. The Washington Post reports law enforcement does not have a copy of the report, which officials said could aid in their investigation into former bishop Michael Bransfield. The Post said it received a copy of the 60-page report in June and has previously reported its contents. Bransfield is also accused of spending church funds on dining out, liquor, personal travel and luxury items, as well as personal gifts to fellow bishops and cardinals in the U.S. and Vatican. Bransfield resigned in September 2018 amid allegations of sexual and financial misconduct. Earlier this year, Pope Francis barred Bransfield from public ministry and prohibited him from living in the diocese. West Virginia's attorney general and police in Washington, D.C., have issued subpoenas to church officials in Wheeling, West Virginia, and Baltimore, seeking the report. Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said the church has denied his request for it. He said he was told the report “is with the Pope and out of its hands.” The report published by The Post said “no conclusive evidence was found that Bishop Bransfield committed sexual misconduct with minors.” But it said Bransfield “subjected multiple seminarians and priests to unwanted sexual overtures, sexual harassment and sexual contact.” The newspaper does not specify how it obtained the report. A copy was published on its website this week. Church officials in West Virginia have also said they don't have a copy of the report. "The Holy See commissioned the preliminary investigation, thus the report belongs to the Holy See," Tim Bishop, a spokesman for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, said in a statement to The Post. Bransfield has denied wrongdoing. He had been investigated for an alleged groping incident in 2007 and was implicated in court testimony in 2012 in an infamous Philadelphia priestly sex abuse case. He strongly denied ever abusing anyone and the diocese said it had disproved the claims. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/newspaper-publishes-secret-report-wva-bishop-67916965 | Tue, 24 Dec 2019 13:41:47 -0500 | 1,577,212,907 | 1,577,232,334 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
13,539 | aljazeera--2019-06-18--How did Egyptian newspapers report Mohamed Morsis death | 2019-06-18T00:00:00 | aljazeera | How did Egyptian newspapers report Mohamed Morsi's death? | While the news of the death of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has attracted widespread Arab - and to a lesser extent - international media coverage, it has not received much attention from newspapers in Egypt. The 67-year-old, who collapsed during a court appearance on Monday and was later declared dead in a Cairo hospital, was the country's first democratically elected president. He came to office in June 2012, a year after the Arab Spring uprising saw the end of President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. But Morsi only served one year of his four-year mandate before he faced massive street protests and was removed in a military coup, led by Egypt's current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in July 2013. On Tuesday, there was almost no front page coverage of Morsi's death in Egypt's major newspapers. Instead, the news was reported briefly on the inside pages which are usually devoted to monitoring criminal cases. The reports made no mention of Morsi's status as either a former or an overthrown president. According to the privately owned online newspaper Mada Masr, the only major daily paper to feature news of Morsi's death on its front page was Al-Masry Al-Youm, while most other papers published the same 42-word news article. The three main state-owned newspapers described the ex-president as either "the accused" or "the deceased", with some privately owned papers not even mentioning the news. This was also reflected on Egyptian satellite television channels, which relayed the news in vague and abrupt terms, and referred to the Muslim Brotherhood organisation, to which Morsi belonged, as a "terrorist" group. The largest state-owned newspaper Al Ahram published the news of Morsi's death on the margins of its fourth page under the heading: "The death of Mohamed Morsi during his trial in the espionage case". The Al Akhbar paper's coverage was similar and included one paragraph entitled: "The death of Mohamed Morsi during his trial." The Al Gomhuria paper published a short paragraph at the bottom of its third page under a similar heading. There was no official statement from the Egyptian presidency or el-Sisi regarding Morsi's death. His burial, attended by some of his family members, was a hurried affair that took place at dawn, with security officials standing guard outside the Al-Wafaa Wa al-Amal cemetery. No journalists or other mourners were allowed to be present. "We washed his noble body at Tora prison hospital, performed prayers for him in the prison mosque ... the burial was at the cemetery for Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guides," Morsi's son, Ahmed, wrote on Facebook. According to Morsi's lawyer, the former president wanted to be buried in his village in Sharqiyah province, but the Egyptian authorities decided to bury him at a cemetery in Cairo's Medinat Nasr. Under el-Sisi, media censorship in Egypt has all but increased at a drastic pace. In 2018, the president ratified the Anti-Cyber and Information Technology Crimes Law, which ostensibly aims to combat "extremism" and "terrorism". However, the law allows Egyptian authorities to block websites that are considered "a threat to national security" or to the "national economy." Individuals who visit these websites can face steep fines and penalties. According to the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), Cairo has blocked access to almost 500 websites, most of them belonging to media organisations. Furthermore, at least 35 journalists, citizen-journalists, and bloggers are believed to be currently detained in Egypt. Morsi, who had been behind bars for nearly six years, had a long history of health issues, including diabetes, as well as liver and kidney disease. He was facing at least six trials at the time of his death and was also serving a 20-year prison sentence for a conviction arising from the killing of protesters during demonstrations in 2012. In addition, he was serving a life sentence for espionage in a case related to the Gulf state of Qatar. Other charges against the former president included jailbreak, insulting the judiciary and involvement in "terrorism". His supporters say the charges against him were politically motivated. There were also reports over the years that Morsi had been mistreated and tortured in jail, with activists saying on Monday his death should be seen in the context of the Egyptian authorities' systematic isolation and mistreatment of political detainees. Human Rights Watch called the news of Morsi's death "terrible" but "entirely predictable", citing the government's "failure to allow him adequate medical care". "The government of Egypt today bears responsibility for his death, given their failure to provide him with adequate medical care or basic prisoner rights," the group said in a statement to Al Jazeera. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/egyptian-newspapers-report-mohamed-morsi-death-190618183512613.html | 2019-06-18 20:54:13+00:00 | 1,560,905,653 | 1,567,538,914 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
21,120 | bbc--2019-01-16--Stephen King persuades newspaper not to scrap its book reviews | 2019-01-16T00:00:00 | bbc | Stephen King persuades newspaper not to scrap its book reviews | Author Stephen King - and his readers - have persuaded his local newspaper to reverse a decision to axe its book reviews. The Portland Press Herald, based in his home state of Maine, had decided to stop running reviews of local books. After King expressed dismay, the paper challenged him to get 100 followers to buy digital subscriptions. His fans did not disappoint him, prompting the paper to pledge that "book reviews will return". The ball began rolling on Friday when King tweeted that the Portland Press Herald and its Sunday sister paper the Maine Sunday Telegram would "no longer publish local, freelance-written reviews of books about Maine, set in Maine, or written by Maine authors". The author wrote: "Retweet this if you're from Maine (or even if you're not). Tell the paper DON'T DO THIS." The Portland Press Herald replied by saying newspapers were facing "challenging times", but promised to "reinstate the local book reviews immediately" if enough digital subscriptions were taken out. By the time King passed on the proposition to his Twitter followers, the 100 subscription target had already been met. The 71-year-old gave thanks to his fans for "saving the day" - but expressed disappointment that the arts aren't considered "vital" in the US. The author of Carrie, It and many other best-sellers said papers like the Herald were increasingly relying on syndicated reviews. "They want to go wire service reviews only, so Maine writers won't get a boost," he told one of his followers. "Many of them depend on those reviews to buy bread and milk." His principled stand led many to applaud him. "Thank you, @StephenKing, for showing local newspapers that book reviews are a vital part of news coverage," wrote the New York Times' Pamela Paul. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-46895342 | 2019-01-16 15:26:04+00:00 | 1,547,670,364 | 1,567,552,208 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
23,152 | bbc--2019-02-19--Alabama newspaper editor calls on KKK to lynch Democrats | 2019-02-19T00:00:00 | bbc | Alabama newspaper editor calls on KKK to lynch Democrats | The editor and publisher of a local paper in Alabama is under fire for penning an editorial calling for mass lynchings by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). The opinion piece ran in his print-only newspaper, the Democrat-Reporter, last Thursday, Goodloe Sutton confirmed on Tuesday. He said Democrats were going to raise taxes and that the KKK should hang them and raid Washington DC. Alabama lawmakers have called for Sutton to resign. The KKK is one of the oldest white supremacy groups in the US, formed just after the civil war. The group was behind many of the lynchings, rapes and violent attacks on African Americans in the 1900s. The editorial began garnering attention online after students from Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, tweeted photographs of the article. Sutton could not be immediately reached for comment on the matter. He was once a celebrated journalist, commended for his ethics by other news outlets - including the New York Times and American Journalism Review. A short editorial piece published without a byline on 14 February was entitled: "Klan needs to ride again." "Time for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again," the article said, referencing the KKK's terrorising raids through black communities. "Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama... This socialist-communist ideology sounds good to the ignorant, the uneducated, and the simple-minded people." "Seems like the Klan would be welcome to raid the gated communities up there." Sutton later confirmed to the Montgomery Advertiser that he had written the article. "If we could get the Klan to go up there and clean out DC we'd all been better off," he said. "We'll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them." "It's not calling for the lynchings of Americans. These are socialist-communists we're talking about." Sutton also told the paper he did not believe the Klan was a violent organisation. "They didn't kill but a few people. The Klan wasn't violent until they needed to be." According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are currently around 5,000 to 8,000 KKK members across the US; during the Klan's heyday in the 1900s, there were as many as four million members. Alabama Senator Doug Jones, the Democrat who won a bitter race against Republican Roy Moore, expressed his shock over the "absolutely disgusting" editorial and said Sutton must resign immediately. Democratic Representative Terri Sewell, who is black, said Sutton's language was not a joke, but a threat. Kyle Whitmire, a political writer in Alabama, said he once worked at Sutton's paper and felt "sickened" by last week's editorial. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47295551 | 2019-02-19 19:39:19+00:00 | 1,550,623,159 | 1,567,548,017 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
45,128 | bbcuk--2019-11-15--Meghan accuses Mail newspapers of 'untrue' stories - court papers | 2019-11-15T00:00:00 | bbcuk | Meghan accuses Mail newspapers of 'untrue' stories - court papers | The Duchess of Sussex has accused the Mail on Sunday and its parent company of a campaign of "untrue" stories, according to new details of her legal action against the newspaper group. Court papers filed against the group set out a list of "false" articles about Meghan, the website Byline says. Her lawyers claim the Mail on Sunday removed passages of a private letter to her father to portray her "negatively". The Mail on Sunday repeated its intent to defend the case "with vigour". "There is nothing in this document which changes that position," a spokesman said. In October, law firm Schillings, acting for the duchess, filed a High Court claim against the Mail on Sunday and its parent company over the alleged misuse of private information, infringement of copyright and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018. The claim came after the Mail on Sunday published a handwritten letter from Meghan to her father, Thomas Markle, sent shortly after she and Prince Harry got married in 2018. It is claimed the newspaper did not publish parts of the letter because it would undermine its "negative" portrayal of the duchess. The court papers claim that Meghan's father was exploited by journalists and say that reporters also invented a series of claims about her relationship with her mother. The duchess' lawyers will also accuse the Mail on Sunday's sister title the Daily Mail of printing "completely untrue" stories about renovations to Meghan and Prince Harry's home. They say that claims by the paper - also published on the Mail Online website - that a £5,000 copper bath and £500,000-worth of soundproofing were charged to the taxpayer were lies. In a statement last month, the Duke of Sussex said he and Meghan were forced to take action against "relentless propaganda" and a "ruthless campaign that has escalated over the past year". Prince Harry said the "painful" impact of intrusive media coverage had driven the couple to take action. The duke has launched separate legal action against the owners of the Sun, the defunct News of the World, and the Daily Mirror, in relation to alleged phone-hacking. | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50441387 | Fri, 15 Nov 2019 21:16:04 GMT | 1,573,870,564 | 1,573,864,050 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
45,750 | bbcuk--2019-12-04--General election 2019: Parties warned over 'newspaper' election leaflets | 2019-12-04T00:00:00 | bbcuk | General election 2019: Parties warned over 'newspaper' election leaflets | Political parties have been warned not to send election leaflets that mimic local newspapers. Industry group the Society of Editors said the practice could undermine trust in local publications. Its executive director Ian Murray said the public would not forgive politicians who "attempt to take them for mugs". All major parties have been criticised for the tactic ahead of next week's poll. The Newsquest group, which publishes a number of local titles, has written to main party leaders calling on them to end the "extremely worrying" practice. • A really simple guide to the UK general election In an open letter, the group's titles said: "Not only are you taking advantage of our highly trusted credentials, you are also actively undermining our business models". "Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but this has to stop." Among recent examples, the Lib Dems have faced criticism for a leaflet they produced in support of their candidate in Winchester, entitled the "Mid Hampshire Gazette". The editor of the Hampshire-based Basingstoke Gazette said such party material could erode trust in local papers, and called for an apology. The Conservatives have also produced a series of leaflets with different names in the style of red-top tabloid newspapers. A Labour leaflet produced to support its candidate in the London constituency of Tooting, with a dark blue masthead carrying the title "Daily Press", has attracted criticism on social media. Mr Murray said: "If a politician or their party can attempt to deliberately mislead you by cloaking their partisan messages in the disguise of an independent and trusted local newspaper, what else are they attempting to camouflage? "If there is no wish to deceive, then why give the publication a similar title to the existing independent newspaper in the area, as is often the case. "Should a reader simply mistake a political freesheet for a version of their regular paper or, worse, believe their local editor has sided with one party over another then the destruction of decades, in some cases over a century, of impartial, non-partisan reporting will be assured. "It is time the practice was brought to an end, for the sake of local newspapers but also, I would contend, for the sake of local politics. "The public are not fooled for long and will not forgive politicians who attempt to take them for mugs." • POLICY GUIDE: Who should I vote for? • POLLS: How are the parties doing? • A TO Z: Our tool to explain election words Have you received election leaflets that resemble local newspapers? Email [email protected]. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: • Please read our terms of use and privacy policy | null | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50652686 | Wed, 04 Dec 2019 00:18:46 GMT | 1,575,436,726 | 1,575,462,283 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
52,916 | bipartisanreport--2019-12-21--Trump Gets Reamed By NY Newspaper’s Cover Page (IMAGE) | 2019-12-21T00:00:00 | bipartisanreport | Trump Gets Reamed By NY Newspaper’s Cover Page (IMAGE) | The NY Daily News has long been a thorn in the side of President Trump. Every month, a cover page of theirs makes headlines everywhere for the witty and humorous attempts at getting the president riled up. Because it works like a charm every single time, the Daily News continues to target Trump and his administration in their epic covers, like this one, released the day after Trump’s impeachment in the House. Vladimir Putin himself spoke out about his close pal being impeached, because what will Putin do when he no longer controls the president of the United States? According to the LA Times: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that President Trump was impeached for “completely fabricated reasons,” calling the move by Democrats a continuation of their fight against the Republican leader. “It’s unlikely they will want to remove from power a representative of their own party based on what are, in my opinion, completely fabricated reasons,” Putin said during his annual marathon news conference in Moscow. The conference lasted more than four hours and was the fifteenth such conference in Putin’s 20 years of power. People responding to the Daily News’ tweet were thrilled at the fact that the president is finally being held accountable for his crooked actions as our leader. Republicans, of course, will continue to insist that the president has done nothing wrong and that Democrats are convicting him merely as a way of overthrowing the 2016 election. Check out the best comments left on the tweet below via screenshot: | Tasha Williams | https://bipartisanreport.com/2019/12/20/trump-gets-reamed-by-ny-newspapers-cover-page-image/ | Sat, 21 Dec 2019 02:34:38 +0000 | 1,576,913,678 | 1,576,930,030 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
52,922 | bipartisanreport--2019-12-21--Trump Under Fire In Top Newspaper, Embarrassing Photo Follows | 2019-12-21T00:00:00 | bipartisanreport | Trump Under Fire In Top Newspaper, Embarrassing Photo Follows | The NY Daily News has long been a thorn in the side of President Trump. Every month, a cover page of theirs makes headlines everywhere for the witty and humorous attempts at getting the president riled up. Because it works like a charm every single time, the Daily News continues to target Trump and his administration in their epic covers, like this one, released the day after Trump’s impeachment in the House. Vladimir Putin himself spoke out about his close pal being impeached, because what will Putin do when he no longer controls the president of the United States? According to the LA Times: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that President Trump was impeached for “completely fabricated reasons,” calling the move by Democrats a continuation of their fight against the Republican leader. “It’s unlikely they will want to remove from power a representative of their own party based on what are, in my opinion, completely fabricated reasons,” Putin said during his annual marathon news conference in Moscow. The conference lasted more than four hours and was the fifteenth such conference in Putin’s 20 years of power. People responding to the Daily News’ tweet were thrilled at the fact that the president is finally being held accountable for his crooked actions as our leader. Republicans, of course, will continue to insist that the president has done nothing wrong and that Democrats are convicting him merely as a way of overthrowing the 2016 election. Check out the best comments left on the tweet below via screenshot: | Tasha Williams | https://bipartisanreport.com/2019/12/21/trump-under-fire-in-top-newspaper-embarrassing-photo-follows/ | Sat, 21 Dec 2019 23:50:55 +0000 | 1,576,990,255 | 1,576,973,311 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
52,997 | bipartisanreport--2019-12-28--Anti-Trump Newspaper Front-Page Sends Donald Into A Frenzy | 2019-12-28T00:00:00 | bipartisanreport | Anti-Trump Newspaper Front-Page Sends Donald Into A Frenzy | The NY Daily News has long been a thorn in the side of President Trump. Every month, a cover page of theirs makes headlines everywhere for the witty and humorous attempts at getting the president riled up. Because it works like a charm every single time, the Daily News continues to target Trump and his administration in their epic covers, like this one, released the day after Trump’s impeachment in the House. Vladimir Putin himself spoke out about his close pal being impeached, because what will Putin do when he no longer controls the president of the United States? According to the LA Times: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that President Trump was impeached for “completely fabricated reasons,” calling the move by Democrats a continuation of their fight against the Republican leader. “It’s unlikely they will want to remove from power a representative of their own party based on what are, in my opinion, completely fabricated reasons,” Putin said during his annual marathon news conference in Moscow. The conference lasted more than four hours and was the fifteenth such conference in Putin’s 20 years of power. People responding to the Daily News’ tweet were thrilled at the fact that the president is finally being held accountable for his crooked actions as our leader. Republicans, of course, will continue to insist that the president has done nothing wrong and that Democrats are convicting him merely as a way of overthrowing the 2016 election. Check out the best comments left on the tweet below via screenshot: | Tasha Williams | https://bipartisanreport.com/2019/12/27/anti-trump-newspaper-front-page-sends-donald-into-a-frenzy/ | Sat, 28 Dec 2019 01:53:53 +0000 | 1,577,516,033 | 1,577,534,897 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
72,114 | breitbart--2019-08-23--Douche Zest New York Times Politics Editor Describes What His Newspaper Publishes | 2019-08-23T00:00:00 | breitbart | 'Douche Zest': New York Times Politics Editor Describes What His Newspaper Publishes | The New York Post has uncovered tweets demonstrating that Wright-Piersanti, while employed at Newark’s Star-Ledger newspaper in New Jersey a decade ago, had a particular fondness for the use of the word “douche.” “Wright-Piersanti’s Twitter page suggests he adores the word ‘douche,’ which crops up more than a dozen times,” the New York Post‘s Keith Kelly wrote Thursday evening. In fact, he even described the work product his future colleagues at the New York Times publish as “douche zest.” “What the NYTimes does is take your story, spice it up with a dash of *douche zest* and then a million people read it,” Wright-Piersanti tweeted on October 13, 2010, according to the New York Post. New York Times spokeswomen Danielle Rhoades-Ha and Eileen Murphy have not replied to a detailed request for comment from Breitbart News asking if the newspaper agrees with its politics editor’s characterization of its product as “douche zest.” They have also not provided a definition of the term “douche zest.” This is not the only time Wright-Piersanti used the term “douche” to describe what would become his future employer, the New York Times, either. “On Oct. 10, 2013, he was at it again, venting against a Times reporter who was dispatched to do a story from Montclair, NJ,” the Post‘s Kelly wrote. “‘Maybe NYT was right to send a douche,’ he tweeted before apparently quoting a line from an NYT story that offended him: ‘Montclair likes to think of itself as having more of a mix of races and classes than other suburbs.'” Another newly resurfaced tweet, thanks to the New York Post‘s reporting since Wright-Piersanti has again hidden his Twitter account from the public, is one where he slanders the Amish–and uses the term “douche” to do so as well. Kelly wrote, “And on the Amish, he tweeted in August 2010, “I’m working on a tell-all expose of the Amish; calling it, ‘more like Pennsylvania Douche.’” The Times spokeswomen, Rhoades-Ha and Murphy, have not said if the newspaper thinks Wright-Piersanti’s use of the word “douche” repeatedly on Twitter is acceptable. But the Times did provide the Post with the same statement they provided the rest of the media in response to the earlier tweets: “We are aware of these tweets, which are a clear violation of our standards. We are reviewing next steps.” These revelations that Wright-Piersanti assailed his then-future colleagues and employer using this foul language come in the wake of a Breitbart News investigation published on Thursday morning that discovered Wright-Piersanti made a number of antisemitic and racist comments on Twitter over the years. On Thursday, in response to the Breitbart News investigation, Wright-Piersanti deleted several of the tweets and issued a statement admitting they were “offensive” and apologizing for them while also downplaying them as from a decade ago. In statements to several media outlets through spokeswoman Rhoades-Ha, The Times admitted the tweets were a violation of the Times‘ standards and that the newspaper was considering next steps and options regarding what to do in the future. This latest example of the pervasive culture of racism and antisemitism inside the New York Times institution-wide comes in the wake of several other recent examples of such activity. Now, former deputy politics editor Jonathan Weisman was demoted recently, in part, because of racially insensitive things he said, which the Times called a lapse in judgment. Weisman was also behind a list during the Barack Obama administration that the Times published, then quietly removed, listing Jewish lawmakers in opposition to the Obama Iran deal. The Times also has faced serious criticism for having published a series of antisemitic cartoons in its international edition. The person or persons responsible for those publishing decisions have not been publicly identified yet, but the Times, under criticism, stopped publication of all cartoons in the international edition to prevent more antisemitism from reaching its pages. What’s more, in the editorial wing of the paper, open leftist Sarah Jeong–who has made a number of blatantly racist statements–remains employed as the Times has rallied behind her despite her history of racially insensitive comments. In response to all of this, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has called for the Times to terminate Wright-Piersanti and then conduct an organization-wide audit to root out racism and antisemitism lurking within the newspaper. “The Zionist Organization of America urges the New York Times to fire its Senior Staff Editor Tom Wright-Piersanti, in light of Wright-Piersanti’s antisemitic and racist tweets that were recently uncovered,” ZOA said in a statement on its website. “Further, we urge the Times to conduct an internal editorial review of every piece of content that Wright-Piersanti has been involved in publishing during his five plus years with the Times, for antisemitic bias, and to take all necessary corrective actions regarding that content.” Katrina Pierson, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump’s campaign, added in a statement to Breitbart News that the Times should hire an outside counsel, an independent law firm, to conduct such a review into antisemitism and racism pervasive throughout the newspaper. “Combined with other recent scandals like the publication of antisemitic cartoons and racist tweets that led to the demotion of another political editor in the Times’ newsroom, it is long past time for the New York Times to hire an independent outside counsel legal firm to conduct a thorough review of the newspaper’s entire staff, hiring practices, and all editorial processes,” Pierson told Breitbart News. Several current staffers at the New York Times, including multiple reporters, believe that Wright-Piersanti should be–and probably will be–fired. In conversations with Breitbart News over the past day-plus since this was exposed, during which all of the Times staffers requested anonymity, New York Times staffers described being caught flat-footed by these revelations. One said Wright-Piersanti would have been fired already had the Times leadership not wanted to hand a “win” to the many conservatives and Trump supporters calling for his termination, and others expressed fear that similar stories may come out about other Times employees or others in media. Executive editor Dean Baquet is personally involved in the handling of this matter, too, some staff said. In fact, the Times has even tasked some reporters with writing a story about what happened here and describing it in their own terms. That story is forthcoming and likely to be published as soon as the newspaper figures out exactly how to handle the matter. It may be an effort to control the narrative of firing Wright-Piersanti, if that is what the paper intends to do, and frame it in the best possible way for the Times so it does not have to address the broader culture of antisemitism and racism permeating the organization. “We’re almost damned if we, damned if we don’t–in that if they fire him, the right will scream it is correct about the culture here having racial issues,” a Times staffer said. “If we don’t fire him, how can we avoid the accusation of hypocrisy?” The Times spokeswomen, Rhoades-Ha and Murphy, have not answered detailed questions from Breitbart News about each of these points about what Times staffers believe is a serious mishandling of this situation by Baquet and the leadership of the newspaper. Baquet has given an edict to editorial staff that after the failure of the Russia hoax scandal with the implosion of special counsel Robert Mueller in the wake of his weak report and even weaker congressional testimony, the Times is now set to pre-plan coverage pushing the narrative throughout the next year-plus over Trump and racial issues. But given that Baquet has remained silent following the exposing of Wright-Piersanti’s racist and antisemitic comments–and the paper continuing to refuse to forcefully condemn those, as well as Baquet and the Times‘ broader mishandling of other recent racial and antisemitic issues–Times staff are concerned they will not be able to honestly and accurately cover the president on issues of race. “You guys have a point when you say there’s hypocrisy with us covering race and antisemitism when we have not been too great in handling this,” one Times reporter told Breitbart News. | Matthew Boyle | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/breitbart/~3/utYjxcR3t_w/ | 2019-08-23 19:38:57+00:00 | 1,566,603,537 | 1,567,533,563 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
89,932 | channel4uk--2019-11-22--Lib Dems and others under fire over ‘newspaper’ adverts | 2019-11-22T00:00:00 | channel4uk | Lib Dems and others under fire over ‘newspaper’ adverts | The Liberal Democrats have been accused of “underhand tactics” after putting out an election pamphlet that mimics a local newspaper – using the same name as a real news title. It comes after the Conservatives were widely condemned for briefly changing the name of their press team’s Twitter account to “FactCheckUK” during Tuesday’s ITV leader’s debate. Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Tom Brake responded to the story: “Tories are now resorting to deliberately misleading the public.” But it has emerged that the Liberal Democrats have been putting out election leaflets that closely resemble real newspapers. One Twitter user, Charlotte Baker (“@WinchesterJelly”), sent us a picture of the front page of the “Mid-Hampshire Gazette”. The publication describes itself as a “free newspaper” covering several local districts. The words “Liberal Democrats” appear in very small print at the top right of the front page. A real local newspaper, also called the Basingstoke Gazette – which brands itself as simply the Gazette – says it also covers mid-Hampshire. Katie French, editor of the Basingstoke Gazette and Andover Advertiser, told us: “This is the second occasion this week where a major political party has resorted in underhand tactics to reach voters. “It is deeply worrying that despite much debate about transparency and honesty, the Liberal Democrats here in Hampshire have shamelessly exploited the trusted format of a local newspaper for their own political gain. “This is nothing more than a political advertisement dressed up as a newspaper. The look and feel of this advertisement is very convincing and readers will have to spot the small print in the top right corner to see the so-called Mid Hampshire Gazette is published by the Liberal Democrats. “This is a flagrant attempt to manipulate voters by presenting them an advertisement in the form of a front-page news story. Frankly it is insulting to the public who deserve better from one of the leading political parties. “It is also offensive to local journalists, including my team, who work very hard to be the trusted and balanced voices in the community. “As non-broadcast political adverts are largely exempt from regulation, we will be writing a letter of complaint to the Liberal Democrat party.” FactCheck readers also pointed us to other publications put out by Conservative general election candidates which resemble newspapers and magazines, often without party branding visible on the front pages. The Brexit Party also publishes a free newspaper, the Brexiteer, which carries the words “the newspaper of the Brexit Party” – in much larger print than the Lib Dem publication – under its title. A spokesman for the Liberal Democrats told FactCheck: “Liberal Democrats pride ourselves on working hard locally all year round on the issues that matter to local people. During an election period this even more important and we are committed to informing people about the issues that matter to them.” Please follow @FactCheck on Twitter and send us examples of party campaign material that has come through your letterbox in the form of a fake local newspaper. | Patrick Worrall | https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/lib-dems-and-others-under-fire-over-newspaper-adverts | Fri, 22 Nov 2019 18:00:07 +0000 | 1,574,463,607 | 1,574,468,610 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
116,814 | coloradopeakpolitics--2019-09-04--NOT FAKE NEWS Newspaper Embraces Crappy Fiction for Climate Change Reporting | 2019-09-04T00:00:00 | coloradopeakpolitics | NOT FAKE NEWS: Newspaper Embraces Crappy Fiction for Climate Change ‘Reporting’ | The High Country News has taken journalism to a whole new level of extreme absurdity with a new genre they call “speculative journalism,” also known as making up stuff. They’re writing pure fiction now as an alternative way to interest readers in the dangers of climate change, because readers are getting bored with forecasting facts and figures and warnings of what might happen in their regular reporting. So “journalists” at the Paonia paper are instead writing completely made up stories about climate-changer deniers hunted down like criminals by international task forces in the year 2068; and, ski resorts using soldier flies to dispose of human waste, but instead swarming the slopes resulting in a wave of lawsuits. It’s not journalism at all, it’s the stuff of Junior High notebook scribblings. They arrived in July of 2062, the time of year when the salmon memorials begin. The two E-series Black Hawks hugged the fire-scarred spruce of the Chugach National Forest, pounding into a parched blueberry field. Two dozen paramilitary police, members of the Old Bears, grabbed their gear, leaped from the choppers and disappeared into the treeline. It would be their final mission. The Old Bears, an internationally funded joint task force developed to hunt down and arrest fugitive climate criminals, were led by Lieutenant Colonel Aoife Viejo. They hiked through the rawboned lowland forests for nearly two hours toward Katalla, a remote smuggling hub controlled by the United Provinces of Alaska Militia (UPAM). Their target was 84-year-old Stephen Brower, a former physician and Republican senator from Massachusetts who would later be convicted of crimes against the environment, specifically for “denying and downplaying life-threatening climate change impacts for personal gain.” Intelligence sources said Brower had been living near Katalla for more than a year with his wife, his daughter, her husband, their twins, two armed guards and a courier who came and went regularly. Such nonsense is applauded by a website for journalists in the UK as a bold new strategy — using fictionalized stories to help us better understand reality. Do serious journalists seriously think this garbage will help us grasp reality? The brown goop of dead flies smeared across her ski goggles impeded the view, but Nataša Sarec still saw the man fall. It was an ugly crash, an unintentional cartwheel, the man’s skis akimbo and his limbs awkwardly splayed as he smacked onto the slushy slope. Then black soldier flies swarmed the man, obscuring the scene. Sarec could scarcely see the fallen skier, but she could hear him screaming. As Sarec, Vail Resort’s chief entomologist, raced down the mountain, her tangled brown ponytail whipped her face. She skidded to a halt beside him, gasping for breath. Not only have journalists embraced the charge of “fake news,” they’ve taken it to a whole new level and zombified it into crappy science fiction. | ColoradoPeakPolitics | https://coloradopeakpolitics.com/2019/09/04/not-fake-news-newspaper-embraces-crappy-fiction-for-climate-change-reporting/ | 2019-09-04 13:36:26+00:00 | 1,567,618,586 | 1,569,331,378 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
146,188 | drudgereport--2019-04-05--Cuba cuts newspaper size circulation due to paper scarcity | 2019-04-05T00:00:00 | drudgereport | Cuba cuts newspaper size, circulation due to paper scarcity... | HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba says a paper shortage is forcing it to cut back on pages and circulation at several state-run newspapers including the Communist Party daily Granma, highlighting the severity of the country’s cash crunch as scarcity of basic goods increases. The Communist government said on Thursday that it was halving the edition size of some weeklies as well as Granma on certain days due to the lack of newsprint, which it imports. It will also no longer publish the Union of Young Communists’ newspaper, Juventud Rebelde, on Saturdays. It was the first time Cuba had taken such a measure since the 1990s depression spawned by the fall of former ally the Soviet Union. It comes as Cubans are having to queue sometimes for hours for basics such as eggs and flour whenever they appear on store shelves. Last year’s introduction of mobile internet and a state app called “Donde Hay” (“Where there is”) have to some extent multiplied the mayhem as they have made it easier for Cubans to find out in real time when new stock has arrived. “There’s nothing at the moment, and when they finally put something in the shops there are huge queues and you have to fight for it,” said Niurka Fontana, 33, a Havana resident who works at an ice-cream parlour. “Every day it’s worse.” While Cubans have long faced sporadic shortages of particular items due to external shocks to the state-run economy and often dysfunctional central planning, widespread scarcity of some basic goods has picked up over the past few months. First it was medicine and then flour, then vegetable oil and now eggs and meat. “I’ve had this prescription for renal antibiotics on me for two months now, but you can’t find them anywhere,” said pensioner Georgie Pi. The shortages have pushed up prices of some goods on the black market that not all Cubans can afford given the average state salary is around $30 per month. The government has acknowledged that some shortages, like medicines, are due to a lack of imports of goods necessary for production. Cuba announced austerity measures three years ago due to lower exports and liquidity problems as aid from key ally Venezuela shrank amid its own economic crisis. It has since also had to contend with a tightening of the decades-old U.S. trade embargo under President Donald Trump and the end of medical services exports to Brazil following the election of far-right Jair Bolsonaro as president. It faces another threat to its exports of doctors and nurses as protests roil old friend Algeria. President Miguel Diaz-Canel told the National Assembly in December that the government would be increasing austerity this year. The Economy Minister Alejandro Gil Fernandez said last month that egg production had recently been affected by problems with the importation of avian feed. Cuba would import more of certain basic goods in upcoming months and take measures to avoid hoarding, he added. Many state-run shops are already rationing sales, creating a new headache for private eateries that do not have access to wholesale markets. Most Cubans say they are used to shortages, although some fear they will only get worse. “If there is a crisis in Venezuela, it affects us directly,” said state worker Carlos Perez, 51. | null | http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DrudgeReportFeed/~3/kyr4_DtSEQo/cuba-cuts-newspaper-size-due-to-paper-scarcity-as-shortages-bite-idUKKCN1RG2WJ | 2019-04-05 00:40:37+00:00 | 1,554,439,237 | 1,567,543,948 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
100 | 21stcenturywire--2019-02-04--UK COLUMN Jackals Eye Venezuela Twitters Regime Change Dept Trumps Nuke Treaty Renege | 2019-02-04T00:00:00 | 21stcenturywire | UK COLUMN: Jackals Eye Venezuela, Twitter’s Regime Change Dept, Trump’s Nuke Treaty Renege | As the jackals of Langley eye the oil riches of Venezuela, Twitter’s digital fascist brigade sprung into action at the behest of NeoCon Marco Rubio to delete pro-Maduro accounts in Caracas, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman’s elite defamation operation, New Knowledge, teamed-up with NBC News to spearhead a smear campaign targeting 2020 Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard. Trump announces a US withdrawal of US from Cold War era INF Missile Treaty raising fears of a new and dangerous arms race. All this and more… Co-hosts Mike Robinson and Patrick Henningsen bring you the early week news round-up. Watch: . 21WIRE.TV MEMBERS CAN WATCH THE BONUS SESSION: UKC Extra Time: Off-Air Discussion with Patrick & Mike SEE MORE UK COLUMN EPISODES HERE | 21wire | https://21stcenturywire.com/2019/02/04/uk-column-jackals-eye-venezuela-twitters-regime-change-dept-trumps-nuke-treaty-renege/ | 2019-02-04 17:40:50+00:00 | 1,549,320,050 | 1,567,549,625 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
3,823 | activistpost--2019-01-21--Study On Facebook And Twitter Your Privacy Is At RiskEven If You Dont Have An Account | 2019-01-21T00:00:00 | activistpost | Study: On Facebook And Twitter Your Privacy Is At Risk—Even If You Don’t Have An Account | A new study shows that privacy on social media is like second-hand smoke. It’s controlled by the people around you. Individual choice has long been considered a bedrock principle of online privacy. If you don’t want to be on Facebook, you can leave or not sign up in the first place. Then your behavior will be your own private business, right? The new study presents powerful evidence that the answer to that question is no. The team of scientists, from the University of Vermont and the University of Adelaide, gathered more than thirty million public posts on Twitter from 13,905 users. With this data, they showed that information within the Twitter messages from 8 or 9 of a person’s contacts make it possible to predict that person’s later tweets as accurately as if they were looking directly at that person’s own Twitter feed. The new study also shows that if a person leaves a social media platform—or never joined—the online posts and words of their friends still provide about 95% of the “potential predictive accuracy,” the scientists write, of a person’s future activities—even without any of that person’s data. Looked at from the other direction, when you sign up for Facebook or another social media platform “you think you’re giving up your information, but you’re giving up your friends’ information too!” says University of Vermont mathematician James Bagrow who led the new research. The study was published January 21 in the journal Nature Human Behavior. The research raises profound questions about the fundamental nature of privacy—and how, in a highly networked society, a person’s choices and identity are embedded in that network. The new study shows that, at least in theory, a company, government or other actor can accurately profile a person—think political party, favorite products, religious commitments—from their friends, even if they’ve never been on social media or delete their account. “There’s no place to hide in a social network,” says Lewis Mitchell, a co-author on the new study who was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Vermont and is now senior lecturer in applied mathematics at the University of Adelaide in Australia. How information moves on social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, has become a powerful factor in protest movements, national elections, and the rise and fall of commercial brands. Along the way, people on these platforms reveal massive amounts of information about themselves—and their friends. However, scientists have not known if there is a fundamental limit to how much predictability is contained within this tidal wave of data. In the new study, the scientists used their analysis of Twitter writings to show that there is a mathematical upper limit on how much predictive information a social network can hold—but that it makes little difference if the person being profiled, or whose behavior is being predicted, is on or off that network when their friends are on the network. “You alone don’t control your privacy on social media platforms,” says UVM professor Jim Bagrow, “Your friends have a say too.” | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/01/study-on-facebook-and-twitter-your-privacy-is-at-risk-even-if-you-dont-have-an-account.html | 2019-01-21 21:14:27+00:00 | 1,548,123,267 | 1,567,551,451 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
3,310 | abcnews--2019-12-19--At least 15 million TV viewers watch impeachment vote | 2019-12-19T00:00:00 | abcnews | At least 15 million TV viewers watch impeachment vote | At least 15 million television viewers watched the House of Representatives vote to impeach President Donald Trump after a full day of rancorous debate. Both Fox News Channel and NBC had roughly 5 million viewers during the hour, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern, when the House took separate votes Wednesday on two articles of impeachment, the Nielsen company said. MSNBC had 3.2 million viewers and CNN had 2.84 million. The preliminary Nielsen numbers don't take into account other networks, like CSPAN, where the impeachment vote was carried. There was no reliable number immediately for daytime coverage. The ratings also seemed to justify decisions made in network executive suites about coverage of the impeachment vote. Both CBS and ABC left the debate to air entertainment coverage, while NBC stuck with the news. At 8 p.m., CBS had 6.7 million viewers for the “Survivor” season finale, while ABC had 5.7 million for its live remakes of two classic Norman Lear sitcoms, Nielsen said. That's almost certainly more viewers than they would have attracted if they had stuck with news. Since NBC had scheduled a repeat episode of an Ellen DeGeneres holiday giveaway show — in effect conceding the hour to its broadcast rivals — news coverage brought in more viewers than the network would otherwise have gotten. A review of newspaper front pages across the country showed banner headlines for the impeachment story virtually everywhere. The one-word headline “Impeached” dominated the Anchorage Daily News in Alaska, the Arizona Republic, the Boston Globe and the Baltimore Sun. The handful of newspapers that didn't lead with the story were ones that appeared to focus almost solely on local news up front. The Clarion-Ledger in Biloxi, Mississippi, for example, led with the death of a Domino's Pizza delivery person. In Battle Creek, Michigan, where Trump spoke at a rally Thursday night, the front page headline was “Trump Comes to Battle Creek.” The impeachment story was bumped to page 8-A. The New York Post, owned by conservative media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, featured a picture of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the headline “It's Your Funeral.” The secondary headline was “Swamp mistress Pelosi dresses in black for historic vote.” | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/15-million-tv-viewers-watch-impeachment-vote-67836132 | Thu, 19 Dec 2019 18:18:18 -0500 | 1,576,797,498 | 1,576,814,698 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
3,336 | abcnews--2019-12-20--At least 15 million TV viewers watch impeachment vote | 2019-12-20T00:00:00 | abcnews | At least 15 million TV viewers watch impeachment vote | At least 15 million television viewers watched the House of Representatives vote to impeach President Donald Trump after a full day of rancorous debate. Both Fox News Channel and NBC had roughly 5 million viewers during the hour, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern, when the House took separate votes Wednesday on two articles of impeachment, the Nielsen company said. MSNBC had 3.2 million viewers and CNN had 2.84 million. The preliminary Nielsen numbers don't take into account other networks, like CSPAN, where the impeachment vote was carried. There was no reliable number immediately for daytime coverage. The ratings also seemed to justify decisions made in network executive suites about coverage of the impeachment vote. Both CBS and ABC left the debate to air entertainment coverage, while NBC stuck with the news. At 8 p.m., CBS had 6.7 million viewers for the “Survivor” season finale, while ABC had 5.7 million for its live remakes of two classic Norman Lear sitcoms, Nielsen said. That's almost certainly more viewers than they would have attracted if they had stuck with news. Since NBC had scheduled a repeat episode of an Ellen DeGeneres holiday giveaway show — in effect conceding the hour to its broadcast rivals — news coverage brought in more viewers than the network would otherwise have gotten. A review of newspaper front pages across the country showed banner headlines for the impeachment story virtually everywhere. The one-word headline “Impeached” dominated the Anchorage Daily News in Alaska, the Arizona Republic, the Boston Globe and the Baltimore Sun. The handful of newspapers that didn't lead with the story were ones that appeared to focus almost solely on local news up front. The Clarion-Ledger in Biloxi, Mississippi, for example, led with the death of a Domino's Pizza delivery person. In Battle Creek, Michigan, where Trump spoke at a rally Thursday night, the front page headline was “Trump Comes to Battle Creek.” The impeachment story was bumped to page 8-A. The New York Post, owned by conservative media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, featured a picture of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the headline “It's Your Funeral.” The secondary headline was “Swamp mistress Pelosi dresses in black for historic vote.” | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/15-million-tv-viewers-watch-impeachment-vote-67836132 | Fri, 20 Dec 2019 01:33:05 -0500 | 1,576,823,585 | 1,576,843,522 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
3,725 | activistpost--2019-01-11--Fake News In LIVE Real-time TV What Next | 2019-01-11T00:00:00 | activistpost | Fake News In LIVE Real-time TV; What Next? | They say, “Seeing is believing” and “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Well, get ready for what seems like an incredibly unbelievable display of fake news reporting. If you watched President Trump’s talk to the Nation regarding the border wall the evening of January 9, 2019, you may, or may not have seen, what amounts to a deliberate fake news report, insofar as a TV station editing and inserting into their live feed, something President Trump did NOT do: i.e., stick out his tongue to the camera. Hopefully, that display of unprofessional media madness was local to the Seattle area TV audience. Note the difference in President Trump’s facial skin color: Orange, as opposed to the juxtaposed side-by-side real live CNN feed of the President’s speech! InfoWars reported “SEATTLE NEWS STATION CAUGHT DOCTORING TRUMP VIDEO TO MAKE PRESIDENT LOOK STUPID Deep fake technology used to portray Trump as an idiot; Media ignores.” This type of flagrant fake news doctoring, in particular, needs to be prosecuted as a criminal act, which it is, and in violation of the TV station’s code of operations, plus ethics. What more proof do citizens need to understand that the U.S. news media, 90% of which is owned by six corporations, are NOT reporting most of the ‘news’ accurately. For those who are unfamiliar with the advancement of this type of technology, please see Melissa Dykes’ report “Reality” Edited in Real Time: New Tech Shows Why You Can’t Trust Anything You See on the News and view the video below. | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/01/fake-news-in-live-real-time-tv-what-next.html | 2019-01-11 16:20:09+00:00 | 1,547,241,609 | 1,567,552,858 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
3,738 | activistpost--2019-01-12--Fake News In LIVE Real-time TV What Next | 2019-01-12T00:00:00 | activistpost | Fake News In LIVE Real-time TV; What Next? | They say, “Seeing is believing” and “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Well, get ready for what seems like an incredibly unbelievable display of fake news reporting. If you watched President Trump’s talk to the Nation regarding the border wall the evening of January 9, 2019, you may, or may not have seen, what amounts to a deliberate fake news report, insofar as a TV station editing and inserting into their live feed, something President Trump did NOT do: i.e., stick out his tongue to the camera. Hopefully, that display of unprofessional media madness was local to the Seattle area TV audience. Note the difference in President Trump’s facial skin color: Orange, as opposed to the juxtaposed side-by-side real live CNN feed of the President’s speech! InfoWars reported “SEATTLE NEWS STATION CAUGHT DOCTORING TRUMP VIDEO TO MAKE PRESIDENT LOOK STUPID Deep fake technology used to portray Trump as an idiot; Media ignores.” This type of flagrant fake news doctoring, in particular, needs to be prosecuted as a criminal act, which it is, and in violation of the TV station’s code of operations, plus ethics. What more proof do citizens need to understand that the U.S. news media, 90% of which is owned by six corporations, are NOT reporting most of the ‘news’ accurately. For those who are unfamiliar with the advancement of this type of technology, please see Melissa Dykes’ report “Reality” Edited in Real Time: New Tech Shows Why You Can’t Trust Anything You See on the News and view the video below. | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/01/fake-news-in-live-real-time-tv-what-next.html | 2019-01-12 00:00:09+00:00 | 1,547,269,209 | 1,567,552,744 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
4,765 | activistpost--2019-05-31--The US Press Is It Guilty Of Sedition Former CIA Agent Kevin Shipp Thinks So | 2019-05-31T00:00:00 | activistpost | The U.S. Press: Is It Guilty Of Sedition? Former CIA Agent Kevin Shipp Thinks So. | Alexandra Bruce, editor at Forbidden Knowledge TV, produced the following narrative based upon the Greg Hunter interview with Kevin Shipp, a former CIA agent-officer, on May 30, 2019. Get ready for some unbelievable discussions. The Shadow Government has been pretty much in an unbridled fashion, controlling the Congress, controlling the Judiciary and controlling the President of the United States and no one has stood up against it, until enter Donald J Trump a candidate that they did not figure on who is not bound financially or otherwise – this Shadow Government or their threats and he has got them quaking in their boots, because they’ve been engaged in illegal surveillance, they’ve been engaged in a false counterintelligence operation against the Trump campaign, literally planting spies in the Trump campaign and I can guarantee you that they are scrambling like rats, trying to get off a ship. They’re now pointing fingers at each other. Comey’s pointing fingers at Clapper’s pointing fingers at Comey’s me pointing fingers at Loretta Lynch and on another there they are scared because if this stuff is declassified, the American people will see how they have broken the law and some of these parties what they have done amounts essentially to treason that they literally were spying and attempted a coup against a duly elected sitting president of the United States… Every time you see CNN or The Washington Post, for example quote sources, quote intelligence sources, quote high-level sources, they’re referring to the CIA feeding them information to twist that the reporting that goes out to the American people… It’s very difficult to prosecute journalists and it should be so prosecuting some of the executive members of MSNBC CNN and the Washington Post, I don’t think that’s going to happen and maybe it shouldn’t, because we want our press to remain free and free to be wrong, although in this case, they were manipulated, so I don’t think they’re going to be held legally accountable…we wish they would be charged but since they’re journalists, they’ll use that as their cover against prosecution and it will probably unless these documents reveal a direct intentional role without without [sic] a reasonable doubt, then you could probably go into the prosecution realm but the umbrella protection over journalists is pretty strong what they’ll do I think is clearly indict to the government officials who were involved . GREG HUNTER: There are some people out there saying that some of these journalists took money. If they have a paper trail, where they took money, they took bribes and intentionally put out false stories, are they toast? KEVIN SHIPP: They’re toast. In that case, you got them. In that case, you can indict them and in that case, you can charge them for Sedition. [CJF emphasis] | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/05/the-u-s-press-is-it-guilty-of-sedition-former-cia-agent-kevin-shipp-thinks-so.html | 2019-05-31 10:23:54+00:00 | 1,559,312,634 | 1,567,539,506 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
4,612 | activistpost--2019-05-05--Freedom of the Press Is Dying Assange Sentenced to 50 Weeks Facebook Admits It Will Block Certain | 2019-05-05T00:00:00 | activistpost | Freedom of the Press Is Dying — Assange Sentenced to 50 Weeks; Facebook Admits It Will Block Certain People Using Link Filter System; Poynter Ministry Of Truth | Freedom of the press is dying as the most hated are being targeted by the establishment, opening up a door for censorship and control of information like the world has never seen, undoubtedly in preparation for the 2020 U.S. elections. This week Julian Assange was sentenced in a Kangaroo Court in London for “skipping bail” for 50 weeks of a defunct bail warrant and fraudulent rape case, as well as having his first hearing on his extradition trial. Which, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden expressed, “it is not just a man who stands in jeopardy, but the future of the free press.” It is a sentiment shared and echoed by historic antiwar activist Daniel Ellsberg, a former Defense Department analyst who worked for the RAND Corporation and leaked the Pentagon Papers, this is possibly “The beginning of the end of Press Freedom.” It’s not only Julian Assange — the U.S. has recently been added to the list of most dangerous countries for journalists. At least 63 professional journalists were killed doing their jobs in 2018, a 15 percent increase over last year, according to a Reporters Without Borders annual report. That’s just statistics for 2018. A journalist ignored by the mainstream press, Serena Shim, also uncovered the smuggling of ISIS soldiers through the Turkish and Syrian border using NGO trucks. The Turkish MIT accused her of spying and 2 days later she was killed in a suspicious accident with a cement truck. Further, Shim was banned from Turkey by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself, only to be allowed back in and then murdered. [RELATED: THE MURDER YOU NEVER HEARD OF SERENA SHIM] The U.S. has also failed to address the Saudis for the issue of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman who is accused of being behind the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was accused by the CIA of brutally dismembering Khashoggi last year. Now, Trump’s son in law and senior White House advisor Jared Kushner has just admitted that he believes Khashoggi was killed by the Saudis and they should be transparent. However, he doesn’t think that the deals he organized should be walked back, while stating Saudi Arabia should be held accountable. Now the U.S. is going after Julian Assange’s extradition for claims of hacking under the CFAA, as a starting point for the charges they no doubt intend to pile on if they can get him to the United States. This sends a very clear message to nations like Saudi Arabia and others that “it’s okay to punish truth-tellers and muckrakers for doing their jobs even if that means death.” That’s not all. At the same time that arguably one of the most influential journalists was told he will spend 50 weeks in Britain’s Belmarsh prison — a move that has drawn a request for visitation from Assange’s longtime friend Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire — Facebook decided to remove users who it deemed deplorable. Facebook also stated that it would use a new censorship link filter to block users from talking about certain sources unless it’s in a negative light; these sources need to be clearly condemned, and if you talk about them you will get banned, too — their words not mine. What everyone is missing is the power that Facebook is now openly displaying with a riveting message that should shock those who even hate the aforementioned individuals — Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, white supremacist Paul Nehlen, Infowars hosts Alex Jones and Paul Joseph Watson, Milo Yiannopoulos and Laura Loomer. Now, with a system in place or admitted to the public eye, Facebook can openly remove anyone they see fit for violating their rules about certain ideas. At the same time, the Poynter Institute — a partner in Facebook’s war against false claims and fake news — decided to release a list of 515 “unreliable” news websites”Unnews,” including 29 conservative websites, NewsBusters reported. That list included several popular news sites — Breitbart, CNSNews.com, Daily Signal, Daily Wire, Drudge Report, Free Beacon, Judicial Watch, LifeNews, LifeSiteNews, LifeZette, LiveAction News, the Media Research Center, PJ Media, Project Veritas, Red State, The Blaze, Twitchy, and the Washington Examiner. The article was written by a Southern Poverty Law Center producer, Barrett Golding, even though the SPLC has been exposed for its own hate in recent months. Golding, combined five major lists of websites marked “unreliable.” Poynter further recommended that advertisers “who want to stop funding misinformation” should use its list. It stated that while marketers can create their own “blacklists,” those lists might be incomplete. Golding wrote that “Advertisers don’t want to support publishers that might tar their brand with hate speech, falsehoods or some kinds of political messaging.” So the agenda here is clear censorship of information and the death of opposition and competition. It’s incredibly interesting that Poynter would allow the SPLC to write such a smear job since it has been dropped by Twitter from its Trust and Safety Council and slammed by the mainstream media after multiple scandals have rocked the organization, as ZeroHedge reported. After the smear job was published, Poynter tried to rewind its actions and apologize for the release, but the damage has already been done. “Soon after we published, we received complaints from those on the list and readers who objected to the inclusion of certain sites, and the exclusion of others. We began an audit to test the accuracy and veracity of the list, and while we feel that many of the sites did have a track record of publishing unreliable information, our review found weaknesses in the methodology,” Poynter’s managing editor Barbara Allen said in a statement on their website. “We detected inconsistencies between the findings of the original databases that were the sources for the list and our own rendering of the final report.” Poynter is funded by Open Society Foundations, liberal billionaire George Soros’ massive foundations, as well as the Omidyar Network. The two combined for “$1.3 million in grant funding.” Defending the right to Freedom Of Press means that you may have to stand up for those human beings whose speech is so vile and grotesque. Why? Because once one person’s rights are violated then the rest of us can soon follow. This is a corporate social media giant telling its users that it will take action against them if they see fit and don’t meet their criteria. For the big giants like Alex Jones, it can be absorbed; but for newer and less-established people, this means Facebook now decides whether you succeed or fail in your venture. This easily could be used as a means to silence independent journalism and not just the above-mentioned people. Ultimately, the list and the agenda show how far Poynter has fallen from its role as “the world’s most influential school for journalists,” to now attempting to censor those they disagree with, which coincidentally included mostly conservative news websites. Do some of the sites listed produce propaganda without naming names? Sure, but so do those on the left as well as corporate media giants, which were conveniently left off the list. So this is entirely biased to fit an agenda. Activist Post has previously written about another fact checker “NewsGuard” which was found to be connected to intelligence and think tank organizations. As Kurt Nimmo (formerly of Infowars) recently stated, the rise of an increasing number of “fact checkers” is part of a larger operation to destroy alternative media: While doing research for a Newsbud video, I came across the Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) website. This is one of a growing number of “fact checking” websites designed to discredit news websites not following official narratives closely enough. Here’s what the site has to say about Newsbud and my participation: Newsbud (NB) is a right wing, conspiracy and anti-government site founded by, among others, Kurt Nimmo, the former lead editor and writer for Infowars. What sets NB apart from other sites of this type is that the stories are, for the most part, well written and contain numerous sources. The bias of the writing is also more subtle than sites such as Infowars, but just as prevalent. Both as an overtone to all the stories as well as the sometimes questionable sources and / or the conclusions drawn from the source material. Additionally, many of their sources are other NB stories, or work the author and editors have done elsewhere. MBFC imparts misinformation in the first sentence. If it had done appropriate research, its ideologically driven checkers would have discovered Newsbud was established by Sibel Edmonds. I was invited to participate after the website was established and I am not a founder, as MBFC claims. This error—more accurately described as shoddy and careless research—reveals the liberal bias of the site and its proprietor, Dave Van Zandt. | Aaron | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/05/freedom-press-is-dying-assange-sentenced-50-weeks-facebook-block-people-using-link-filter-system-poynter-ministry-of-truth.html | 2019-05-05 01:13:45+00:00 | 1,557,033,225 | 1,567,541,084 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
5,728 | activistpost--2019-09-29--Censorship and Online Threats Against the Press Spell Trouble for the Future of Pakistani Journalism | 2019-09-29T00:00:00 | activistpost | Censorship and Online Threats Against the Press Spell Trouble for the Future of Pakistani Journalism | Deaths, threats, layoffs, late salaries, censorship and bans on TV channels have become the norm for media professionals in Pakistan. On June 16, 2019, Pakistani blogger and independent journalist Billal Khan, who ran a YouTube channel where he interviewed political figures and talked about religion and politics, was stabbed to death by unknown individuals. Reports speculate that his criticism of the Pakistan army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s leading intelligence agency, led to his killing. In mid-September 2019, Zaffar Abbas, a journalist with the privately-owned Channel 7-News, was found dead in a dry well in Vehari, Pakistan. According to police sources, Abbas was returning home late at night from the Kot Malik area on September 7 when he went missing. On the family’s behest, a kidnapping case was registered against unidentified people, and the reason for the incident is yet to be determined. A number of journalists have recently been reported dead and, in most cases, the perpetrators could not be identified. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), as many as 61 journalists have been killed in Pakistan since 1992. In an interview with CPJ, Najam Sethi, a seasoned journalist and former Caretaker Chief Minister of Punjab, said that journalists in Pakistan are going through the worst time in the history of the country. In August, the TV Channel 24 HD cancelled the Najam Sethi Show, a news and political commentary program, after Sethi reported about Prime Minister Imran Khan’s alleged marital issues: Sethi also spoke about how journalists are being silenced: every time they raise their voice, criticize the government or do shows, they are labelled as traitors or have their credentials questioned. Censorship has increased in Pakistan. Anything critical of the government, as well as various interviews with politicians, have been taken off-air on the orders of various government departments. Journalists have also started receiving emails from social media platforms warning them about their posts against the Pakistan government. Reporters without Borders wrote an open letter to Pakistan’s prime minister and voiced its concerns regarding the treatment of journalists in the country. Sethi rightly points out the critical situation faced by journalists. The social media factor is one that can’t be ignored: it has become an arena where online bullying and threats against journalists have taken place, with female journalists taking the brunt of the attacks. Recently, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf party’s Twitter handle warned journalist Gharidah Farooqi against making too many anti-state comments: For the past few years, columnist Cyril Almeida, a recipient of the International Press Institute’s (IPI) 71st World Press Freedom Hero Award, has come under fire from the state for publishing an exclusive story in the Dawn newspaper regarding a top-level meeting of civil-military leaders in 2016. In 2018, Almeida was slapped with a treason charge for an interview he did with the former prime minister, Nawaj Sharif. In January 2019, Almeida was suspended from writing for the newspaper: By September, Almeida announced that he would resume writing and that his latest column would be equally hard-hitting: | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/09/censorship-and-online-threats-against-the-press-spell-trouble-for-the-future-of-pakistani-journalism.html | 2019-09-29 15:20:50+00:00 | 1,569,784,850 | 1,570,221,936 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
6,023 | activistpost--2019-11-19--Are Journalists Creating Drama So They Can Report It? “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson” on the “ | 2019-11-19T00:00:00 | activistpost | Are Journalists Creating Drama So They Can Report It? “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson” on the “Unfreedom of the Press” | Broadcast news programming has changed a lot over the past 15-20 years. News magazine programs like “Dateline” covered more than tragic and twisted crimes. They also didn’t use marketing slogans like “Don’t Watch Alone.” Drama sells and, unfortunately, there seems to be no shortage of it being reported by all media sources. But when is it news and when is it deliberate public manipulation? From “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson” – Unfreedom of the Press: Sharyl: You wrote “the American free press has degenerated into a standardless profession, not through government oppression or suppression, but through self-censorship, group think, bias, omission and propaganda.” Mark Levin: There’s a new doctrine that’s being pushed in journalism school, has been for about 30 years, which is to push what’s called public journalism or community journalism, which is social activism. And so now you have a lot of reporters, Jim Acosta is a perfect example, who create the drama, then report on their own drama that becomes news for five days. President calls that “fake news.” He’s right. There was a professor Boston who used to head the Library of Congress, but he was a historian at the University of Chicago. Wrote a whole book on it, pseudo events. Our news is filled with phony events and filled with propaganda. Yikes. No wonder I feel like I’m watching Wag The Dog when I try to catch up on current events. Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Become an Activist Post Patron for as little as $1 per month at Patreon. Follow us on SoMee, Flote, Minds, Twitter, and Steemit. Provide, Protect and Profit from what’s coming! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today. | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/11/are-journalists-creating-drama-so-they-can-report-it-full-measure-with-sharyl-attkisson-on-the-unfreedom-of-the-press.html | Tue, 19 Nov 2019 01:36:23 +0000 | 1,574,145,383 | 1,574,165,209 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
50,399 | bipartisanreport--2019-04-02--Reporters Committee For Freedom Of The Press Ruins Trumps Morning | 2019-04-02T00:00:00 | bipartisanreport | Reporters Committee For Freedom Of The Press Ruins Trump’s Morning | Donald Trump’s one-month-old attorney (AG) hack William Barr decreed his boss free of all charges related to the Mueller report. Barr also gave him a long lead, so that Trump could firmly set in the country’s mind that he was a cleared man. The AG broke all traditions with his declaration and even slow-walked his redacting pen all over the report. Then, the press said “Enough!” Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a lawsuit in the D.C. federal court to release all grand jury material “cited, quoted, or referenced” in the Mueller report originally submitted to Barr. The Reporters Committee also filed a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to see the entire unredacted Mueller report. Barr cited the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e), saying that he could not release the full report due to the grand jury material in it. Should the federal court find for the Reporters Committee lawsuit, Barr could release any parts of the Mueller report that he gave to the public (Congress). ‘Given the historical significance and overwhelming public interest in the Mueller report, the Reporters Committee is urging the Court to exercise its authority to allow those portions of the report that consist of grand jury material to be released to the public. The calls for transparency are broad and bipartisan. The president himself has said the report should be made public. We agree. The public is entitled to see as much of the Mueller report, unredacted, as possible.’ Theodore Boutrous Jr. from Gibson Dunn attorneys represents the Reporters Committee, Townsend, and its executive director Bruce Brown. Boutrous said “The American people deserve to see and scrutinize the full contents:” ‘The exceptions to the federal grand jury secrecy rules, multiple precedents, the First Amendment and the public interest all support releasing the Mueller report in full given the extraordinary circumstances of this matter and the need to ensure public confidence in the results of this investigation. The American people deserve to see and scrutinize the full contents of the report so they can evaluate for themselves the threats to our electoral system from Russian interference and make their own judgments about whether the president and his campaign coordinated with Russia or obstructed justice.’ | Gloria Christie | https://bipartisanreport.com/2019/04/01/reporters-committee-for-freedom-of-the-press-ruins-trumps-morning/ | 2019-04-02 00:29:45+00:00 | 1,554,179,385 | 1,567,544,298 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
51,589 | bipartisanreport--2019-07-27--Rogue WH Whistleblowers Leak Wild Trump Info To The Press | 2019-07-27T00:00:00 | bipartisanreport | Rogue W.H. Whistleblowers Leak Wild Trump Info To The Press | The president has an on-again off-again love affair with Fox News, in which he regularly lashes out at the Network any time they report actual news. Trump tantrums against Fox News on Twitter with increasing voracity, but the outlet continues to do what it’s always done to remain considered a top news network. Trump was furious after Fox aired footage of people attending the FIFA Women’s World Cup. After America won the game, video of a crowd of people chanting, “fuck Trump,” was shown on Trump’s favorite show. Trump Tweeted the following after viewing the segment: Now, The Associated Press has revealed that they have information from staffers close to the president. This news is sure to send Trump into a Twitter tantrum befitting a king-sized toddler like The Donald. “the president’s frustration with the network has grown in recent months.” “He has angrily told confidants he is confused about why Fox News sometimes “goes negative” in its coverage of his administration when it features an unflattering portrait of his White House, the advisers said.” “Trump was particularly annoyed at Fox’s coverage when he saw his ties to billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein being played up on the other networks.” “Epstein was charged Monday with sexually abusing dozens of underage girls. His powerful friends over the years have included Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew.” “Trump has gone on to complain that he feels that MSNBC and CNN rarely criticize Democrats and instead deliver pointed and, in his estimation, unfair attacks on the administration. To counter that, Trump has said, he feels it is important for Fox News to remain “loyal” to the White House and Republicans as a balance to the other networks’ alleged bias, according to the advisers.” Frank Sesno, director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University says he believes the president has a serious case of delusion: “I think he takes ‘Fox & Friends’ literally, that they’re supposed to be friends. Fox has real journalists who ask real questions, like Chris Wallace. If he thinks the ‘no spin zone’ is going to be the no criticism zone, he’s right most of the time, but not all of the time.” Fox Executive Ken LaCorte says he’s almost certain that the network’s hosts don’t really care what the president says about them on Twitter. | Tasha Williams | https://bipartisanreport.com/2019/07/27/rogue-w-h-whistleblowers-leak-wild-trump-info-to-the-press/ | 2019-07-27 16:26:05+00:00 | 1,564,259,165 | 1,567,535,600 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
83,615 | cbsnews--2019-05-03--Swalwell proposes protections for the press | 2019-05-03T00:00:00 | cbsnews | Swalwell proposes protections for the press | By now, it's hard to imagine that anyone who follows national news is unaware of the antagonistic relationship between the White House and press. President Trump's animosity toward the press, which he regularly refers to as "the enemy of the people," has been one of the hallmarks of his presidency. The Committee to Protect Journalists noted that from June 2015, when he was a presidential candidate, through mid-January 2019, Mr. Trump posted 1,339 tweets about the media "that were critical, insinuating, condemning, or threatening." Now, White House press briefings, which took place nearly daily under former Presidents George W. Bush and Obama, have become so rare that their occasional occurrences have themselves become news events. One of the Democratic presidential candidates, Eric Swalwell, a California congressman, wants to see a return to better relations with the press and is even making this a part of his campaign. On Friday, he released a set of reforms aimed at reestablishing civility and transparency between the press and White House. He's pegging the initiative to the United Nations' World Press Freedom Day, and it's as much a criticism of Mr. Trump's handling of the media as it is a reaction to threats against journalists, which may be drawing inspiration from the president's attacks on the press. When a California man with more than 20 firearms in his house called The Boston Globe last year and threatened to kill its journalists, authorities said, he invoked the phrase "enemy of the people." "The age of labeling journalists as 'enemies of the people' will end with Donald Trump's departure, and will be remembered as an anti-democratic travesty," Swalwell said in a statement. If elected president, Swalwell promises to hold regular briefings, ensure the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) office is fully compliant and urge Congress to pass a bill he introduced in March to make certain attacks on the press federal crimes. He also said he would encourage the passing of a law to protect journalists from being jailed for protecting their sources. Swalwell is polling at around 1 percent and is considered a long-shot for the Democratic nomination. Though Mr. Trump's vitriol toward the press is notable, he's certainly not alone among politicians of either party in distrusting the media. Swalwell's proposed reforms stand as an unusual statement of support for the press. "As president, I'll make sure that journalists have the access, protections, and resources they need to report on my administration," Swalwell said. Although Swalwell framed the Trump White House's infrequent briefings as a lack of transparency, the administration has offered different explanations. "We get information out in a number of different ways," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told CBS News' Mark Knoller last summer, citing social media. She has a point. The president, much more than Mr. Obama, uses Twitter to communicate his thoughts on a regular basis. There may not be regular press briefings, but as CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett has noted, President Trump engages with reporters more frequently than either former Presidents Obama or Bush did. He regularly answers questions, sometimes at length, as he's departing the White House, and often talks with reporters during photo ops. Sanders also argues that some reporters use the briefing room to show off before TV cameras, rather than to seek information. Mr. Trump has repeatedly justified his name-calling and attacks on the press by claiming outlets are unfair in their coverage of him. Swalwell, however, says that doesn't matter. "I know it's a cornerstone of America, and my presidency will protect and respect it regardless of how I'm covered." | null | http://www.cbsnews.com/news/eric-swalwell-stands-up-for-the-press-assailed-as-enemy-of-the-people-by-trump/ | 2019-05-03 11:30:04+00:00 | 1,556,897,404 | 1,567,541,272 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
104,134 | cnn--2019-04-17--Analysis Why the press may overestimate Pete Buttigiegs support | 2019-04-17T00:00:00 | cnn | Analysis: Why the press may overestimate Pete Buttigieg's support | (CNN) News junkies are more than familiar with South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. After all, the articles on him (such as this one) from the national media seem to keep at a brisk pace. He's now a clear number 2 in cable news mentions . But why? Part of it has to do with Buttigieg's differentiating biography and rise in the polls. Indeed, well-informed voters like him , and his Google searches picked up before the media caught up. I would caution, though, that Buttigieg's core support may position him to seem more popular to national media than he actually is. The problem for reporters is that even the best one's opinions about the horserace are shaped by the environment surrounding them. This is especially the case early in primaries, because polling is far less predictive than it is in general elections. The people who surround national media reporters are right in Buttigieg's wheelhouse. Buttigieg does best among wealthier Democrats. Take a look at recent polling from California ( Quinnipiac University ), Iowa ( Monmouth University ) and nationally ( Quinnipiac ). In all three cases, Buttigieg's support more than doubles as one goes from voters making less than $50,000 to greater than $100,000. The jump is rather dramatic in the Iowa poll, which had Buttigieg at 7% among those earning less than $50,000 and at 15% with those earning more than $100,000. The national media tends to live in the wealthiest areas. The New York City and Washington, DC, metropolitan areas are both in the top 3% for per capita incomes among metro or micropolitan areas. Buttigieg also seems to be doing his best among white Democrats. His support among white Democrats in the Quinnipiac poll of California and nationally stood at 8% and 6% respectively. Among the nonwhite crosstab listed in those places (Hispanics in California and African-Americans nationally), it was at 2% and 0% respectively. Other polls, as NBC News' Steve Kornacki's pointed out , have generally shown the same thing. The media can have a blind spot when a Democratic candidate has a "diversity" problem. The reason is simple: the media is considerably whiter than America, according to the Pew Research Center . Newsrooms are certainly far whiter than a Democratic primary electorate Finally, Buttigieg is doing best among the very liberal block of Democrats. The aforementioned polls all show he does best among those who describe themselves as very liberal (or liberal in the case of the Iowa survey). The same thing was true of a Saint Anselm College poll of potential New Hampshire Democratic primary voters. In Iowa, for example, Buttigieg gets 13% from liberals and only 5% from non-liberals. Guess who lives near a lot of liberals? The press in DC and New York do. Washington has more self-described liberals than any state, according to Gallup. New York City Democrats are more liberal than Democratic Primary voters nationally by a fairly wide margin. In some ways, the media is dealing with the opposite problem that they did in the 2016 Republican primary. The national media were then dealing with a candidate, Donald Trump, who appealed to people who were very different than the people working in the media and who they lived among. Specifically, Trump's support came from those without college degrees. What exacerbated this problem was that the 2016 Republican primary didn't break down along traditional lines, which guides reporters' thinking. Usually, Republican candidates are either being adored by religious conservatives or by more moderate Republicans. (This was largely the case in 2000 with George W. Bush and John McCain, 2008 with Mike Huckabee and McCain and 2012 with Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney.) Instead, then-candidate Donald Trump got support from religious conservatives and moderate Republicans, but did so primarily among those without a college degree. Now, none of what I've written here is meant to dismiss Buttigieg's chances. He's clearly on the upswing, as I wrote weeks ago . It's just that it's important to keep in mind that Buttigieg is in the same camp in polling as candidates like Sen. Kamala Harris, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. He's still polling in the high single digits for the most part. Former Vice President Joe Biden at around 30% and Sen. Bernie Sanders at around 20% are a world away for the moment. | Harry Enten | http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_allpolitics/~3/XoWZ1BNjyXQ/index.html | 2019-04-17 15:21:21+00:00 | 1,555,528,881 | 1,567,542,727 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
104,180 | cnn--2019-04-17--Why the press may overestimate Pete Buttigiegs support | 2019-04-17T00:00:00 | cnn | Why the press may overestimate Pete Buttigieg's support | (CNN) News junkies are more than familiar with South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. After all, the articles on him (such as this one) from the national media seem to keep at a brisk pace. He's now a clear number 2 in cable news mentions . But why? Part of it has to do with Buttigieg's differentiating biography and rise in the polls. Indeed, well-informed voters like him , and his Google searches picked up before the media caught up. I would caution, though, that Buttigieg's core support may position him to seem more popular to national media than he actually is. The problem for reporters is that even the best one's opinions about the horserace are shaped by the environment surrounding them. This is especially the case early in primaries, because polling is far less predictive than it is in general elections. The people who surround national media reporters are right in Buttigieg's wheelhouse. Buttigieg does best among wealthier Democrats. Take a look at recent polling from California ( Quinnipiac University ), Iowa ( Monmouth University ) and nationally ( Quinnipiac ). In all three cases, Buttigieg's support more than doubles as one goes from voters making less than $50,000 to greater than $100,000. The jump is rather dramatic in the Iowa poll, which had Buttigieg at 7% among those earning less than $50,000 and at 15% with those earning more than $100,000. The national media tends to live in the wealthiest areas. The New York City and Washington, DC, metropolitan areas are both in the top 3% for per capita incomes among metro or micropolitan areas. Buttigieg also seems to be doing his best among white Democrats. His support among white Democrats in the Quinnipiac poll of California and nationally stood at 8% and 6% respectively. Among the nonwhite crosstab listed in those places (Hispanics in California and African-Americans nationally), it was at 2% and 0% respectively. Other polls, as NBC News' Steve Kornacki's pointed out , have generally shown the same thing. The media can have a blind spot when a Democratic candidate has a "diversity" problem. The reason is simple: the media is considerably whiter than America, according to the Pew Research Center . Newsrooms are certainly far whiter than a Democratic primary electorate Finally, Buttigieg is doing best among the very liberal block of Democrats. The aforementioned polls all show he does best among those who describe themselves as very liberal (or liberal in the case of the Iowa survey). The same thing was true of a Saint Anselm College poll of potential New Hampshire Democratic primary voters. In Iowa, for example, Buttigieg gets 13% from liberals and only 5% from non-liberals. Guess who lives near a lot of liberals? The press in DC and New York do. Washington has more self-described liberals than any state, according to Gallup. New York City Democrats are more liberal than Democratic Primary voters nationally by a fairly wide margin. In some ways, the media is dealing with the opposite problem that they did in the 2016 Republican primary. The national media were then dealing with a candidate, Donald Trump, who appealed to people who were very different than the people working in the media and who they lived among. Specifically, Trump's support came from those without college degrees. What exacerbated this problem was that the 2016 Republican primary didn't break down along traditional lines, which guides reporters' thinking. Usually, Republican candidates are either being adored by religious conservatives or by more moderate Republicans. (This was largely the case in 2000 with George W. Bush and John McCain, 2008 with Mike Huckabee and McCain and 2012 with Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney.) Instead, then-candidate Donald Trump got support from religious conservatives and moderate Republicans, but did so primarily among those without a college degree. Now, none of what I've written here is meant to dismiss Buttigieg's chances. He's clearly on the upswing, as I wrote weeks ago . It's just that it's important to keep in mind that Buttigieg is in the same camp in polling as candidates like Sen. Kamala Harris, former Rep. Beto O'Rourke and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. He's still polling in the high single digits for the most part. Former Vice President Joe Biden at around 30% and Sen. Bernie Sanders at around 20% are a world away for the moment. | Harry Enten | http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_allpolitics/~3/XoWZ1BNjyXQ/index.html | 2019-04-17 15:21:21+00:00 | 1,555,528,881 | 1,567,542,727 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
112,941 | cnsnews--2019-05-31--David Limbaugh Mark Levins Unfreedom of the Press | 2019-05-31T00:00:00 | cnsnews | David Limbaugh: Mark Levin's 'Unfreedom of the Press' | With his latest blockbuster, "Unfreedom of the Press," Mark Levin presents a unique indictment of the liberal media today — something I doubted could be done, given the plethora of material already written on this subject. It is sweepingly comprehensive, covering the history of the American press from before the nation's founding through modern times, yet accessibly succinct — 226 pages, excluding the acknowledgments and notes. It is tough on the mainstream media but is anything but a ranting screed. A passionate patriot, Levin says this book's purpose "is to jump-start a long-overdue and hopefully productive dialogue among the American citizenry on how best to deal with the complicated and complex issue of the media's collapsing role as a bulwark of liberty, the civil society, and republicanism ..." With his formidable background in constitutional law and history, Levin provides a fascinating tour of the American free press, from its indispensable role in the establishment of this republic, to its evolution through various phases that culminate in an ideologically possessed institution that is firmly aligned with one political party and is mostly hostile to America's founding principles. The media's alliance with a political party (the Democratic Party) is not the first time we've seen this phenomenon in our history. Levin notes that from the 1780s to the 1860s (the party-press era), most newspapers aligned themselves with a politician, a campaign or a political party. But there were at least two critically important differences. During the party-press era, "newspapers lined up fairly evenly behind one party or the other or one candidate or the other," so balanced competition alone served as a safeguard against manipulation of the citizenry by a monolithic media. Also, and perhaps more important, newspapers "transparently proclaimed their partisanship." Today's liberal media are wholly in the tank for the Democratic Party, but they steadfastly deny it, which facilitates their ability to deceive and indoctrinate the public. They are not on the party's payroll or subsidized by it, as some of yesterday's newspapers and journalists were, but today there is no denying "the revolving door of journalists and/or their family members serving primarily in Democratic administrations, Democratic congressional offices, and Democratic campaigns — and vice versa." Levin traces the notion of objectivity in reporting to the Progressive Era in the early 1920s when the "scientific approach to journalism" spread through newsrooms. Journalists were urged to adopt objectivity by developing a consistent method of testing information so that personal and cultural biases would not undermine the accuracy of their reporting. Whether there was ever an era when journalists pursued objective truth, by the 1950s, the media began to abandon that goal in favor of "interpretive reporting" through their progressive lenses. They don't even try to separate fact from opinion anymore; rather, they infuse every aspect of the profession with their liberal biases, including the selection, gathering and reporting of the news. There is no ideological or intellectual diversity in their newsrooms. They're all in disgraceful lockstep. The media are so ensconced in the progressive worldview that it's sometimes difficult to tell whether they are intentionally deluding the public or deluding themselves — as they are convinced that their biased reporting meets their warped standard of objectivity. If you believe that only one political viewpoint is worthy of airing (because all other viewpoints are objectively sinister and dangerous), then you might, in a twisted way, think you are being objective by reporting only one side. Besides, today's self-righteous liberal media elites have graduated from such trifling concerns as pursuing objective standards, while pretending to adhere to them. They have fully embraced the philosophy of progressive intellectual John Dewey, that the Progressive Movement must not squander "the most important tool of mass communication for advancing its ideological program — a radical break from America's heritage, culture, and founding, particularly the principle of individual freedom and market capitalism." In other words, progressives must commandeer the media and enlist their key players and soldiers to harness the incomparable power their positions afford them, engage in full-throated activism and fundamentally transform America. Today's media would make Dewey proud. The purpose of a free press "is to nurture the mind, communicate ideas, challenge ideologies, share notions, inspire creativity, and advocate and reinforce America's founding principles — that is, to contribute to a vigorous, productive, healthy, and happy individual and to a well-functioning civil society and republic," writes Levin. But today's newsrooms "do not promote free speech and press freedom, despite their self-serving and self-righteous claims. Indeed, they serve as societal filters attempting to enforce uniformity of thought and social and political activism centered on the progressive ideology and agenda." Instead of pursuing these lofty goals, the media are doing the exact opposite: functioning as a propaganda tool for the Democratic Party and its ideology, thereby destroying their reason for existence and "threatening the existence of a free republic." While the media and their Democratic Party colleagues breathlessly warn that President Trump is a threat to the free press, they are just projecting. Trump is simply defending himself and issuing a clarion call to Americans, warning us that the partisan media are the real threat — both to the institution of a free press and to the republic. Levin isn't calling for government action against the press, but he is calling on us to inform ourselves of the threat they pose to our liberties and exhorting us to "demand a media worthy of our great republic." Unlike the liberal media elite, I proudly admit my bias in favor of my friend Mark Levin. But trust me: You'll learn tons and be greatly enriched by this book. David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His latest book is "Jesus Is Risen: Paul and the Early Church." Follow him on Twitter @davidlimbaugh and his website at www.davidlimbaugh.com. | David Limbaugh | https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/david-limbaugh/david-limbaugh-mark-levins-unfreedom-press | 2019-05-31 13:44:02+00:00 | 1,559,324,642 | 1,567,539,528 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
113,188 | cnsnews--2019-06-21--NBCs Meet The Press a Safe Space for 2020 Dems | 2019-06-21T00:00:00 | cnsnews | NBC’s ‘Meet The Press’: a Safe Space for 2020 Dems | On Sunday, NBC’s Meet The Press will air an interview with President Donald Trump, conducted by the network’s political director, Chuck Todd. While Todd’s interviews with 2020 Democratic contenders have consisted largely of challenges from the left interspersed with the odd softball, Trump is unlikely to receive the same friendly treatment. | null | https://www.cnsnews.com/video/nbcs-meet-press-safe-space-2020-dems | 2019-06-21 21:39:00+00:00 | 1,561,167,540 | 1,567,538,421 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
123,323 | crooksandliars--2019-06-28--Putin And His Protege Giggle Over Fake News And The Press | 2019-06-28T00:00:00 | crooksandliars | Putin And His Protegé Giggle Over Fake News And The Press | In between tweeting his highly intellectual and ultra-nuanced thoughts about the Democratic Debates, Donald managed to find time to talk to reporters while sitting next to Vladimir Putin. In an effort to freak us out even more than he did in Helsinki, Donald tried to joke with Putin about the press, using his usual "Fake News" refrain and admiring Putin's way with journalists, saying, "You don't have the problem in Russia. We have it. You don't have it." Putin looked around and laughed, then said that, no, actually he did have the same problem with journalists in Russia. What he didn't say was that both he and Donald have the same definition of "Fake News" – stories in the press that expose corruption and authoritarianism, and truth about the conditions under which its country's citizens live. What he didn't say was what they DO to journalists in Russia who try to tell the truth. In the clip above, Jim Sciutto and Kaitlan Collins make it clear what Putin, the Terror of Journalists wouldn't: SCIUTTO: That man right there, President Putin leads a government that imprisons journalists, it kills journalists, it has literally thrown journalists out of windows. Just a couple of weeks ago it imprisoned an investigative journalist on fake charges. You cover this White House. It's not the first time he's attacked the press. How different is it when he sort of claims a kinship with the Russian president who treats the press like prisoners and worse? COLLINS: That's the thing. The president and his allies say when he says something is fake news, that's just his way of pushing back on a story he finds inaccurate or unfair to him. But when he's in the room with someone like Vladimir Putin where in Russia they literally kill journalists, they imprison them, they treat them terribly, you see how that message transcends across the world with strong-men leaders. Putin. Kills. Journalists. Then laughs at the G-20 about how he has a problem with journalists in his country. What Donald didn't say — at least in this room full of reporters — was that he wishes he could treat journalists the way Putin does. Or even moreso, the way Mohammed Bin Salman does. | Aliza Worthington | https://crooksandliars.com/2019/06/putin-and-his-proteg-giggle-over-fake-news | 2019-06-28 18:56:39+00:00 | 1,561,762,599 | 1,567,537,658 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
227,993 | globalresearch--2019-02-13--Freedom of the Press in Japan PM Staff Restrict Reporter Accuse Her of Spreading Misinformatio | 2019-02-13T00:00:00 | globalresearch | Freedom of the Press in Japan: PM Staff ‘Restrict’ Reporter, Accuse Her of ‘Spreading Misinformation’ About Environmental Impact of New US Military Base | A decision by Japanese government officials to “restrict” questions from an unnamed reporter during press conferences has provoked protests by other journalists. The controversy has re-raised longstanding questions about the environmental impact of a controversial new base for US Marines being constructed in the southwestern prefecture of Okinawa. At the start of 2019, officials from the Cabinet Office (the government ministry that coordinates the operations of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo) directed the press club covering the Cabinet Office to “restrict” a certain reporter from asking questions during daily press conferences covering the Japanese prime minister. The Cabinet Office also accused the reporter of “spreading misinformation” about the environmental impact of infill. The unnamed reporter in question is most likely Mochizuki Isoko, a journalist with the Tokyo Shimbun daily newspaper, who is known for asking difficult questions. In Japan, news outlets typically get access to politicians and government officials through press clubs, which regulate the activities of members, and can even exclude reporters or news outlets. In turn, sources, such as government departments, can deny or limit press clubs with access. But it’s unusual to ban or restrict the activities of journalists from media outlets like Tokyo Shimbun, a prominent daily known for its watchdog approach to government activities. Reporter questioned environmental effects of construction for US Marine base Mochizuki apparently angered the Cabinet Office during a news conference on December 26, when she asked about the risks of environmental contamination at a controversial construction site in Okinawa. In order to build a long-planned base for US Marines permanently stationed in Okinawa, sand and rock infill is being used to build an artificial island in a bay off of Henoko, a township about 65 km north of Naha, Okinawa. The construction project is destroying and literally paving over existing tropical coral habitat in the bay. It has been reported that the construction project is using inexpensive red soil infill, instead of the gravel that was budgeted in the project and paid for by the government, in an effort to cut corners. There are also suspicions that construction contractors including Ryuku Cement are pocketing the difference. The use of red soil as infill for marine construction projects is specifically prohibited by Okinawan law, even though the Henoko project has the direct support of the central government in Tokyo. The iron-rich red soil contaminates the surrounding seawater and is deadly to native corals. Local activists such as the Osprey Fuan Club say the infill also will likely contaminate nearby surviving coral colonies. The preservation of coral habitat displaced or destroyed by the Henoko project has been a contentious and potentially embarrassing issue for the government for the past few months, with Prime Minister Abe even claiming corals would somehow be moved away from the infill site to be transplanted in a new location. Reporter accused of asking questions that would ‘spread misinformation’ When Mochizuki asked a series of pointed questions about the possible harms of the project at a December 26 press conference, it struck a nerve with media relations staff at the Cabinet Office. Shortly thereafter, in their letter to the press club, the Cabinet Office strongly denied that red soil was being used as infill, and then also asserted that if it was used, its presence did not contravene Okinawan prefectural laws. The Cabinet Office did not name Mochizuki, but instead stated that a “certain reporter” (特定の記者), had asked “inappropriate questions” (“正確でない質問に起因するやりとり”) that would “spread misinformation” to both members of the press club and to the general public (“内外の幅広い層の視聴者に誤った事実認識を拡散”). The Office said this could “impair” the significance of information presented during press interactions with the Cabinet Office itself (“記者会見の意義が損なわれる”). The Cabinet Office then demanded that this unnamed reporter be “restricted” by the press club from asking questions at press events, for supposedly spreading misinformation about infill used in the Henoko project. The reporter is widely believed to be Mochizuki Isoko, given that she had raised the controversial topic of red soil infill at the December 26 presser. The letter from the Cabinet Office to the press club came to light more than a month later, on February 1, when it was published by Sentaku, a weekly news magazine. The Sentaku story swiftly generated a firestorm of debate. An opposition lawmaker commented that “it’s totally obvious to anyone that it’s red soil” that is being used as infill at the Henoko site. After reading about the news in Sentaku, the Federation of Japanese Newspaper Unions (commonly known as the 新聞労連, Shimbun Roren) also publicly pushed back against the Cabinet Office, generating even more discussion. On February 5, the Federation lodged an official complaint with the Cabinet Office. For the rest of the week, trending hashtags on Twitter included “Tokyo Shimbun reporter restricted from asking questions” (#京新聞記者の質問制限), “towards a country where we can freely ask questions” (#質問できる国へ) and “we have the right to know” (#知る権利). When questioned about its letter to the press club, the Cabinet Office denied that it was trying to shut down Mochizuki or any other reporter: At a February 7 news conference, a Cabinet Office spokesperson also denied that the unnamed reporter was Mochizuki, after Mochizuki herself — undeterred by previous requests — asked the spokesperson about the intention behind the Cabinet Office’s original letter. She described the letter as “a form of psychological pressure on me and my company.” As a reporter, Mochizuki has long endured adversarial treatment from government officials that could be described as deliberate bullying. A Harbour Online article from early December notes that Mochizuki typically only receives 2-3 second replies from government officials during press conferences, less than the 22-second replies and explanations her colleagues at Tokyo Shimbun receive, and far less than the 81-second replies reporters at Asahi Shimbun receive on average. “In regards to Mochizuki Isako from Tokyo Shimbun, here’s an article published in December 2018. In terms of how (the Chief Cabinet Secretary and the Communications Director) behave, here’s a look at how much time is spent answering her questions. #towards a country where we can freely ask questions” Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Featured image: Government infill project at Henoko Bay in Okinawa. Questions about the use of environmentally harmful red soil in the project led to demands that a journalist be shut out of press conferences. Image widely shared on social media. | Nevin Thompson | https://www.globalresearch.ca/freedom-of-the-press-in-japan-pm-staff-restrict-reporter-accuse-her-of-spreading-misinformation-about-environmental-impact-of-new-us-military-base/5668368 | 2019-02-13 01:07:23+00:00 | 1,550,038,043 | 1,567,548,631 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
228,992 | globalresearch--2019-04-18--Freedom of the Press in Britain Imprisoning Julian Assange Arrest of Journalists in Northern Irel | 2019-04-18T00:00:00 | globalresearch | Freedom of the Press in Britain: Imprisoning Julian Assange, Arrest of Journalists in Northern Ireland | Britain is one of the worst countries in Western Europe for freedom of the press according to a global study by advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RWF). Britain is ranked 33rd out of 180 countries. RWF pointed to a number of worrying developments in Britain including national security laws, mass surveillance of the population and data protection. The report mentions the case of two journalists from Northern Ireland who were arrested 31 August 2018 on the charge of allegedly stealing confidential documents from the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI) that related to the massacre of 6 men in County Down in 1994 widely known as the ‘Loughinisland massacre.’ The case of journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey has obvious parallels with that of Julian Assange locked up in Belmarsh maximum security prison. In both cases powerful states seek to silence truth seekers who have exposed either war crimes or state collusion in murder. Journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey made a documentary about the massacre of 6 Catholics watching Ireland play Italy in the World Cup on 18 June 1994. Two terrorists from the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) entered The Heights Bar and sprayed 60 bullets into the crowd killing six. The massacre led to an upsurge in sectarian murders across Northern Ireland. Over the next two decades a police cover up of the massacre became very apparent. Over 20 people had been arrested and none charged, police evidence and key documents had been destroyed. The first Police Ombudsman’s report, which denied there was any collusion between police and the UVF killers, was quashed by Belfast High Court in 2012. It ordered a new Police Ombudsman carry out a second inquiry into the massacre. In June 2016 the second Police Ombudsman’s report was published. The Ombudsman, Michael Maguire made it very clear that there had been massive failings in the police investigation into the massacre: His report noted the links between the UVF terrorists and the Royal Ulster Constabulary that led to the killers being tipped off by a police officer that they were about to be arrested. Maguire details the open collusion between anti-terrorist officers in Special Branch and terrorists in the UVF: The families of those massacred have repeatedly made the charge that there was collusion between the RUC/Special Branch and the terrorists in the UVF that enabled the killers to get off scot-free. In the section of his report dealing with collusion the Police Ombudsman made the damning assessment: Following the devastating conclusions of the second Police Ombudsman’s report into the massacre no one has been arrested for the killings. Yet, the British authorities have arrested two journalists for making a documentary No Stone Unturned about the massacre. In 2016 Barry McCaffrey commented on the purpose of the film he was making with fellow journalist Trevor Birney: No Stone Unturned was released in November 2017 and made a number of allegations such as Special Branch had prior knowledge of the attack, that the weapons used in the massacre were later used in other killings, and most damning of all it named the three suspected killers. One of whom was a former British soldier while another was a police informer. In this situation you might expect the police to act upon fresh evidence that names the killers who massacred six people. Of course, we are dealing with British justice here and instead the British state has gone after the journalists who had the temerity to unmask the public identities of the killers whom the police protected and colluded with over many years. Last August over 100 police officers arrested Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey and seized their computers and piles of documents. The charge of theft does not stand up as the ‘stolen’ document from the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland was leaked to McCaffrey in a brown envelope left on his doorstep. Since their arrest under caution Birney and McCaffrey have applied for a judicial review of the legality of their arrest and have also taken their case to the European Commissioner For Human Rights. Rebecca Vincent UK Bureau Director of Reporters without Borders has condemned the arrest of Birney and McCaffrey on the spurious charge of stealing confidential documents from the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland: Alex Gibney, the director of No Stone Unturned who worked with Birney and McCaffrey to produce the film has, has observed that the journalists’ arrest, “was an act of intimidation in trying to both silence us and also to silence journalists in the future.’’ Gibney has stated that the language in the request for the arrest warrant is highly revealing of how the British state sees whistle-blowers and journalists seeking to expose government crimes: Let us hope that Birney and McCaffrey are successful in obtaining a judicial review of the arrest warrant, that the charges against them are dropped and that their confiscated items are returned to them. The arrest and imprisonment of Julian Assange merely continues a tradition of repressive activity by the British government against journalists who seek to expose state crimes. We should all redouble our efforts to obtain his release from prison and pressure the UK government into opposing the American extradition warrant. The cases of Birney, McCaffrey and Assange all reveal how powerful forces in the British establishment want to silence truth seekers who challenge its power and that of its U.S. ally. It also wants to send a chilling message to anyone else considering the pursuit of truth that may expose government crimes. In his novel Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell warned us that dictatorial governments wanted to instil fear in people to such a degree that they accepted without thinking a world where fear, repression and state sponsored murder were the norm. The attempts by the British and American governments to repress truth tellers is summed by Orwell’s adage, “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’’ | Dr. Leon Tressell | https://www.globalresearch.ca/freedom-of-the-press-in-britain-imprisoning-julian-assange-arrest-of-journalists-in-northern-ireland/5674867 | 2019-04-18 23:15:52+00:00 | 1,555,643,752 | 1,567,542,520 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
321,943 | msnbc--2019-04-01--Sign-Up for the new Meet the Press First Read | 2019-04-01T00:00:00 | msnbc | Sign-Up for the new Meet the Press: First Read | # Sign-Up for the new Meet the Press: First Read 00:40 Sign up for the new Meet the Press: First Read newsletter by texting MTP to 66866April 1, 2019 Read More | null | http://www.msnbc.com/mtp-daily/watch/sign-up-for-the-new-meet-the-press-first-read-1469332035827 | 2019-04-01 22:01:00+00:00 | 1,554,170,460 | 1,567,544,508 | arts, culture, entertainment and media | mass media |
1,064 | abcnews--2019-01-15--After threats of subpoena acting attorney general to testify on Hill | 2019-01-15T00:00:00 | abcnews | After threats of subpoena, acting attorney general to testify on Hill | Acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker has agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 8, committee chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-New York, said in a letter released Tuesday. Democrats had threatened to subpoena Whitaker to compel his appearance, after accusing him of working to avoid public testimony until the confirmation of William Barr, President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general. In a letter to Whitaker on Tuesday, Nadler wrote that he expected the acting attorney general to “appear on February 8 whether or not the current lapse in appropriations has been resolved, and whether or not the Senate has confirmed a new Attorney General.” The Justice Department confirmed that Whitaker agreed to the date. Democrats have expressed concerns about Whitaker’s public comments about the Mueller investigation, and whether he has influenced the special counsel’s probe at President Trump’s direction. Whitaker decided not to recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller probe late last year, despite at least one senior department ethics official telling colleagues he would recommend Whitaker do so. Meanwhile, Barr appeared on Capitol Hill Tuesday for his first day of confirmation hearings. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee took the opportunity to question Barr extensively about the Mueller investigation, among other topics of interest. | Benjamin Siegel, Lucien Bruggeman | https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/threats-subpoena-acting-attorney-general-whitaker-testify-hill/story?id=60399181 | 2019-01-15 21:40:45+00:00 | 1,547,606,445 | 1,567,552,364 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
1,065 | abcnews--2019-01-15--Barr promises he wont interfere with Mueller as confirmation hearing begins | 2019-01-15T00:00:00 | abcnews | Barr promises he won't interfere with Mueller as confirmation hearing begins | As William Barr, President Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, begins his confirmation hearing Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he's sure to face tough questions from Democrats over his views on special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and a memo that Barr wrote in June 2018 opposing an obstruction of justice case against the president. Analyzing the president's firing of then-FBI director James Comey in May 2017, Barr argued in the memo to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that any obstruction of justice inquiry into Trump based on the firing would be "fatally misconceived." Barr knows the Justice Department from his time as attorney general under President George H. W. Bush. And while Democrats acknowledge his previous experience, many insist the current situation is unprecedented, and have been in lockstep demanding assurances from Barr that the Mueller report be made public and that he not interfere or limit the special counsel. "I'm worried about it," Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "Clearly, he's a good lawyer. There's no question. But when it comes to this delicate political situation -- the power of the presidency, whether this investigation is warranted -- Bill Barr had better give us some ironclad assurances in terms of his independence and his willingness to step back and let Mueller finish his job." Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has called on Trump to rescind Barr's nomination based on the memo. "I wrote the memo as a former Attorney General who has often weighed in on legal issues of public importance, and I distributed it broadly so that other lawyers would have the benefit of my views," Barr said in his opening statement. "As I explained in a recent letter to Ranking Member Feinstein, my memo was narrow in scope, explaining my thinking on a specific obstruction-of-justice theory under a single statute that I thought, based on media reports, the Special Counsel might be considering. The memo did not address -- or in any way question -- the Special Counsel's core investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election," Barr continued. "Nor did it address other potential obstruction-of-justice theories or argue, as some have erroneously suggested, that a President can never obstruct justice. I wrote it myself, on my own initiative, without assistance, and based solely on public information." Barr also sought to reassure Democrats he thinks Mueller should be allowed to finish his work, unhappy over Trump's appointment of Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker whom they suspected was named to block Mueller's investigation. "I believe it is in the best interest of everyone -- the President, Congress, and, most importantly, the American people -- that this matter be resolved by allowing the Special Counsel to complete his work. The country needs a credible resolution of these issues. If confirmed, I will not permit partisan politics, personal interests, or any other improper consideration to interfere with this or any other investigation," Barr's said. "Second, I also believe it is very important that the public and Congress be informed of the results of the Special Counsel's work. For that reason, my goal will be to provide as much transparency as I can consistent with the law. I can assure you that, where judgments are to be made by me, I will make those judgments based solely on the law and will let no personal, political, or other improper interests influence my decision." "President Trump has sought no assurances, promises, or commitments from me of any kind, either express or implied, and I have not given him any, other than that I would run the Department with professionalism and integrity," Barr said. "As Attorney General, my allegiance will be to the rule of law, the Constitution, and the American people. That is how it should be. That is how it must be. And, if you confirm me, that is how it will be." Barr said Mueller would never go on a "witch hunt" -- what the president has repeatedly called the special counsel's investigation. However, some decisions that could impact the release of Mueller's findings, such as whether the White House will assert any type of executive privilege, would not rest with Barr. Mueller and Barr worked together in the early 1990s when Barr was Attorney General and Mueller was the head of the DOJ's Criminal Division. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the Judiciary Committee's new chairman, said Mueller and Barr are "best friends" and have known each other for more than 20 years, adding that their wives have been in a Bible study group together and that Mueller has attended the weddings of two of Barr's daughters. At Graham's request, former Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican and long-serving member of the Judiciary Committee, will introduce Barr Tuesday as he did for Barr's previous confirmation hearings. "I have known Bob Mueller personally and professionally for 30 years. We worked closely together throughout my previous tenure at the Department of Justice under President Bush. We've been friends since. I have the utmost respect for Bob and his distinguished record of public service. When he was named special counsel, I said that his selection was 'good news' and that, knowing him, I had confidence he would handle the matter properly. I still have that confidence today," Barr said. Barr also said his priorities at the Justice Department are fighting violent crime, prosecuting hate crimes, enforcing and improving immigration laws and protecting the right to vote. He noted that he was partially retired, but took the job out of love for the Department of Justice and reverence for the law. | Luke Barr | https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ag-nominee-barr-promises-interfere-mueller-confirmation-hearing/story?id=60372261 | 2019-01-15 15:38:03+00:00 | 1,547,584,683 | 1,567,552,364 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
1,087 | abcnews--2019-01-15--The Note Barr nomination provides early 2020 battleground | 2019-01-15T00:00:00 | abcnews | The Note: Barr nomination provides early 2020 battleground | The TAKE with Rick Klein Whether or not the public ever sees Robert Mueller’s report, the special counsel and a whole lot more go on trial Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mueller won’t directly have his day in Congress, of course -- at least not yet. But confirmation hearings for attorney general nominee William Barr will hinge on Barr’s answers about the special counsel and other legal questions vital to the Trump presidency, in ways that could define the contours of the investigation’s results and even the 2020 election. Three potential Democratic presidential candidates will be among the Democrats asking questions, going in with memories of how Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation fight put their respective styles and substance on display. Running the hearing will be new Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., now one of the president’s highest-profile defenders and explainers on matters of law and justice. And while he won’t be anywhere near the hearing room, look for Joe Biden’s voice to make frequent appearances as well, courtesy of Republicans. The former vice president praised Barr during his 1991 confirmation hearings for his first stint as attorney general. Intriguingly, and not withstanding previous suggestions that Mueller has overstepped his bounds, Barr’s opening statement calls for a “credible resolution” of the Mueller probe and to provide “as much transparency as I can consistent with the law.” That’s not the same as a guarantee. From his handling of Mueller all the way through his deliberations on a “national emergency,” President Donald Trump has stretched the law and accepted practices to new limits. The man chosen as his next chief law-enforcement officer will need answers to novel questions. In case we needed one, this week will serve as yet another reminder of the political risks the president takes when he insults women, in particular. Over the weekend, Trump continued to lob racial slurs at Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren. No one can argue that he wears gloves with some lawmakers or treats the ladies differently. Still, what a difference between his remarks and the events on Capitol Hill, in Washington and around the country this week. The third annual Women’s March is set to take place Saturday, with dozens of events and forums scheduled in the lead up. Tuesday, for example, the president of Planned Parenthood will be joining Congressional leaders to announce women’s health priorities in the new Congress. Only two and half months ago, women showed their power in the voting booths as they largely backed other female candidates. As the president picks his battles, he might consider the army of Democratic women readying themselves for war. Following this week's inauguration of Illinois' J.B. Pritzker and Kansas' Laura Kelly, Democratic governors now represent over 175 million Americans, 54 percent of the U.S. population. But what will that newfound power in certain parts of the country, especially in the Midwest, translate to under the presidency of Trump? As chief executives of their own, governors of the opposite political party from the president have a unique power to become figureheads of resistance, but face intense scrutiny from their constituents if they feel their everyday needs are being neglected. While the dynamic between the Democratic-controlled House and the Trump White House will dominate much of the political conversation in the next two years, how governors, including California's Gavin Newsom, Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer and Nevada's Steve Sisolak, implement their policy agendas and grapple with their new roles will be an equally important trend to monitor. ABC News' "Start Here" Podcast. Tuesday morning’s episode features ABC News Senior Congressional correspondent Mary Bruce, who says lawmakers on Capitol Hill are “not even talking about talking” when it comes to shutdown negotiations. Then, we hear from an Iowa farmer who says the stalemate is complicating what are normally basic decisions about his crops. And, ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel explains why lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are not happy with U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. http://apple.co/2HPocUL FiveThirtyEight’s "Politics Podcast." Former San Antonio mayor and U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro announced his candidacy for president on Saturday. The FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast team debates what his seemingly long-shot path to the Democratic nomination could look like. They also lay out a rubric for evaluating candidate strengths and weaknesses and discuss the political situation that has kept the government partially shut down for a record amount of time. Listen here. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights the day's top stories in politics. Please check back tomorrow for the latest. | Rick Klein, MaryAlice Parks | https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/note-barr-nomination-early-2020-battleground/story?id=60368545 | 2019-01-15 11:14:15+00:00 | 1,547,568,855 | 1,567,552,364 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
1,093 | abcnews--2019-01-15--William Barr insists I will not be bullied as confirmation hearing begins | 2019-01-15T00:00:00 | abcnews | William Barr insists 'I will not be bullied' as confirmation hearing begins | As the Senate confirmation hearing got underway Tuesday for William Barr, President Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin asked Barr if he's prepared to be at odds with the president, for a "Mattis moment," a reference to former Secretary of Defense James Mattis' recent decision to resign over his disagreements with Trump. Barr, who's 68, said while he might be intimidated a few years ago, he wouldn't be this late in his career. "I have a very good life, I love it -- but I also want to help in this circumstance and I am not going to do anything I think is wrong, and I will not be bullied into doing something that I think is wrong, by anybody" including Congress or the president, Barr said. Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, >, Barr is facing tough questions from Democrats over his views on special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and a memo that Barr wrote in June 2018 opposing an obstruction of justice case against the president. Analyzing the president's firing of then-FBI director James Comey in May 2017, Barr argued in the memo to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that any obstruction of justice inquiry into Trump based on the firing would be "fatally misconceived." Barr knows the Justice Department from his time as attorney general under President George H. W. Bush. And while Democrats acknowledge his previous experience, many insist the current situation is unprecedented, and have been in lockstep demanding assurances from Barr that the Mueller report be made public and that he not interfere or limit the special counsel. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has gone so far as to call on Trump to rescind Barr's nomination based on the memo. "I wrote the memo as a former Attorney General who has often weighed in on legal issues of public importance, and I distributed it broadly so that other lawyers would have the benefit of my views," Barr said in his opening statement. "As I explained in a recent letter to Ranking Member Feinstein, my memo was narrow in scope, explaining my thinking on a specific obstruction-of-justice theory under a single statute that I thought, based on media reports, the Special Counsel might be considering. The memo did not address -- or in any way question -- the Special Counsel's core investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election," Barr continued. "Nor did it address other potential obstruction-of-justice theories or argue, as some have erroneously suggested, that a President can never obstruct justice. I wrote it myself, on my own initiative, without assistance, and based solely on public information." Barr also sought to reassure Democrats he thinks Mueller should be allowed to finish his work, unhappy over Trump's appointment of Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker whom they suspected was named to block Mueller's investigation. "I believe it is in the best interest of everyone -- the President, Congress, and, most importantly, the American people -- that this matter be resolved by allowing the Special Counsel to complete his work. The country needs a credible resolution of these issues. If confirmed, I will not permit partisan politics, personal interests, or any other improper consideration to interfere with this or any other investigation," Barr's said. "Second, I also believe it is very important that the public and Congress be informed of the results of the Special Counsel's work. For that reason, my goal will be to provide as much transparency as I can consistent with the law. I can assure you that, where judgments are to be made by me, I will make those judgments based solely on the law and will let no personal, political, or other improper interests influence my decision." "President Trump has sought no assurances, promises, or commitments from me of any kind, either express or implied, and I have not given him any, other than that I would run the Department with professionalism and integrity," Barr said. "As Attorney General, my allegiance will be to the rule of law, the Constitution, and the American people. That is how it should be. That is how it must be. And, if you confirm me, that is how it will be." Barr said Mueller would never go on a "witch hunt" -- what the president has repeatedly called the special counsel's investigation. However, some decisions that could impact the release of Mueller's findings, such as whether the White House will assert any type of executive privilege, would not rest with Barr. Mueller and Barr worked together in the early 1990s when Barr was Attorney General and Mueller was the head of the DOJ's Criminal Division. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the Judiciary Committee's new chairman, said Mueller and Barr are "best friends" and have known each other for more than 20 years, adding that their wives have been in a Bible study group together and that Mueller has attended the weddings of two of Barr's daughters. At Graham's request, former Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican and long-serving member of the Judiciary Committee, introduced Barr Tuesday as he did for Barr's previous confirmation hearings. Barr, meanwhile, outlined his friendship with Mueller. "I have known Bob Mueller personally and professionally for 30 years. We worked closely together throughout my previous tenure at the Department of Justice under President Bush. We've been friends since. I have the utmost respect for Bob and his distinguished record of public service. When he was named special counsel, I said that his selection was 'good news' and that, knowing him, I had confidence he would handle the matter properly. I still have that confidence today," Barr said. Barr also said his priorities at the Justice Department are fighting violent crime, prosecuting hate crimes, enforcing and improving immigration laws and protecting the right to vote. He noted that he was partially retired, but took the job out of love for the Department of Justice and reverence for the law. | Luke Barr, Cheyenne Haslett | https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ag-nominee-barr-promises-interfere-mueller-confirmation-hearing/story?id=60372261 | 2019-01-15 16:42:22+00:00 | 1,547,588,542 | 1,567,552,363 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
1,153 | abcnews--2019-01-18--Congress to probe report that Trump directed lawyer to lie | 2019-01-18T00:00:00 | abcnews | Congress to probe report that Trump directed lawyer to lie | The Democratic chairmen of two House committees pledged Friday to investigate a report that President Donald Trump directed his personal attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations over a Moscow real estate project during the 2016 election. The report by BuzzFeed News comes as House Democrats have promised a thorough look into Trump's ties to Russia, and as special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and contacts with the Trump campaign. A White House spokesman did not specifically deny the report, but Trump, in a tweet, accused Cohen, who has cooperated with Mueller, of lying. BuzzFeed, citing two unnamed law enforcement officials, said Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress and that Cohen regularly briefed Trump and his family on the Trump Tower project in Moscow — even as Trump said he had no business dealings with Russia. BuzzFeed said Cohen told Mueller that Trump personally instructed him to lie about the timing of the project in order to obscure Trump's involvement. BuzzFeed said Mueller's investigators learned about Trump's directive "through interviews with multiple witnesses from the Trump Organization and internal company emails, text messages, and a cache of other documents." The report says that Cohen then acknowledged Trump's instructions when he was interviewed by the Mueller team. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said "we will do what's necessary to find out" if the report was true. He said the allegation that Trump directed Cohen to lie in his 2017 testimony to Congress "in an effort to curtail the investigation and cover up his business dealings with Russia is among the most serious to date." Calling the allegations a "counterintelligence concern of the greatest magnitude," Schiff said his committee had already been working to secure witness testimony and documents related to the Moscow Trump Tower deal. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, said directing a subordinate to lie to Congress is a federal crime. "The @HouseJudiciary Committee's job is to get to the bottom of it, and we will do that work," Nadler tweeted. On Twitter Friday morning, Trump charged that Cohen is "Lying to reduce his jail time!" even though Cohen has already been sentenced. Cohen pleaded guilty in November to lying to Congress to cover up that he was negotiating the Trump Tower project in Moscow on Trump's behalf during the heat of his presidential campaign. The charge was brought by Mueller and was the result of Cohen's cooperation with that probe. He was sentenced to three years in prison for crimes that included arranging the payment of hush money to conceal his boss' alleged sexual affairs, telling a judge that he agreed time and again to cover up Trump's "dirty deeds" out of "blind loyalty." White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told Fox News Channel that taking the BuzzFeed story seriously was "absolutely ludicrous," but he repeatedly refused to deny the central allegation that Trump directed Cohen to lie. The Associated Press has not independently confirmed the BuzzFeed report. An adviser to Cohen, Lanny Davis, declined to comment on the substance of the article, saying that he and Cohen wouldn't answer questions out of respect for Mueller. Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and contacts with the Trump campaign. Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, scoffed at the report, saying in a statement, "If you believe Cohen I can get you a good all cash deal on the Brooklyn Bridge." Cohen is scheduled to testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee Feb. 7, where he will likely be questioned about the report. It's unclear how extensively Russia will be discussed at the hearing, though, as House Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., has said there will be "parameters" so the committee doesn't interfere with Mueller. Though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has discouraged any talk of impeachment in the early days of her new majority, some senior Democrats said that if the BuzzFeed report is confirmed, Trump's actions could rise to that level. "If the @BuzzFeed story is true, President Trump must resign or be impeached," tweeted Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro, a member of the House intelligence panel. California Rep. Ted Lieu, a member of the Judiciary committee, tweeted that it's time for that panel "to start holding hearings to establish a record of whether @POTUS committed high crimes." Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, also a member of the Judiciary committee, tweeted that if Trump directed Cohen to lie, "that is obstruction of justice. Period. Full stop." A Senate Democrat, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, tweeted that "we need to know this ASAP" if Mueller does have multiple sources confirming that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress. "Mueller shouldn't end his inquiry, but it's about time for him to show Congress his cards before it's too late for us to act," Murphy tweeted. William Barr, Trump's nominee for attorney general, said at his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday that a president or anyone else who directs a witness to lie is illegally obstructing an investigation. That statement attracted attention given Barr's expansive views of presidential powers and his belief that presidents can't be scrutinized by prosecutors for acts the Constitution allows them to take. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Jill Colvin and Zeke Miller in Washington and Jonathan Lemire and Jim Mustian in New York contributed to this report. | Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press | https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/congress-probe-report-trump-directed-lawyer-lie-60466989 | 2019-01-18 17:40:56+00:00 | 1,547,851,256 | 1,567,551,863 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
1,164 | abcnews--2019-01-18--Senator wants DHS chief investigated for perjury on border kids testimony | 2019-01-18T00:00:00 | abcnews | Senator wants DHS chief investigated for perjury on border kids testimony | Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley on Friday asked the FBI to open a perjury investigation into Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen following the leak of an internal draft 2017 document that detailed the administration's legal options for separating families as a way to curb illegal immigration at the border. The memo challenges the assertion by Nielsen last June on and in media briefings saying "we do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period." The Dec. 16, 2017, document, provided by Merkley's office, which said it received it from a whistleblower, appears to be an internal memo on legal options to address families who were arriving at the border. Among the options listed: the "prosecution of family units" and "separate family units." "Because of the large number of violators, not all parents could be criminally prosecuted," the memo noted. "However, the increase in prosecutions would be reported by the media and it would have a substantial deterrent effect.” What would happen to their children? The memo said they would become “unaccompanied minors,” or UACs. “This will require close coordination with (Health and Human Services), to ensure that sufficient capacity is available to detain the UACs," the document stated. Merkley notes that Nielsen made similar comments in congressional testimony, at one point telling the House Judiciary Committee: "I'm not a liar. We've never had a policy of family separation." "Compelling new evidence has emerged revealing that high-level Department of Homeland Security officials were secretly and actively developing a new policy and legal framework for separating families as far back as December 2017," Merkley, from Oregon, wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray. On Thursday, a spokeswoman for DHS said the document was intended to examine the administration's options. The spokeswoman did not immediately respond to Merkley's request for a perjury inquiry. “The Trump administration has made clear that all legal options are on the table to enforce the rule of law, rein in mass unchecked illegal immigration, and defend our borders," said spokeswoman Katie Waldman in an emailed statement. Waldman said the administration saw an uptick of border arrests, which it blamed on a lack of a border wall and a court settlement that prohibits detention of children for longer than 20 days. Officials have said previously they believe that court settlement, known as the Flores Agreement, encouraged people to travel with minors. "In part we were predicting -- and trying to prevent -- the exact humanitarian and security crisis we are confronted by now," Waldman said. "It would be malpractice to not seriously examine every single avenue to gain operational control of the border and ensure that those who are entering our country have a legal right to be here." Shortly after the December 2017 memo was drafted, in April 2018, the Trump administration announced a "zero-tolerance" policy at the border that resulted in the separation of some 2,700 kids from their families in a matter of weeks. In court filings, the administration has estimated a total of 2,737 children were separated from their families under "zero tolerance." But a report released Thursday by internal government investigators found that there were likely "thousands" more kids separated from families in 2017, before that policy took effect. The Health and Human Services inspector general said that the number of kids separated from their families under the current administration is "unknown." While enforcement deterrents like the ones described in the memo have been effective in stopping adult men from entering further into the U.S. for economic reasons, experts at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute say those methods don't address the current humanitarian crisis. "There is no evidence that such deterrence tactics work against the humanitarian flows today," MPI analyst Sarah Pierce told ABC News. "So not only is it immoral, but it is misguided and foolish." | Anne Flaherty, Quinn Owen | https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/leaked-memo-shows-trump-administration-weighed-separating-families/story?id=60459972 | 2019-01-18 20:57:41+00:00 | 1,547,863,061 | 1,567,551,863 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
3,112 | abcnews--2019-12-11--Texas inmate faces execution for killing prison supervisor | 2019-12-11T00:00:00 | abcnews | Texas inmate faces execution for killing prison supervisor | A Texas inmate is set to be executed Wednesday evening for killing a supervisor at an Amarillo state prison shoe factory nearly 17 years ago. Travis Runnels, 46, is facing lethal injection for the Jan. 29, 2003, death of 38-year-old Stanley Wiley. Prosecutors said Runnels slashed Wiley’s throat at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Clements Unit in Amarillo because he didn’t like working as a janitor at the shoe factory. They said Runnels had wanted to transfer to a job at the prison barber shop and was angry at Wiley because that hadn't happened. Runnels had been serving a 70-year sentence for an aggravated robbery conviction in Dallas when he killed Wiley with a knife used to trim shoes. The factory makes shoes for inmates in the state’s prison system. Runnels approached Wiley from behind, pulled his head back and used enough force for the knife to go through his trachea and cut Wiley’s spinal cord. If the execution happens, Runnels would be the 22nd inmate put to death this year in the U.S. and the ninth in Texas. His attorneys are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, alleging a prosecution witness at his trial provided false testimony regarding his prison classification if a jury chose life without parole rather than a death sentence. Runnels’ attorneys also say that no defense was presented at his 2005 trial as his lawyers advised him to plead guilty and then called no witnesses in a trial that lasted two days. Janet Gilger-VanderZanden, one of his attorneys, said Runnels has become a changed man during his 14 years on death row. “There is true and authentic remorse for the death of Mr. Wiley. There are no excuses, rather there is a commitment to finding some kind of light in what was once a world of only darkness,” said Gilger-VanderZanden. Lower courts and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles have turned down requests by Runnels’ attorneys to stop his execution. Three inmates who were convicted in the deaths of state correctional officers or other prison employees have been executed since 1974, while three others remain on death row, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Wiley, who grew up in the Texas Panhandle city of Amarillo, began working as a state corrections officer in 1994. He was later promoted to a supervisory position. Inmate Bud Williams Jr., who worked at the shoe factory, testified that Wiley “was a good guy.” At his trial, Runnels’ lawyers didn’t present any witnesses or evidence, including information about Runnels’ troubled childhood and family history of drug and alcohol abuse, Gilger-VanderZanden said. In their petition to the Supreme Court, Runnels’ attorneys argue his death sentence was mainly due to the testimony of prison expert A.P. Merillat, who told jurors that inmates like Runnels could not be held in a secure environment if sentenced to life in prison without parole. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has previously overturned the death sentences of two other inmates, in 2010 and 2012, after ruling that jurors had been given incorrect information from Merillat. The Texas Attorney General’s Office pointed to assaults by Runnels on other guards after Wiley’s death, including throwing feces and a light bulb at them, as evidence he was a future danger and merited a death sentence. In his clemency petition to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Runnels included letters from more than 25 individuals from around the world who said Runnels has worked to make amends for what he did. “He has become a light that shines bright even in the darkest of spaces. The tragedy that he is responsible for will only be compounded if his valuable light were to be extinguished,” Kristin Procanick, from Syracuse, New York, wrote in one of the letters. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/texas-inmate-faces-execution-killing-prison-supervisor-67644530 | Wed, 11 Dec 2019 00:09:03 -0500 | 1,576,040,943 | 1,576,065,935 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
4,827 | activistpost--2019-06-25--Legal Reform and The Elephant in the Room Or Here Comes Da Judge | 2019-06-25T00:00:00 | activistpost | Legal Reform and The Elephant in the Room (Or, Here Comes “Da Judge!”) | Legal reform initiatives now litter the landscape. From new bills proposed in state and national legislatures, to the efforts of established groups like the ACLU and the CCR, to jury nullification efforts, to groups dedicated to propping up the co-opted grand jury system, the political landscape is now populated with people trying to reform what is an obviously ailing system. A number of efforts have also been launched to beseech international tribunals to weigh in on and correct the injustices in American courts. This article will focus on some of these efforts as they impact adult guardianship proceedings. Nevertheless, the concerns stated herein, concerning the integrity of the judiciary, are equally applicable to family and criminal court and appellate proceedings. The “elephant in the room” would be visible in all these courts. As the grave civil rights violations inherent in adult guardianships gain more public awareness and more media attention, various attempts have been launched by a number of states to amend their laws surrounding these guardianships. Guardianships in essence constitute a legal loophole through which an individual can lose his rights and all access to his funds, upon allegations of incapacity. The potential for abuse through such a process is obvious. The fact that these abuses have become an epidemic is reflected not only in a number of GAO reports but also in recent articles in The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The New York Times and numerous local publications, as well. Even the US Senate has weighed in — Courts Fail To Protect 1.3 Million Vulnerable Americans In Guardianship Charges Senate Report. However, the media coverage and the subsequent proposed legal remedies have carefully avoided the obvious—the elephant in the room. For it is now a matter of mounting concern that the judges in these proceedings are receiving under the table monies in order to throw these cases. The very concept of a bribed judiciary is anathema to the idea of impartial justice. Not one word concerning the possibility that the guardianship judges are bought and paid for has been uttered by any mainstream publication. And when guardianship abuses hit the local press, as they recently did in Nevada the subsequent legislative efforts to pass laws to “reform” adult guardianships make a studied detour around the problem of “Da Judge.” The state of Oregon, a hotbed of continued focus on potential elder abuse issues, due to its long standing legislation permitting euthanasia, has recently passed a guardianship reform package. The new law was heralded by Representative Nancy Nathanson as adding “safeguards to protect vulnerable elders and people with disabilities in guardianship.” Representative Nathanson goes on to assure us that “…national standards of practice will be put in place to ensure that the ward’s wishes and choices are taken into consideration.” In fact, the new Oregon law, HB 2601, does no so such thing. The law states the following: (2) A guardian may not limit a protected person’s preferred associations, except: (a) As specifically allowed by the court; or (b) To the extent the guardian determines necessary to avoid unreasonable harm to the protected person’s health, safety or well-being. In other words, the court has all the power to limit a ward’s associations, as stated in 2) a) and as codified in b), the guardian may make his or her own unilateral determination that an association may result in harm. Missing is the voice of the protected person. In a scenario where a judge is known to be entirely honest and dedicated to impartiality, such an omission would still be of concern. In the current climate, such an omission could be seen as a guarantee that justice will stumble and fail. In another attempt to reform guardianship legislation, this time in Washington state, we see again the removal of any locus of power from the protected person and lodged with the judge. Attorney Cheryl Mitchell has done an extensive analysis of the Washington bill, SB 5604. Mitchell writes, “…it seems clear that the new law will no longer allow incapacitated persons to make their own health care choices and the guardian will apparently make those decisions based on the ‘best interests’ test.” Mitchell goes on to assert that “It appears that if this legislation goes into effect, an incapacitated person’s past preferences may be completely disregarded by guardians and the courts.” The Washington bill, which was just signed into law by Governor Jay Inslee, does afford the protected person the right to counsel, due to some last minute changes. As it stands, a protected person may ask the judge to appoint him an attorney. However, Cheryl Mitchell has asserted that she is aware of cases wherein the judge refused to allow an attorney to be appointed. “There is a disconnect between the way the statute is written and actual practice,” she stated. Concerning the importance of the right to representation, Mitchell writes that: In fact, Mitchell has noted that an emergency petition for guardianship can be filed without notice given to the prospective ward. In other words, a Washingtonian could wake up one morning to discover that he no longer has any rights left and can not even access his bank accounts. Through the adult guardianship process, the various states in the Union have created a new class of people, a non-person class. The individuals in this group have no legal rights, no voice and no access to their assets. Legislative “reform” has so far only guaranteed that a judge will weigh in on the fate of the non-person, ignoring the growing voices of concern that the judges in these cases are bought and paid for. Individuals in Nevada, California and the state of Washington have contacted their local US attorneys in efforts to turn over evidence that judges have laundered payoffs through their home loans. In each and every case, the US attorney has refused to accept the evidence. It has been estimated that roughly two thirds of the judges already checked have mortgage histories redolent of money laundering. As long as the elephant—who is simply a white collar criminal with a considerable legal education and societal standing, receiving monies to commit heinous crimes against an American—is ignored, legal reform will continue to fail. And as the non-person class expands—approximately 1.5-2 million people are under guardianship in America today—the entire concept of civil rights in America drifts further and further into history. Janet Phelan is an investigative journalist and author of the groundbreaking exposé, EXILE. Her articles previously appeared in such mainstream venues as the Los Angeles Times, Orange Coast Magazine, Long Beach Press Telegram, etc. In 2004, Janet “jumped ship” and now exclusively writes for independent media. She is also the author of two collections of poetry—The Hitler Poems and Held Captive. She resides abroad. You can follow her on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012703457651 Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Follow us on Minds, Twitter, Steemit, and SoMee. Provide, Protect and Profit from what’s coming! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today. | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/06/legal-reform-and-the-elephant-in-the-room-or-here-comes-da-judge.html | 2019-06-25 18:42:27+00:00 | 1,561,502,547 | 1,567,538,118 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
3,354 | abcnews--2019-12-20--Pastor sentenced to over 1,000 years for sex abuse | 2019-12-20T00:00:00 | abcnews | Pastor sentenced to over 1,000 years for sex abuse | GADSDEN, Ala. -- An Alabama youth evangelist was sentenced Friday to more than 1,000 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple child-sex charges. Al.com reports that a judge handed down the maximum sentence on every count to Paul Edward Acton Bowen. Bowen had pleaded guilty in Etowah County to 28 counts involving six boys between the ages of 13 and 16. The 39-year-old Bowen faced charges that include sexual abuse, sodomy, enticing a child for sex and traveling to meet a child for sexual abuse. He still faces other charges in the Birmingham area. Victims and family members wept as the judge slowly read out the maximum sentence and fine on every count, the newspaper reported. The shackled minister apologized to his own family and victims in the courtroom. “The shame and guilt I feel is overwhelming and has been for a long time,” he said. “My heart was never wanting to hurt anybody but my mind was not well.” He had previously pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disorder. Bowen was arrested on sex abuse charges last year. Authorities say additional victims came forward after he was in jail. Bowen was a Christian minister who wrote books, ran his own youth ministry and traveled to speak at youth events. Bowen pleaded guilty as his first trial was set to begin. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/pastor-sentenced-1000-years-sex-abuse-67861040 | Fri, 20 Dec 2019 18:18:21 -0500 | 1,576,883,901 | 1,576,886,760 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
3,357 | abcnews--2019-12-20--Suspect in student death will stand trial in assault case | 2019-12-20T00:00:00 | abcnews | Suspect in student death will stand trial in assault case | SALT LAKE CITY -- A man accused of killing a Utah college student was ordered Friday to stand trial on charges he sexually assaulted another woman he met on a dating site more than a year before the slaying. Ayoola Ajayi, 31, pleaded not guilty to felony kidnapping and three counts of forcible sexual abuse. Defense attorneys had asked to cross-examine the woman, saying there there were inconsistencies between her written testimony and initial statements to police, but Judge Venice Trease denied the request, citing victims' rights law. Ajayi, shackled and in a yellow jail uniform, hung his head as the judge read the order, The Deseret News reported. He met the woman on a dating app for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and invited her to his house for dinner in March 2018, prosecutors have said. He pinned her arms and assaulted her as they were watching television but she was able to get away, charges stated. She reported the crime after seeing news stories about 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck, whom authorities say disappeared after meeting up with Ajayi in a park in June. Ajayi is charged with murder and kidnapping in the death of Lueck, a University of Utah student from California. Her charred body was later found with her arms bound behind her back. Ajayi was also charged with sexual exploitation of a minor after investigators discovered child pornography on his computer. He has not yet entered pleas to those charges, and his lawyers have not commented. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/suspect-student-death-stand-trial-assault-case-67860883 | Fri, 20 Dec 2019 18:12:47 -0500 | 1,576,883,567 | 1,576,886,758 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
3,370 | abcnews--2019-12-21--Guam judge rejects effort to nullify cockfighting ban | 2019-12-21T00:00:00 | abcnews | Guam judge rejects effort to nullify cockfighting ban | HAGATNA, Guam -- A judge in the U.S. territory of Guam has ruled against a local businessman’s attempt to continue cockfighting despite a new American law banning it. U.S. District Court of Guam Magistrate Judge Joaquin Manibusan Jr. denied Sefrey Linsangan's motion for a preliminary injunction against the new prohibition, the Pacific Daily News reported Friday. Linsangan, described in court papers as a business owner involved in “gamefowl raising and competition" for 40 years, argued the ban was unconstitutional. “It is not only part of his culture, custom and tradition but also a hobby, pastime, exercise and sport,” the lawsuit said. President Donald Trump last year signed a law banning all animal fighting in the U.S. territories. The law took effect on Friday. Prior to the law, cockfighting had been illegal in the 50 states but not U.S. territories. The judge wrote that Linsangan failed to show how the federal ban deprives him of “life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” He said Linsangan didn’t show that enacting the cockfighting ban discriminated against him or any person on account of his race, language or religion. Manibusan said the law applies uniformly throughout the 50 states and territories. He said he sympathized with the argument that the people of Guam have been disenfranchised because the territory's residents aren’t allowed to vote for president, nor are they allowed to elect voting members of Congress. "The remedy for such disenfranchisement lies within the political, not judicial, process," he wrote. On Wednesday, Gov. Wanda Vázquez of Puerto Rico, another U.S. territory, signed a bill authorizing cockfighting in defiance of the federal ban. The measure says it is legal for Puerto Rico to host cockfights as long as people don’t export or import cocks or any goods or services related to cockfighting. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/guam-judge-rules-lawsuit-continue-cockfighting-67869344 | Sat, 21 Dec 2019 16:16:29 -0500 | 1,576,962,989 | 1,576,973,215 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
3,376 | abcnews--2019-12-21--Pair could face new charges in Indiana neglect case | 2019-12-21T00:00:00 | abcnews | Pair could face new charges in Indiana neglect case | LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Prosecutors are looking to file four additional charges against an Indiana couple accused of abandoning their adopted daughter. Michael and Kristine Barnett, who were charged in September with two counts of neglect of a dependent, now possibly face six to 20 years in prison if convicted, according to the Journal and Carrier. If the prosecutors' proposed new charges are allowed, the felony will move to a Class B felony. The now-divorced couple adopted 6-year-old Natalia, who has a severe form of dwarfism, in 2010. Three years later, they claimed she was actually an adult con artist trying to kill them. The Barnetts moved to Canada and left Natalia in an apartment in Lafayette. Tippecanoe Superior 2 Judge Steve Meyers is set to hear arguments on the motion on Dec. 27. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/pair-face-charges-indiana-neglect-case-67869014 | Sat, 21 Dec 2019 11:49:10 -0500 | 1,576,946,950 | 1,576,973,216 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
3,419 | abcnews--2019-12-23--Court of Appeals strikes down Minnesota's revenge porn law | 2019-12-23T00:00:00 | abcnews | Court of Appeals strikes down Minnesota's revenge porn law | MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota's law against revenge porn is unconstitutional and infringes on First Amendment rights, the state Court of Appeals ruled Monday as it reversed the conviction of a man who circulated explicit photos of a former girlfriend. The court ruled that the state law was such a broad violation of First Amendment free-speech rights that it couldn't be fixed by a ruling limiting its scope. According to court filings, Michael Anthony Casillas used the victim's passwords to access her accounts after their relationship ended to obtain sexual photos and videos of her, then threatened to release them. She later received a screenshot from one explicit video that had been sent to 44 recipients and posted online. A Dakota County judge rejected defendant Casillas' First Amendment challenge to the state law and sentenced him to 23 months in prison. The three-judge appeals panel called Casillas' conduct "abhorrent," and said they recognized that the non-consensual dissemination of private sexual images can cause significant harm. “The state legitimately seeks to punish that conduct,” they wrote. "But the state cannot do so under a statute that is written too broadly and therefore violates the First Amendment.” In throwing out his conviction, Judges Michelle Larkin, Peter Reyes and Randall Slieter said the state's revenge porn statute has the potential to cover conduct that is constitutionally protected, such as sharing images that appear in publicly accessible media with the consent of the people depicted. Specifically, they said, the statute lacks a requirement that prosecutors prove an intent to cause harm. They said the language allows for convictions even if the defendant didn't know that the person depicted did not consent to the distribution of that image. And they said it allows convictions when the defendant didn't know that the person depicted had a reasonable expectation of privacy. Rep. John Lesch, a St. Paul Democrat and chief author of the 2016 law, called on Attorney General Keith Ellison and Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom to appeal the ruling to the Minnesota Supreme Court. He said similar laws have withstood constitutional challenges elsewhere, most recently in Illinois in October. "Advocates who have worked across the country to end this reprehensible behavior and I are confident our Supreme Court would correctly decide this case and thereby vindicate the rights of thousands of victims whose reputations and lives are digitally exploited,” Lesch said in a statement. Backstrom's spokeswoman, Monica Jensen, said she trying for comment but that people in the know about the case were off for the Christmas holiday. “The people of Minnesota want everyone to live with dignity and respect," Ellison said in a statement. "This means the victims of revenge porn should be protected. Our office will review this opinion and consult with the Dakota County Attorney about options in this important case.” | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/court-appeals-strikes-minnesotas-revenge-porn-law-67902712 | Mon, 23 Dec 2019 17:28:02 -0500 | 1,577,140,082 | 1,577,146,036 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
3,425 | abcnews--2019-12-23--Judge: Key evidence can be used in Mollie Tibbetts' slaying | 2019-12-23T00:00:00 | abcnews | Judge: Key evidence can be used in Mollie Tibbetts' slaying | IOWA CITY, Iowa -- In a victory for prosecutors, a judge ruled Monday that they can use key evidence at trial against the migrant worker charged with killing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts. Judge Joel Yates agreed with prosecutors that some statements made by the defendant, Cristhian Bahena Rivera, must be suppressed because they came during an interrogation after he was not fully read his legal rights. But Yates ruled that prosecutors can still use the information provided by Rivera that led them to the body of Tibbetts, who disappeared in July 2018 while out for a run in her small hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa. He also ruled that statements made by Rivera after the discovery of the body were admissible because he was read his rights at that point. In addition, Yates also ruled that Rivera gave consent to search his vehicles, so prosecutors can use blood evidence discovered in the trunk of one car that allegedly contained Tibbetts' DNA. Rivera, a 25-year-old dairy farm employee who was allegedly in the country illegally, is scheduled to stand trial in February. He faces life in prison if convicted at the trial, which has been moved across the state to Sioux City due to extensive pretrial publicity. A spokesman for the attorney general's office, which is helping Poweshiek County prosecute Rivera, hailed Monday's ruling as a positive step forward. “We're pleased with the judge's ruling and we're prepared to try the case in February,” spokesman Lynn Hicks said. Yates had been weighing what evidence to allow at the trial after overseeing a two-day hearing in November on Rivera's motion to suppress key evidence. Tibbetts' disappearance touched off one of the largest manhunts in Iowa history and drew extensive media attention. Investigators began focusing on Rivera, a Mexico native who is suspected of living in the U.S. illegally since he was a teenager, a month later after he was tied to a vehicle seen on surveillance video appearing to stalk Tibbetts while she jogged. Investigators showed up at the dairy farm where Rivera worked to interview him and other employees in August 2018. He was taken to the sheriff's office, where he was questioned for hours. Eventually, Rivera allegedly directed investigators to the cornfield where they found Tibbetts' body. Yates ruled that Rivera voluntarily gave consent to search his vehicles and to go the sheriff's office for the interrogation. He denied Rivera's defense's argument that he had been coerced into giving permission for both, and that his confession was the product of a sleep-deprived interrogation. Investigators later discovered blood in the trunk of one of the vehicles that they say testing later linked to Tibbetts' DNA. Since the search of the vehicle was voluntary, Yates said that evidence can be used. Agreeing with prosecutors' legal position, Yates found that Rivera was effectively taken into custody hours into the interrogation when agents put a detainer on him due to his immigration status. He ruled that statements made by Rivera over the next several hours are inadmissible because an officer did not warn him that his statements could be used against him. However, Yates ruled that prosecutors can use the discovery of Tibbetts' body as evidence since Rivera's statements were voluntarily given. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/judge-key-evidence-mollie-tibbetts-slaying-67902850 | Mon, 23 Dec 2019 18:48:17 -0500 | 1,577,144,897 | 1,577,146,037 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
3,440 | abcnews--2019-12-23--State auditor, treasurer reject payments in Branstad case | 2019-12-23T00:00:00 | abcnews | State auditor, treasurer reject payments in Branstad case | DES MOINES, Iowa -- A group of top state officials on Monday approved payments of nearly $400,000 to a Des Moines law firm to continue a lawsuit in which a jury concluded former Gov. Terry Branstad discriminated against an ex-state official because the official is gay. Two Democratic members of the Iowa Executive Council, the five-member panel responsible for authorizing state litigation expenses, refused to approve legal bills presented Monday. Iowa Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald and Auditor Rob Sand voted no. But the three Republicans, Gov. Kim Reynolds, Secretary of State Paul Pate and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, voted in favor, allowing the bills to be paid. Four bills submitted by the Nyemaster Goode law firm reached $388,594, bringing the total cost for the case to more than $8 million. A jury awarded former Iowa Workers’ Compensation Commissioner Chris Godfrey $1.5 million in July, finding he was the victim of discrimination and retaliation when Branstad tried to force him to quit in 2011 and then cut his pay. Jurors found against Branstad, one of his staff members and the state. Branstad resigned as governor in 2017 to become the U.S. ambassador to China. Reynolds decided last month to appeal the case to the Iowa Supreme Court. If Godfrey prevails in appeals, taxpayers must pay the total court costs. The governor said the bills approved Monday are still part of the main case including trial expenses and appeal costs that haven't yet begun to be billed. She reiterated her reason for continuing to have taxpayers pay for the case and for appealing. “As I said before, I think it would be irresponsible for me not to as it's a relatively small cost moving forward and we believe that we have a good case,” Reynolds said. Sand, a former state prosecutor who became auditor in January, said the bills presented Monday included some main case costs and appeals costs. He has said since September that he wouldn't force taxpayers to pay appeals costs. Sand said it's unlikely the courts, on appeal, would dismiss the case. “The odds of that happening versus the odds of getting a new trial and having to pay those expenses all over again are pretty bad,” he said. Reynolds has said she believes the Iowa Supreme Court could reverse the verdict and end the case, eliminating the verdict and Godfrey's attorney costs. Attorneys for Branstad and the state have argued that the verdicts weren’t supported by substantial evidence and conflict with the law. Branstad testified that at the time he asked Godfrey to resign, he didn’t know that Godfrey was gay. His attorneys claim there was insufficient evidence to show that Branstad knew. Those appeals and others were rejected on Nov. 13 by Judge Brad McCall, who also presided over the trial. He wrote the jury clearly rejected Branstad’s contention that he didn’t know Godfrey was gay. McCall said the jury was presented with substantial evidence from which to conclude that Branstad’s action against Godfrey was due to Godfrey’s sexual orientation. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/state-auditor-treasurer-reject-payments-branstad-case-67899393 | Mon, 23 Dec 2019 16:07:47 -0500 | 1,577,135,267 | 1,577,146,038 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
3,448 | abcnews--2019-12-24--Bankruptcy judge thrust into spotlight in Purdue Pharma case | 2019-12-24T00:00:00 | abcnews | Bankruptcy judge thrust into spotlight in Purdue Pharma case | WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- The judge overseeing the bankruptcy of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma warns that real-life court cases don't unfold like “Perry Mason.” But he’s afraid this one might come to resemble “Dr. Strangelove.” U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain of White Plains, New York, has a reputation for thorough preparation, deep experience handling big, complicated corporate cases, a sometimes forceful manner from the bench — and a fondness for pop-culture references, some of them of baby boomer vintage. It will be up to him to decide whether to approve a potentially $12 billion plan by Purdue Pharma to settle more than 2,700 lawsuits over its role in the opioid crisis that has killed 400,000 people in the U.S. over the past two decades. The proceedings are all but certain to be complex and acrimonious: Nearly half of the nation's state attorneys general and many victims have come out against the plan and vowed to press on with their lawsuits, arguing that the deal on the table does not wring enough money from members of the billionaire Sackler family who own the company and does not contain an admission of guilt over one of the gravest public health crises in U.S. history. At a hearing in October, Drain cautioned that that's not necessarily how the real legal world works: “There are trials where people stand up and say, `I did it’ — and that usually happens on `Perry Mason' only.” At the same time, he warned that pressing ahead with individual lawsuits — a risky strategy that could torpedo a global settlement and result in plaintiffs coming up empty-handed — reminded him of the “doomsday machine" in the 1964 movie “Dr. Strangelove.” Drain graduated from Yale and got interested in bankruptcy law in the 1980s, when he was in law school at Columbia University. He told Federal Lawyer magazine in 2013 that he found its complexities, the overlap with other areas of law and “the strong and often odd personalities" of the clients and practitioners "strangely compelling.” The judge, who declined to be interviewed or photographed for this story, was a bankruptcy lawyer for nearly two decades before being appointed to his current position in 2002 by the federal appeals court in New York. For the past decade, his courtroom has been in White Plains, where he is the only bankruptcy judge handling big business cases. He has presided over the cases of Hostess, Sears, Reader’s Digest, auto parts maker Delphi and the grocer A&P. In some of the highest-profile matters before him, he has done what the companies seeking bankruptcy protection asked. Over some objections, he approved Delphi’s restructuring in 2009 in a way that would keep it operating with new owners; shutting it down could have brought production at its largest customer, General Motors, to a virtual halt. In 2012, he let Hostess shut down over the objections of employee unions. Earlier this year, he allowed Sears to be sold to a hedge fund despite opposition from creditors and landlords who wanted it liquidated. “If he thinks the debtor is in good faith attempting to reorganize, he will, on balance, support that when he can,” said Jonathan Lipson, a law professor at Temple University who worked for Drain in private practice at the start of his legal career. “The tie goes to the debtor.” Drain doesn’t always side with corporate interests; in foreclosure cases, he often has ruled against big banks. So far, Drain’s major rulings in the Purdue case have been what the drugmaker has wanted, though they have come after some compromise. He put lawsuits against the company and the Sacklers on hold until at least April. He also allowed Purdue to pay bonuses to its employees, though he left open for now the question of whether CEO Craig Landau should get $1.3 million on top of his $2.6 million salary. But he has also been attentive to the victims, noting at one point in court, “What we’re talking about here is flesh and blood." While opioid victims are assured a role in the proceedings through several seats on an official committee of unsecured creditors, Drain went further and told an advocate for victims to coordinate with state attorneys general. In fact, addiction — the scourge at the center of the Purdue case — is something he was thinking about well before the case arrived in his courtroom. In 2013, he self-published a 460-page piece of fiction titled “The Great Work in the United States of America,” about the adventures of a 19th-century founder of a new religion. One of the novel’s main characters is addicted to opium. Another character blames pharmacies that keep selling the drugs because the market for them is so lucrative. In the hearings he has held so far in the case, Drain has been particularly hard on state attorneys general and their representatives, though he stopped a Purdue lawyer at a hearing this month from chastising states over a court filing that asked whether the company should be forced to pay for drug treatment or stop selling its most powerful OxyContin dosage. At the proceeding in October, he was impatient with a lawyer for Arizona who argued that Drain should let the state’s case against the Sacklers move ahead in the U.S. Supreme Court. Drain, raising his voice, said: “Come on, give me a break. … You can raise that argument on appeal.” The high court later refused to hear the Arizona case. During that same hearing, the judge sternly warned a lawyer for a group of 24 states that wanted to move forward with their own lawsuits that going to trial doesn’t always work out the way you hoped. He pointed to the 1912 trial over the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in New York that killed 146 workers. The business owners were acquitted of manslaughter despite evidence that exit doors were locked. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/bankruptcy-judge-thrust-spotlight-purdue-pharma-case-67913650 | Tue, 24 Dec 2019 10:49:00 -0500 | 1,577,202,540 | 1,577,232,334 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
3,456 | abcnews--2019-12-24--Judge: Parolee will face murder trial in California stabbing | 2019-12-24T00:00:00 | abcnews | Judge: Parolee will face murder trial in California stabbing | SAN FRANCISCO -- A judge has ruled that a 29-year-old parolee with a history of mental illness is mentally fit to stand trial for the slaying of a woman on an Oakland subway platform. Alameda County Superior Court Judge James Cramer said Tuesday that John Lee Cowell will face trial starting in January for the unprovoked stabbing death of 18-year-old Nia Wilson in July 2018, KPIX-TV reported. Cowell has been charged with murder and attempted murder for the attack on Wilson and her sister, Letifah, 26, who was wounded in the attack. The trial had been in legal limbo as authorities sought to determine Cowell's mental competence. At a hearing Monday, Cramer said that Cowell was not cooperating with doctors appointed last month to evaluate him, for the latest in a series of evaluations. The judge said he understood Cowell has a history of mental illness but that doctors who had previously examined him felt he was “malingering”to avoid standing trial. The judge recessed the hearing, saying he needed 24 hours to reach his decision and announced his ruling Tuesday. Wilson's death was one of several violent or fatal attacks on Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) lines that connect San Francisco to the cities of Berkeley, Oakland and others. BART has announced new safety measures and installed thousands of security cameras as part of an effort to increase safety. Prosecutors have said they will seek a life sentence against Cowell and are investigating if he was motivated by racial hate when he killed Wilson. The women are black and he is white. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/judge-parolee-face-murder-trial-california-stabbing-67919745 | Tue, 24 Dec 2019 18:53:17 -0500 | 1,577,231,597 | 1,577,232,333 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
3,458 | abcnews--2019-12-24--Lawyer: Man tied to Jersey City shooters deserves bail | 2019-12-24T00:00:00 | abcnews | Lawyer: Man tied to Jersey City shooters deserves bail | NEWARK, N.J. -- The new attorney for a pawn shop operator whose number was found in the pocket of one of two attackers who killed four people in Jersey City said Tuesday his client deserves to be freed on bail on a weapons charge. Ahmed A-Hady has been jailed since his arrest several days after the Dec. 10 shootings. He is charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, stemming from a 2012 drug conviction. He hasn't been charged with providing any weapons to the Jersey City shooters. Attorney Robert Stahl, who took over the representation of A-Hady last week, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he will continue the effort to have his client released on bail. He said the note is the only connection between his client and shooters David Anderson and Francine Graham, both of whom died in a shootout with police. “It’s as if he had the number of a sporting goods store in his pocket, or a hardware store,” Stahl said. “You would certainly go check it out, but it doesn’t mean there’s some tie. I think people have been trying to show some connection that just isn't there.” Authorities have not said publicly if they know why the number was in Anderson's pocket. Stahl said a new bail hearing likely would be scheduled for after the new year. A federal judge held an initial bail hearing on Dec. 16 but gave A-Hady's public defender two more days to put together a bail package proposal. The second bail hearing on Dec. 18 was abruptly adjourned, after the government said it had direct and circumstantial evidence that A-Hady was involved in buying and selling firearms. “Ultimately that will be shown to be incorrect,” Stahl said. He added that defendants facing the charge his client faces normally are granted bail. Anderson and Graham killed Jersey City Police Det. Joseph Seals before driving a van to a kosher market and killing three people inside. Authorities have said they acted out of a hatred for Jews and law enforcement. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/lawyer-man-tied-jersey-city-shooters-deserves-bail-67918081 | Tue, 24 Dec 2019 14:19:47 -0500 | 1,577,215,187 | 1,577,232,334 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
3,484 | abcnews--2019-12-25--New wife, 26, charged with exploiting husband, 77, for money | 2019-12-25T00:00:00 | abcnews | New wife, 26, charged with exploiting husband, 77, for money | TAMPA, Fla. -- A newly married 26-year-old woman has been arrested on charges alleging she tried to cash almost $1 million in checks from her 77-year-old husband's account. Lin Helena Halfon was arrested earlier this month at Tampa International Airport. She is facing charges of money laundering, organized fraud and exploitation of an elderly person. During her first court appearance, a judge set her bail at $1 million. The Tampa Bay Times reported that when her husband, Tampa businessman Richard Rappaport, was notified by investigators about what his wife was doing, he said wanted to give his wife the benefit of the doubt, according to a warrant affidavit. He said he didn’t want her to be deported to her native Israel. An Amscot employee in Tampa refused to cash the checks. Eventually, two checks worth about $666,000 were cashed by an Orlando business. Asked later if he felt he was the victim of fraud and fraud, Rappaport told investigators, “yes,” according to the arrest warrant. Halfon and Rappaport were married in August in Sarasota. Rappaport's daughter, Dayna Titus, said in an arrest affidavit that family members were unaware of the marriage. “Titus believed that Halfon was ‘conning’ Rappaport due to his age,” FDLE Special Agent Victoria Morris wrote in the affidavit. Halfon's attorney, Todd Foster, said the couple had a valid marriage. "We look forward to bringing forward additional facts to bring clarity to this situation,” Foster said. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/wife-26-charged-exploiting-husband-77-money-67926857 | Wed, 25 Dec 2019 18:11:20 -0500 | 1,577,315,480 | 1,577,318,753 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
3,500 | abcnews--2019-12-26--Airline's workers can't sue as class in pay dispute: Court | 2019-12-26T00:00:00 | abcnews | Airline's workers can't sue as class in pay dispute: Court | NEWARK, N.J. -- American Airlines workers at Newark's airport who claim in a lawsuit they've been shorted on overtime pay can't sue as a class, a federal appeals court ruled this week. The three-judge panel's decision published Tuesday reversed a New Jersey judge's ruling that would have allowed the lawsuit to go forward and include all non-exempt hourly workers employed at Newark Liberty International Airport since April 2014. Several employees, including mechanics and workers responsible for tasks such as cargo handling, filed the suit in 2016 and said American's timekeeping system automatically paid employees based on their schedules rather than on the hours they actually worked. They also alleged managers regularly refused to authorize overtime pay for work performed before and after scheduled shifts and during scheduled 30-minute lunch breaks. The lawsuit sought back pay as well as punitive damages. American denied the allegations. The appeals court sided with the airline, which argued that while the timekeeping system applied to all employees, it would be wrong to group all employees into a class because it would have to be determined on a case-by-case basis which employees worked overtime. “For example, some employees testified that they began working immediately after clocking in,” the court wrote. “Others testified that they chatted with co-workers or watched TV after clocking in but before their shifts began. Thus, whether they were actually working pre- and post-shift is an open and inherently individualized question.” The court also questioned the judge's reliance on a 2016 ruling involving workers at a Tyson Foods pork-processing plant who weren't paid for the time they spent putting on and taking off protective equipment. In that case, “all activities were common, unlike here,” the judges wrote. “The record evidence here, on the other hand, demonstrates that employees were not always working while clocked in and there was substantial variability in what they were doing, even if some of it could be called work.” Brett Gallaway, an attorney representing the employees, said in an email Thursday that he disagreed with the ruling and his clients were considering their options. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/court-airlines-workers-sue-class-pay-dispute-67934813 | Thu, 26 Dec 2019 13:14:48 -0500 | 1,577,384,088 | 1,577,405,137 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
3,503 | abcnews--2019-12-26--Dallas dismissed from lawsuit over police shooting | 2019-12-26T00:00:00 | abcnews | Dallas dismissed from lawsuit over police shooting | DALLAS -- A federal judge has ruled the city of Dallas is not liable for an off-duty police officer fatally shooting a man in his own apartment last year. On Monday, U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn dismissed the city from civil lawsuit that the family of Botham Jean brought after the 26-year-old was killed by Amber Guyger. The ruling leaves the 31-year-old former officer as the sole defendant in the suit, which argues she used excessive force and that better police training could have prevented Jean's death. It makes a large financial settlement unlikely. In her brief ruling, Lynn wrote that she was upholding a magistrate judge's decision and dismissing the city because the suit failed “to state a claim upon which relief can be granted." Guyger was found guilty of murder for Jean's death and sentenced to a decade in prison in October. She testified at trial that she mistook Jean's apartment for her own on the floor below and thought he was an intruder. Jean, an accountant from the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia, had been eating a bowl of ice cream when Guyger entered his home and shot him. His death drew national attention for its unusual circumstances and as one of several prominent killings of black men by white police officers. A lawyer for Jean's family did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/dallas-dismissed-lawsuit-police-shooting-67938720 | Thu, 26 Dec 2019 21:28:26 -0500 | 1,577,413,706 | 1,577,448,347 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
3,506 | abcnews--2019-12-26--Federal oversight of St. Louis County Family Court ends | 2019-12-26T00:00:00 | abcnews | Federal oversight of St. Louis County Family Court ends | ST. LOUIS -- The U.S. Department of Justice is ending its oversight of the St. Louis County Family Court, saying the court is now in compliance with a 2016 agreement meant to ensure the fair treatment of juveniles, especially black juveniles. The Family Court on Thursday released a letter dated Dec. 16 in which Steven Rosenbaum, chief of the Justice Department’s Special Litigation Section, wrote that the required reforms had been implemented. “We recognize the hard work that the Family Court has put into protecting the due process and equal protection rights of youth in juvenile justice proceedings through changed policies and practices,” Rosenbaum wrote. The Justice Department didn't immediately reply to an email seeking comment. The department began investigating the court in November 2013. The investigation was unrelated to the unrest that followed the fatal police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by a white police officer in Ferguson on Aug. 9, 2014, a shooting that led to months of unrest and spurred scrutiny of other courts in the St. Louis area. The Justice Department's family court investigation cited racial inequities in the treatment of defendants and concerns that defendants' constitutional rights were often violated. The 2016 agreement required several changes, including doubling the number of defense attorneys available to represent indigent youths and ensuring that defense lawyers were appointed in a timely manner and properly trained. The deal also barred police interrogations at the juvenile detention center unless an attorney for the youth was present, and it stressed that authorities make sure juveniles understand their rights before they can waive them. The family court also was required to adopt standardized hearings to ensure that juveniles' pleas to delinquency charges are voluntary. Family Court Administrative Judge Margaret T. Donnelly said the court also expanded its collaboration with schools, police agencies, faith-based groups and advocacy organizations. “Our judges and every member of the Family Court staff are dedicated to ensuring that juveniles’ constitutional rights and best interests are protected at every step of the legal process,” Donnelly said in a statement. “We also are committed to maintaining community safety, repairing harm done to victims and focusing on accountability for juveniles. Going forward, we will continue the partnerships we have built to ensure that court-involved youth obtain the services they need to develop into responsible adults.” | null | https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/federal-oversight-st-louis-county-family-court-ends-67935996 | Thu, 26 Dec 2019 15:37:47 -0500 | 1,577,392,667 | 1,577,405,135 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
4,838 | activistpost--2019-06-26--Facebook to Hand Over Users Info to French Govt For Hate Speech Prosecutions | 2019-06-26T00:00:00 | activistpost | Facebook to Hand Over Users’ Info to French Govt For “Hate Speech” Prosecutions | Facebook is going to work in concert with the government of France to rat out its own users so they can be prosecuted for “hate speech.” The move comes just three months after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged a “privacy-focused” overhaul of the social network. From Reuters, “In a world first, Facebook to give data on hate speech suspects to French courts”: In a world first, Facebook has agreed to hand over the identification data of French users suspected of hate speech on its platform to judges, France’s minister for digital affairs Cedric O said on Tuesday. O, whose father is South Korean, is one of French President Emmanuel Macron’s earliest followers, and has been influential in shaping the president’s thinking on Big Tech as an advisor at the Elysee palace in the first two years of Macron’s presidency. The decision by the world’s biggest social media network comes after successive meetings between Zuckerberg and Macron, who wants to take a leading role globally on the regulation of hate speech and the spread of false information online. So far, Facebook has cooperated with French justice on matters related to terrorist attacks and violent acts by transferring the IP addresses and other identification data of suspected individuals to French judges who formally demanded it. All French citizens are to be treated as terrorists now if they hold the wrong opinions. Following a meeting between Nick Clegg, Facebook’s head of global affairs, and O last week, the social media company has extended this cooperation to hate speech. “This is huge news, it means that the judicial process will be able to run normally,” O told Reuters in an interview. “It’s really very important, they’re only doing it for France.” O, who said he had been in close contact with Clegg over the last few days on the issue, said Facebook’s decision was the result of an ongoing conversation between the internet giant and the French administration. Since his nomination as minister in March, O has made the fight against hate speech online a key priority through regular contacts with Facebook’s top executives, including founder Mark Zuckerberg. BuzzFeed reported in March that Macron had begun working with Facebook to “solve” its “deep-rooted anti-Semitism problem.” | Activist Post | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/06/facebook-to-hand-over-users-info-to-french-govt-for-hate-speech-prosecutions.html | 2019-06-26 14:32:48+00:00 | 1,561,573,968 | 1,567,537,960 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
4,856 | activistpost--2019-06-27--Chevron Corruption Fed Judge Kaplan Seeks Destruction of Amazonian Lawyer Steven Donziger | 2019-06-27T00:00:00 | activistpost | Chevron Corruption: Fed Judge Kaplan Seeks Destruction of Amazonian Lawyer, Steven Donziger | Judge Lewis A. Kaplan has ordered that lawyer and activist Steven Donziger, who was fighting for Amazonian villagers, can be fined an egregious amount of money per day. On June 3rd, this reporter wrote an article for Activist Post entitled “Conflicted Judge Protects Chevron Abuse of Amazon Villagers’ Attorney Donziger,” which delved into a decade-plus struggle to get justice for Ecuadoran Amazonian Villagers suffering from billions of gallons of toxic waste dumped into the Amazon environment by Texaco (that was bought out by Chevron). Chevron lost several legal battles, in Ecuador, in large part due to the efforts of New York activist and attorney, Steven Donziger, who has been fighting for the Amazonian villagers against big oil. As my previous article pointed out, Chevron seeks to evade its accountability by utilizing NY Federal District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to assault Donziger’s legal credentials. Also noted in my previous article is the fact that Judge Kaplan is a conflicted jurist who had money invested in Chevron! Bias is running amok in Judge Kaplan’s adjudication upon the merits in the Chevron cases, as the justice is well read into the fact that Chevron’s key witness was bribed with big money and coached to falsely testify against Donziger, which abuses the Amazonian villagers even further. Unfortunately, Judge Kaplan appears to show lack of care for justice; and, the day after this reporter’s article came out, Judge Kaplan escalated his abuse against Steven Donziger by issuing a cruel and unusual punishment. The tyrannical Kaplan ordered Donziger to face fines up to $200,000 per day and to seize his passport for each day that he fails to turn over attorney-client privileged information. Inexplicably and intolerably, Judge Kaplan is abusing his authority with extreme measures seeking to be coercive, to force Steven Donziger to turn over attorney-client privileged materials to Chevron, while having money invested in the same company — a breach of judicial ethics which prevents Kaplan from judging the case without bias. This author was made aware of the Amazonian villagers’ suffering, and the plight of Steven Donziger, due to Laser Haas, who is the whistleblower in this reporter’s Wall Street fraud, protected by federal corruption, series. This reporter asked Haas why he would take time out of his works to have me step back from another Goldman Sachs/Bain Capital article for the sake of attorney at law, Steven Donziger? Hass responded referencing Steven Donziger as one of his heroes! According to Laser, the serial Wall St whistleblower looks for several characteristics in any given saga before getting involved in external troubling matters. Laser said some of the things he first looks for is the degree of physical threats, and then he looks for what the whistleblower referenced as a “Solomon” moment (a moment of purity that sets the troubled person, as a breed apart). Once those dynamics of a case are fully probed, Laser has three standards he discusses with parties he seeks to assist. First is that the parties must be a hundred percent honest in telling their story of a plight. Second, the parties must declare by email that they completely understand that Laser Haas is not an attorney at law. And the third one that Laser claims is equal to the other two rules, is that Haas’s time is at his own volition. It’s odd that Laser considers the discussion about his time to be as important as honesty, or that the victim or witness must acknowledge they understand Laser isn’t a lawyer. This reporter has come to realize that time is the most precious commodity we all have. Even though time is perspective, rather than relative. Donziger has been in a war against Chevron for two decades; and, despite the fact the Chevron shareholders recently demanded the CEO settle with the Amazonian villagers, there seems to be no end in sight, or of justice coming anytime soon. Being that it is a fact there are crooked lawyers and judges as the very reasons why Laser’s eToys case suffers, this reporter first found it odd that Laser would seek to spend his time seeking to help an attorney, since he has been screwed over by so many in the past. It’s the last place that one would think Laser would seek to get into a ring, metaphorically speaking, jumping into an arena where crooked judges are observably rigging a case. Laser’s answer to this reporter instantly clarified his stance. He said that in every battle currently facing humanity, whether it is climate change, immigrant children sleeping in the cold, ICE raids, warmongering, a radical President, or any other issue – the common element to seek salvation non-violently – is our courts. Unlike most underground journalists, and other victims, witnesses, or whistleblowers who remain aloft or unreachable, Laser freely publishes his email, social media accounts, and even his phone number; because he understands one aspect of the civil wars, running amok within our justice system. Tyrannical leaders of schemes, cronies and corrupts are unified in protecting their evil deeds, from being held accountable. Unfortunately, although an activist may like, or even retweet another activist’s efforts – for the most part the good guys are out there on their own. Previously, another victim of Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs partnership with Paul Roy Traub (who lost over $100 million in the Tom Petters Ponzi Polaroid saga), offered to fund Laser Haas bystarting a grassroots organization. Instead, Laser asked the party to help fund victims, nationwide, who Laser hoped would unify to battle manifest injustice. Regrettably, none of the parties would unify, together. It is the mindset of Laser Haas, that, if he leads by example, sharing his time, and hard-knock expertise, in decades of fighting tyranny, cronyism, corruption and coverups – that others may find renewed hope for justice. Laser holds Steven Donziger in high esteem. Donziger was a lawyer until Judge Kaplan got his law license suspended (which reportedly goes on trial, in September). In Laser’s view, Donziger holds a badge of honor (Solomon moment) in his unrelenting quest for justice not just for himself, but for the Amazonian villagers who are victims to a corporate ecological crime. Furthermore, Donziger has not even asked for Laser to help; and, most assuredly, Donziger understands how precious the dynamics of time are. Additionally, for some further backstory on Laser, his girlfriend is retired EEOC Judge Mary Elizabeth Bullock, who, herself, had her law license suspended by unscrupulous parties. In the past Laser has also worked to assist Israel Weinstock and Richard Fine (two other lawyers who lost their rights to practice law, resultant of tyrants despising their truth-telling, i.e. challenging them). Even individual reporters like Matt Taibbi and David Sirota (who have told Laser to, in a nice way putting it, “go fly a kite”), are still supported by Laser Haas, privately and publicly for their work. Among many other heroes, Laser expresses this reporter as one, as well as other journalists like – Joe Nocera, RMuse (formerly with PoliticusUSA), Nathaniel Downs, Greg Palast, Lee Camp, Vegas Jessie, Daniel Wright, and the very first to report on Laser’s eToys case (WSJ Joseph Pereira). Though, none of those other journalists will give Laser any time of day. Which, though this reporter finds some of these journalists’ nature to be obtuse and really sad, it is a fact that this reporter is reporting on Laser as a result of those journalists’ willful blindness or lack of knowledge about Laser’s case. Judge Kaplan is abusing the Amazonians, while Kaplan is seeking to destroy attorney at law Steven Donziger, resultant of the fact that there’s not enough public outcry, or media attention to the tyranny, cronyism, corruption, and cover-ups seeking to protect Chevron. Allowing the company to get away totally ‘Scot Free’ with the profits made off from the Ecuadoran Amazon forest environmental damages. According to Laser, what Judge Kaplan is doing is pretending to go by the Codes and Rules of Law. Such efforts are actually known to be a Civil Rights violation via “color of law” (in violation of 18 U.S.C. $ 242). And color of law violations are frauds accomplished by arbitrary and capricious rulings, contrary to the facts and laws according to Laser. U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the Magna Carta remarks on “protection against arbitrary action” in the 1996 case of Sacramento v.s. Lewis 523 U.S. 833 – that states: At the end of the day, Judge Kaplan may succeed in his tyrannical pursuits to destroy Steven Donziger, and that would just prove how dire things have become as injustice after injustice happens flagrantly when it lacks public oversight. Even so, with public scrutiny involved, it seems like the tyrants don’t care anymore, openly committing acts such as these. Chevron is already on the public record claiming that Donziger doesn’t have enough money to satisfy the $800,000 judgment Justice Kaplan has egregiously awarded Chevron, on top of the now-ordered $200,000 a day fine. Therefore, Judge Kaplan yanking Steven Donziger’s law license and passport, preventing Donziger from earning a living, is beyond unreasonable and is the definition of “cruel and unusual punishment” much like what was issued against former Army analyst Chelsea Manning, requiring her to pay $500 dollars every day she fails to commit perjury against herself for contempt of court, by U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga. Trenga, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, ordered that “if Chelsea Manning does not purge herself of contempt within 30 days of this Order, she shall incur a conditional fine of $500 per day until such time as she purges herself of contempt.” While Judge Trenga’s abuse of Manning is horrific, Judge Kaplan is even more heinous — on June 4th, 2019, Kaplan ordered that Steven Donziger can be fined up to $200,000 per day. The cases of Donzinger and Manning have different elements, but still, the abuse is the same – a monetary punishment requiring both parties to pay to the courts money that they don’t have. Once again, by definition “cruel and unusual punishment” uses money as an intimidation factor to violate one’s rights. Resultant of these affairs, there are certain dynamics anew that Judge Lewis Kaplan should pay attention to. For one, Laser Haas is now in Steven Donziger’s fan club; and that’s significant of itself (because this reporter is also in that fan club, and writing articles about the Amazonian villagers’ plight, and Judge Kaplan’s abuse of Steven Donziger). Which means that this reporter’s friends, colleagues, and supporters are also aware of these incredulous abuses of power. Number two, one would hope, though they might be silent in the background, that there are other fans of Donziger, like that of esteemed journalists Greg Palast and Karen Hinton, and English rock musician, singer-songwriter, and composer, Roger Waters. Surely there are state and federal agents, along with members of state and federal courts, who see the manifest injustice happening in the Chevron case; and those parties are aiding the quest for justice, in their own – quiet – ways. Laser has aided other judges and Justice Department persons, including higher-ups to turn in their papers and retire; because they couldn’t take the heat of truth, in the hands of many. Steven Donziger is a true hero; as Laser says, Donziger’s temerity and tenacity are a badge of immense honor. The one thing that Judge Kaplan and Chevron will never be able to escape, no matter how many lawyers they disparage and destroy, is the fact – unequivocal – that Chevron’s profitable empire is a result of billions of dollars in environmental damages that have destroyed parts of the Amazon forest, and caused extreme hardships upon Amazonian villagers. As previously written, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan actually had the unmitigated gall to call the Amazonian villagers seeking retribution against Chevron “so-called plaintiffs”; which really makes tyrannical crony, corrupt Judge Lewis Kaplan out to be nothing more than a “so-called judge.” Anyone who isn’t blind or willfully blind to justice can see that a Judge referring to victims of a company’s ecological terrorism as “so-called plaintiffs,” siding with a company that he himself also has money invested in, is not fit to serve the bench. After all, even Chevron’s own shareholders are now demanding that Chevron settles with the Amazonian villagers. Which is a result, in no small part, due to the unrelenting pursuits for justice by heroic acts of Steven Donziger, who now suffers both monetarily and career-wise, for doing the right thing. Aaron Kesel writes for Activist Post. Support us at Patreon. Follow us on Minds, Steemit, SoMee, BitChute, Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Follow us on Minds, Twitter, Steemit, and SoMee. Provide, Protect and Profit from what’s coming! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today. | Aaron | https://www.activistpost.com/2019/06/chevron-corruption-fed-judge-kaplan-seeks-destruction-of-amazonian-lawyer-steven-donziger.html | 2019-06-27 01:47:45+00:00 | 1,561,614,465 | 1,567,537,801 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
7,799 | aljazeera--2019-01-08--Indias Supreme Court reinstates CBI chief removed by government | 2019-01-08T00:00:00 | aljazeera | India's Supreme Court reinstates CBI chief removed by government | India's Supreme Court has reinstated the removed director of the country's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in a setback to the government that has been accused of undermining the agency. The decision came on Tuesday, more than two months after Alok Verma and his deputy, Rakesh Asthana, were "placed on leave" last year with the government ordering a probe against both the feuding men. The top court, however, said Verma couldn't make any major policy decisions pending a review by an autonomous anti-corruption body that had recommended Verma's and Asthana's transfers out of the CBI. Verma had challenged the government's decision to remove him during a CBI inquiry of his deputy Asthana, who is considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Verma petitioned the Supreme Court challenging his removal, a day after the order on October 24. Verma had said his removal "[eroded] the independence of the institution" as well as its officers' morale, while analysts called the move part of a wider pattern of government authoritarianism. Critics have accused Modi of trying to save an allegedly "corrupt" Asthana, who worked under him when the Indian PM headed the government in Gujarat state. CBI had alleged Asthana took bribes to settle a money-laundering investigation into a businessman. The CBI is armed with a mandate to investigate corruption and other major crimes in India. Party chief Rahul Gandhi had accused Modi of removing Verma to quash a probe into the purchase of 36 French Rafale aircraft for the Indian air force. Verma's lawyer, Sanjay Hegde, told reporters on Tuesday: "I do not see it solely as a victory for Alok Verma. I see it as a victory for the independence of investigative agencies in this country." India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government would respond after considering the court's order in detail. "The government does not favour [any] person, all it wants is the transparency of CBI," he said. The CBI is currently investigating several high-profile cases, including a $2bn fraud at Punjab National Bank involving fugitive diamond billionaire Nirav Modi and loan defaults by liquor baron Vijay Mallya. However, the CBI often faces a crisis of "integrity" with the party in power using the top investigating agency to cover up wrongdoings and target political opponents. In 2013, the previous Congress-led government was also castigated by the top court for allegedly interfering in a corruption case probe. Former Supreme Court judge RM Lodha once denounced the CBI as a "caged parrot" and "its master's voice". Anti-corruption campaigners in India have long argued that political interference in the CBI reinforces the importance of an independent anti-corruption body. Despite winning on an anti-corruption platform in 2014, Modi has not appointed a Lokpal or anti-corruption ombudsman even as his tenure comes to an end. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/india-supreme-court-reinstates-cbi-chief-removed-government-190108070303833.html | 2019-01-08 08:54:36+00:00 | 1,546,955,676 | 1,567,553,476 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
7,807 | aljazeera--2019-01-08--Manafort accused of lying about sharing polling data with Russian | 2019-01-08T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Manafort accused of lying about sharing polling data with Russian | A new court filing says that US President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort lied about sharing polling data on the 2016 presidential race with Konstantin Kilimnik, an associate accused of having ties to Russian intelligence. The information is in a redacted court filing, unsealed on Tuesday, from Manafort's lawyers. The Associated Press was able to view the redacted material because it wasn't properly blacked out. According to the filing, prosecutors say Manafort lied to investigators about sharing the data with Kilimnik. Manafort allegedly shared the data while he was working on Donald Trump's Republican campaign. Both men were indicted in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference and possible coordination with the Trump campaign. Trump has maintained there has been "no collusion". The filing also said that any "misstatements" made by Manafort, to federal prosecutors were "unintentional" and he would not seek a hearing to contest the allegation he lied. Manafort was responding to allegations in December by Mueller that Manafort had told "multiple discernible lies" to investigators, breaking a plea agreement struck in September. Manafort's lawyers had been given until Monday to decide whether they would challenge the allegations, a move that would require a court hearing to weigh evidence, or simply ask the government to move on to sentencing. The filing was submitted under seal on Monday, and the redacted version released on Tuesday. The former Trump campaign chief's lawyers said their client has been suffering from gout, anxiety and depression and that he never purposely lied to them during his 12 interview sessions with the special counsel and other prosecutors. "The defence contests the Government’s conclusion and contends that any alleged misstatements, to the extent they occurred at all, were not intentional," Manafort's lawyers said in the filing to US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington, who is handling one of two cases against Manafort. When Manafort pleaded guilty in September in Berman Jackson's court, he promised to cooperate fully with Mueller's office and other Justice Department probes in return for a recommendation of leniency at sentencing. But Mueller's office said Manafort had lied about at least five subjects, including his interactions with Kilimnik. Manafort, who earned millions of dollars for his political consulting work for Ukraine's former pro-Russia government, has emerged as a key figure in Mueller's investigation. In addition to his ties to Kilimnik, Manafort had for years worked for Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who was sanctioned by the US Treasury in April for allegedly supporting the Kremlin's "malign activity" around the world. Manafort, 69, was convicted in August in a separate case in Virginia, for evading taxes on $16m earned as a political consultant in Ukraine and lying to banks to get loans. He is due to be sentenced in that case next month. Russia has denied meddling in the election. Trump has said there was no collusion between his campaign and Moscow. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/manafort-accused-lying-sharing-polling-data-russian-190108205112381.html | 2019-01-08 21:10:53+00:00 | 1,546,999,853 | 1,567,553,474 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
7,815 | aljazeera--2019-01-08--Philippines Duterte wants state auditors kidnapped tortured | 2019-01-08T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Philippines: Duterte wants state auditors 'kidnapped, tortured' | Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has advocated the kidnapping and torture of government auditors for hampering the work of his administration. In a speech before local officials gathered in the capital, Manila, Duterte cursed at the independent constitutional body, which is responsible for examining the accounts and spending by government agencies. "Let's just kidnap people from COA [Commission on Audit]. Let's bring them here, then we will torture those sons of w*****," Duterte said in an expletive-laden speech in English and Filipino. "They always make things difficult. That's what I don't like, making things difficult," he said. For decades, government auditors in the Philippines have earned the reputation of being difficult, for closely scrutinising expenditures of all government agencies. While they do not have powers to prosecute, evidence gathered by state auditors has been used to send public officials to jail. Previously, Duterte had railed against the state auditors saying "they should be pushed down the stairs", and ridiculed government regulations as "s***". Before he became president, Duterte had a run-in with the agency, also known for its acronym, COA. In 2015, while he was serving as mayor of Davao, the main city in the country's south, government auditors had questioned the validity of Duterte's decision to hire more than 10,000 contractual workers that cost the city government an equivalent of $15m. Auditors warned that the decision to hire a high number of government workers in a temporary capacity could foster political patronage. There have also been accusations that many of the workers were nonexistent, or so-called "ghost employees". Critics have denounced Duterte for trying to dismantle of the democratic foundations of the country, by attacking those who opposed his policies, including judges and opposition politicians. In the same speech, Duterte also railed against "corrupt" government officials, including judges, police and military officers, saying "my plan is, kill all of them". "They are the ones who should be killed, a bloodletting for the nation," he said in Filipino. The Philippine president also said that if he happens to take the same plane as an unnamed judge, whom he accused of failing to convict anyone, he will puncture the plane, "so we will go to hell together". "I'll open the exit so that we will all be sucked out of the plane." The Philippine president has been known for issuing controversial statements, which his spokespersons would later dismiss as presidential banter that should not be taken seriously. In late December 2018, Duterte confessed that he molested their family help as a teenager. He said he has "no problem" saying it in public and in front of the media "because it is true". | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/philippines-duterte-state-auditors-kidnapped-tortured-190108183013048.html | 2019-01-08 20:40:54+00:00 | 1,546,998,054 | 1,567,553,474 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
7,847 | aljazeera--2019-01-09--Guatemala court blocks presidents expulsion of anti-graft body | 2019-01-09T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Guatemala court blocks president's expulsion of anti-graft body | Guatemala City, Guatemala - The Guatemalan Constitutional Court has suspended the decision by President Jimmy Morales's administration to end the mandate of a United Nations-backed anti-corruption commission. The court convened overnight on Tuesday after members of civil society, lawyers and Indigenous Ancestral Authorities filed injunctions against the president's decision to withdraw from the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). "The court has held up the law and returned the principles of international law that are held up in [the Guatemalan] constitution. It has served as a limit to the abuses of power of any organ of the state," Oswaldo Samoya, a Guatemalan Constitutional lawyer, told Al Jazeera. "It is evident that there is a desperation within the executive branch to brutally dismantle the investigations in anti-corruption efforts," said Samayoa. "The Constitutional Court has once again confronted these abuses." The Morales administration was informed of the court's decision on Wednesday morning. It has yet to comment. The court and Morales have been at loggerheads over CICIG, with the administration ignoring prior court decisions. The Morales administration made the announcement that it was ending the agreement with the UN during a press conference on Monday in Guatemala City, where the president accused the anti-corruption body of polarising the country. Morales claimed the CICIG jeopardises national security, violates human rights and is allied with criminal networks and "terrorists". The anti-corruption body was given 24 hours for their investigators to leave the country. By Tuesday afternoon, CICIG investigators had fled the country, citing concern for their security. More than 100 people protested outside the Constitutional court in Guatemala City on Tuesday, showing their support for the anti-corruption efforts by the CICIG. Protests continued Wednesday, and more are expected next week. "The government is forcing on the state a coup d'etat to dismantle the investigations of the CICIG that are in the process and to undermine future investigations at the time of the beginning of the electoral process," Gabriel Wer, one of the founders of the anti-corruption group Justicia Ya, told Al Jazeera. The Morales administration's actions against the CICIG have received widespread condemnation from the International community, including from the embassies of the United States, Germany, England, France, the European Union, and Sweden. "The United States is concerned about the future of anti-corruption efforts in Guatemala," the US embassy said in a press statement. "The rule of law, the reduction of corruption and the end of impunity are key to security, stability and prosperity, not only in Guatemala, but throughout the region." The CICIG was formed in 2006 upon the request of the Guatemalan government to combat high rates of impunity for crimes. The commission was ratified by the country's legislative branch in 2007 following a massive police scandal. The commission's 2015 corruption investigation in the administration of Otto Perez Molina led to the resignation of the former president, who is currently facing criminal charges. Meanwhile, the country's Supreme Court began hearings on the possibility of impeaching three members of the Constitutional Court. The hearing was called after Attorney General of the Nation Jorge Donado, who was appointed by Morales in May 2018, filed an injunction against three magistrates of the Constitutional Court. The case against the judges is problematic, according to Samayoa. "This is not the function of the Attorney General of the Nation, but rather the function of the Public Prosecutor's office," explained Samayoa. "If the Attorney General of the Nation had evidence of an illicit action, then they should have gone to the Public Prosecutor's office for an investigation." | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/guatemala-court-blocks-president-suspension-anti-graft-body-190109200618385.html | 2019-01-09 21:03:18+00:00 | 1,547,085,798 | 1,567,553,309 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
8,182 | aljazeera--2019-01-15--ICC acquits Ivory Coasts Laurent Gbagbo of war crimes | 2019-01-15T00:00:00 | aljazeera | ICC acquits Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo of war crimes | The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ordered the release of former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo after acquitting him on charges of crimes against humanity. Judges on Tuesday said that prosecutors had failed to satisfy the burden of proof over the accusations, adding their decision could be reversed on appeal. About 3,000 people were killed in the West African nation in a violent standoff during 2010 and 2011 when the 73-year-old refused to accept defeat in an election against his bitter rival and now Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara. The ICC also ordered the release of Charles Ble Goude, 47, dubbed Gbagbo's "Street General", who stood trial with his former boss. Gbagbo and Ble Goude stood trial on four counts of crimes against humanity for murder, rape, persecution and other inhumane acts committed by pro-Gbagbo forces in the aftermath of the disputed 2010 polls. After spending seven years in prison, Gbagbo will follow in the footsteps of his wife Simone Gbagbo, who walked away from a 20-year jail term in Ivory Coast in August when she was granted amnesty by Ouattara after seven years in prison. Tensions are high in the country where about 200 victims gathered on Monday in Abidjan to urge the ICC to keep Gbagbo in jail. "We have come to officially and publicly oppose any release of Laurent Gbagbo - the ICC is acting as if the victims didn't exist," Issiaka Diaby, head of a group which represents 8,000 victims, told the AFP news agency, before the ICC decision. "If Laurent Gbagbo is released, we victims will not see justice," added Karim Coulibaly, 43, whose arm was amputated after he was shot during the violence. "I was a driver but now I am unemployed. I'm not against reconciliation but first you have to look after the victims." The ICC was set up in 2002 for trials into war crimes and crimes against humanity. So far, most of its cases have involved African countries. Previous attempts at the ICC to try top politicians for crimes committed by subordinates or followers have all run into serious difficulties. In 2014, the ICC's chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, dropped crimes against humanity charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta. Last year, former Congolese Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba was acquitted on appeal for crimes allegedly committed by his militia in the Central African Republic in 2002-2003. "If Gbagbo walks out free, the ICC should rethink what it could possibly achieve," Thijs Bouwknegt, an international law specialist, told AFP. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/icc-rule-release-ivory-coast-laurent-gbagbo-190115060413922.html | 2019-01-15 11:04:28+00:00 | 1,547,568,268 | 1,567,552,409 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
9,272 | aljazeera--2019-02-04--Amid freeze New York inmates spent days without heat or power | 2019-02-04T00:00:00 | aljazeera | Amid freeze, New York inmates spent days without heat or power | A power failure at a federal detention centre in New York City spawned a humanitarian crisis worsened by authorities' response as guards wearing scarves and layers of clothing policed inmates who coped with "very cold" conditions in short-sleeve shirts and light pants, a lawsuit filed on Monday in the United States said. The lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court by the Federal Defenders of New York cited numerous disruptions caused by the outage that resulted from a January 27 fire at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Defence lawyers have not been able to visit inmates who were reporting little or no heat, little or no hot water, minimal electricity, near total lack of access to some medical services, or access to telephones, televisions, computers, laundry or commissary, it said. Inmates also reported smelling noxious fumes and seeing prison officers wearing masks even though none were supplied to inmates, the lawsuit said. The Justice Department said that power was restored around 6:30pm local time on Sunday (23:30 GMT) and that it was working to prevent future problems. "In the coming days, the department will work with the Bureau of Prisons to examine what happened and ensure the facility has the power, heat and backup systems in place to prevent the problem from reoccurring," said Wyn Hornbuckle, deputy director of public affairs for the Justice Department. The outage occurred just as freezing Arctic air began rolling towards the East Coast. On Wednesday night, the temperature in New York City dropped to nearly minus 18 Celsius (zero Fahrenheit). Authorities violated the constitutional rights of over 1,600 inmates by them denying legal visits, the lawsuit alleges. Protesters gathered outside after news reports that inmates had largely been without heat or power for a week. The power failure caused "inhumane" conditions for inmates, and the response was "woefully inadequate" as authorities were slow to acknowledge the problem and failed to take adequate steps to obtain temporary supplies of electricity or heat and to repair damage, the lawsuit said. It called for the appointment of a special master to inspect the lockup and unspecified damages. The lawsuit also accused the federal government of making misleading statements to the public and courts about conditions inmates faced. And it said prison officials were largely unresponsive when lawyers sought information about "troubling reports" by inmates. An upbeat report from the warden about the conditions for inmates was belied by what Deirdre von Dornum, lawyer-in-chief of the federal defenders office, saw when she toured the facility on Friday, the lawsuit said. "Inmates were wrapped head to toe in towels and blankets," von Dornum said in a telephone interview on Saturday. "Their windows were frosted over. Even more disturbingly perhaps for the inmates, their cells were pitch black and they don't have flashlights." She said senior officials at the jail were "indifferent" to the problems during her tour even as guards complained to her of the cold. One inmate, Dino Sanchez, has only a short-sleeved jumpsuit, T-shirt and single standard-issue thin blanket to keep him warm, according to a court filing by his lawyer. Sanchez has asthma, which the cold has exacerbated, and fears collapsing in the dark without anyone noticing and coming to his aid, his lawyer in a court filing. Nydia Velazquez, who represents parts of New York City in the US House of Representatives, was one of the politicians who visited the jail on Saturday. She said the Bureau of Prisons was disregarding inmates' rights. "This appalling situation needs to be fixed," she wrote on Twitter. She noted that some heat had been restored, but that the heating system was still "not at fully capacity" and that staff at the jail were still complaining about the cold on Saturday. Hugh Hurwitz, the Bureau of Prisons' acting director, told politicians in telephone conversations he agreed that conditions in the jail were "unacceptable", according to Velazquez. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a brief statement that the conditions at the jail were unconstitutional and demanded an immediate fix. Judge Analisa Torres ordered the Bureau of Prisons to produce witnesses at a hearing in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday to explain how the complaints raised by inmates' lawyers were being addressed. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/freeze-york-inmates-spent-days-heat-power-190204160401829.html | 2019-02-04 20:35:51+00:00 | 1,549,330,551 | 1,567,549,692 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
9,279 | aljazeera--2019-02-04--British interior minister orders extradition of Indian tycoon | 2019-02-04T00:00:00 | aljazeera | British interior minister orders extradition of Indian tycoon | Britain's Home Secretary Sajid Javid has signed an order for tycoon Vijay Mallya's extradition to India to face fraud charges, a spokesman for the interior ministry said on Monday. Mallya, 63, the owner of Kingfisher beer and head of the Force India Formula One team, has two weeks to appeal the decision. Javid signed the order on Sunday, a spokesman for the Home Office interior ministry told AFP. "On February 3 the secretary of state, having carefully considered all relevant matters, signed the order for Vijay Mallya's extradition to India," he said. "Vijay Mallya is accused in India of conspiracy to defraud, making false representations and money-laundering offences." Mallya left India in March 2016 having owed more than $1bn after defaulting on loan payments to a state-owned bank and allegedly misusing the funds. The loans from the state-owned IDBI bank were intended to bail out his failed carrier Kingfisher Airlines. In December, a British court ruled he could be extradited. Mallya has been fighting to remain in Britain but judge Emma Arbuthnot said he had misrepresented how loans received from banks would be used and therefore had a case to answer. She said bankers had been "charmed" by a "glamorous, flashy, famous, bejewelled, bodyguarded, ostensibly billionaire playboy" into losing their common sense. Mallya was once known as the "King of Good Times" but dropped off India's most wealthy list in 2014, engulfed by Kingfisher Airlines' massive debts. | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/british-interior-minister-orders-extradition-indian-tycoon-190204190330778.html | 2019-02-04 19:21:31+00:00 | 1,549,326,091 | 1,567,549,692 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
9,283 | aljazeera--2019-02-04--Dont send me to Bahrain Hakeem al-Araibi fights extradition | 2019-02-04T00:00:00 | aljazeera | 'Don't send me to Bahrain!': Hakeem al-Araibi fights extradition | Bangkok, Thailand - After weeks of detention in Bangkok's Klong Prem Remand Prison, refugee footballer Hakeem al-Araibi has appeared at Thailand's criminal court to fight extradition to Bahrain, the country he fled in 2014. "Please don't send me to Bahrain!" he shouted on Monday morning, as he walked off the prison bus barefoot, his feet shackled. Later, in a crowded courtroom filled with international diplomats in a show of support for the 25-year-old, al-Araibi denied all allegations against him and told the judge he feared being tortured if he was sent back to Bahrain. In 2014, Bahraini authorities sentenced him in absentia to 10 years in prison for allegedly vandalising a police station. The footballer, a former member of Bahrain's national team, has denied the accusation, saying he was playing a televised match at the time. He fled to Australia in 2014 after hearing of his sentence, saying he had been tortured in Bahrain when he was arrested two years earlier, allegedly for his brother's political activities during the 2011 Arab Spring uprising. In Australia, which granted him political asylum in 2017, al-Araibi started playing as a defender for Pasco Vale, a Melbourne-based semi-professional club. At Monday's court hearing in Thailand's capital, the ruling judge denied him bail but agreed to a defence request to file a formal petition opposing extradition by April 5. An arraignment date was set for April 22, when a witness list and trial date would be confirmed. Al-Araibi's court appearance came more than two months after being arrested at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport by Thai police, who were acting on an Interpol "Red Notice" issued by Bahrain. The footballer and his wife had just flown from Australia to begin their honeymoon. Since his arrest in November last year, prominent rights groups have been calling for his immediate release and return to Australia. "The Thai authorities should stop all proceedings relating to this absurd, cruel and cynical extradition request," Katherine Gerson, Amnesty International’s Thailand campaigner, said in a statement on Monday. "It is well known that Hakeem survived torture in Bahrain and that his relatives continue to face persecution there. Hakeem and his wife have found sanctuary in Australia; he should not spend another day in detention and should be allowed home, to Melbourne, immediately." Bahrain has a history of human rights abuses, according to the US State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices. The report indicates instances of "arbitrary or unlawful killings by security forces; allegations of torture of detainees and prisoners; harsh and potentially life-threatening conditions of detention; arbitrary arrest and detention", among others. The Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN), a network of hundreds of civil society groups committed to advancing the rights of refugees in the Asia Pacific region, has also been highly active in supporting al-Araibi's case. Evan Jones, programme coordinator at APRRN, has been working closely with the footballer, as well as the Australian government and world football governing body FIFA to ensure his safe return to Australia. "Any move by the Thai government to extradite Hakeem would seriously tarnish Thailand's reputation as a country that abides by fundamental international human rights principles," Jones told Al Jazeera. Jones said al-Araibi has not been able to sleep properly for days and has fallen sick from being in an overcrowded prison. He says al-Araibi told him recently: "Why is Bahrain doing this? They don't respect human rights. I have been tortured before and they will do it again. "I am a refugee and I live in Australia. I want to go home to Australia I don't want to go to Bahrain. Why won't Thailand just let me go home?" | null | https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/send-bahrain-hakeem-al-araibi-fights-extradition-190204043918992.html | 2019-02-04 05:47:23+00:00 | 1,549,277,243 | 1,567,549,692 | crime, law and justice | judiciary |
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