#August County Government Center

[readyforevolution]

JACK DANIELS HOLSCLAW (1918-1998)

Tuskegee Airman Jack Daniels Holsclaw was born in Spokane, Washington, on March 21, 1918. His father, Charles, was a clerk in a downtown store, and his mother, Nell, was a manager at Pacific Telephone and Telegraph. Holsclaw attended North Central High School in Spokane, where he excelled both academically and athletically. When he was 15, he became the first black person in Spokane to earn the Eagle Scout badge.

Holsclaw entered Whitworth College in 1935 but transferred to Washington State College (now Washington State University) in 1936 to play baseball. Beginning in his junior year, he played center field and helped the Cougars finish as co-champions of the Northern Division, Pacific Coast Conference. He was the second African American earn a varsity letter in baseball at the college.

In 1939, Holsclaw transferred to a chiropractic program at Western States College in Portland, Oregon, where he met his wife, Bernice Williams. They had one son, Glen. Holsclaw completed the chiropractic program in 1942 and passed the Oregon state board examination.

While there, he enrolled in a government sponsored Civilian Pilot Training Program at Multnomah College and earned his pilot’s license. On October 5, 1942, he enlisted in the army as a private and entered flight school, training at Tuskegee Army Airfield, Alabama. After completing his training, he received his wings and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on July 28, 1943. Lieutenant Holsclaw received advanced training at Selfridge Field near Detroit, Michigan before his squadron was shipped to Italy in December 1943.

Lieutenant Holsclaw flew in the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332d Fighter Group, an all-black pursuit squadron. Holsclaw named his favorite P-51 “Bernice Baby” in honor of his wife. The 332d Fighter Group had distinctive red tails giving them the nickname “Red Tails.” The 332d Fighter Group escorted bombers on their runs over enemy territory, shielding them from German fighters. To the bomber crews that were protected by them they were the “Red Tail Angels.”

On July 18, 1944, in an aerial battle over Italy, Holsclaw shot down two German fighters. For this action he received the Distinguished Flying Cross. By December 1944, Holsclaw had completed 68 combat missions, nearing the limit of 70, when he became Assistant Operations Officer, an important administrative position that included aerial mission planning. In January 1945, Holsclaw was promoted to captain.

Captain Holsclaw returned to the United States in June 1945 to serve as assistant base operations officer at Godman Field, Fort Knox, Kentucky. He served as an Air Force ROTC instructor at Tuskegee Institute and then Tennessee State College.

From 1954 to 1957, Holsclaw was assigned to Japan, and from May 1962 to the end of 1964, he served as chief of the training division, Sixth Air Force Reserve Region at Hamilton Air Force Base, California. He directed the preparation of two textbooks to guide incoming air force personnel. Holsclaw retired from the Air Force on December 31, 1964 as a Lieutenant Colonel.

From 1965 to 1973 Holsclaw served as a manager in the Marin County Housing Authority, California. In 1973, he and Bernice returned to Washington where Holsclaw joined the staff at the People’s National Bank in Bellevue. He remained there until his second retirement in 1983. He and Bernice took up residence in Arizona, where Jack Holsclaw died on April 7, 1998, at the age of 80.

In August 2019, the Jonas Babcock Chapter, NSDAR, dedicated a historical marker in the memory of Lt. Col. Holsclaw at the site of his childhood home in Spokane.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Philosopher and presidential Green Party candidate Cornel West currently owes more than half a million dollars between unpaid taxes and unpaid child support, according to tax records.

Records show West owes nearly $466,000 in federal income taxes from 2013 until 2017. This came after he accrued (and later repaid) a debt of nearly $725,000 from 1998-2005, and more than $34,000 in 2008, according to tax records in Mercer County, New Jersey – where he owns a home.

Additionally, West has an outstanding $49,500 child support judgement from 2003, records show.

The debts were first reported by The Daily Beast.

The tax debts have not been paid off as of 30 days ago – the last available data, according to Mercer County records. ABC News reached out to West and his campaign to see if West had plans to pay off the debt or set up a payment plan; they have not returned those requests for comment.

The outstanding child support payment is owed to Aytul Gurtas, his former partner and mother of one of his children. ABC News was unable to reach Gurtas for comment.

While it's not clear how long West didn't pay child support, New Jersey family lawyer Kathleen Stockton said that the amount of money appears substantial. The average U.S. child support obligation is about $5,800 per year, according to census data, making West's nearly $50,000 more than eight times that.

Stockton noted that it is possible West paid Gurtas and didn't register it with the court – though West has given no indication of that.

When the question of his debts was brought up on The Breakfast Club radio morning show last week, West told the radio show host "Charlamagne the God" that they were being used as a "distraction" from his presidential campaign, which has focused on ending poverty, mass incarceration and environmental degradation.

"Any time you shine a flashlight under somebody's clothes, you're gonna find all kind of mess, because that's what it is to be human," West said.

Earlier on the show, West mentioned he was "broke as the Ten Commandments financially, personally, collectively."

West's debts are personal, not related to the campaign, so they may not directly bear on the finances of his candidacy. Still, personal finance issues have been known to interfere with campaigns: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's sometimes imprudent management of his own finances were scrutinized during his 2016 campaign for president, and then-Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's personal debt seemed to undermine his message of fiscal hawkishness.

According to West's financial disclosure filed with the Federal Election Commission in August 2023, he currently makes at least $200,000 annually. That includes his professorship at the Union Theological Seminary, where his annual income falls upward of $100,000; his speaking engagements, where he makes at least another $100,000; and his retirement fund, which earns him somewhere between $5,000 and $15,000 annually. His spouse, a professor, makes at least $50,000 per year.

Kedric Payne, an ethics lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center, said in an email to ABC News that the U.S. Office of Government Ethics advises candidates to disclose debts the size of West's.

"The federal disclosure law requires candidates for president to report liabilities owed over $10,000. Child support is excluded, but OGE advises that overdue taxes are reportable. If West in fact owes taxes, voters have a right to know why this isn't disclosed," Payne wrote.

West's associate, author Christopher Phillips described West as "authentic" and someone who hasn't hesitated to spend his own money to help others.

Phillips, who said he has known West for eight years, said that when he first met West over the phone, the scholar volunteered to lecture and spend time with his students at the University of Pennsylvania, where Phillips was a writing fellow.

"He said he could come down on his own nickel, and he spent the entire day breaking philosophical bread with my students … just because he likes what I do," Phillips said.

The campaign did not respond to ABC News' multiple requests for comment.

[coochiequeens]

He kept what in the fridge?

Pontiac — A district court judge Wednesday denied a pair of dueling $6,500 small claims petitions that centered around a transgender woman's attempt to get her surgically removed testicles back after they were kept for months in her ex-boyfriend's refrigerator.

During a contentious small claims hearing in Pontiac's 50th District Court, Judge Jeremy Bowie ruled "it's a wash" after hearing testimony from Brianna Kingsley, 40, and her 37-year-old ex, William Wojciechowski.

Kingsley filed a handwritten small claims petition in August claiming Wojciechowski "retains possession of my surgically extracted testicles, preserved in (a) Mason jar, kept in (the) fridge next to the eggs. Demand immediate return of my human remains specimen and damages of $6,500."

Wojciechowski filed a counterclaim seeking $6,500 in damages because he said he had been "humiliated" by coverage of the case by "worldwide news outlets."

Bowie denied both claims, a decision he said Wednesday can't be appealed. The judge said Kingsley had an opportunity to get her testicles back when an Oakland County Sheriff's deputy accompanied her to Wojciechowski's Pontiac home in January 2023.

When the deputy escorted her to the house, Kingsley had just gotten out of the Oakland County Jail, where she'd been incarcerated for three days and fined $100 for violating a personal protection order Wojciechowski had filed against her.

"We allow a one-time visit with a Sheriff's officer in situations like that for people to go back to get their belongings," the judge said. "Ms. Kingsley failed to retrieve the testicles from the refrigerator at that time. ... If they were so important to her, she had the opportunity to grab them, and she didn't."

Wojciechowski said he threw the body parts away in July.

"They were rotting in my fridge, and it was disgusting — I've got food in there I wanted to eat," Wojciechowski told the judge. "She didn't keep them in a biohazard container like she was supposed to."

"Specifically why I asked you: I can put a dollar amount on, say, if you were missing work at $16 an hour," Bowie said. "But as to testicles, I can't really put a number on it."

Kingsley, who clutched a small black comfort dog throughout the hearing, said the March 23, 2022 surgery at Henry Ford Hospital cost $20,000, although she said because she's disabled, the state footed the bill.

But the state paid for that; you didn't," Bowie said. "You're not going to be unjustly enriched."

Kingsley replied: "They were my testicles. ... We're talking about my nuts. ... I wanted them in my fridge — not his. ... He denied me access to my own body parts. I don't think that can be quantified. The damages were the loss of these nuts."

According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, "The Medicaid program covers medically necessary gender affirmation/confirming medical, surgical, and pharmacologic treatments and procedures for beneficiaries clinically diagnosed with gender dysphoria." Medicaid is the government health insurance coverage for mostly low-income residents.

At one point during Wednesday's hearing, the judge told Kingsley to stop interrupting him, saying, "I've been patient enough."

Kingsley and Wojciechowski said they met on Facebook Community in April 2020 and in the fall of 2021 they moved into a Pontiac house Wojciechowski bought.

After her surgery, Kinsley said she put her testicles in a Mason jar and stored them in the refrigerator "because I deal with trauma with comedy. Shakespeare did it."

The couple broke up in December 2022. Wojciechowski secured a personal protection order against Kingsley, which she violated a month later. After she got out of jail and was escorted by a sheriff's deputy to retrieve her belongings from Wojciechowski's home, she visited the house a second time about a month later.

Wojciechowski said he denied her entry the second time because he felt she was harassing him. The judge said he had a right to deny her entry, since she'd already been allowed to retrieve her belongings a month earlier.

Earlier Wednesday, Kingsley had a hearing scheduled on charges of destruction of property, after she allegedly damaged Wojciechowski's front door. Bowie said she didn't appear for that hearing and that it had been rescheduled for Feb. 28.

[beardedmrbean]

A former Maryland mayor and well known LGBTQ activist, convicted earlier this year in a heinous child pornography case, was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Monday. 

Patrick Wojahn, who resigned as mayor of College Park, Maryland, on March 2 before his arrest, pleaded guilty to 140 charges related to child pornography as part of a deal struck with prosecutors. He was sentenced to 150 years total, with all but 30 years suspended, but still will be eligible for parole in 7.5 years under state law, The Washington Post reported. The conviction came after investigators linked an account sharing illicit images to his government email address.

"I do sense the remorsefulness," Prince George's County Circuit Court Judge Karen Mason said of Wojahn on Monday during an emotional hearing when prosecutors read hours of victim impact statements. "And I do know you take responsibility."

Authorities say the 48-year-old uploaded and shared dozens of photos and videos depicting explicit child sex abuse, including the rape of prepubescent boys by adults, to social media apps in January, The Post reported. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children notified Prince George’s County Police Department of the social media activity in mid-February.

Through their investigation, police determined a social media account with the screen name "skippy_md" belonged to Wojahn, FOX 5 DC reported. 

By means of a subpoena, investigators found that Wojahn's College Park government email address was listed as the recovery email for the Kik account. Wojahn's phone number and home IP address were linked to the account, according to authorities, who say the ex-mayor used a virtual private network to mask his location when accessing the account. 

More explicit images were also found on the social media app Telegram.

OKLAHOMA HUMAN TRAFFICKING SUSPECT ARRESTED, ALLEGEDLY USED FAKE ID TO AVOID DEPORTATION FOR 2 DECADES

Court records show Wojahn was indicted in March by a grand jury on 80 counts of possessing and intent to distribute child pornography, which were amplified to 140 counts in May through a superseding indictment. He pleaded guilty in August to all 60 counts of distribution of child pornography, 40 of possession of child pornography and 40 of possessing child pornography with the intent to distribute. Of those kids depicted in the hundreds of photos and videos Wojahn possessed and shared, law enforcement identified 52 child victims, some of whom are now adults, in collaboration with the Justice Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Their victim impact statements read in court detailed struggles with extreme anxiety, paranoia, poor sleep, trust issues and a sense of safety, and some said they have been stalked and forced to move their current families and children of their own after being exposed as victims of online child exploitation. 

The judge cited Wojahn's own past as a victim of sexual abuse and also heard declarations of support from 16 people in the courtroom who spoke about Wojahn’s history of public service before deciding to refer the former mayor to the Patuxent Institution, a treatment-oriented maximum-security prison in Maryland.

Wojahn himself addressed the courtroom Monday to apologize. 

"I know I contributed to that, and I’m deeply, deeply sorry … I recognize the damage I have caused," he said, according to the Post. 

"I want to be the person they know me to be," he said to the community, before addressing his husband, "I love you, too, very much."

Wojahn, a staunch LGBTQ advocate and graduate of Georgetown University Law School who joined a lawsuit with his now-husband against the state of Maryland in 2006 to make marriage a right for same-sex couples in the state, had served on the College Park City Council for eight years until he was elected mayor in November 2015. He served in that role for seven years until his resignation earlier this year. 

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, August 20, 2024

‘Looking for a change they’re not getting’ (Washington Post) The historic inflation that hit the United States and every other advanced nation over the past three years helps explain voters’ ire. But conditions in Erie—a bellwether county that voted in turn for Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden—show how long-term developments also are to blame. The county has fewer jobs and residents today than it did in 2001. Though the 3.9 percent unemployment rate in June was lower than the national 4.1 percent mark, that’s in part because many people have dropped out of the labor force because of age or disability. The poverty rate is higher than the national average; a larger share of people rely on government assistance, including food stamps; and job opportunities for the young are scarce. Almost 1 in 5 Americans live in a “left behind” county like this one, according to the Economic Innovation Group, a nonpartisan research outfit. These roughly 1,000 U.S. counties grew their population and household income less than half as fast as the nation did between 2000 and 2016. “It seems like right now the whole country is looking for a change they’re not getting,” said Joe Sinnott, a Democrat who served three terms as Erie’s mayor and now heads the county’s economic development efforts. “They’re looking for a stability they don’t have and they’re trying these different ways to get it, to get back to the stability of the Clinton years or maybe even going back to the Reagan years.”

The Hotelification of Offices (NYT) Visitors to the Springline complex in Menlo Park, Calif., are surrounded by a sense of comfort and luxury often found at high-end hotels: off-white walls with a Roman clay finish, a gray-and-white marble coffee table and a white leather bench beneath an 8-by-4 resin canvas etched with the words “Hello, tomorrow.” Springline’s signature scent—hints of salty sea air, white water lily, dry musk and honeydew melon—linger in the air. But Springline isn’t a hotel. It’s a “work resort,” meaning that its office space designs have taken a page from boutique hotels. The complex is a 6.4-acre town square steps from the Menlo Park Caltrain station in San Francisco’s Bay Area. It includes two premium office buildings, nine restaurants, outdoor work spaces and terraces where people can mingle and connect, gym facilities, a high-end golf simulator, an upscale Italian grocery store and a 183-unit residential building. And like any good resort, it has a calendar of community events from craft cocktail fairs to silent discos. With an office vacancy rate at about 20 percent in the United States, downtown business districts are trying whatever they can to get workers back—including resort-like work spaces that match or surpass the comfort of their homes.

Protesters Are Converging on Chicago. City Leaders Say They’re Prepared. (NYT) As delegates arrived in Chicago on Sunday night ahead of the Democratic National Convention, protesters gathered along Michigan Avenue. On Monday, as the political show begins inside the United Center, demonstrators say they will gather by the thousands outside. And as the convention goes on, activists say, so too will the protests, every single day, showcasing divisions on the left during a week when Vice President Kamala Harris is trying to project Democratic unity and enthusiasm. From the moment the Democrats chose Chicago as the site for their nominating convention, it was a foregone conclusion that protesters would show up in large numbers to protest the Biden-Harris administration’s approach to a war that Gaza health authorities say has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians. The city has a long tradition of left-wing activism, and nominating conventions tend to attract demonstrations.

The Mennonites Making the Amazon Their Home (NYT) Groups of Mennonites, seeking inexpensive land far from modern life, are carving out new colonies in the Amazon. After weeks of living in jungle tents, the handful of Mennonite families trying to make a new home deep in the Peruvian Amazon began to despair. Wasps attacked as they tried to clear forest. Heavy rains turned the road to their camp to mud. Running low on supplies, some wanted to turn back. Instead, they worked harder and eventually carved out an enclave. “There’s a place here where I wanted to live so we came and opened part of it up,” recalled Wilhelm Thiessen, a Mennonite farmer. “That’s what everyone did to have a place to live.” Today, seven years later, the cluster of homesteads is now a thriving colony, Wanderland, home to roughly 150 families, a church—which doubles as a school—and a cheese-processing facility. It is one of a string of Mennonite settlements that have taken root throughout the Amazon, turning forest into thriving farms.

Ukrainian president says the push into Russia’s Kursk region is to create a buffer zone there (AP) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday the daring military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region aims to create a buffer zone to prevent further attacks by Moscow across the border. It was the first time Zelenskyy clearly stated the aim of the operation that began Aug. 6. Previously, he had said the operation aimed to protect communities in the bordering Sumy region from constant shelling. This weekend, Ukraine destroyed a key bridge in the region and struck a second one nearby, disrupting supply lines as it pressed the incursion, officials said.

Lawmakers in Turkey draw blood in brawl during debate on jailed colleague (AP) A brawl broke out among Turkish lawmakers Friday during a heated debate over an opposition delegate currently jailed on what are widely considered to be politically motivated charges. Televised footage showed Ahmet Sik, a representative from the same party as the imprisoned deputy, being approached and attacked by a lawmaker from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party while speaking at the chamber’s podium. Sik had just called members of the ruling party a “terrorist organization.” In a subsequent scuffle involving dozens of deputies, a female lawmaker was struck, leaving drops of blood on steps leading the speaker’s lectern. Another opposition member was also reportedly injured. Physical tussles are not uncommon among Turkey’s lawmakers.

Thailand’s king endorses Paetongtarn Shinawatra as new prime minister (CNN) Thailand’s king endorses new prime minister. King Maha Vajiralongkorn endorsed Paetongtarn Shinawatra as Thailand’s new prime minister on Sunday, two days after her election by the country’s parliament. The daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Paetongtarn becomes the youngest Thai prime minister and the third of her family to occupy this position. Her government faces several challenges, including reforms of the economic and universal healthcare systems.

Chinese and Philippine ships collide at Sabina Shoal, a new flash point (Washington Post) Chinese and Philippine coast guard vessels collided early Monday near the Sabina Shoal, according to officials from both countries and security analysts tracking ship movements, opening a new flash point between the countries in their territorial dispute in the South China Sea. While skirmishes between Chinese and Philippine ships have been increasing across the South China Sea, Monday’s incident marks the first time the countries have clashed directly over the Sabina Shoal. China claims the vast majority of the South China Sea as its territory, although it has no legal backing to do so. Its claim includes all of the Spratly Islands archipelago. The Sabina Shoal, 86 miles from the Philippine island of Palawan, is one of the closest maritime features in the Spratlys to the Philippines. It is within the 200 miles that the Philippines considers its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Blinken pushes for cease-fire in his 9th trip to Mideast since war began (AP) U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says now is “maybe the last” opportunity to reach a Gaza cease-fire agreement that would return hostages held by Hamas and bring relief to Palestinian suffering after 10 months of war in Gaza. Blinken on Monday was on his ninth urgent mission to the Middle East since the conflict began. His visit came days after mediators, including the United States, expressed renewed optimism a deal was near. But Hamas has voiced deep dissatisfaction with the latest proposal and Israel has said there were areas it was unwilling to compromise. The trip also comes amid fears the conflict could widen into a deeper regional war following the killings of top militant commanders in Lebanon that Iran blamed on Israel.

Kuwait, in grip of desert summer heat, announces power cuts after fuel disruption (AP) Tiny, oil-rich Kuwait on Sunday instituted rolling blackouts in several residential neighborhoods despite high summertime temperatures in the desert emirate. The state-run KUNA news agency blamed “a fuel supply disruption” for the blackouts, which shut down desalination plants and some power stations. The forecast high for Kuwait on Sunday was 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit). Weather forecasters warned it could feel like 53 degrees Celsius (127 degrees Fahrenheit).

Former Saudi official alleges Prince Mohammed forged king’s signature on Yemen war decree, BBC says (AP) A former Saudi official alleged in a report that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman forged the signature of his father on the royal decree that launched the kingdom’s yearslong, stalemated war against Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the allegations made without supporting evidence by Saad al-Jabri in an interview published Monday by the BBC, though the kingdom has described him as “a discredited former government official.” Al-Jabri, a former Saudi intelligence official who lives in exile in Canada, has been in a yearslong dispute with the kingdom as his two children have been imprisoned in a case he describes as trying to lure him back to Saudi Arabia. The allegation comes as Prince Mohammed now serves as the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, often meeting leaders in place of his father, the 88-year-old King Salman. His assertive behavior, particularly at the start of his ascension to power around the beginning of the Yemen war in 2015, extended to a wider crackdown on any perceived dissent or power base that could challenge his rule.

Libya’s central bank ‘suspends operations’ after official abducted (Guardian) On Sunday, the Central Bank of Libya announced that it would be “suspending all operations” following the kidnapping of Musab Msallem, the bank’s head of information technology. It’s currently unclear who exactly is behind the kidnapping, but the bank said that Msallem and other executives had been “threatened with abduction” by “unlawful parties,” adding that it would “not resume operations” until he’s released. Last week, a group of armed men besieged the central bank’s headquarters in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, which local media said was an attempt to force the bank’s governor to resign. Currently, the African nation is still split by a power struggle between the NATO-backed official government centered around Tripoli in the west and a rival administration operating out of the east.

Trekking With Grandpa, Scuba Diving With Grandma (NYT) Rick Rhoads, 80, was “training like crazy” last spring, walking six miles a day—“all hills”—to get ready for his summer vacation. Mr. Rhoads, of Orcas Island, Wash., and Lucy Erent, his 15-year-old granddaughter, who lives in Prague, were planning to trek 85 miles in eight days along Scotland’s West Highland Way. Mr. Rhoads wasn’t daunted by the distance, or by the age difference. He said he was looking forward to continuing discussions the pair has had on video calls, on topics as varied as stage drama, cosplay, pandemics and family dynamics. “I’ll get her to do the talking when we’re going up hills,” he joked. When they finally did the trek, in early July, Mr. Rhoads said the adventure was challenging, but he was eager to do another, perhaps a route “that passed by cafes.” Sixty may or may not be the new 40, but it’s clear that many older adults are enjoying longer “healthspans”—the time they are active, fit and healthy. This shift is adding a new dimension to traditional grandparent-grandchild vacations: adventure. Think bike trips instead of cruise ships, wilderness treks instead of bus tours.

[bllsbailey]

Ohio: Governor Sending Troops, $2.5M To Springfield, Where Haitian Migrants Have Relocated To

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine speaks to a crowd in Toledo, Ohio.

The city of Springfield, which is dealing with an influx of Haitian illegals that have brought the region national attention, will be sent additional law enforcement and millions of dollars in resources from the governor of Ohio.

Republican Ohio Governor Mike DeWine stated on Tuesday that while the “Temporary Protected Status” program has been implemented, which has allowed over 15,000 Haitians to enter the 59,000-person city since 2020, he believes more needs to be done by the federal government to assist affected towns.

The city of Springfield is at the center of one of the most controversial topics in this election. GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance stated that “Haitian illegal immigrants” are “draining social services and generally causing chaos.”

— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) September 10, 2024

Springfield has seen its population grow by over 20% in four years, driven mostly by illegal immigration, PBS reported.

In an effort to stop the federal government from continuing to send “an unlimited number of migrants to Ohio communities,” Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost authorized his office to investigate legal options on Monday, including the possibility of launching a lawsuit.

DeWine clarified that Ohio has already given Springfield extra funding to support driver education and training, pay for more immunizations and health checks in schools, and improve translation services.

“These dramatic surges impact every citizen of the community, every citizen,” he said. “Moms who have to wait hours in a waiting room with a sick child, everyone who drives on the streets, and it affects children who go to school in more crowded classrooms.”

The Ohio State Highway Patrol will be sent to assist local law enforcement on Wednesday in addressing traffic-related problems that have now arisen, according to officials, as a result of more Haitians using the roads who are not familiar with American traffic laws and not assimilating well into American culture.

According to DeWine, he has also set aside $2.5 million over a two-year period to expand primary healthcare services offered by private healthcare facilities and the county health department.

Additionally, in a Springfield police 9-1-1 call from August 26th, a local homeowner said on Tuesday that four Haitian immigrants were out at a nearby park holding dead geese whose necks had been broken.

The Federalist outlet was also able to obtain audio of a man reporting the incident to a local dispatcher, which was included in the article.

“I’m sitting here, I’m riding on the trail, I’m going to my orientation for my job today, and I see a group of Haitian people, there was about four of ’em, they all had geese in their hands,” the caller said.

Screenshots of a Facebook post from another resident in a Springfield locals group also claimed that a friend’s cat went missing recently and was subsequently witnessed being prepared for dinner in the yard of a Haitian immigrant.

A handful of Springfield residents have voiced during public city council meetings that the surge in Haitian migrants and their “barbaric” methods of hunting local animals for consumption is distressing and has no place in their community.

However, a spokesperson from the Springfield Police Department still claimed that there were no “credible” reports of any illegal immigrants taking part in these acts, seemingly gaslighting community members and those who have personally claimed to have witnessed these situations. 

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 11, 2024

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[crackspinewornpages]

It Can't Happen Here 20/38 -Sinclair Lewis

17 

Like beefsteak and potatoes stick to your ribs so does the Good Book, he hopes his ministers will quote from II Kings 18 31 and 32. (come men eat of their own vines until he comes to take them to the land of wine so they won't die) 

Despite claiming Montpelier, Shad fixated on Fort Beulah as the executive center of County B, partly because he was partners with the banker RC Crowley, who made profit on property and partly Shad wanted to show off to his old pals. He claimed the judge's chambers at the Scotland County Courthouse as his office and completely redecorated. Shad chose his assistants that had some education and manners and Doremus thought he could see what was happening in Washngton by watching him. “and understood thus that a Buzz Windrip-a Bismark-a Caesar-a Pericles was like all the rest of itching, indigesting, aspiring humanity except that each of those heroes had a higher degree of ambition and more willingness to kill.”p.151  

By June the Minute Men enrolled 562,000 and the War Department paid them up to 16,000. (about 364,000) Veterans of the Great War were given privilages and Sarason convinced Windrip college teaching the horrors of conflicts didn't weaken masculinity but made students more patriotic. “and skillful in the direction of slaughter than the average youth.”p152 Most ranks were farmers and factory workers and a large number of former criminals. (so those that don’t have much of an education and already prone to violence) One erring child called Windrip the Chief (others called him Fuhrer Imperial Wizard and Commodore) meaning anything noble and good hearted, (the exact opposite of what he is) so on July 4th 1937, five hundred thousand youths made their own chaotic parades. They were rough now without Adelaide’s hand, but nothing could be done now, and the next day came the blow. 

Someone noticed the Soviet Star was five points not six so they weren't insulting them, hectic words were sent out and thousands were quick to design a new one. Sarason (who designed the original one) came up with the ship wheel, the ship of the state and industry, motorcars and Father Coughlin’s suggestion of National Union like the emblem of the Rotary Club. Sarason drew similarities to the swastika and KKK symbol. (which are things no decent person wants to be associated with) By Loyalty Day, replacing Labor Day, they sang about the wheel. 

In August Windrip declared since all aims were being accomplished the League of Forgotten Men was now terminated and all the older parties, (the Democrats and Republicans) the only one is allowed the American Corporate State and Patriotic Party. Well, there’s two now, the party and those that don't belong and those ones are out of luck. Sarason divided occupations into six classes, agriculture, industry, commerce, transportation, communication, banking, insurance investment (this is more than six can Sarason not count) and the grab bag of sciences and education. (doesn’t surprize me science and education are last of the government’s priorities) All labor unions were supplanted by local syndicates under governmental guidance. (so there are no unions) Strikes and lockouts were forbidden under federal penalties so workmen wouldn't listen to agitators. The Corporatists were called Corpos, the ill-natured ones called Corpses, but it more fitted their enemies. (it just goes breaking down all the factors of these new systems of bureaucracy) 

While the Corpos promised 5,000 to every poor family it was undertaken by the Minute Men. Unemployment under Windrip disappeared, (did it dissapear or did they just stop reporting it) all workless men and their families assembled into labor camps under MM officers. The men were paid a dollar a day (almost $23)  and in turn had to pay a seventy (about $16) to ninety cent (about $21) a day for lodging and now there was discontentment with those who had now less but there was less rebellion. (can imagine having to support your family with only a few dollars every day and if you complained at best you’d get thrown out without a job or home at worst you’d get shot) Every evening the loudspeaker in one of the precious voices told them they were the honored foundation of a new Civilization. (as in they are literally the foundation remember the roads aren't paved with gold they aren't paved at all you are expected to pave them with your bones) They took to it and the MMs saw they hated the Jews and Negroes to look down on. “Every man is a king so long as he has someone to look down on.”p.157 (well sadly yeah that’s human nature) 

Each week the government said less about the 5,000, it was easier to respond to malcontents with Minute Men. Most of Windrip's plans were carried out, inflation rose, everyone profited except the very poor workmen, businessmen professionals and the elderly. “The workers, with opportunity tripled wages, saw the cost of everything in the shops much more than tripple.”p.157 (damn this hits close now) Agriculture suffered after foreign buying and exporting of American food ceased. The changing dollar had Big Business, confused employees did not know what to get in wages and labor unions gone, industrialists came out with doubled wealth. The other respected points were eliminating Negroes and Jews. Negroes were massacred by Minute Men in cities and Jews were charged double rates and grafts and to accept wage and price rates by Anglo Saxons. And they were told to declare how much better treatment they have in America than Europe. 

The 80,000 relief administrators were told to list every unmarried person’s finances, professional ability, military training and their opinion of the MMs and Corpos, those that protested being spies were arrested. (they’re finding out who’s loyalty useful or not) By 1937 MM officers made their own laws against Jews and Negroes. Women who complained their men had disappeared were beaten or arrested. Increasingly the bourgeois began escaping to Canada. “just at once, by the “underground railroad” the Negro slaves had escaped into the free Northern air.”p.160 In Canada and other countries those propagandists began publishing allegations against the Corpos and MMs. Due to this the guards quadrupled at every harbor and border. 

Ex Senator Walt Trowbridge was watched night and day by reading his letters and tapping his phone, they found nothing incriminating and thought he saw the light. On the Fourth of July Trowbridge invited the MMs to help set off fireworks. A Canadian airplane flew close to the rockets and turned off its lights and they couldn't tell where it landed. The guards later passed out drunk and woke finding Trowbridge had escaped with the Canadians along with four boxes with incendiary papers he published as he fled the country. Doremus and thousands like him were smuggled copies, possession of which is punishable by death. (it revealed Windrip became rich off of grifts) By winter Trowbridge had a new underground that aided thousands to escape to Canada. 

18 

“In the little towns, ah, there is the abiding peace that I love, and that can never be disturbed by even the nosiest Smart Alecks from these haughty megalopolises like Washington, New York, & ect.”p.162 

The Democratic policy of wait and see grew shaky especially when Doremus went to his college reunion, the eyes of the three Corpo commissioners held instability. Doremus looked for his friend who warned him of the ban in military criticism, his house was a mess, he was fired for being too radical and needed to move without a job. His friend Dr. King says he’s lucky to be half Jew, so cunning, (he also says Hitler is Windrip’s boyfriend) he’s also been fired but has a job lined up, just sad to leave his research behind. (he’s a chemist) The president claimed they were let go because of overstaffing and changed the subject. There’s a new Director of Education for the Vermont New Hampshire District and one of his jobs is to make sure editors publish correct corporate ideals.  

The Minute Men were less favored than in the cities, in Fort Beulah they were drilling under National Guard, officers and Shad but Doremus refused to check. He first saw them in the  public parade in August when Dan Wilgus forced him outside. “Doremus thrilled to the MM flags, the music, the violent young men, even while he hated all the marched for,”-”He understood now why the young men marched to war.”p.167 He also hated Shad at the head of the procession, sneering through it all. 

By September Doremus was hearing a lot about the Secretary of Education, now it wasn't pleasant news about Macgoblin. He made many enemies purging teachers, it culminated in him trying to out drink his bodyguards and drunkenly tried to call on his former teacher. When told he was out visiting his Rabbi friend Macgoblin and his guerillas went to him. They made assess of themselves at the Rabbi’s house and Macgoblin asked why they don't all leave and start a nation in South America. Dr. Schmidt explains that Macgoblin is the Secretary of Education and a Corpo. “I have heard of that cult, but my people have learned to ignore persecution. We have been so important as to adapt the tactics of your early Christian Martyrs!”p.170 Even if they were invited, they wouldn't attend their only Dictator is God, they don't see Windrip as a rival. 

Schmidt tells Macgoblin the reason he’s drinking like a pig is because he’s a ashamt (I think this is Hebrew for guilty) once a promising researcher, now sold out to freebooters. Macgoblin snaps that they’re stinking intellectuals, peddlers and thieves until Schmidt yells at them to get out. Egged on by the MMs Macgoblin shoots the two and the guards chased down the houseman who ran to the streets where a cop stopped them. They were all arrested and brought to trial, but it was thrown out as the Rabbi and Schmidt were Jews (even though Schmidt wasn't) trying to coax MMs into ritual murders. (yeah they’re going there) Macgoblin was congratulated by Windrip and Sarason and the cop who shot a Corpo wasn't as lucky, he was sent to a beat in the Bronx. 

Doremus got a report from a surviving guard and wasn't happy on top of Shad replacing his delivery boys with MMs to check the paper, he raged. “If they were murderous Jews, then he was a murderous Jew too, he swore, and it was time to do something for his Own People.”p.172 That night he wrote a scathing article on the Corpo administration, Macgoblin and Windrip. “Not that all of them are as vicious as Macgoblin. Some are merely incompetent-like our friends Ledue, Reek, and Haik. But their ludicrous incapability permits the homicidal cruelty of their chieftains to go on without check.”p.173 Dan Wilgus refused to print it out of fear, so Doremus does it himself with Wilgus’s help. When he showed his family the proofs they all feared for him. “It used to be you did what was right and got a nice stick of candy for it,”-”Now, it seems if whatever's right is wrong.”p.175 (sometimes doing the wrong thing is the right thing especially under a dictatorship those laws were made to be broken) 

When he left his home he didn't go to the office but Lorinda’s, but first to Greenhill’s. His daughter’s family was still up and he overheard David say he wanted to be a newspaperman like his grandfather. He stayed only ten minutes telling himself nothing bad can happen to this household but told Greenhill he’ll have a run in with the Corpos one day. (is it foreshadowing if it’s tomorrow) Shad wanted him to join he said no, Doremus warns him to be careful of Shad, Greenhill says he’ll slip him cyanide. 

Lorinda finished tending to guests before she and Doremus could talk, he has her read the article. He had to decide whether to pull it from publishing by eleven, she told him he has to run it. She taught Shad in school for a year and he was a bully then and now he wants her to serve MMs for free and they’ll pretend she doesn't sell liquor without a license, she refused and now has a court summons. Doremus tells her to get a lawyer, the Corpos are using courts as grifts for accusations of sedition. (the law isn’t on your side when those in law are against you in their kangaroo courts) 

Lorinda was afraid the Corpos will do something to them, they’ll be so desperate they’ll cling to each other or be so rebellious. “we’ll feel so terribly that we’re standing for something, that we’ll want to give up everything else for it, even give up you and me. So that no one can ever find out and criticize, we’ll have to be beyond critisism.”p.179 How could such a detached people like them get involved. It is too late to kill the article for tomorrow, she’s glad to be shot rather than crippled with fear. Lorinda went back to work but Doremus didn't sleep that night listening for phantom assassins. 

19 

“An honest propagandist for any Cause, that is, one who honesty studies and figures out the most effective way of  putting over his Message, will learn fairly early that it is not fair to ordinary folks-it just confuses them-to try to make them swallow all the true facts that would be suitable to a higher class of people.”p.181 (in essence ya’ll are dumb like those schools that dumb down the curriculum because they think it’s better so they don’t even have to try to teach the lower performing students) Also one learns the best way to win over people is if you give a speech in the evening when they are too tired to resist you. (he’s pretty much confessing how he’s manipulating them banking on them being too stupid and tired to see it) 

As his editorial was delivered Doremus looked down in the street from his office window as the MMs read the Informer and look up at the building. The people gathered into a mob, “Probably many of them cared nothing about the insults to the Corpo state, but had only the unprejudiced, impersonal pleasure in violence natural to most peope.”p.182 All it took was one MM shouting out to lynch them to start the mob but Shad called for them to stop only because the Corpos are going to take it over. (he also slaps a woman demanding her 5000) 

Doremus was escorted to the courthouse and county jail, he hasn't been there except as a reporter to interview inferior people who got arrested. (yeah Doremus here is what we call a flawed character they are a good person in the sense of everyone else around them but clearly not a perfect person) They left him in a damp cell for hours. “The tyranny of this dictatorship isn’t primarily the fault of Big Business, nor of the demagogues who do their dirty work. It’s the fault of Doremus Jessup! Of all the conscientious, respectable, lazy-minded Doremus Jessups who have let the demagogues wriggle in, without fierce enough protest.”-”Is it too late?”p.186 As it got darker he thought of Emma and Lorinda, why can’t he have both, maybe it’s getting too hot to let a man stop for bread (Emma) let alone wine. (Lorinda) 

Doremus waited until midnight when he was escorted to the judge, then he had to wait more outside the courtroom. He knew the MM and studied him in his new uniform. “I wouldn't particularly want to be a dictator over on Aras but I most particularly do not want him and his like to be dictators over me, whether they call them Fascists or Corpos or Communists or Monarchists or Free Democratic Electors or anything else!”p.188 Lorinda then came out of the courtroom and Nipper (the owner of the Tavern) looked triumphant and Aras gloated before Doremus was called in. 

Military Judge Effington Swan presided, he had ordered the MMs to invite Doremus here to get his advice as a journalist. Doremus corrects that he was dragged here because of his editorial about Windrip now Sawn remembers that minor incident. Doremus is tired and demands to know the charges, just libel, sedition, treason and homicidal incitement. Easily gotten rid of, and Swan subtlety threatens his family so he’ll play along with them in his paper and act as their spy. 

Doremus demands a lawyer, all due process has been suspended, martial law is necessary in a crisis. Shad makes a remark about Lorinda and Doremus jumps up to attack him but was thrown down by Swan who tells him Lorinda’s been sleeping other men too. Swan releases Doremus on parole to teach Dr. Staubmeyer how to do his editorial job and only write as he tells him, and it’ll start with his apology, admit he’s a liar. (oh there’s nothing journalists hate more than printing a retraction and saying they were wrong especially when they are right) 

Then Dr. Greenhill storms in (the MMs let him in because he said he was needed and he’s also treated their STDs) demanding to know what they’re doing Swan lets Greenhill go off and dig his own grave by telling them everyone’s had enough of them kidnapping honest men. He calls the three judges half-baked Hitlers, cowardly public enemies in toy soldier uniforms. Swan allows Shad to take Greenhill out to be executed by rifle squad. “From the courtyard, the sound of a rifle volley, a terrifying wail, one single empathetic shot, and nothing after.”p.196 

20 

The trouble with Jews is that they’re cruel anybody who knows history knows they tortured debtors in catacombs while the Nordic are distinguished by their kindness to all including inferior races. (damn they’re not even trying to hide how antisemitic they are and if you think nobody would be so stupid as to believe something so ridiculous similar propaganda was use to villainize the Jews in Europe preceding WWII) 

After Judge Swan’s sentence of Greenhill’s execution his house was raided and a cache of seditious books and documents were found. (how much you want to bet if they exist at all they were planted) Mary’s protests of her husband's innocence was ignored and to punish her and give warning to others, they seized all the property and money left to her. Some said Doremus could fight for her but he couldn't as he was still on parole and subject to the authorities. She moved into the attic and didn't come out for a week. “But within a week her David was playing about in the yard most joyfully...playing that he was an MM officer.”p.198 

The rest of the house waited for something, the normally cheerful meals were quiet as every time they spoke it went to murder and the Corpos. David talked the most while Doremus was fond of children, he preferred political topics. He suspected Emma was more upset by his arrest than Greenhill's murder, bad people went to jail, Jessups didn't. (lady priorities) His office was deader than home, but he was able to convince Staubmeyer to keep Dan Wilgus on the payroll. As the weeks went by not a minute did he not hate his slavery, why stay, he was too old to start again. “So he raged-and went on grinding out a paper dull and a little dishonest-but not forever. Otherwise, the history of Doremus Jessup would be too drearily common to be worth reading.”p.201 

He did the math, if he fled to Canada he could cash 20,000 (almost 456,000) if he could smuggle it and live on twenty dollars a week. (about 456 which isn’t bad but how much are monthly bills) Well the others could if they could find work, (yeah spreading less than five hundred among what five people a week would be pretty thin) but him, he didn't fancy living in poverty for honesty and freedom. (you’re not one of those journalists that think you're not a true one until your own government assassinates you are you) There were those under other dictatorships that resented tyranny and refused bribes yet weren't courageous enough to go into willing exile, particularly when they had dependents. He tried to hint to Staubmeyer to retire but they caught on and Shad reminded him of his place and Doremus figured something out. “he was equally in danger of slipping into acceptance of his serfdom and of whips and bars if he didn't slip,”p.203 

“Under a tyranny, most friends are a liability.”p.203 One quarter turn on you, one keeps quiet, one dies with you, the other keep you alive. He and Lorinda were close, but they plotted to kill Corpos. Karl Pascal asked if he was going to join the communists nervously, Doremus is interested in civilizing and protecting against enemies, but it isn’t Russia, it's America he wants to help, Pascal calls it nonsense. “Listen, Comrade Karl, Windrip and Hitler will join Stalin long before the descendants of Dan’l Webster. You see, we don't like murder as a way of argument-that's what really makes the Liberal!”p.205 Perefixe hated to give up, he’s scared and is going to Canada. Medary Cole was a surprise, already tired of the tyranny paying them to bully. “-he who had ecstatically voted for Mr. Windrip.”p.206 

In October it was declared the Corpos ended all crime in America (again it didn’t disappear they just stopped reporting it) all tried under Court Martial, one in ten shot, four in ten sent to prison, three released, two joined the MMs. Windrip announced the way to stop crime is to stop it (what is this people die when they are killed logic) and Medary praised his firm hand. Windrip then revealed the New American Education System, scores of colleges were closed (but they opened Windrip University I’m not making a joke) some absorbed into Corpo universities. (Central Park was closed to the public to be used as a playground) All universities have a set modern curriculum omitting the classics, language and religious studies, archeology and histories before 1500 because the key to civilization is Anglo Saxon purity against barbarians. (ah time for the brain drain I see time to scrap out anything that doesn’t align with the state much like what China’s Red Gaurds did during the Cultural Revolution) New textbooks were written under Macgoblin (are they written like those Texas textbooks that claim the slave trade was immigrant migration) and students told not to waste their time on literature and instead read recently printed newspapers. (so telling students not to read anything that could give them a different viewpoint than the lies the state prints) Education was also sped up, anyone could graduate in two years. (all you needed to get in is either attended a business college or a recommendation from a Corpo and have at least two years of high school so mostly people with no real fundamental education) As he read the prospects for these Barnum and Bailey universities Doremus remembered the Greek professor from Isiah was in a Corpo labor camp. 

NEXT

[naturecoaster]

Pasco County Tropical Storm Debby Final Update

As Tropical Storm Debby moves through Florida and conditions improve around Pasco County, here are the latest updates from Pasco County Government: - Voluntary evacuation orders have been lifted. - Pasco County’s Emergency Operations Center will operate at a Level 3 starting Tuesday, August 6. - Fasano Regional Hurricane Center in Hudson will close at 5 p.m. - 20 people stayed in the shelter, with 9 dogs. Pasco County Tropical Storm Debby Final Update - Two sandbag stations are available 24/7 to help protect property in low-lying areas from potential flooding: - Magnolia Valley Golf Course | 7223 Massachusetts Avenue | New Port Richey - Pasco County Public Works (C-Barn) | 30908 Warder Road | San Antonio - Pasco County’s Report Damage Tool is LIVE.  Report any damage to your home directly to our assessment teams: mypas.co/ReportDamage - Note: Please report downed power lines to 911. - GoPasco County Public Transportation services resume Monday, August 5; expect delays on some routes in the areas west of U.S. 19.  - Routes 14, 18 and 21 may detour coastal areas due to potential flooding. Pasco County Customer Service is available to answer your questions.  Please call 727.847.2411 or chat with us online at MyPasco.net.  Call 911 if you need emergency assistance. Read the full article

[millarlawfirm]

Back to School Giveaways happening this month in Clayton County!

Friday, July 19: Clayton County Back 2 School Block Party Friday, July 19: Clayton County Health District Back to School Drive Saturday, July 27: Clayton County Public Schools Back to School Bash Saturday, July 27: Flint River Community Center Back to School Bash Saturday, July 27: Mr. Mark Christmas District 2 Back to School Bookbag Giveaway Sunday, July 28: City of Jonesboro GA - Government's 5th Annual Drive-Thru School Supply Giveaway. Hosted by Mayor Donya L. Sartor Saturday, August 3: Clayton County Parks and Recreation Department Welcome Back to School Party

If we missed any events, feel free to share the details in the comments!

[lenbryant]

Murrieta Valley board defies California, will keep policy to tell parents about LGBTQ+ transitioning

-Even in California???-

By Howard BlumeStaff Writer  

People at a Murrieta Valley school board meeting in August cheer after the board voted 3 to 2 to approve a parent-notification policy on student gender identification. 

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The Murrieta Valley Board of Education has defied a state order — and countermanded its own staff — by reaffirming a policy that requires parents to be notified when students change their gender identity on campus, putting the district at the center of a raging culture-war battle over how best to protect the interests of both students and parents.

The board voted 3 to 2 on Thursday night to keep its parent-notification policy, which requires administrators, teachers and counselors to notify parents or guardians in writing within three days after any district employee has learned that a student is requesting to be “identified or treated as a gender other than the student’s biological sex or gender listed on the student’s birth certificate or any other official records.”

An investigation by the California Department of Education concluded that the notification rules were discriminatory and therefore illegal. Its April 10 report ordered the Riverside County school system of 22,000 students to rescind the policy. The school board’s defiant reaction signals that conservative local officials are willing to challenge the state’s interpretation of the law as well as the state’s overall authority to intervene in local matters of this sort. 

“We have a right as a board to defy a dictatorial governor and bureaucracy — or whatever — that tries to take away our rights as parents and as citizens — as a duly elected board,” said board member Nick Pardue. “We have legal standing and we should absolutely stand up for our rights against dictators.”

The Department of Education had no immediate response Friday.

A clear majority of more than 100 parents, community members and activists who packed the board room applauded. They cheered again when board President Paul Diffley, without comment, hesitated, then broke a 2-2 tie.

In a later interview, Diffley said he hesitated only because he was recalling public comments at an earlier meeting from a young adult who’d had gender reassignment surgery and then regretted it. 

“A parent has the right till a child is 18 to know everything that is critical,” he added.

The vast majority of speakers supported the parent-notification policy, including Wes Schaeffer, a local father of seven who held his first baby grandchild as he challenged the idea that teachers should be tasked with keeping a secret.

“I think maybe the government is overstepping its boundaries,” he added.

Speakers against the policy included the board’s student member, Isabella Dadalt.

Cheers from the audience over the announcement of Dadalt’s acceptance to UCLA became uncomfortable silence and murmurs as Dadalt began a long list of her reasons for opposing the policy.

“I do not believe that their students would ever withhold information from their parents unless they were genuinely forced to,” she said. “So if you’re a parent, and you feel threatened by the fact that your student is going to a teacher instead of you, I think you need to rethink your parenting.” 

Parent-notification policies that target gender identity have spread to a relatively small number of the state’s 1,000 school systems — most commonly in inland, rural or strongly conservative enclaves. 

Supporters believe parents have a fundamental right to be involved in all aspects of their children’s lives, especially on matters as consequential as gender identification. And they assert that state and federal law gives local school boards the latitude they need to approve such policies — and parents the right to demand them.

Opponents say parental-notification policies are being used to violate student privacy and civil rights enshrined in state law and the education code — and that the near-universal outing of transgender students to parents would put some children at serious risk. They say that transgender and other nonconforming students are being singled out as convenient targets for political gain.

This issue is playing out in litigation up and down California.

In this instance, on April 10, the state Department of Education ordered the Murrieta district, within five days, to provide written notice to all employees and students that the notification policy is “inconsistent” with state education code and will “not be implemented.”

Two days later, in an effort to follow those instructions, the district administration sent out an unsigned notice, from the “Murrieta Valley USD Administrative Team,” that appears to comply with the state directive. 

In deference to the state order, district administrators had placed on Thursday’s agenda an action to rescind the parent-notification policy entirely, while leaving open the door to revisit the issue later. 

By that point, however, the board majority had run out of patience with its own staff as well as the state — especially after listening to a procession of parents expressing outrage that the policy, approved in August, had yet to go into effect. They had learned of the delay only when the district sent out its notice about ending the policy.

Board member Julie Vandegrift proposed an amendment that affirmed the policy and called for it to take effect as soon as possible. And that was the version that passed.

Board members Linda Lunn and Nancy Young voted no.

In a later interview, Lunn said the effort to create and defend a divisive policy — in a district that already carefully protects the interests of parents and students — continues to consume district time and resources.

“This is weaponizing Murrieta Valley Unified to play politics with Sacramento, and they’re using taxpayer money to do it,” Lunn said.

“I believe in following the law and the Education Code,” Young said. “They don’t all seem to understand that [the Education] Code is the law.”

The state investigation was prompted when two teachers filed a complaint. While the state has kept their identities confidential, both have come forward publicly. One of the instructors, Karen Poznanski, who teaches sixth- and seventh-graders at Dorothy McElhinney Middle School, is also a district parent with a child who is nonbinary. 

“This policy, whether enforced or not, hindered our LGBTQ+ students from living authentically,” Poznanski said in an email. “Moreover, it not only compromised their privacy and dignity, but also perpetuated harm and discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals and their families. ... This is discrimination and an abuse of power in its most blatant form.” 

Board member Pardue, a history teacher in another school system, cited state and constitutional provisions as supporting the board’s action. 

State Atty. General Rob Bonta strongly disagrees and has sued Chino Valley Unified, one of several districts that approved a version of parent notification that shared a common template. The matter is the subject of several ongoing lawsuits.

Pardue noted a preliminary ruling has allowed the policy to remain in force in nearby Temecula Valley Unified School District.

A different judge reached a different conclusion with Chino Valley Unified, with a preliminary ruling that the parent-notification policy was discriminatory and, therefore, illegal. The analysis by the California Department of Education, or CDE, as laid out in its report to the Murrieta district, aligns closely with that of the judge in the Chino Valley case. 

“The CDE finds the District’s policy ... on its face singles out and is directed exclusively toward one group of students based on that group’s legally protected characteristics of identifying with or expressing a gender other than that identified at birth,” the state letter says. “And the application of that policy adversely impacts those students.” Moreover, the Murrieta policy “does not expressly or implicitly provide any educational or school administrative purpose justifying ... discrimination.”

The report says that districts that fail to comply can face a court order and could ultimately lose funding.

The Chino Valley school system recently revised its policy in hopes that it will survive legal challenges while still accomplishing the original intent. 

Chino Valley school board President Sonja Shaw said parents in Murrieta and Chino Valley have expressed frustration over the state’s position and urged her to press on. 

“We will continue to stand strong, linked arms all over California, to ensure the government does not infringe on parental rights — period,” Shaw said.

For those opposing the policy, the success of the teachers’ complaint with state officials could suggest a roadmap for elsewhere, said Amanda Mangaser Savage, who is representing teachers and parents trying to overturn the Temecula policy they define as forced outing.

“What we’re likely to see,” Mangaser Savage said, “is other educators submitting CDE complaints, which CDE would then handle similarly.”

Hey, school systems: Don't let a trans kid's family be their first bully!

[wikiuntamed]

On this day in Wikipedia: Thursday, 4th April

Welcome, velkomin, vítejte, bienvenido 🤗 What does @Wikipedia say about 4th April through the years 🏛️📜🗓️?

4th April 2023 🗓️ : Event - Finland Finland becomes a member of NATO after Turkey accepts its membership request. "Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, opposite Estonia. Finland covers an area of 338,145 square..."

Image by SVG Vectorization: Sebastian Koppehel

4th April 2017 🗓️ : Event - Khan Shaykhun chemical attack Syria conducts an air strike on Khan Shaykhun using chemical weapons, killing 89 civilians. "The Khan Shaykhun chemical attack took place on 4 April 2017 on the town of Khan Shaykhun in the Idlib Governorate of Syria. The town was reported to have been struck by an airstrike by government forces followed by massive civilian chemical poisoning. The release of a toxic gas, which included..."

4th April 2014 🗓️ : Death - Curtis Bill Pepper Curtis Bill Pepper, American journalist and author (b. 1917) "Curtis Bill Pepper (August 30, 1917 – April 4, 2014) was an American journalist and author, who published seven books. He was Newsweek's Mediterranean bureau chief in Rome from the mid-1950s to mid-1960s. He also worked for Edward R. Murrow at the Rome bureau of CBS, and covered the Vatican for..."

4th April 1973 🗓️ : Event - World Trade Center (1973–2001) A year after the completion of the second of the complex's twin towers, the World Trade Center in New York City was officially dedicated. "The original World Trade Center (WTC) was a large complex of seven buildings in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed during the September 11 attacks in 2001. At the time of their completion, the Twin Towers—the original 1 World..."

Image by Jeffmock

4th April 1924 🗓️ : Birth - Bob Christie (racing driver) Bob Christie, American race car driver (d. 2009) "Bob Christie (April 4, 1924 – June 1, 2009) was an American racecar driver. Christie raced in the USAC Championship Car series in the 1956-1963 seasons, with 15 career starts, including every Indianapolis 500 race in that span. He finished in the top ten 5 times, with his best finish in 3rd..."

4th April 1821 🗓️ : Birth - Linus Yale Jr. Linus Yale Jr., American engineer and businessman (d. 1868) "Linus Yale Jr. (April 4, 1821 – December 25, 1868) was an American mechanical engineer, manufacturer, and co-founder with millionaire Henry R. Towne of the Yale Lock Company, which became the premier manufacturer of locks in the United States. He was the country's leading expert on bank locks and..."

Image by Unknown, before 1868

4th April 🗓️ : Holiday - Christian feast day: Tigernach of Clones "Tigernach mac Coirpri (d. 549) was an early Irish saint, patron saint of Clones (County Monaghan) in the province of Ulster. ..."

Image licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0? by David Quinn

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 3.19 (before 1960)

1277 – The Byzantine–Venetian treaty of 1277 is concluded, stipulating a two-year truce and renewing Venetian commercial privileges in the Byzantine Empire. 1279 – A Mongol victory at the Battle of Yamen ends the Song dynasty in China. 1284 – The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporates the Principality of Wales into England. 1452 – Frederick III of Habsburg is the last Holy Roman Emperor crowned by medieval tradition in Rome by Pope Nicholas V. 1563 – The Edict of Amboise is signed, ending the first phase of the French Wars of Religion and granting certain freedoms to the Huguenots. 1649 – The House of Commons of England passes an act abolishing the House of Lords, declaring it "useless and dangerous to the people of England". 1687 – Explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, is murdered by his own men. 1808 – Charles IV, king of Spain, abdicates after riots and a popular revolt at the winter palace Aranjuez. His son, Ferdinand VII, takes the throne. 1812 – The Cortes of Cádiz promulgates the Spanish Constitution of 1812. 1824 – American explorer Benjamin Morrell departed Antarctica after a voyage later plagued by claims of fraud. 1831 – First documented bank heist in U.S. history, when burglars stole $245,000 (1831 values) from the City Bank (now Citibank) on Wall Street. Most of the money was recovered. 1853 – The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom occupies and makes Nanjing its capital until 1864. 1861 – The First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand. 1863 – The SS Georgiana, said to have been the most powerful Confederate cruiser, is destroyed on her maiden voyage with a cargo of munitions, medicines, and merchandise then valued at over $1,000,000. 1865 – American Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle two days later, Confederate forces had retreated from Four Oaks, North Carolina. 1885 – Louis Riel declares a provisional government in Saskatchewan, beginning the North-West Rebellion. 1895 – Auguste and Louis Lumière record their first footage using their newly patented cinematograph. 1900 – The British archeologist Sir Arthur John Evans begins excavating Knossos Palace, the center of Cretan civilization. 1918 – The US Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time. 1920 – The United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time (the first time was on November 19, 1919). 1921 – Irish War of Independence: One of the biggest engagements of the war takes place at Crossbarry, County Cork. About 100 Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers escape an attempt by over 1,300 British forces to encircle them. 1931 – Governor Fred B. Balzar signs a bill legalizing gambling in Nevada. 1932 – The Sydney Harbour Bridge is opened. 1943 – Frank Nitti, the Chicago Outfit Boss after Al Capone, commits suicide at the Chicago Central Railyard. 1944 – World War II: The German army occupies Hungary. 1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing 724 of her crew. Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the US under her own power. 1945 – World War II: Adolf Hitler issues his "Nero Decree" ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities, and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed. 1946 – French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Réunion become overseas départements of France. 1958 – The Monarch Underwear Company fire leaves 24 dead and 15 injured.

[dankusner]

In Limestone County sits sacred ground devoted to Confederates

Shortly after the Civil War, veterans of the North and South alike wished to celebrate the kinship and memory of their war experiences and sacrifices.

Small groups of Limestone County Confederate veterans met informally to socialize and reminisce.

By 1888 they had begun to meet annually along Jacks Creek near where it intersects the Navasota River, known then as the “Pen Camp Meeting Grounds.”

The next year they organized the Joseph E. Johnston Camp of the United Confederate Veterans, named in honor of the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of Tennessee.

This chapter became the 94th affiliate of the rapidly expanding UCV.

Starting in 1892, the veterans and their families started purchasing lots at $5 each to help pay for the first 20 acres of land purchased for a sum of $200 from the Mexia family.

Over the years more land was purchased, and today the site consists of 76 acres.

In 1893, a large dance pavilion was built and became the social center of the reunion grounds. Today picnic tables are under the pavilion, and it may be rented for family reunions and other gatherings.

In the early days as many as 7,000 people attended the annual reunions in late July or early August during the week of the full moon. They came by horse, buggy and special trains from Dallas and Houston.

On display at the reunion grounds is a captured Union Cannon that was used during the Civil War. “Old Valverde,” one of the federal cannons captured by Confederate forces in the battle at Mansfield, La., saw action for the Confederate troops in the Louisiana campaigns with the Valverde Battery.

The terms of surrender signed on May 26, 1865, stated that all confederate artillery was to be turned over to the U.S. government.

Rather than surrender them to Union troops, Captain T.D. Nettles buried the two cannons underneath a buggy house in nearby Fairfield.

Here they remained during Reconstruction and were dug up when Grover Cleveland was elected president in 1885.

One of these cannons is on display at the reunion grounds and the other is on the courthouse grounds at Fairfield.

During the days of the reunion the gray-haired veterans proudly fired Old Valverde each day at dawn and again at dusk. Some say this firing could be heard in the next county.

The reunions included parades, brass-band concerts, patriotic speakers, games and traditional southern food.

The attendees would dance the nights away on the wooden floor of the pavilion, which is now recognized by the National Register of Historic Places for its unusual architecture.

Wildcatter Albert E. Humphreys struck oil in Limestone County in November 1920.

The county population exploded, and Mexia became a boomtown at the center of one of the largest oil fields in the country.

Humphreys contracted with the Joseph E. Johnston Camp for water and built a pump house on Jacks Creek to supply his wells.

There are still some large rock chimneys here, remnants of the housing for the oil field workers of the 1920s.

Humphreys, affectionately known as “The Colonel,” was a devotee of Confederate history and offered to improve the reunion grounds.

He built the Pure Oil Company clubhouse and bathhouse on Jacks Creek.

Miss Mamie Kennedy was one of the last officers of Camp 94 and hosted lavish parties for The Colonel during the oil boom days.

She also designed and landscaped gardens leading to the “Colonel’s Springs,” which became known as the “Flirtation Walk.”

After the end of World War I, time was taking its toll on the aging veterans.

The reunions continued but on a smaller scale. By 1946, the charter of Camp 94 expired and the grounds fell into disuse.

The Joseph E. Johnston Camp No. 94, C.S.A., was permanently chartered as a nonprofit corporation in 1965, and in September 1983, the corporation donated the Confederate Reunion Grounds to the state of Texas.

They continue to serve as a gathering place today.

Today as you drive into the reunion grounds there is an archway off to the right with the sign “Miss Mamie Kennedy’s 1914 Confederate Flirtation Walk.” The trail winds through the woods to a swinging walk bridge across the creek.

A little farther around a curve is another trail leading to the “Colonel’s Springs.”

On the archway over the trail is the following inscription: “The Colonel’s Springs: To Colonel A. E. Humphreys, discoverer and developer of the great Mexia oil fields, beautifier of these grounds, maintaining them in honor of the Confederate dead and for the pleasure of the living veterans, their families and friends.

This tablet is erected and this spring lovingly dedicated by the city of Mexia as a lasting expression of their admiration of this great and Godly man and his splendid achievement. ‘I will give to him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely,’ Rev. 21:6.”

This is a good place to visit if you wish to get close to nature and observe a little history. Take a picnic lunch, relax and make a day of it. There are several good picnic sites.

The reunion grounds are no longer a part of the state park system.

The 80th Texas Legislature transferred operational control of this site from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to the Texas Historical Commission.

A new office building has been constructed just inside the entrance.

Cost of admission is $4 for adults, $3 for students ages 6-18 and tour groups and free for children ages 5 and under. However, today is a Texas Historic Sites free day at 19 of the Texas Historical Commission’s properties.

SOUTHERN SYMPATHIES

Southern landowners settling in the Navasota River valley brought the culture of cotton and slavery to Limestone County. In 1861, they overwhelmingly voted for secession. Although no Civil War battles were ever fought in Central Texas, three out of every four free men in Limestone County served in the Confederate army. After the war ended in 1865, the emancipation of African American slaves, the collapse of the old plantation farming system, and the imposition of martial law kept the county in turmoil for years.

THE REUNION MOVEMENT

In the 1880s, Northern and Southern veterans alike wished to gather for fellowship and shared memories of their war experiences and sacrifices. Reunions captured the emotions and imaginations of many Southerners. Earlier small groups of Limestone County Confederate veterans met informally to socialize and reminisce. In 1888, they began meeting annually in this spot along Jack’s Creek.

The next year they organized the Joseph E. Johnston Camp of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV), named for the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of Tennessee.

The chapter became the 94th affiliate of the rapidly expanding UCV.

As many as 7,000 people attended the annual reunions held in late July or early August under a full moon.

They arrived by horse, buggy, and special trains from Dallas and Houston.

The Camp financed the purchase of the reunion grounds by selling camping lots to the veterans and their families.

Some families built summer cottages or camped in tents or brush arbors, planting crepe myrtle and irises that still bloom each spring.

Each day at dawn and dusk the veterans proudly fired “Old Val Verde,” one of several Federal cannons captured by Confederates in the battle at Mansfield, Louisiana.

Two of these guns saw action for the Confederates in the Louisiana campaigns with the Val Verde Battery.

At the end of the war, Captain T.D. Nettles buried the two cannons under a buggy house in nearby Fairfield rather than surrender them to Union troops.

Today “Old Val Verde” is on display beneath the flagpoles at the center of the historic site near the intersection of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson avenues.

During the reunions, veterans eulogized those soldiers who, in the words of General Stonewall Jackson, had “cross[ed] over the river and [now] rest under the trees.”

The gatherings also included parades, brass band concerts, patriotic speakers, games, and traditional Southern foods. Attendees danced the nights away on the wooden floor of the pavilion, now recognized by the National Register of Historic Places for its unusual architecture.

By the end of World War I, time had taken a noticeable toll on the aging veterans.

The gatherings continued but on a smaller scale.

[beardedmrbean]

ST. ALBANS, Vt. (AP) — Authorities in Vermont say Ugandan activist who fled his home country after he says he was repeatedly tortured for his human rights work and would fear for his life if he was deported can stay another year.

Steven Tendo, a 37-year-old pastor, was granted a one-year stay on deportation or removal on Tuesday. After a meeting at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Office in northern Vermont, he thanked the two dozen advocates and friends who gathered outside the building to show their support. The newspaper VTDigger first reported on his case from Vermont.

“You mobilized, you spoke on my behalf, you poured out your hearts,” Tendo said to the small crowd. “I mean, I can't express how I feel but I am so happy and I promise I am going to be a very successful Vermonter."

In Uganda, Tendo started the nonprofit Eternal Life Organization International Ministries, that he says, among other things, helped youths to vote, incarcerated youths and those calling for reforms to express themselves in a legal and organized manner. The Ugandan government eventually saw the organization as a threat and targeted him, he said. Starting in 2012 he says he was repeatedly tortured and that government operatives severed the tips of two of his finger. He was arrested multiple times on trumped up charges but never convicted, he said.

Emails were sent to the Embassy of the Republic of Uganda in Washington, D.C., seeking comment.

Uganda's human rights environment has declined markedly over the past year, according to the 2022 World Report from Human Rights Watch. In the spring of 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the election in which longtime President Yoweri Museveni won a sixth term “was neither free nor fair." In announcing some visa restrictions, Blinken said “opposition candidates were routinely harassed, arrested, and held illegally without charge. Ugandan security forces were responsible for the deaths and injuries of dozens of innocent bystanders and opposition supporters.”

Tendo fled Uganda and in late 2018 sought asylum in the United States and protection under the Convention Against Torture. For a little over two years, he was detained at the Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Texas where a judge did not find him credible and denied him asylum. During his detention — which Tendo said was worse than the torture he endured in Uganda — his health declined. He said he was denied a diet to manage his diabetes, was not allowed to check his sugar levels and he became blind because of his uncontrolled sugar levels.

In August of 2020, 44 members of Congress wrote a letter to the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security urgently requesting that Tendo's deportation be halted and that he be released for “life-threatening medical reasons.” Amnesty International and other organizations also called for his release, which happened in February of 2021. An email was sent to ICE seeking comment.

After his release, Tendo was invited by the Central Vermont Refugee Action Network to live in Vermont, where he now works at the DREAM Program Inc., a nonprofit that helps youth, and he has a separate night job. He had an operation to correct the vision in one eye.

DREAM Program founder Michael Foote described Tendo as “fantastic," as he stood with others outside the immigration office on Tuesday to support him.

“He exudes charisma, and leadership and so he’s been a real asset on the fundraising side, which is where he is focused, but also an important bridge to the new American community in the Chittenden County area,” he said.

Dian Kahn, a member of the Central Vermont Refugee Action Network, who helped Tendo for about nine months when he first arrived in Vermont, also stood outside the building.

“Steven is a brilliant, caring, very special person that really wants to bring community good and in Vermont those are our values here for a lot of us,” she said.

State officials have also taken on his cause. In November, Vermont's congressional delegation and Lieutenant Gov. Molly Walsh wrote letters to acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement asking her to “exercise prosecutorial discretion in Mr. Tendo’s case." Amnesty International also sent a letter saying his “removal would constitute a grave injustice and a clear breach of U.S. obligations not to return a person to possible persecution or torture.”

Tendo appealed the judge’s decision denying his asylum to the Board of Immigration Appeals and was denied, then lost his appeal for a review of that decision in federal court. He says he plans to talk with lawyers about what to do next. He is intensively grateful for all the support and says he loves Vermont and being a Vermonter.

“I have a passion to help people in need and become a solution,” he said.

[newstfionline]

Friday, August 25, 2023

Heat records are being smashed in multiple parts of the globe (Washington Post) As the relentless central U.S. heat wave peaks, intense heat waves are also blasting other regions that have faced unusually hot weather off and on much of the year, particularly in Europe and Asia. Monthly and all-time records are regularly falling in both hemispheres. Southern Europe, focused from Portugal to Italy, is again broiling. France just notched its hottest day on record this late in the year. Numerous other locations saw records for the month of August and all time. It’s supposed to be winter in the Southern Hemisphere, yet in many places in South America and southern Africa it’s feeling like anything but. South America logged its hottest winter temperature on the books Wednesday. East Asia also continues to swelter under unceasing conditions defined by high heat, humidity and stifling nights. Japan in particular has faced unending records lately. More of the same in the United States. The most expansive heat dome of summer is still near its peak over the country’s center, although it should wane this weekend into next week.

Retail theft (CNN) Retailers across the country have lamented an uptick in theft, and it’s starting to hit their profits harder than usual. On Tuesday, Dick’s Sporting Goods reported a 23% drop in profit, despite sales that rose 3.6% in the period. The company is not the first to report poor earnings this year, but it is one of the first to point the finger primarily at theft. Target said earlier this year that it anticipated a loss of half a billion dollars due to theft, and just last week, about 50 people swarmed a Nordstrom in L.A. and stole about $300K worth of merchandise. Experts say ongoing inflation coupled with job losses are likely contributing to the increase in theft.

At Least 4 Killed, Including Gunman, in Biker Bar Shooting in Southern California (NYT) At least four people were dead, including a gunman, and six others were injured after a man believed to have been a retired law enforcement officer opened fire at a popular biker bar in Southern California on Wednesday evening as a crowd gathered for a rock music show and spaghetti night, the authorities said. The shooting occurred at about 7 p.m. at Cook’s Corner, a bar in Trabuco Canyon, a rural community in eastern Orange County. A law enforcement official said the suspected gunman, who had retired several years ago from an agency elsewhere in Southern California, had been targeting his estranged wife, who was among the dead. Including this incident, there have been an estimated 457 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2023 so far.

Nicaraguan government bans Jesuit order and says all its property will be confiscated (AP) Nicaragua’s government on Wednesday declared the Jesuit religious order illegal and ordered the confiscation of all its property. The move comes one week after the government of President Daniel Ortega confiscated the Jesuit-run University of Central America in Nicaragua, arguing it was a “center of terrorism.” It was the latest in a series of increasingly authoritarian actions by the Nicaraguan government against the Catholic Church and opposition figures. The Jesuit order, known as the Society of Jesus, has condemned the measures.

Traffic jam at Panama Canal as water level plummets (Washington Post) Scores of ships are backing up at the Panama Canal, where low water levels linked to El Niño and climate change have led authorities to restrict travel through one of the world’s most important trade arteries. The traffic jam is a grim sign for a global economy that has been whipsawed by supply-chain challenges—and for American businesses in particular. Around 40 percent of U.S. container traffic moves through the canal that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The congestion is driving up shipping prices and causing delays in transporting merchandise just as importers are starting to gear up for the Christmas season. To conserve water, canal authorities are limiting the number of ships allowed to make the crossing to 32 per day, down from an average of 36 in normal times. They’ve also imposed weight restrictions on the vessels. Around 50 million gallons of water is required to move each ship through the locks. Only some of it is recycled. Normally, there are up to 90 ships waiting to enter the canal; this week, there were more than 120. Earlier this month, as many as 160 ships sat idling.

At least 1 person is dead and 2 are missing as Tropical Storm Franklin batters Dominican Republic (AP) Tropical Storm Franklin unleashed heavy floods and landslides in the Dominican Republic on Wednesday after making landfall in the country’s southern region, killing at least one person and leaving two others missing. The storm began to slowly spin away late Wednesday afternoon from the island of Hispaniola that the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti after dumping heavy rain for several hours. Forecasters warned the storm could drop up to 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain in the Dominican Republic, with a maximum of 16 inches (41 centimeters) for the country’s western and central regions. Meanwhile, up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain are forecast for Haiti, with nearly 8 inches (20 centimeters) for the country’s eastern regions.

Argentina arrests dozens in looting attempts amid fear of growing violence ahead of October election (AP) Argentine authorities have reported a large number of arrests for lootings and attempted lootings in recent days, raising concerns about violence ahead of October presidential elections and prompting the president to appeal for calm. The arrests have prompted some business owners to prepare for the possibility that their stores could get ransacked. Buenos Aires provincial authorities said Wednesday that 94 people had been detained in what were more than 150 looting attempts since Monday following days of isolated incidents of looting in the central Córdoba, western Mendoza and southern Neuquén provinces over the weekend. Looting holds a special significance in Argentina because it was widespread in 2001, when the country suffered a spectacular economic collapse.

Greece Battles Its Most Widespread Wildfires on Record (NYT) Wildfires ravaged northern Greece for a fifth consecutive day on Wednesday and forced the evacuation of settlements on the outskirts of the capital, Athens. The authorities said they were battling scores of blazes around the country after weeks of searing heat turned many areas into tinderboxes. “It is the worst summer for fires since records began,” said Vassilis Kikilias, the civil protection minister. In villages in the northeastern Evros region, desperate residents on foot or riding scooters rushed to beat back fires only to watch bigger ones rise up around them. Exhausted firefighters used trucks and water-scooping helicopters to tackle the rapid advance of a blaze in one spot while flames grew out of control in another. By Wednesday evening, it was clear that on both major fronts for the wildfires, in the north and near Athens, they remained largely uncontrolled.

Ukraine Just Blew Up Russia’s Main Missile Base In Occupied Crimea (Forbes) After capturing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in February 2014, the Russian armed forces established a major missile base on Cape Tarkhankut in western Crimea. There, the Russians deployed an S-400 surface-to-air missile battery, a battery armed with Bastion anti-ship cruise missiles and a suite of radars. Assisted by the radar, the S-400 battery could threaten aerial targets as far away as 250 miles—covering the entire western Black Sea—while the Bastion could hit ships at a distance of 190 miles or so. It’s not unfair to call the Cape Tarkhankut site the linchpin of Russian air and naval defenses across the Black Sea and Crimea. Which is why, on Wednesday, the Ukrainian armed forces blew it up. We don’t know exactly what happened, but we do know this: around 10:00 A.M. on Wednesday, local time, a series of explosions rocked the cape. The Bastion battery was hit, the S-400 battery and its crew was wiped out, and it’s hard to imagine the radars escaped attention too.

Their Seoul Just Wasn’t In The Drills (Reuters) On Wednesday, South Korea held its first nationwide air raid drills in six years. While the country’s air raid sirens worked perfectly, it appears that the people they were designed to protect didn’t care. At 2 p.m. local time, citizens across South Korea were ordered to stop what they were doing and seek shelter at nearby air raid shelters. According to multiple sources on the ground (and in underground shelters), most people simply continued about their days, refusing to take the time to follow orders. The drills are an extension of civil defense exercises launched in 1969. South Korea is home to over 17,000 “shelters” nationwide, most of which are just apartment basements or subway stations that might provide citizens a bit of shelter against a theoretical air attack.

China bans seafood from Japan after the Fukushima nuclear plant begins its wastewater release (AP) The tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant ‘s operator says it began releasing its first batch of treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday—a controversial step that prompted China to ban seafood from Japan. In response to the release, Chinese customs authorities banned seafood from Japan, customs authorities announced Thursday. The ban started immediately and will affect all imports of “aquatic products” including seafood, according to the notice.

China’s property crisis leaves Country Garden with unpaid workers, silent sites (Reuters) At an unfinished Country Garden residential complex on the outskirts of the northern Chinese metropolis of Tianjin, construction has slowed to a dull whirr and a few idle workers roam a near-empty site. “They haven’t paid us since Chinese New Year (in January). We are all worried,” said a laborer surnamed Wang, 50, who said he had stopped work at the Yunhe Shangyuan site last week. The sprawling complex is one of two projects Reuters visited last week in Tianjin, a port city of 14 million people about 135 km (84 miles) southeast of Beijing. Both sites are run by Country Garden, China’s largest developer by sales volume before this year, now mired in a debt crisis threatening to spill over to the wider economy. Construction had partially or fully stopped at both sites—the larger one with a few rows of unfinished five-storey apartment blocks and the other with lifeless cranes and thick green scaffolding hanging over skeletal high-rises. Workers at dorms on the sites complained of months without pay.

Myopia (Wired) In 2010, Taiwan launched a strategy called Tian-Tian 120 to address rising rates of myopia among youth, pushing kids to spend 120 minutes outside, given that spending time outdoors is pretty much the only thing linked to reducing rising rates of nearsightedness. It’s worked: Nearsightedness peaked in 2011 at 50 percent among Taiwanese primary school children, and has declined to 46.1 percent. That could be a framework for the rest of the world; in 2012, 96.5 percent of 19-year-old men in Seoul were nearsighted, in the U.S. and Europe myopia rates have risen sharply, and by 2050 half the world is expected to need glasses.

Many Americans report interacting with dead relatives in dreams or other ways (Pew Research Center) Many Americans report that their relationships with loved ones continue past death in some way, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. Around half of U.S. adults (53%) say they’ve ever been visited by a dead family member in a dream or some other form. And substantial shares say they’ve had interactions with dead relatives in the past 12 months: 34% have “felt the presence” of a dead relative. 28% have told a dead relative about their life. 15% have had a dead family member communicate with them. In total, 44% of Americans report having at least one of these three experiences in the past year.

[ultraheydudemestuff]

North Olmsted Old Town Hall

5186 Dover Center Rd.

North Olmsted , OH

The first mayor of North Olmstead, Ohio, George S. Willet, was elected December 8, 1908. No municipal buildings existed, instead the council met at the mayor’s home. On August 19, 1912 legislation was approved to purchase land on Dover Center Road from Dr. F.A. Rice on which to build a town hall. Successive legislation approved expenditures to design, construct and furnish the building, which was ready for occupancy by the end of 1914. Since that time when Town Hall was furnished, it served as the seat of municipal government for a small village that peaked in population of approximately 34,500 around 1980. All legislation necessary to operate a city government was enacted here. As additional office space was needed, other buildings were either purchased or built, but the original offices still remain, only slightly changed.

     When Town Hall was built it was used for the entire village government operation. There was a Council Chambers, Mayor and Clerk’s office, vault, jail and general office which included the Justice of the Peace, Street Commissioner and Board of Education. The main floor of Town hall served as a community center. School plays, Grange meetings, church choir performances, graduations and dances were held in the auditorium. The small elevated stage was used for dramatic productions. Residents remember playing basketball in the auditorium in the 1930’s.

     Architecturally, the building is an early twentieth century version of Colonial Revival style. The structure is reminiscent of colonial Virginia’s eighteenth century county town halls: simple, red brickwork, restrained wood details at doors, cornices, trim and proportioned fenestration, one main large room on the first floor and a pediment porch at the entry façade capped with a cupola which signifies its public purpose. 

     A 2023 Community Project Funding request for $1.4 million is tied to the rehabilitation of the historic Old Town Hall building.  The building was listed the National Register of Historic Places on November 25, 1980, so there is a challenge to restore, because they have to be very specific in how they are attempting to rehabilitate the building.  The needed restoration work includes roof and soffit repairs, new windows compliant with U.S. Department of the Interior Historic Preservation Standards, tuck pointing of the brick façade, ADA accessibility repairs, waterproofing the basement and foundation, and adding adequate HVAC equipment.  When the work is completed, Old Town Hall is anticipated to provide an additional revenue stream as a rental property. The venue also would be home to the city’s local community theater scene.