An excerpt from the Sacramento Bee -
Here's another result of the Stephon Clark autopsy – cops can't investigate cops
BY MARCOS BRETÓN
An independent autopsy commissioned by a lawyer may seem like a publicity stunt to those who seemingly have no problem with an unarmed man being gunned down by Sacramento Police. The autopsy, revealed Friday, found that Stephon Clark was shot repeatedly in the back on March 18. Beyond that is this undeniable truth:
The Coroner of Sacramento County, the District Attorney of Sacramento County, Sacramento Police, Sacramento Sheriffs – the entire local law enforcement community – had it coming. Here was a lawyer for one family who refused to wait six months, eight months, a year, 14 months or longer until they, the local authorities, released "official" findings after a fatal police shooting.
Putting aside technical debates over the methodology of Clark's autopsy, performed by Bennet Omalu, the former chief medical examiner for San Joaquin County, the explosive findings made public at a Friday news conference conveyed a clear statement to local law enforcement authorities: We don't trust you.
If Sacramento is a microcosm of a national dispute over whether law enforcement officials essentially can investigate their own, then officials here give weight to the conclusion, no, they can't. They have truly earned the heat they are catching right now.
For years, fatal shootings committed by local law enforcement followed a familiar pattern: An African American man is killed, there is public outrage, the official investigations drag on for months if not longer, everybody waits for everybody else's report to be completed, and the findings become public long after the original incident.
Some people think, not unreasonably, that this is deliberate. They speculate: The length of time in releasing official reports is so all the players can get their stories straight. At least, that's how it looks to a skeptical public.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/marcos-breton/article207513614.html#emlnl=Afternoon_Newsletter#storylink=cpy
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Too Good to Cherry Pick
From VerySmartBrothas -
Is It a Coincidence That Today’s Most Outspoken Black Male Athletes Are Married to Black Women? (Hint: Nah)
By Damon Young
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/is-it-a-coincidence-that-todays-most-outspoken-black-ma-1824084782
Is It a Coincidence That Today’s Most Outspoken Black Male Athletes Are Married to Black Women? (Hint: Nah)
By Damon Young
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/is-it-a-coincidence-that-todays-most-outspoken-black-ma-1824084782
UnFair Housing
An excerpt from the Atlantic -
The Unfulfilled Promise of Fair Housing
Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of an integrated America was about creating a more equal society, but to many white homeowners, it was a threat.
By ABDALLAH FAYYAD
“Kill him,” a white mob chanted as Martin Luther King Jr. marched across Marquette Park in the late summer of 1966. King had recently moved to Chicago, and on that August afternoon, he joined a Chicago Freedom Movement march to demand that realtors not discriminate against black residents seeking to live in white neighborhoods. But a group of white counter-protesters grew violent and started hurling rocks, bottles, and bricks at the demonstrators, eventually striking King in the head. “I’ve been in many demonstrations all across the South, but I can say that I have never seen—even in Mississippi and Alabama—mobs as hostile and as hate-filled as I’ve seen here in Chicago,” he said, shining light on a problem that white Northern liberals had ignored and let fester for far too long: de facto segregation.
Up until the civil-rights era, segregation was largely reinforced, if not promoted, by federal and local governments. In the 1930s, for example, the Federal Housing Administration incentivized developers to build suburbs for whites only, and the Public Works Administration built separate and unequal housing projects. After a series of Supreme Court cases deemed segregation unconstitutional in the 1940s and ‘50s, American neighborhoods continued to segregate without legal recognition, in a system known as “de facto.” And like de jure segregation—when the government legally engineered ghettos into existence—de facto segregation continues to exacerbate wealth and racial inequality today.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/the-unfulfilled-promise-of-fair-housing/557009/
The Unfulfilled Promise of Fair Housing
Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of an integrated America was about creating a more equal society, but to many white homeowners, it was a threat.
By ABDALLAH FAYYAD
“Kill him,” a white mob chanted as Martin Luther King Jr. marched across Marquette Park in the late summer of 1966. King had recently moved to Chicago, and on that August afternoon, he joined a Chicago Freedom Movement march to demand that realtors not discriminate against black residents seeking to live in white neighborhoods. But a group of white counter-protesters grew violent and started hurling rocks, bottles, and bricks at the demonstrators, eventually striking King in the head. “I’ve been in many demonstrations all across the South, but I can say that I have never seen—even in Mississippi and Alabama—mobs as hostile and as hate-filled as I’ve seen here in Chicago,” he said, shining light on a problem that white Northern liberals had ignored and let fester for far too long: de facto segregation.
Up until the civil-rights era, segregation was largely reinforced, if not promoted, by federal and local governments. In the 1930s, for example, the Federal Housing Administration incentivized developers to build suburbs for whites only, and the Public Works Administration built separate and unequal housing projects. After a series of Supreme Court cases deemed segregation unconstitutional in the 1940s and ‘50s, American neighborhoods continued to segregate without legal recognition, in a system known as “de facto.” And like de jure segregation—when the government legally engineered ghettos into existence—de facto segregation continues to exacerbate wealth and racial inequality today.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/the-unfulfilled-promise-of-fair-housing/557009/
20 of 20 Said Yes
An excerpt from CNN -
He applied to 20 of the best colleges and got a full ride to all of them
By Isabella Gomez and Christina Zdanowicz
Micheal Brown stared at the acceptance letter in front of him: It said yes.
So did the next one. And the one after that.
The 17-year-old from Houston applied to 20 of the best universities in the US. He was admitted to every single one with a full ride and $260,000 in additional scholarship offers.
"It's something I'm proud of because I see my hard work paying off, determination paying off, sacrifices paying off," the student told CNN.
Of those 20, he listed his top eight choices as: Harvard, Princeton, Northwestern, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Georgetown and Vanderbilt.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/30/health/teen-college-20-acceptances-trnd/index.html
He applied to 20 of the best colleges and got a full ride to all of them
By Isabella Gomez and Christina Zdanowicz
Micheal Brown stared at the acceptance letter in front of him: It said yes.
So did the next one. And the one after that.
The 17-year-old from Houston applied to 20 of the best universities in the US. He was admitted to every single one with a full ride and $260,000 in additional scholarship offers.
"It's something I'm proud of because I see my hard work paying off, determination paying off, sacrifices paying off," the student told CNN.
Of those 20, he listed his top eight choices as: Harvard, Princeton, Northwestern, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Georgetown and Vanderbilt.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/30/health/teen-college-20-acceptances-trnd/index.html
Friday, March 30, 2018
Words Matter
An excerpt form the Sacramento Bee -
Stephon Clark 'deserved it,' nurse wrote on Facebook. Now she's no longer working for Kaiser.
BY CATHIE ANDERSON
Kaiser Permanente has parted ways with a nurse whose Facebook comments about Stephon Clark, the unarmed black man killed by Sacramento police on March 18, incited a social media firestorm after an activist put them in the spotlight.
The comment: “Yeah but he was running from the police jumping over fences and breaking in peoples houses… why run??!!! He deserved it for being stupid.”
Activist Christina Arechiga told The Sacramento Bee earlier this week that she was so disgusted by the statement from a woman named Faith Linthicum that she went to her Facebook profile to learn more about her. Many such comments come from people outside the region, Arechiga said, and she wanted to know whether this one did as well.
She said she was shocked to discover that not only did Linthicum live in the Sacramento region but she also worked as a nurse in labor and delivery at Kaiser Permanente’s Roseville Medical Center. People of color were unwittingly entrusting their infants to this woman, Arechiga said, and their insurance dollars were paying her salary.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article207364464.html#emlnl=Breaking_Newsletter#storylink=cpy
Stephon Clark 'deserved it,' nurse wrote on Facebook. Now she's no longer working for Kaiser.
BY CATHIE ANDERSON
Kaiser Permanente has parted ways with a nurse whose Facebook comments about Stephon Clark, the unarmed black man killed by Sacramento police on March 18, incited a social media firestorm after an activist put them in the spotlight.
The comment: “Yeah but he was running from the police jumping over fences and breaking in peoples houses… why run??!!! He deserved it for being stupid.”
Activist Christina Arechiga told The Sacramento Bee earlier this week that she was so disgusted by the statement from a woman named Faith Linthicum that she went to her Facebook profile to learn more about her. Many such comments come from people outside the region, Arechiga said, and she wanted to know whether this one did as well.
She said she was shocked to discover that not only did Linthicum live in the Sacramento region but she also worked as a nurse in labor and delivery at Kaiser Permanente’s Roseville Medical Center. People of color were unwittingly entrusting their infants to this woman, Arechiga said, and their insurance dollars were paying her salary.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article207364464.html#emlnl=Breaking_Newsletter#storylink=cpy
Police Killed 264 in 2018
From the Washington Post -
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/police-shootings-2018/?stream=top-stories&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiospm&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=.680c5b490545
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/police-shootings-2018/?stream=top-stories&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiospm&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=.680c5b490545
Catholic Colleges Excel at Basketball
From the NY Times -
Why Catholic Colleges Excel at Basketball
By MARC TRACYMARCH 30, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/sports/catholic-basketball-final-four.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Why Catholic Colleges Excel at Basketball
By MARC TRACYMARCH 30, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/sports/catholic-basketball-final-four.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
The History of Tattoos
From OZY -
https://www.ozy.com/good-sht/this-museum-gives-you-the-long-curious-history-of-tattoos/83002?utm_source=dd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=03292018&variable=e3bf1057d4e3c0988a79ae4bce515610
https://www.ozy.com/good-sht/this-museum-gives-you-the-long-curious-history-of-tattoos/83002?utm_source=dd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=03292018&variable=e3bf1057d4e3c0988a79ae4bce515610
Ask Siri to Take a Picture
From CNET -
How to take iPhone photos with just your voice
Siri can be a helpful camera assistant.
By MATT ELLIOTT
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-take-iphone-photos-with-your-voice/#ftag=CAD-09-10aai5b
Good luck. This didn't work for me. Faye
How to take iPhone photos with just your voice
Siri can be a helpful camera assistant.
By MATT ELLIOTT
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-take-iphone-photos-with-your-voice/#ftag=CAD-09-10aai5b
Good luck. This didn't work for me. Faye
When Pigs Help Others Fly
From Now I Know -
The Therapeutic Value of a Not-Quite-Flying Pig
Pigs can’t fly. That’s why the saying “when pigs fly” exists — some things will never happen. The image above isn’t an exception, either, but it’s close. That’s a picture of LiLou, a pig. She’s wearing an airplane captain’s hat because she’s at work, and the hat is part of her uniform. In the picture above, she’s at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), her principal place of business.
Her job? To make anxious flyers feel a bit better about boarding that plane.
http://nowiknow.com/the-therapeutic-value-of-a-not-quite-flying-pig/
The Therapeutic Value of a Not-Quite-Flying Pig
Pigs can’t fly. That’s why the saying “when pigs fly” exists — some things will never happen. The image above isn’t an exception, either, but it’s close. That’s a picture of LiLou, a pig. She’s wearing an airplane captain’s hat because she’s at work, and the hat is part of her uniform. In the picture above, she’s at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), her principal place of business.
Her job? To make anxious flyers feel a bit better about boarding that plane.
http://nowiknow.com/the-therapeutic-value-of-a-not-quite-flying-pig/
Zadie at the March for Our Lives
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| Zadie Faye marching at 7 years old! (My oldest granddaughter) |
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| Zadie Faye making us all so proud! |
This is Why Parents Love Target
An excerpt from the Huffington Post -
There Are Psychological Reasons Parents Are So Obsessed With Target
Marketing experts, therapists and parents weigh in.
By Caroline Bologna
In the face of the chaos and confusion that come with raising a family today, parents across America turn to a very specific place for sanctuary and relief. While it may not be fancy or private, it’s got an air of sophistication and serenity.
What is this magical place? Well... Target, apparently.
It’s no secret that parents, particularly moms, love to love Target. They write rhapsodizing blog posts, create fan Instagram accounts, draw comics and tweet endlessly about their Target obsessions. At least one mom chose to take her maternity photos at a Target store, and another even gave birth to her child in one (albeit unintentionally).
But what exactly is it that makes Target so appealing to moms and dads?
We spoke to marketing experts, therapists and parents themselves to find out.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/parents-target-psychology_us_5aa7fba3e4b0e872b4bf5244
There Are Psychological Reasons Parents Are So Obsessed With Target
Marketing experts, therapists and parents weigh in.
By Caroline Bologna
In the face of the chaos and confusion that come with raising a family today, parents across America turn to a very specific place for sanctuary and relief. While it may not be fancy or private, it’s got an air of sophistication and serenity.
What is this magical place? Well... Target, apparently.
It’s no secret that parents, particularly moms, love to love Target. They write rhapsodizing blog posts, create fan Instagram accounts, draw comics and tweet endlessly about their Target obsessions. At least one mom chose to take her maternity photos at a Target store, and another even gave birth to her child in one (albeit unintentionally).
But what exactly is it that makes Target so appealing to moms and dads?
We spoke to marketing experts, therapists and parents themselves to find out.
Parenting Tips
From Buzzfeed -
https://www.buzzfeed.com/mikespohr/21-hilarious-tweets-that-are-also-genius-parenting-ideas?utm_term=.pboqPEzMa#.rsQxy4BWg
https://www.buzzfeed.com/mikespohr/21-hilarious-tweets-that-are-also-genius-parenting-ideas?utm_term=.pboqPEzMa#.rsQxy4BWg
A Night With Girlfriends & Michelle
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| Michelle Obama at the Oracle, Oakland, CA - March 28, 2018 |
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| Faye and friends at the Oracle |
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Will They Come?
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
Why a white town paid for a class called ‘Hispanics 101’
By Danielle Paquette
BRANSON, Mo. — In a ballroom with antlers on the wall and hoof prints on the carpet, diversity coach Miguel Joey Aviles asked whether anyone knew how to merengue.
“Lord have mercy,” he said, counting hands. “Only two?”
This is “Hispanics 101,” a class meant to teach employers in the Ozarks resort town of 11,400 how to lure workers from Puerto Rico and persuade them to stay.
The economy depends on it. As tourism season kicks off this month, the remote getaway known for dinner theaters, country music concerts and a museum of dinosaur replicas has 2,050 vacancies — and a lack of locals applying.
So, like other areas with tight labor markets, Branson finds itself getting creative to fill jobs — in this case by recruiting people from a part of the United States with much higher unemployment.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/why-a-white-town-paid-for-a-class-called-hispanics-101/2018/03/07/ca37a44a-1cd1-11e8-ae5a-16e60e4605f3_story.html?utm_term=.fcce5345500a&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Why a white town paid for a class called ‘Hispanics 101’
By Danielle Paquette
BRANSON, Mo. — In a ballroom with antlers on the wall and hoof prints on the carpet, diversity coach Miguel Joey Aviles asked whether anyone knew how to merengue.
“Lord have mercy,” he said, counting hands. “Only two?”
This is “Hispanics 101,” a class meant to teach employers in the Ozarks resort town of 11,400 how to lure workers from Puerto Rico and persuade them to stay.
The economy depends on it. As tourism season kicks off this month, the remote getaway known for dinner theaters, country music concerts and a museum of dinosaur replicas has 2,050 vacancies — and a lack of locals applying.
So, like other areas with tight labor markets, Branson finds itself getting creative to fill jobs — in this case by recruiting people from a part of the United States with much higher unemployment.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/why-a-white-town-paid-for-a-class-called-hispanics-101/2018/03/07/ca37a44a-1cd1-11e8-ae5a-16e60e4605f3_story.html?utm_term=.fcce5345500a&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
US Brain Drain
An excerpt from Axios -
Canada's "reverse brain drain" in the age of Trump
By Shane Savitsky
Numerous startups in the tech hub of Toronto say they have had steady, double-digit increases in job applications from the United States since last year's presidential election. This is among the first concrete evidence that President Trump's hard line on immigration may be impacting the global race to attract the best minds.
What they're saying: "I've been in tech for over 20 years in Canada and in Silicon Valley, too. I've never seen candidates from the U.S. apply for Canadian positions from places like Silicon Valley," Roy Pereira, the CEO of Zoom.ai, told Axios. "That's never happened."
Why it matters: Since Trump's election, with his attacks on immigration and threats to cut back on visas, France, China and Canada, among other countries, have openly sought to poach American technologists and scientists (as we have written). The reports from Toronto suggest a threat to the United States' long edge as the preeminent magnet for the world's brightest scientific talent.
https://www.axios.com/canadas-reverse-brain-drain-in-the-age-of-trump-1513305608-a54c55f2-dcc1-4a27-8416-3e5e0bf701db.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories
Canada's "reverse brain drain" in the age of Trump
By Shane Savitsky
Numerous startups in the tech hub of Toronto say they have had steady, double-digit increases in job applications from the United States since last year's presidential election. This is among the first concrete evidence that President Trump's hard line on immigration may be impacting the global race to attract the best minds.
What they're saying: "I've been in tech for over 20 years in Canada and in Silicon Valley, too. I've never seen candidates from the U.S. apply for Canadian positions from places like Silicon Valley," Roy Pereira, the CEO of Zoom.ai, told Axios. "That's never happened."
Why it matters: Since Trump's election, with his attacks on immigration and threats to cut back on visas, France, China and Canada, among other countries, have openly sought to poach American technologists and scientists (as we have written). The reports from Toronto suggest a threat to the United States' long edge as the preeminent magnet for the world's brightest scientific talent.
https://www.axios.com/canadas-reverse-brain-drain-in-the-age-of-trump-1513305608-a54c55f2-dcc1-4a27-8416-3e5e0bf701db.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories
Well-Read Black Girl
An excerpt from Essence -
Black Girl Brilliance Project: Glory Edim On How Well-Read Black Girl Is More Than A Book Club
By BRITNI DANIELLE
It all started with a t-shirt. Three years ago, Glory Edim’s boyfriend gave her a gift that perfectly spoke to her love of books, a shirt with “well-read Black girl” emblazoned on the front. Edim loved the thoughtful present and began wearing the one-of-a-kind item all over town. Soon, people wanted one too.
“It was our inside joke, but it triggered a lot of conversations with folks when I was out in the world,” Edim tells ESSENCE. “I kept having conversations with strangers, other Black women, in public spaces about books.”
The experience inspired Edim to form a book club, and three years later Well-Read Black Girl is a bona fide movement that hosts reading with authors, a thriving online community and an annual festival.
https://www.essence.com/culture/black-girl-brilliance-glory-edim
Black Girl Brilliance Project: Glory Edim On How Well-Read Black Girl Is More Than A Book Club
By BRITNI DANIELLE
It all started with a t-shirt. Three years ago, Glory Edim’s boyfriend gave her a gift that perfectly spoke to her love of books, a shirt with “well-read Black girl” emblazoned on the front. Edim loved the thoughtful present and began wearing the one-of-a-kind item all over town. Soon, people wanted one too.
“It was our inside joke, but it triggered a lot of conversations with folks when I was out in the world,” Edim tells ESSENCE. “I kept having conversations with strangers, other Black women, in public spaces about books.”
The experience inspired Edim to form a book club, and three years later Well-Read Black Girl is a bona fide movement that hosts reading with authors, a thriving online community and an annual festival.
https://www.essence.com/culture/black-girl-brilliance-glory-edim
A Welcoming Space
An excerpt from the NY Times: California Today -
A Space for Students Who Need Something to Eat
By JENNIFER MEDINA
As you walk into the room at University of California, Irvine the first thing you notice are the fruit and vegetable baskets: apples, onions, broccoli. There’s a table of students chatting and eating, while one thumbs through a cookbook.
It’s called the Basic Needs Hub — a space for anyone on campus who needs something to eat. It looks like a miniature gourmet grocery, but it is, effectively, a food pantry.
For the last six months, the doors to the hub have been wide open, and the pantry has doled out produce, meat and granola bars, among other goods. Students are not required to show any proof of income to receive the food, though they do receive a document stating that it is meant for those who cannot afford it on their own.
“We are making it O.K. for students to say that they do need help,” said Edgar Dormitorio, the assistant vice chancellor of students affairs. “We know there are students who do without meals rather ask for assistance. We want this to be as low barrier as possible.”
https://static.nytimes.com/email-content/CA_477.html?nlid=38867499
A Space for Students Who Need Something to Eat
By JENNIFER MEDINA
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| The grand opening of the University of California, Irvine food pantry in September. Steve Zylius/University of California, Irvine |
It’s called the Basic Needs Hub — a space for anyone on campus who needs something to eat. It looks like a miniature gourmet grocery, but it is, effectively, a food pantry.
For the last six months, the doors to the hub have been wide open, and the pantry has doled out produce, meat and granola bars, among other goods. Students are not required to show any proof of income to receive the food, though they do receive a document stating that it is meant for those who cannot afford it on their own.
“We are making it O.K. for students to say that they do need help,” said Edgar Dormitorio, the assistant vice chancellor of students affairs. “We know there are students who do without meals rather ask for assistance. We want this to be as low barrier as possible.”
https://static.nytimes.com/email-content/CA_477.html?nlid=38867499
Lives Didn't Matter?
An excerpt from the Huffington Post -
21 Times Cops Weren’t Held Accountable For The Death Of Black Victims
These are egregious reminders of repeated injustice.
By Lilly Workneh and Taryn Finley
Sandra Bland. Freddie Gray. Sean Bell. Tamir Rice. Alton Sterling. Aiyana Stanley-Jones.
The list goes on and on of black men, women and children who died as a result of encounters with law enforcement and receive no justice while those responsible for their deaths ― the same ones who pledge to “protect and serve” ― face little to no repercussions.
The St. Anthony, Minnesota, cop who shot Philando Castile, a 32-year-old elementary school cafeteria worker, seven times was acquitted in June 2017. Castile was in the car with his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter at the time of his death.
Castile’s mother, Valerie, expressed her outrage during a press conference after the trial.
“The system in this country continues to fail black people and will continue to fail us,” she said. “My son loved this city, and this city killed my son. And a murderer gets away.”
Sadly, the anger Castile conveyed is a familiar feeling for those who have witnessed the repeated acquittal of cops who have been involved in unjust killings of black men and women, often over prosecutors’ claims of “lack of evidence.”
Time and again, the nation has mourned the loss of black lives and taken to the streets and social media to demand both an end to these killings and accountability for those involved. Here are 20 other cases where officers have escaped prosecution and walked free.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/14-times-cops-werent-held-accountable-for-the-death-of-black-victims_us_5798d249e4b01180b53114ec
21 Times Cops Weren’t Held Accountable For The Death Of Black Victims
These are egregious reminders of repeated injustice.
By Lilly Workneh and Taryn Finley
Sandra Bland. Freddie Gray. Sean Bell. Tamir Rice. Alton Sterling. Aiyana Stanley-Jones.
The list goes on and on of black men, women and children who died as a result of encounters with law enforcement and receive no justice while those responsible for their deaths ― the same ones who pledge to “protect and serve” ― face little to no repercussions.
The St. Anthony, Minnesota, cop who shot Philando Castile, a 32-year-old elementary school cafeteria worker, seven times was acquitted in June 2017. Castile was in the car with his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter at the time of his death.
Castile’s mother, Valerie, expressed her outrage during a press conference after the trial.
“The system in this country continues to fail black people and will continue to fail us,” she said. “My son loved this city, and this city killed my son. And a murderer gets away.”
Sadly, the anger Castile conveyed is a familiar feeling for those who have witnessed the repeated acquittal of cops who have been involved in unjust killings of black men and women, often over prosecutors’ claims of “lack of evidence.”
Time and again, the nation has mourned the loss of black lives and taken to the streets and social media to demand both an end to these killings and accountability for those involved. Here are 20 other cases where officers have escaped prosecution and walked free.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/14-times-cops-werent-held-accountable-for-the-death-of-black-victims_us_5798d249e4b01180b53114ec
Teen Inventor
An excerpt from CNN -
Teen serial inventor returns with pollution filter to clear city skies
By Zeena Saifi, Daryl Brown and Tom Page
Angad Daryani. Remember the name.
The 19-year-old from Mumbai has already gained a reputation. He left school in the ninth grade and then self-educated while working with MIT Media Lab until the age of 17. Daryani has launched multiple startups and social initiatives, and collaborated on a string of inventions that fall squarely into the "Why hasn't someone thought of that before?" category.
There was the "eye-pad," designed to instantly convert written English and French into Braille. The Sharkbot, a $350 3-D printer. A low-cost ECG heart monitor and a vehicle controlled by hand gestures.
Now, Daryani is pushing forward with an industrial-scale air filter to rid skies of pollutants and carcinogens that plague modern cities.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/28/health/angad-daryani-tomorrows-hero/index.html
Teen serial inventor returns with pollution filter to clear city skies
By Zeena Saifi, Daryl Brown and Tom Page
Angad Daryani. Remember the name.
The 19-year-old from Mumbai has already gained a reputation. He left school in the ninth grade and then self-educated while working with MIT Media Lab until the age of 17. Daryani has launched multiple startups and social initiatives, and collaborated on a string of inventions that fall squarely into the "Why hasn't someone thought of that before?" category.
There was the "eye-pad," designed to instantly convert written English and French into Braille. The Sharkbot, a $350 3-D printer. A low-cost ECG heart monitor and a vehicle controlled by hand gestures.
Now, Daryani is pushing forward with an industrial-scale air filter to rid skies of pollutants and carcinogens that plague modern cities.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/28/health/angad-daryani-tomorrows-hero/index.html
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
The 2nd Amendment - A Relic From the 18th Century
An excerpt from the NY Times Opinion -
Repeal the Second Amendment
By John Paul Stevens (Retired Supreme Court Justice)
Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement schoolchildren and their supporters demonstrated in Washington and other major cities throughout the country this past Saturday. These demonstrations demand our respect. They reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of schoolchildren and others in our society.
That support is a clear sign to lawmakers to enact legislation prohibiting civilian ownership of semiautomatic weapons, increasing the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old, and establishing more comprehensive background checks on all purchasers of firearms. But the demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform. They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment.
Concern that a national standing army might pose a threat to the security of the separate states led to the adoption of that amendment, which provides that “a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Today that concern is a relic of the 18th century.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/opinion/john-paul-stevens-repeal-second-amendment.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Repeal the Second Amendment
By John Paul Stevens (Retired Supreme Court Justice)
Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement schoolchildren and their supporters demonstrated in Washington and other major cities throughout the country this past Saturday. These demonstrations demand our respect. They reveal the broad public support for legislation to minimize the risk of mass killings of schoolchildren and others in our society.
That support is a clear sign to lawmakers to enact legislation prohibiting civilian ownership of semiautomatic weapons, increasing the minimum age to buy a gun from 18 to 21 years old, and establishing more comprehensive background checks on all purchasers of firearms. But the demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform. They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment.
Concern that a national standing army might pose a threat to the security of the separate states led to the adoption of that amendment, which provides that “a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Today that concern is a relic of the 18th century.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/opinion/john-paul-stevens-repeal-second-amendment.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Not Even Close
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
The strange, unexpected public contribution of Stormy Daniels
By Michael Gerson
Americans who find this unremarkable have missed an extraordinary cultural moment. Daniels’s allegations are denied by the White House and an attorney for President Trump’s lawyer. Yet who in their right mind would trust Trump’s word over hers? In this case, the porn star has more credibility than the president of the United States. It is not even close.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-strange-unexpected-public-contribution-of-stormy-daniels/2018/03/26/2c2bce4e-312a-11e8-8abc-22a366b72f2d_story.html?utm_term=.b0fdc1b48a8c
The strange, unexpected public contribution of Stormy Daniels
By Michael Gerson
Americans who find this unremarkable have missed an extraordinary cultural moment. Daniels’s allegations are denied by the White House and an attorney for President Trump’s lawyer. Yet who in their right mind would trust Trump’s word over hers? In this case, the porn star has more credibility than the president of the United States. It is not even close.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-strange-unexpected-public-contribution-of-stormy-daniels/2018/03/26/2c2bce4e-312a-11e8-8abc-22a366b72f2d_story.html?utm_term=.b0fdc1b48a8c
Monday, March 26, 2018
This brilliant 11-year-old girl is doing more to address gun violence and systemic racism than most adults pic.twitter.com/oRqCFMBAqz— NowThis (@nowthisnews) March 22, 2018
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Fault Lines
An excerpt from the NY Times -
A Rampage Exposes Racial Fault Lines
By Manny Fernandez and Richard Fausset
Ora Houston, an African-American councilwoman here, stood as a proclamation was read inside City Hall on Thursday.
It had nothing to do with the Austin serial bomber, Mark Conditt. It had to do with a deeper, older and far more invisible hurt — the 90th anniversary of a 1928 city plan that created a “Negro district” on the east side of town.
“The Negro district was intentionally created by the Austin City Council to force Negros and Mexicans who lived in other parts of Austin to move to the Negro district,” Mayor Steve Adler said as Ms. Houston, a longtime East Austin resident, looked on at his side. “And the effects are apparent in the racial and economic disparities found in East Austin today.”
Three of the five bombs that terrorized Central Texas this month went off in East Austin, where the majority of the city’s black and Hispanic residents live, prompting the police to investigate them as possible hate crimes. When the fourth bomb was planted in an upscale gated and largely white community west of Interstate 35, the issue of race disappeared from most official statements — a fact that has stirred deep resentment among many black residents. The only two people killed, many have been quick to point out, came from two of the city’s most prominent black families.
The debate over how to characterize the bomber’s nearly three-week campaign of violence has been a reminder, for many, of the ways in which race, geography and class continue to play out in a city that prides itself on tolerance and diversity.
Though Austin is widely seen as a liberal island in a deeply conservative state, the attacks have stoked the raw racial, economic, political and geographical divisions that continue to shape life here, 90 years after the city was segregated by decree. Austin and its suburbs remain sharply divided by class, race and even religion. Like Houston, it is an urban, diverse and Democratic hub surrounded by largely white, Republican suburbs, including Pflugerville, Mr. Conditt’s hometown.
https://static.nytimes.com/email-content/RR_427.html?nlid=38867499
A Rampage Exposes Racial Fault Lines
By Manny Fernandez and Richard Fausset
Ora Houston, an African-American councilwoman here, stood as a proclamation was read inside City Hall on Thursday.
It had nothing to do with the Austin serial bomber, Mark Conditt. It had to do with a deeper, older and far more invisible hurt — the 90th anniversary of a 1928 city plan that created a “Negro district” on the east side of town.
“The Negro district was intentionally created by the Austin City Council to force Negros and Mexicans who lived in other parts of Austin to move to the Negro district,” Mayor Steve Adler said as Ms. Houston, a longtime East Austin resident, looked on at his side. “And the effects are apparent in the racial and economic disparities found in East Austin today.”
Three of the five bombs that terrorized Central Texas this month went off in East Austin, where the majority of the city’s black and Hispanic residents live, prompting the police to investigate them as possible hate crimes. When the fourth bomb was planted in an upscale gated and largely white community west of Interstate 35, the issue of race disappeared from most official statements — a fact that has stirred deep resentment among many black residents. The only two people killed, many have been quick to point out, came from two of the city’s most prominent black families.
The debate over how to characterize the bomber’s nearly three-week campaign of violence has been a reminder, for many, of the ways in which race, geography and class continue to play out in a city that prides itself on tolerance and diversity.
Though Austin is widely seen as a liberal island in a deeply conservative state, the attacks have stoked the raw racial, economic, political and geographical divisions that continue to shape life here, 90 years after the city was segregated by decree. Austin and its suburbs remain sharply divided by class, race and even religion. Like Houston, it is an urban, diverse and Democratic hub surrounded by largely white, Republican suburbs, including Pflugerville, Mr. Conditt’s hometown.
https://static.nytimes.com/email-content/RR_427.html?nlid=38867499
The Top 25 HBCU Athletes of All Time
From the Undefeated -
We rank ’em: The Top 25 HBCU athletes of all time
Althea Gibson, Jerry Rice and Earl the Pearl, Sweetness represent the best of HBCU athleticism
BY DONALD HUNT
https://theundefeated.com/features/best-hbcu-athletes-top-25/?ex_cid=ForTheCulture
We rank ’em: The Top 25 HBCU athletes of all time
Althea Gibson, Jerry Rice and Earl the Pearl, Sweetness represent the best of HBCU athleticism
BY DONALD HUNT
https://theundefeated.com/features/best-hbcu-athletes-top-25/?ex_cid=ForTheCulture
A Ballin' Bowler
From the Undefeated -
He’s the only active black bowler to have won a major pro tournament
But Gary Faulkner Jr. is struggling to repeat that success
BY PAUL WACH
https://theundefeated.com/features/gary-faulkner-only-active-black-pba-bowler-to-have-won-a-major-pro-tournament/
He’s the only active black bowler to have won a major pro tournament
But Gary Faulkner Jr. is struggling to repeat that success
BY PAUL WACH
https://theundefeated.com/features/gary-faulkner-only-active-black-pba-bowler-to-have-won-a-major-pro-tournament/
Grandmas Protest in Boise
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/24/1751791/-This-red-state-says-enough-is-enough?detail=emaildkre
Up, Up & Away!
From the Associated Press -
Self-taught rocket scientist blasts off into California sky
By PAT GRAHAM and MICHAEL BALSAMO
https://apnews.com/870b745abdfe41dfa3bb79b49d60f117
Self-taught rocket scientist blasts off into California sky
By PAT GRAHAM and MICHAEL BALSAMO
https://apnews.com/870b745abdfe41dfa3bb79b49d60f117
Number 4 is CRAZY!
From Buzzfeed -
26 People Who Have WAAAAAY More $$$ Than You Ever Even Thought
Celine deserves it, though.
By Matt Stopera
https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/26-people-who-have-waaaaay-more-than-you-ever-even-thought?utm_term=.ro90gBXeJ#.xe5L20wbz
26 People Who Have WAAAAAY More $$$ Than You Ever Even Thought
Celine deserves it, though.
By Matt Stopera
https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/26-people-who-have-waaaaay-more-than-you-ever-even-thought?utm_term=.ro90gBXeJ#.xe5L20wbz
Saturday, March 24, 2018
Between a Rock & a Hard Place
An excerpt from the Associated Press -
District arms teachers with rocks in case of school shooter
By KRISTEN DE GROOT
A rural school district in Pennsylvania is arming teachers and students with buckets of rocks as a last resort should an armed intruder burst in, the superintendent said Friday.
Every classroom in the district about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia has a 5-gallon bucket of river stones, said Blue Mountain School District Superintendent David Helsel.
“We always strive to find new ways to keep our students safe,” Helsel told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, adding that the rocks are one small part of the district’s overall security plan.
Throwing rocks is more effective than just crawling under desks and waiting, and it gives students and teachers a chance to defend themselves, he said. The district has about 2,700 students at three elementary schools, a middle school and a high school.
Staff and students in the Blue Mountain district have been trained in a program called “ALICE” which stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate. Helsel said the rocks are part of the “counter” portion of training, fighting back if the intruder makes his way into the classroom.
The buckets are kept in classroom closets.
https://apnews.com/1bc6a265cddf4ec19001a00cfb92fd7e
District arms teachers with rocks in case of school shooter
By KRISTEN DE GROOT
A rural school district in Pennsylvania is arming teachers and students with buckets of rocks as a last resort should an armed intruder burst in, the superintendent said Friday.
Every classroom in the district about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia has a 5-gallon bucket of river stones, said Blue Mountain School District Superintendent David Helsel.
“We always strive to find new ways to keep our students safe,” Helsel told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, adding that the rocks are one small part of the district’s overall security plan.
Throwing rocks is more effective than just crawling under desks and waiting, and it gives students and teachers a chance to defend themselves, he said. The district has about 2,700 students at three elementary schools, a middle school and a high school.
Staff and students in the Blue Mountain district have been trained in a program called “ALICE” which stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate. Helsel said the rocks are part of the “counter” portion of training, fighting back if the intruder makes his way into the classroom.
The buckets are kept in classroom closets.
https://apnews.com/1bc6a265cddf4ec19001a00cfb92fd7e
Filed Under: How to Survive in America
An excerpt form the Root -
An Incomplete List of Things Black People Should Avoid Doing so They Won’t Be Killed by Police
By Michael Harriot
On Sunday, March 18, police in Sacramento, Calif., fired 20 shots at Stephon Clark, killing him. Clark was unarmed and in his own backyard, leading many to ask what black people must do to escape the indiscriminate killing of black people.
A 2015 study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, showed that there is no relationship between criminality and race in police killings. A study by the Center for Policing Equity concluded (pdf) that police use more force against black suspects even when the data was adjusted for whether the person was a violent criminal.
To combat this deadly epidemic, we put together a handy guide to help black people end this trend that disproportionately affects black people. Here are the things you should avoid doing when police are around:
Running: Stephon Clark was unarmed, but he ran. We learned from the deaths of Walter Scott and Freddie Gray that running away from police is both a criminal offense and an act of aggression.
Walking: Amadou Diallo was simply walking to his apartment. When Chicago Police Detective Dante Servin shot Rekia Boyd, she was not involved in any crime or altercation. She just happened to be walking by. Terence Crutcher was shot in the back when he was killed by Tulsa, Okla., Police Officer Betty Shelby.
All three victims were unarmed.
https://www.theroot.com/an-incomplete-list-of-things-black-people-should-avoid-1824032408
An Incomplete List of Things Black People Should Avoid Doing so They Won’t Be Killed by Police
By Michael Harriot
On Sunday, March 18, police in Sacramento, Calif., fired 20 shots at Stephon Clark, killing him. Clark was unarmed and in his own backyard, leading many to ask what black people must do to escape the indiscriminate killing of black people.
A 2015 study by researchers at the University of California, Davis, showed that there is no relationship between criminality and race in police killings. A study by the Center for Policing Equity concluded (pdf) that police use more force against black suspects even when the data was adjusted for whether the person was a violent criminal.
To combat this deadly epidemic, we put together a handy guide to help black people end this trend that disproportionately affects black people. Here are the things you should avoid doing when police are around:
Running: Stephon Clark was unarmed, but he ran. We learned from the deaths of Walter Scott and Freddie Gray that running away from police is both a criminal offense and an act of aggression.
Walking: Amadou Diallo was simply walking to his apartment. When Chicago Police Detective Dante Servin shot Rekia Boyd, she was not involved in any crime or altercation. She just happened to be walking by. Terence Crutcher was shot in the back when he was killed by Tulsa, Okla., Police Officer Betty Shelby.
All three victims were unarmed.
https://www.theroot.com/an-incomplete-list-of-things-black-people-should-avoid-1824032408
"A Cabal of Cronies"
An excerpt from the Huffington Post -
Trump Wants His Cabinet To Serve His Ego, Not The Nation
By Neil J. Young, Columnist
All of these moves undercut Trump’s businessman boasts that he would bring only the “best people” to Washington, of course. But they also make plain that the real business of this administration is to serve Trump’s ego rather than the nation. In cutting out dissenters or even strong counterweights in his administration for the steady stream of sycophants and, let’s not forget, fawning family members he has gathered around him, Trump has ensured his White House will never be mistaken for Abraham Lincoln’s “team of rivals.” Instead, Trump is assembling a cabal of cronies.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-young-trump-cabinet_us_5ab51bbbe4b0decad0497fca?ncid=APPLENEWS00001
Trump Wants His Cabinet To Serve His Ego, Not The Nation
By Neil J. Young, Columnist
All of these moves undercut Trump’s businessman boasts that he would bring only the “best people” to Washington, of course. But they also make plain that the real business of this administration is to serve Trump’s ego rather than the nation. In cutting out dissenters or even strong counterweights in his administration for the steady stream of sycophants and, let’s not forget, fawning family members he has gathered around him, Trump has ensured his White House will never be mistaken for Abraham Lincoln’s “team of rivals.” Instead, Trump is assembling a cabal of cronies.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-young-trump-cabinet_us_5ab51bbbe4b0decad0497fca?ncid=APPLENEWS00001
Suffering or Inconvenienced?
An excerpt from the Sacramento Bee -
Mad about Stephon Clark protesters shutting down the Kings and I-5? Check your privilege
BY ERIKA D. SMITH
Dear well-meaning progressives of Sacramento:
So I hear you’re a little upset about the way, on Thursday, some people — OK, people with Black Lives Matter — were peacefully protesting the police shooting of Stephon Clark.
I know, I know. You’re as troubled as any other "woke" progressive about his death on Sunday night. The 22-year-old father of two shouldn’t have died the way he did, standing in his grandmother’s backyard in Meadowview after being chased down by two cops and a helicopter.
You think it’s unacceptable that the officers didn’t identify themselves before shouting “gun” and sending 20 bullets flying through the dark toward his body. And you’re suspicious about why, after the shooting, cops at the scene turned off the microphones on their body cameras and had a conversation amongst themselves for a couple of minutes.
~~~~~~~~~~
First of all, let's get one thing straight: Being inconvenienced for one day or even two is not “suffering,” a word I’ve heard far too many times since Thursday. “Suffering” is what Clark’s family is doing right now. "Suffering" is what young black men do all over this country, living with the fear of their lives being taken by gun violence.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/erika-d-smith/article206567754.html#storylink=cpy
Mad about Stephon Clark protesters shutting down the Kings and I-5? Check your privilege
BY ERIKA D. SMITH
Dear well-meaning progressives of Sacramento:
So I hear you’re a little upset about the way, on Thursday, some people — OK, people with Black Lives Matter — were peacefully protesting the police shooting of Stephon Clark.
I know, I know. You’re as troubled as any other "woke" progressive about his death on Sunday night. The 22-year-old father of two shouldn’t have died the way he did, standing in his grandmother’s backyard in Meadowview after being chased down by two cops and a helicopter.
You think it’s unacceptable that the officers didn’t identify themselves before shouting “gun” and sending 20 bullets flying through the dark toward his body. And you’re suspicious about why, after the shooting, cops at the scene turned off the microphones on their body cameras and had a conversation amongst themselves for a couple of minutes.
~~~~~~~~~~
First of all, let's get one thing straight: Being inconvenienced for one day or even two is not “suffering,” a word I’ve heard far too many times since Thursday. “Suffering” is what Clark’s family is doing right now. "Suffering" is what young black men do all over this country, living with the fear of their lives being taken by gun violence.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/erika-d-smith/article206567754.html#storylink=cpy
Friday, March 23, 2018
New Weather Man
An excerpt form the New York Post -
Comedian Byron Allen buys the Weather Channel for $300M
By Alexandra Steigrad
The Weather Channel TV network was sold Thursday — to comedian-turned-media-mogul Byron Allen.
Allen’s Entertainment Studios Inc. bought the 36-year-old TV staple from the Blackstone Group, Bain Capital and Comcast.
Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but sources pegged the price at about $300 million.
https://nypost.com/2018/03/22/comedian-byron-allen-buys-the-weather-channel-for-300m/?utm_source=email_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons
Comedian Byron Allen buys the Weather Channel for $300M
By Alexandra Steigrad
 | |||
| Byron Allen - WireImage |
The Weather Channel TV network was sold Thursday — to comedian-turned-media-mogul Byron Allen.
Allen’s Entertainment Studios Inc. bought the 36-year-old TV staple from the Blackstone Group, Bain Capital and Comcast.
Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but sources pegged the price at about $300 million.
https://nypost.com/2018/03/22/comedian-byron-allen-buys-the-weather-channel-for-300m/?utm_source=email_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Mystery Solved
From CNN -
The identity of the lone woman scientist in this 1971 photo was a mystery. Then Twitter cracked the case
By David Williams
Illustrator Candace Jean Andersen was doing some research for a children's book on orcas when she stumbled into a mystery.
In an old article, she discovered a photo of scientists at the 1971 International Conference on the Biology of Whales in Virginia. And she noticed so
The article named all the men, but the African-American woman was listed as "not identified."
"Not identified, why? Who is she? What did she contribute to the conference? What's HER story?" Andersen wondered.
She put down her picture book project and started looking.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/health/woman-scientist-1971-twitter-mystery-trnd/index.html
The identity of the lone woman scientist in this 1971 photo was a mystery. Then Twitter cracked the case
By David Williams
 |
| This lone woman at a 1971 gathering of scientists sparked a flurry of amateur sleuthing on Twitter. |
Illustrator Candace Jean Andersen was doing some research for a children's book on orcas when she stumbled into a mystery.
In an old article, she discovered a photo of scientists at the 1971 International Conference on the Biology of Whales in Virginia. And she noticed so
The article named all the men, but the African-American woman was listed as "not identified."
"Not identified, why? Who is she? What did she contribute to the conference? What's HER story?" Andersen wondered.
She put down her picture book project and started looking.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/20/health/woman-scientist-1971-twitter-mystery-trnd/index.html
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Teacher Salaries
From NPR -
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/03/16/592221378/the-fight-over-teacher-salaries-a-look-at-the-numbers#nws=mcnewsletter
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/03/16/592221378/the-fight-over-teacher-salaries-a-look-at-the-numbers#nws=mcnewsletter
Monday, March 19, 2018
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Daily Affirmations From the White House
From the NY Times -
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/opinion/sunday/daily-affirmations-from-the-white-house.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/opinion/sunday/daily-affirmations-from-the-white-house.html
More Sac Love
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
You’re going where? Sacramento
By Megan McDonough
California’s capital city has long lived in the shadows of its flashier neighbors. Sandwiched between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, “Sac,” as the locals call it, is often underestimated and overlooked as a small and sleepy cow town — a rest stop on the way to greener and glitzier pastures. But thanks to the downtown revitalization and the rousing success of “Lady Bird” — Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-nominated homage to her home town — Sacramento has been suddenly, and rightfully, thrust into the spotlight.
Following in the footsteps of the Forty-Niners , I came to Sacramento with the aim of striking it rich. My mission: to mine the city’s treasures while home for the holidays in December. Technically, I was born in Sacramento, but I grew up about 20 minutes away in Davis. And while my teenage self would make regular pilgrimages to the city’s thrift stores and shopping centers, I didn’t fully appreciate what the City of Trees had to offer.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/classic-apps/youre-going-where-sacramento/2018/03/14/3aaf23ce-20bf-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?utm_term=.3d7554376760
You’re going where? Sacramento
By Megan McDonough
California’s capital city has long lived in the shadows of its flashier neighbors. Sandwiched between San Francisco and Lake Tahoe, “Sac,” as the locals call it, is often underestimated and overlooked as a small and sleepy cow town — a rest stop on the way to greener and glitzier pastures. But thanks to the downtown revitalization and the rousing success of “Lady Bird” — Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-nominated homage to her home town — Sacramento has been suddenly, and rightfully, thrust into the spotlight.
Following in the footsteps of the Forty-Niners , I came to Sacramento with the aim of striking it rich. My mission: to mine the city’s treasures while home for the holidays in December. Technically, I was born in Sacramento, but I grew up about 20 minutes away in Davis. And while my teenage self would make regular pilgrimages to the city’s thrift stores and shopping centers, I didn’t fully appreciate what the City of Trees had to offer.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/classic-apps/youre-going-where-sacramento/2018/03/14/3aaf23ce-20bf-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?utm_term=.3d7554376760
Quote
When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America...America will triumph over you. - Ex-CIA Boss John Brennan
SacTown Innovators
An excerpt from SacTown Magazine -
Local eye-care company launches new line of fitness-tracking spectacles
BY HILLARY LOUISE JOHNSON
Step into The Shop, the midtown innovation lab for local eye care giant VSP Global, and you’re in nerd heaven, a place where kids who were called “four-eyes” in high school exact sweet revenge by changing the world through technology. Take Level, for instance: a new line of fitness-tracking glasses developed by The Shop and tested by 300 individuals through USC’s Center for Body Computing.
The project was conceived four years ago, but was so ahead of its time that the team had to wait for chip technology to get smaller and more economical. “It could be no more expensive than any other pair of glasses," says the lab’s co-director Jay Sales. "On top of that, it had to be fashionable—as elegant as it is effective.” Level’s sleek $270 frames currently come in three styles, named after innovators Nikola Tesla, Marvin Minsky and Hedy Lamarr.
http://www.sactownmag.com/Style-Watch/2018/Level-up-with-VSPs-new-fitness-tracking-eyewear/
Local eye-care company launches new line of fitness-tracking spectacles
BY HILLARY LOUISE JOHNSON
Step into The Shop, the midtown innovation lab for local eye care giant VSP Global, and you’re in nerd heaven, a place where kids who were called “four-eyes” in high school exact sweet revenge by changing the world through technology. Take Level, for instance: a new line of fitness-tracking glasses developed by The Shop and tested by 300 individuals through USC’s Center for Body Computing.
The project was conceived four years ago, but was so ahead of its time that the team had to wait for chip technology to get smaller and more economical. “It could be no more expensive than any other pair of glasses," says the lab’s co-director Jay Sales. "On top of that, it had to be fashionable—as elegant as it is effective.” Level’s sleek $270 frames currently come in three styles, named after innovators Nikola Tesla, Marvin Minsky and Hedy Lamarr.
http://www.sactownmag.com/Style-Watch/2018/Level-up-with-VSPs-new-fitness-tracking-eyewear/
Saturday, March 17, 2018
On the List of Things To Do
An excerpt from ProPublica -
The FBI — ‘Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity’ — Still Working on Diversity
The nation’s top federal law enforcement agency is overwhelmingly white, and its top officials acknowledge that’s “a huge operational risk.”
by Topher Sanders
For the FBI, the longstanding failure to diversify its ranks is nothing short of “a huge operational risk,” according to one senior official, something that compromises the agency’s ability to understand communities at risk, penetrate criminal enterprises, and identify emerging national security threats.
Indeed, 10 months before being fired as director of the FBI by President Trump, James Comey called the situation a “crisis.”
“Slowly but steadily over the last decade or more, the percentage of special agents in the FBI who are white has been growing,” Comey said in a speech at Bethune-Cookman University, a historically black school in Daytona Beach, Florida. “I’ve got nothing against white people — especially tall, awkward, male white people — but that is a crisis for reasons that you get, and that I’ve worked very hard to make sure the entire FBI understands.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-fbi-fidelity-bravery-integrity-still-working-on-diversity?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter
The FBI — ‘Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity’ — Still Working on Diversity
The nation’s top federal law enforcement agency is overwhelmingly white, and its top officials acknowledge that’s “a huge operational risk.”
by Topher Sanders
For the FBI, the longstanding failure to diversify its ranks is nothing short of “a huge operational risk,” according to one senior official, something that compromises the agency’s ability to understand communities at risk, penetrate criminal enterprises, and identify emerging national security threats.
Indeed, 10 months before being fired as director of the FBI by President Trump, James Comey called the situation a “crisis.”
“Slowly but steadily over the last decade or more, the percentage of special agents in the FBI who are white has been growing,” Comey said in a speech at Bethune-Cookman University, a historically black school in Daytona Beach, Florida. “I’ve got nothing against white people — especially tall, awkward, male white people — but that is a crisis for reasons that you get, and that I’ve worked very hard to make sure the entire FBI understands.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-fbi-fidelity-bravery-integrity-still-working-on-diversity?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter
Good From Evil
From the Washington Post -
I posted a huge note for the thief who stole my bike. Then my doorbell rang.
By Amanda Needham
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2018/03/16/i-posted-a-huge-note-for-the-thief-who-stole-my-bike-then-my-doorbell-rang/?utm_term=.1b18bbde70f7
I posted a huge note for the thief who stole my bike. Then my doorbell rang.
By Amanda Needham
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2018/03/16/i-posted-a-huge-note-for-the-thief-who-stole-my-bike-then-my-doorbell-rang/?utm_term=.1b18bbde70f7
#NeverAgain
#WhatIf we could go to school without fearing for our lives? Join us on March 24th and visit https://t.co/SrCltJsrBH #NeverAgain pic.twitter.com/iXmCNFOrVj— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 16, 2018
Friday, March 16, 2018
STEM is a Necessity
An excerpt from the Huffington Post -
Mae Jemison: Diversity In STEM Isn’t A Nicety, It’s A Necessity
The first African-American woman in space discusses her agricultural science initiative.
By Taylor Pittman
Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, knows firsthand the importance of exposing kids to STEM topics early. She also knows the significance of having kids see themselves in movies, on TV, and in certain careers.
“It means making sure that people get those images that show they have those things available to them,” Jemison told HuffPost.
Jemison is collaborating on “Science Matters,” an initiative to encourage kids of all ages and backgrounds to pursue agricultural science from pharmaceutical and life science company Bayer and youth development organization National 4-H Council. Jemison, a physician and chemical engineer, knows the field of agricultural science can sound intimidating, but she and Jennifer Sirangelo, CEO and president of the National 4-H Council, have set out to change that.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mae-jemison-diversity-in-stem_us_5aa820ade4b001c8bf147eae
Mae Jemison: Diversity In STEM Isn’t A Nicety, It’s A Necessity
The first African-American woman in space discusses her agricultural science initiative.
By Taylor Pittman
Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, knows firsthand the importance of exposing kids to STEM topics early. She also knows the significance of having kids see themselves in movies, on TV, and in certain careers.
“It means making sure that people get those images that show they have those things available to them,” Jemison told HuffPost.
Jemison is collaborating on “Science Matters,” an initiative to encourage kids of all ages and backgrounds to pursue agricultural science from pharmaceutical and life science company Bayer and youth development organization National 4-H Council. Jemison, a physician and chemical engineer, knows the field of agricultural science can sound intimidating, but she and Jennifer Sirangelo, CEO and president of the National 4-H Council, have set out to change that.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mae-jemison-diversity-in-stem_us_5aa820ade4b001c8bf147eae
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Target Lovers
From the Huffington Post -
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hilarious-tweets-for-parents-who-love-target_us_5a904ee8e4b03b55731be2e8
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hilarious-tweets-for-parents-who-love-target_us_5a904ee8e4b03b55731be2e8
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
NatGeo Admits Racist Coverage
An excerpt from the Associated Press -
National Geographic acknowledges past racist coverage
By JESSE J. HOLLAND
WASHINGTON (AP) — National Geographic acknowledged on Monday that it covered the world through a racist lens for generations, with its magazine portrayals of bare-breasted women and naive brown-skinned tribesmen as savage, unsophisticated and unintelligent.
“We had to own our story to move beyond it,” editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg told The Associated Press in an interview about the yellow-bordered magazine’s April issue, which is devoted to race.
National Geographic first published its magazine in 1888. An investigation conducted last fall by University of Virginia photography historian John Edwin Mason showed that until the 1970s, it virtually ignored people of color in the United States who were not domestics or laborers, and it reinforced repeatedly the idea that people of color from foreign lands were “exotics, famously and frequently unclothed, happy hunters, noble savages_every type of cliché.”
For example, in a 1916 article about Australia, the caption on a photo of two Aboriginal people read: “South Australian Blackfellows: These savages rank lowest in intelligence of all human beings.”
https://apnews.com/52098332431c4ef1be3046487451684e
National Geographic acknowledges past racist coverage
By JESSE J. HOLLAND
WASHINGTON (AP) — National Geographic acknowledged on Monday that it covered the world through a racist lens for generations, with its magazine portrayals of bare-breasted women and naive brown-skinned tribesmen as savage, unsophisticated and unintelligent.
“We had to own our story to move beyond it,” editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg told The Associated Press in an interview about the yellow-bordered magazine’s April issue, which is devoted to race.
National Geographic first published its magazine in 1888. An investigation conducted last fall by University of Virginia photography historian John Edwin Mason showed that until the 1970s, it virtually ignored people of color in the United States who were not domestics or laborers, and it reinforced repeatedly the idea that people of color from foreign lands were “exotics, famously and frequently unclothed, happy hunters, noble savages_every type of cliché.”
For example, in a 1916 article about Australia, the caption on a photo of two Aboriginal people read: “South Australian Blackfellows: These savages rank lowest in intelligence of all human beings.”
https://apnews.com/52098332431c4ef1be3046487451684e
Back & White Twins
From the National Geographic -
These Twins, One Black and One White, Will Make You Rethink Race
Marcia and Millie Biggs say they’ve never been subjected to racism—just curiosity and surprise that twins could have such different skin colors.
By Patricia Edmonds
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/race-twins-black-white-biggs/
These Twins, One Black and One White, Will Make You Rethink Race
Marcia and Millie Biggs say they’ve never been subjected to racism—just curiosity and surprise that twins could have such different skin colors.
By Patricia Edmonds
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/race-twins-black-white-biggs/
 | ||
| Marcia (left) and Millie Biggs, both 11, say people are shocked to learn that they’re fraternal twins. Marcia looks more like their mother, who’s English born, and Millie looks more like their father, who’s of Jamaican descent. PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBIN HAMMOND |
Monday, March 12, 2018
Wakanda Forever
From Slate -
Black Athletes Have Started Celebrating Their Victories With the “Wakanda Forever” Salute from Black Panther
By MATTHEW DESSEM
https://slate.com/culture/2018/03/black-athletes-have-started-celebrating-their-victories-with-the-wakanda-forever-salute.html
Black Athletes Have Started Celebrating Their Victories With the “Wakanda Forever” Salute from Black Panther
By MATTHEW DESSEM
https://slate.com/culture/2018/03/black-athletes-have-started-celebrating-their-victories-with-the-wakanda-forever-salute.html
Playcousin to the Rescue
An excerpt from the Root -
How My Playcousin Stopped a Mass Shooting and Disproved the Myth about Good Guys With Guns
By Michael Harriot
To understand this story, you must first know the hierarchy of the Black family tree. There are black people across this country who have blood relatives they don’t know about, including sisters, brothers and sometimes parents. Ranking higher than any DNA-based relationship is the earned honorific of “playcousin.” A playcousin is a defacto sibling. It is more family member than actual family.
When I was growing up, my mother’s best friend had four children. She was as much my aunt as any of my mother’s sisters. Her husband was one of the scant few in-house fathers in my neighborhood, and he was a hulking figure of a man who still calls me “professor.” Like my family, they had three girls and only one of their children was a boy. His name was Heyward Jackson, Jr. but in most black neighborhoods, birth names are as malleable as DNA and often give way to nicknames.
We call him “Junie Poonie.”
https://www.theroot.com/how-my-playcousin-stopped-a-mass-shooting-and-disproved-1823669955
How My Playcousin Stopped a Mass Shooting and Disproved the Myth about Good Guys With Guns
By Michael Harriot
To understand this story, you must first know the hierarchy of the Black family tree. There are black people across this country who have blood relatives they don’t know about, including sisters, brothers and sometimes parents. Ranking higher than any DNA-based relationship is the earned honorific of “playcousin.” A playcousin is a defacto sibling. It is more family member than actual family.
When I was growing up, my mother’s best friend had four children. She was as much my aunt as any of my mother’s sisters. Her husband was one of the scant few in-house fathers in my neighborhood, and he was a hulking figure of a man who still calls me “professor.” Like my family, they had three girls and only one of their children was a boy. His name was Heyward Jackson, Jr. but in most black neighborhoods, birth names are as malleable as DNA and often give way to nicknames.
We call him “Junie Poonie.”
https://www.theroot.com/how-my-playcousin-stopped-a-mass-shooting-and-disproved-1823669955
An Open Letter
From the Root -
An Open Letter to Kenya Barris Begging Him to Leak the Banned Episode of Black-ish
By Michael Harriot
https://www.theroot.com/an-open-letter-to-kenya-barris-to-begging-him-to-leak-t-1823681303
An Open Letter to Kenya Barris Begging Him to Leak the Banned Episode of Black-ish
By Michael Harriot
https://www.theroot.com/an-open-letter-to-kenya-barris-to-begging-him-to-leak-t-1823681303
The Perfect Crime
From Now I Know -
http://nowiknow.com/how-a-nearly-perfect-crime-became-perfect-again/
http://nowiknow.com/how-a-nearly-perfect-crime-became-perfect-again/
True Diversity
An excerpt from the NY Times -
Black Kids Don’t Want to Read About Harriet Tubman All the Time
By DENENE MILLNER
I’m pretty sure I hadn’t even wiped the sonogram goop off my belly before I rushed off to pick out dresses and books for my unborn child. I was on a mission: My daughter was going to need all the pink dresses and all the books with brown babies.
Finding adorable dresses was easy. Finding children’s literature with pictures of children of color was not.
Books with white children and, like, ducks, were de rigueur, which I guess was fine for parents who were having white babies or ducks. But this was not going to work for my brown baby, who would spend a lifetime looking for her image in a pop cultural landscape that all but ignored children who looked like her. I wanted — needed — her to see her beautiful brown self reflected in the music and stories I hoped to feed to her as consistently as food. In my house, she would be visible.
Eventually, a friend helped me track down Ezra Jack Keats’s “The Snowy Day,” and the lovely “ ‘More More More,’ Said the Baby.” And my stepson gave his copy of Nikki Giovanni’s “The Sun Is So Quiet” to his baby sister. I eventually discovered the treasure trove that is Just Us Books, and works by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Eloise Greenfield. Still, the pickings were slim.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/opinion/sunday/children-literature-books-blacks.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
http://justusbooksonlinestore.com/index.php
Black Kids Don’t Want to Read About Harriet Tubman All the Time
By DENENE MILLNER
I’m pretty sure I hadn’t even wiped the sonogram goop off my belly before I rushed off to pick out dresses and books for my unborn child. I was on a mission: My daughter was going to need all the pink dresses and all the books with brown babies.
Finding adorable dresses was easy. Finding children’s literature with pictures of children of color was not.
Books with white children and, like, ducks, were de rigueur, which I guess was fine for parents who were having white babies or ducks. But this was not going to work for my brown baby, who would spend a lifetime looking for her image in a pop cultural landscape that all but ignored children who looked like her. I wanted — needed — her to see her beautiful brown self reflected in the music and stories I hoped to feed to her as consistently as food. In my house, she would be visible.
Eventually, a friend helped me track down Ezra Jack Keats’s “The Snowy Day,” and the lovely “ ‘More More More,’ Said the Baby.” And my stepson gave his copy of Nikki Giovanni’s “The Sun Is So Quiet” to his baby sister. I eventually discovered the treasure trove that is Just Us Books, and works by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Eloise Greenfield. Still, the pickings were slim.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/opinion/sunday/children-literature-books-blacks.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
http://justusbooksonlinestore.com/index.php
She Knew
An excerpt from the NY Times -
Melania Knew
By Charles M. Blow
Dear America: Come on, you can’t be serious.
The ongoing saga over a president, a porn star and a payoff is so lewd and tawdry that it can’t simply be added to the ever-expanding list of horrible misbehaviors of a womanizing misogynist.
It’s not even the infidelity that most bothers me. I view that as an issue between spouses and with the other person involved. I contend that we on the outside never really know what understandings may exist in a marriage, unless the two parties within reveal it.
In this case, Melania knew exactly the kind of man she was getting.
When Donald first meets Melania, they are at a New York Fashion Week party to which Donald has been invited by the wealthy Italian businessman who brought Melania to America on a modeling contract and work visa. According to GQ, sometimes, to promote his models, the businessman “would send a few girls to an event and invite photographers, producers, and rich playboys.”
Trump is on a date with another woman that night. He is also in the process of divorcing Marla Maples, his second wife, with whom he had had an affair while still married to his first wife, Ivana Trump.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/11/opinion/melania-trump-stormy.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
Melania Knew
By Charles M. Blow
Dear America: Come on, you can’t be serious.
The ongoing saga over a president, a porn star and a payoff is so lewd and tawdry that it can’t simply be added to the ever-expanding list of horrible misbehaviors of a womanizing misogynist.
It’s not even the infidelity that most bothers me. I view that as an issue between spouses and with the other person involved. I contend that we on the outside never really know what understandings may exist in a marriage, unless the two parties within reveal it.
In this case, Melania knew exactly the kind of man she was getting.
When Donald first meets Melania, they are at a New York Fashion Week party to which Donald has been invited by the wealthy Italian businessman who brought Melania to America on a modeling contract and work visa. According to GQ, sometimes, to promote his models, the businessman “would send a few girls to an event and invite photographers, producers, and rich playboys.”
Trump is on a date with another woman that night. He is also in the process of divorcing Marla Maples, his second wife, with whom he had had an affair while still married to his first wife, Ivana Trump.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/11/opinion/melania-trump-stormy.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
Spot On?
From Business Insider -
8 things science says predict divorce
By Shana Lebowitz
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-know-if-your-marriage-will-end-in-divorce-according-to-science-2017-10
8 things science says predict divorce
By Shana Lebowitz
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-know-if-your-marriage-will-end-in-divorce-according-to-science-2017-10
Sunday, March 11, 2018
What's Old is New Again
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
Meet the latest tourist attractions: Abandoned factories
By Rebecca Powers
Trip-planning multiple choice:
a) Mountains b) Sand c) Surf
d) Factories.
If you picked the last vacation option, you’ve got company.
“We’re finding a hunger,” says Michael Boettcher, an urban planner and industrial-history buff. “Everyone has been to Disney World, and it’s like, what else you got?”
In Japan, it’s popular to take nighttime boat cruises past glittering industrial superstructures. In Germany’s Ruhr industrial powerhouse region, bicyclists meander a landscape that has turned recreational. And in Canada, 1920s wooden grain elevators, dubbed the Five Prairie Giants, draw sightseers to the Manitoba plains.
The appeal? “It gives you a sense of where we’ve been and how that has made us who we are,” Boettcher says.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/industrial-deevolution/2018/03/08/50d57022-1cdc-11e8-9de1-147dd2df3829_story.html?utm_term=.1b3c45c41132&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Meet the latest tourist attractions: Abandoned factories
By Rebecca Powers
Trip-planning multiple choice:
a) Mountains b) Sand c) Surf
d) Factories.
If you picked the last vacation option, you’ve got company.
“We’re finding a hunger,” says Michael Boettcher, an urban planner and industrial-history buff. “Everyone has been to Disney World, and it’s like, what else you got?”
In Japan, it’s popular to take nighttime boat cruises past glittering industrial superstructures. In Germany’s Ruhr industrial powerhouse region, bicyclists meander a landscape that has turned recreational. And in Canada, 1920s wooden grain elevators, dubbed the Five Prairie Giants, draw sightseers to the Manitoba plains.
The appeal? “It gives you a sense of where we’ve been and how that has made us who we are,” Boettcher says.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/industrial-deevolution/2018/03/08/50d57022-1cdc-11e8-9de1-147dd2df3829_story.html?utm_term=.1b3c45c41132&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Brain Damage
An excerpt form the Boston Globe -
Nearly half of Patriots on first 3 Super Bowl-winning teams report brain injuries
By Bob Hohler
Some 42 of about 100 Patriots who were members of New England’s first three Super Bowl title teams have alleged in a landmark class-action concussion suit against the NFL and the helmet maker Riddell that they have experienced symptoms of brain injuries caused by the repetitive head impacts they absorbed in games and practices.
In all, more than 340 former Patriots or their estates have sued the NFL and its former helmet manufacturer. The Globe, using the team’s official all-time roster, has for the first time compiled and analyzed a list of the Patriots who allege they suffered brain injuries on the job since the franchise was founded in 1960.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2018/03/10/nearly-half-patriots-first-super-bowl-winners-report-symptoms-brain-injuries/aXvjJscYPy5Gsjwqc8jdYL/story.html?et_rid=606374700&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter
Nearly half of Patriots on first 3 Super Bowl-winning teams report brain injuries
By Bob Hohler
Some 42 of about 100 Patriots who were members of New England’s first three Super Bowl title teams have alleged in a landmark class-action concussion suit against the NFL and the helmet maker Riddell that they have experienced symptoms of brain injuries caused by the repetitive head impacts they absorbed in games and practices.
In all, more than 340 former Patriots or their estates have sued the NFL and its former helmet manufacturer. The Globe, using the team’s official all-time roster, has for the first time compiled and analyzed a list of the Patriots who allege they suffered brain injuries on the job since the franchise was founded in 1960.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2018/03/10/nearly-half-patriots-first-super-bowl-winners-report-symptoms-brain-injuries/aXvjJscYPy5Gsjwqc8jdYL/story.html?et_rid=606374700&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter
Last Chance School
An excerpt from the Huffington Post -
Uncharted Territory: Inside New York City’s School Of Last Chances
At a charter high school in a high-poverty area of Brooklyn, New York, many kids don’t graduate in four years. Seeing their achievements requires looking beyond the data.
By Rebecca Klein
Howard’s students attend New Visions AIM Charter High School I, a charter high school near the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. The school was created in 2012 under a different name with different management, but with the same audacious mission: to educate the students whom other schools had failed. These are the toughest of students, the kids who have either been in jail, become homeless or live in foster care.
Some kids have experienced all three.
Students who attend AIM I are 15 to 21 years old, the oldest age that a student can attend a public school in New York, by law. Every matriculated child has been held back for at least one grade, and oftentimes has faced insurmountable obstacles in their personal lives.
Last year, with a school of about 200 students, only about 30 graduated, and many had taken more than four years. This number, while representing a huge increase from previous years, falls far short of goals set by state education leaders. While these numbers may paint a picture of failure, the reality is so much more complicated.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-visions_us_5aa2e6dae4b07047bec66970
Uncharted Territory: Inside New York City’s School Of Last Chances
At a charter high school in a high-poverty area of Brooklyn, New York, many kids don’t graduate in four years. Seeing their achievements requires looking beyond the data.
By Rebecca Klein
Howard’s students attend New Visions AIM Charter High School I, a charter high school near the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. The school was created in 2012 under a different name with different management, but with the same audacious mission: to educate the students whom other schools had failed. These are the toughest of students, the kids who have either been in jail, become homeless or live in foster care.
Some kids have experienced all three.
Students who attend AIM I are 15 to 21 years old, the oldest age that a student can attend a public school in New York, by law. Every matriculated child has been held back for at least one grade, and oftentimes has faced insurmountable obstacles in their personal lives.
Last year, with a school of about 200 students, only about 30 graduated, and many had taken more than four years. This number, while representing a huge increase from previous years, falls far short of goals set by state education leaders. While these numbers may paint a picture of failure, the reality is so much more complicated.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-visions_us_5aa2e6dae4b07047bec66970
Saturday, March 10, 2018
Great Women Who Were Overlooked
From the NY Times -
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed
Friday, March 9, 2018
He Needed a Break
An excerpt from the Verge -
Burger-flipping robot takes four-day break immediately after landing new job
Robots, they’re just like us
By James Vincent
Good news if you’re worried about a robot taking your job: it turns out even mechanical laborers need a break.
Only a single shift into its career at the CaliBurger restaurant in Pasadena, California, this week, Flippy the robot burger-flipper is going on hiatus, reports USA Today. The bot, created by startup Miso Robotics, made its debut earlier this week assisting in CaliBurger’s kitchen by flipping patties on the grill. According to reports, the robot did its job well but was such a hit with customers that Miso Robotics is giving Flippy time off over the weekend for some upgrades.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/8/17095730/robot-burger-flipping-fast-food-caliburger-miso-robotics-flippy
Burger-flipping robot takes four-day break immediately after landing new job
Robots, they’re just like us
By James Vincent
Good news if you’re worried about a robot taking your job: it turns out even mechanical laborers need a break.
Only a single shift into its career at the CaliBurger restaurant in Pasadena, California, this week, Flippy the robot burger-flipper is going on hiatus, reports USA Today. The bot, created by startup Miso Robotics, made its debut earlier this week assisting in CaliBurger’s kitchen by flipping patties on the grill. According to reports, the robot did its job well but was such a hit with customers that Miso Robotics is giving Flippy time off over the weekend for some upgrades.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/8/17095730/robot-burger-flipping-fast-food-caliburger-miso-robotics-flippy
Penguin Selfie
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2018/03/08/these-penguins-found-a-camera-in-antarctica-and-captured-a-surprisingly-good-selfie/?utm_term=.d059e49b7b9d
Rethinking Prisons
An excerpt form the NY Times -
Turn Prisons Into Colleges
By ELIZABETH HINTON
Imagine if prisons looked like the grounds of universities. Instead of languishing in cells, incarcerated people sat in classrooms and learned about climate science or poetry — just like college students. Or even with them.
This would be a boon to prisoners across the country, a vast majority of whom do not have a high school diploma. And it could help shrink our prison population. While racial disparities in arrests and convictions are alarming, education level is a far stronger predictor of future incarceration than race.
The idea is rooted in history. In the 1920s, Howard Belding Gill, a criminologist and a Harvard alumnus, developed a college-like community at the Norfolk State Prison Colony in Massachusetts, where he was the superintendent. Prisoners wore normal clothing, participated in cooperative self-government with staff, and took academic courses with instructors from Emerson, Boston University and Harvard. They ran a newspaper, radio show and jazz orchestra, and they had access to an extensive library.
Norfolk had such a good reputation, Malcolm X asked to be transferred there from Charlestown State Prison in Boston so, as he wrote in his petition, he could use “the educational facilities that aren’t in these other institutions.” At Norfolk, “there are many things that I would like to learn that would be of use to me when I regain my freedom.” After Malcolm X’s request was granted, he joined the famous Norfolk Debate Society, through which inmates connected to students at Harvard and other universities.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/opinion/prisons-colleges-education.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed
Turn Prisons Into Colleges
By ELIZABETH HINTON
Imagine if prisons looked like the grounds of universities. Instead of languishing in cells, incarcerated people sat in classrooms and learned about climate science or poetry — just like college students. Or even with them.
This would be a boon to prisoners across the country, a vast majority of whom do not have a high school diploma. And it could help shrink our prison population. While racial disparities in arrests and convictions are alarming, education level is a far stronger predictor of future incarceration than race.
The idea is rooted in history. In the 1920s, Howard Belding Gill, a criminologist and a Harvard alumnus, developed a college-like community at the Norfolk State Prison Colony in Massachusetts, where he was the superintendent. Prisoners wore normal clothing, participated in cooperative self-government with staff, and took academic courses with instructors from Emerson, Boston University and Harvard. They ran a newspaper, radio show and jazz orchestra, and they had access to an extensive library.
Norfolk had such a good reputation, Malcolm X asked to be transferred there from Charlestown State Prison in Boston so, as he wrote in his petition, he could use “the educational facilities that aren’t in these other institutions.” At Norfolk, “there are many things that I would like to learn that would be of use to me when I regain my freedom.” After Malcolm X’s request was granted, he joined the famous Norfolk Debate Society, through which inmates connected to students at Harvard and other universities.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/opinion/prisons-colleges-education.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed
Girls Ruling the World
From the Huffington Post -
16 Girls Who Changed The World
Proof you’re never too young to make an impact.
By Caroline Bologna
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/16-girls-who-changed-the-world_us_5a8f4f09e4b01e9e56b9e26c
16 Girls Who Changed The World
Proof you’re never too young to make an impact.
By Caroline Bologna
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/16-girls-who-changed-the-world_us_5a8f4f09e4b01e9e56b9e26c
The Wire Cast - Where Are They Now?
From Complex -
Ranking the Careers of 'The Wire' Cast, 10 Years After the Series Finale
BY KHAL, DRIA ROLAND, FRAZIER THARPE, BRANDON JENKINS, KIANA FITZGERALD, SHAWN SETARO, ANGEL DIAZ
http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2018/03/the-wire-character-career-ranking-after-series-finale/
Ranking the Careers of 'The Wire' Cast, 10 Years After the Series Finale
BY KHAL, DRIA ROLAND, FRAZIER THARPE, BRANDON JENKINS, KIANA FITZGERALD, SHAWN SETARO, ANGEL DIAZ
http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2018/03/the-wire-character-career-ranking-after-series-finale/
Blacks Leaving White Churches
From the NY Times -
A Quiet Exodus: Why Black Worshipers Are Leaving White Evangelical Churches
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Black congregants — as recounted by people in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Fort Worth and elsewhere — had already grown uneasy in recent years as they watched their white pastors fail to address police shootings of African-Americans. They heard prayers for Paris, for Brussels, for law enforcement; they heard that one should keep one’s eyes on the kingdom, that the church was colorblind, and that talk of racial injustice was divisive, not a matter of the gospel. There was still some hope that this stemmed from an obliviousness rather than some deeper disconnect.
Then white evangelicals voted for Mr. Trump by a larger margin than they had voted for any presidential candidate. They cheered the outcome, reassuring uneasy fellow worshipers with talk of abortion and religious liberty, about how politics is the art of compromise rather than the ideal. Christians of color, even those who shared these policy preferences, looked at Mr. Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants, his open hostility to N.F.L. players protesting police brutality and his earlier “birther” crusade against President Obama, claiming falsely he was not a United States citizen. In this political deal, many concluded, they were the compromised.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/09/us/blacks-evangelical-churches.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
A Quiet Exodus: Why Black Worshipers Are Leaving White Evangelical Churches
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Black congregants — as recounted by people in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Fort Worth and elsewhere — had already grown uneasy in recent years as they watched their white pastors fail to address police shootings of African-Americans. They heard prayers for Paris, for Brussels, for law enforcement; they heard that one should keep one’s eyes on the kingdom, that the church was colorblind, and that talk of racial injustice was divisive, not a matter of the gospel. There was still some hope that this stemmed from an obliviousness rather than some deeper disconnect.
Then white evangelicals voted for Mr. Trump by a larger margin than they had voted for any presidential candidate. They cheered the outcome, reassuring uneasy fellow worshipers with talk of abortion and religious liberty, about how politics is the art of compromise rather than the ideal. Christians of color, even those who shared these policy preferences, looked at Mr. Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants, his open hostility to N.F.L. players protesting police brutality and his earlier “birther” crusade against President Obama, claiming falsely he was not a United States citizen. In this political deal, many concluded, they were the compromised.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/09/us/blacks-evangelical-churches.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
Thursday, March 8, 2018
Demanding Less
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
Hundreds of Canadian doctors demand lower salaries. (Yes, lower.)
By Amy B Wang
In a move that can only be described as utterly Canadian, hundreds of doctors in Quebec are protesting their pay raises, saying they already make too much money.
As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 700 physicians, residents and medical students from the Canadian province had signed an online petition asking for their pay raises to be canceled. A group named Médecins Québécois Pour le Régime Public (MQRP), which represents Quebec doctors and advocates for public health, started the petition Feb. 25.
“We, Quebec doctors who believe in a strong public system, oppose the recent salary increases negotiated by our medical federations,” the petition reads in French.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/03/07/hundreds-of-canadian-doctors-demand-lower-salaries/?utm_term=.722bfe351051
Hundreds of Canadian doctors demand lower salaries. (Yes, lower.)
By Amy B Wang
In a move that can only be described as utterly Canadian, hundreds of doctors in Quebec are protesting their pay raises, saying they already make too much money.
As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 700 physicians, residents and medical students from the Canadian province had signed an online petition asking for their pay raises to be canceled. A group named Médecins Québécois Pour le Régime Public (MQRP), which represents Quebec doctors and advocates for public health, started the petition Feb. 25.
“We, Quebec doctors who believe in a strong public system, oppose the recent salary increases negotiated by our medical federations,” the petition reads in French.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/03/07/hundreds-of-canadian-doctors-demand-lower-salaries/?utm_term=.722bfe351051
Whoopi's Shoes
From Buzzfeed -
https://www.buzzfeed.com/morganmurrell/whoopi-goldberg-insane-shoe-collection?utm_term=.wwbqYN9K1G#.kawQrYLovG
https://www.buzzfeed.com/morganmurrell/whoopi-goldberg-insane-shoe-collection?utm_term=.wwbqYN9K1G#.kawQrYLovG
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
Best Burger Joint
From Business Insider -
We put In-N-Out and Five Guys to the test in a battle of the burger chains — and the winner surprised us
By Melia Robinson
http://www.businessinsider.com/review-in-n-out-versus-five-guys-showdown-2018-1
We put In-N-Out and Five Guys to the test in a battle of the burger chains — and the winner surprised us
By Melia Robinson
http://www.businessinsider.com/review-in-n-out-versus-five-guys-showdown-2018-1
Deion Sanders couldn’t believe his eyes by this deceptively fast and sneaky athletic defensive back pic.twitter.com/1BfDrV4Q9N— Laces Out (@LacesOutShow) March 5, 2018
Monday, March 5, 2018
Saturday, March 3, 2018
The Token Ones
From the Undefeated -
From ‘Dawson’s Creek’ to ‘Buffy’ to ‘Frasier’ to ‘Seinfeld’ — what happened to those lone, ‘token’ black actors?
Eight talents tell stories of offensive scripts, stunt people in blackface and the heartbreak — and hope — of portraying Thug No. 2 and the dope dealer’s girlfriend
BY KEITH MURPHY
https://theundefeated.com/features/90s-token-black-actors-phil-morris-bianca-lawson-kim-coles/
From ‘Dawson’s Creek’ to ‘Buffy’ to ‘Frasier’ to ‘Seinfeld’ — what happened to those lone, ‘token’ black actors?
Eight talents tell stories of offensive scripts, stunt people in blackface and the heartbreak — and hope — of portraying Thug No. 2 and the dope dealer’s girlfriend
BY KEITH MURPHY
https://theundefeated.com/features/90s-token-black-actors-phil-morris-bianca-lawson-kim-coles/
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