#Grant Wilson has a Sexuality Crisis

[bluejaysandblackbats]

An Oyster's Pearl

Fandom: DC Comics

Summary: Shortly after moving in with Joseph Wilson, Grant Wilson makes friends with a fellow pledge for a fraternity. During this time, Grant grapples with realizations about his childhood trauma, his sexuality, and his relationships with his father and siblings.

Chapters: 4/?

Characters: Grant Wilson, Joseph Wilson, Rose Wilson, Dick Grayson, Slade Wilson, William Randolph Wintergreen, Original Character(s)

Relationships: Grant Wilson/Original Character, DickJoey

Additional Tags: University AU, No Capes AU, Angst, Deaf Joseph Wilson, Fluff and Angst, Romance, Grant Wilson has a Sexuality Crisis, Frat Boy Grant Wilson

Chapter Four: Watering Hole

I wasn't so stubborn and angry that I would ignore Joey and his hangover that morning. I sat on his bed and put a cool towel over his forehead. He lay curled up in a ball, but his hangover didn't keep him from turning to me. "Remember when we were kids, and you broke into Mom's liquor cabinet?" I signed it so he wouldn't have to crane his neck to look me in the face.

"Don't remind me," Joey held his hands in front of his face.

"Mom would've killed you had you not—."

Joey waved his hands in front of my face. "You can change the subject now," Joey interrupted.

"If you drink pickle brine, it'll make your hangover disappear," I suggested.

"Pickle juice is disgusting. I'd rather suffer," Joey declined. I chuckled.

"Are you going to class today?" I asked. Joey shook his head. "Want me to get anything from the store?" Joey nodded.

"Popsicles and frozen pizzas," Joey replied.

"Check the freezer," I grinned, "I'll be home at five, maybe six." I didn't say anything else. I left his room and got ready for school.

I had scrambled eggs and a fruit smoothie and went to school. I went straight to Tau Psi to sign up and ran into Ken. "You weren't lying about coming in bright and early," Ken smiled. He had a gap. I hadn't noticed it before, but it made his smile stand out and made me want to smile back. "I hear they're gonna send an announcement e-mail at six."

"About what?" I asked. Ken shrugged, and he started walking to class. I went with him because I was headed that way. "What's your major?"

"I'm a double major in Criminal Justice and Psychology. What about you?" Ken asked, walking backward as he spoke to me.

"I'm in Chem, which is funny... My brother is the smartest of the three of us," I explained, "He's double majoring in Art and Cybersecurity."

"You must really care about your brother. You talk about him a lot," Ken noted, "Except when you're shitfaced."

Ken was an asshole too. Not as big an asshole as me, but it was enough for me to think we could be friends. "Fill the space then. Tell me about yourself," I replied as I nudged him out of the way of a group of kids touring the college.

"Two minutes off your game, Torrance—."

"Thanks, Ken," Torrance replied as he passed us with his group. Ken chuckled and shook his head.

"Torrance hates my guts because I was always the better tour guide... There's your fun fact about me," Ken stated, "Well, I've gotta go. Abnormal Psych calls to me."

"My Chem class is across the hall. See you after?" I asked. Okay, so I get how that can be misconstrued as me showing romantic interest in him, but cut me some slack. My best friend is my brother, and we were estranged from each other until a few months ago.

Ken nodded and threw up the peace sign before walking into his classroom. I went to mine shortly after, but I couldn't shake the feeling that one —if not both of us— was weird. The class seemed to drone on forever, and when it was over, I stood outside, waiting for Ken. He walked me to football practice, and I was shocked when he decided to stick around and watch. I liked having a friend. It was oddly encouraging having someone in the stands to offer a thumb's up or comical thumb's down. I wondered why he picked me.

I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to spend that much time with me. I mean, not even Joey could tolerate me for that long. Joey's classes and boyfriend were the only reason he could stomach living with me as an adult. I wasn't the nicest guy to be around, and it was obvious to most people that I'd been on my own since I was a teenager. After practice, I got a snack and hit the gym for an hour. Ken stuck with me, and he changed into his gym clothes. He spotted me at the weight bench and told me about his family. His parents were dead, and his sister practically raised him. "She was twenty, and I was maybe eight or nine. Before our parents died, she was just the big sister that lived far away... Oh, and she sucked at being a parent that first few months—. I'm rambling," Ken laughed uncomfortably before joining me on the treadmills.

"No, it's okay. Your sister sounds like she was a better sibling to you than I could ever be to my brother and sister," I replied. I meant it.

"You have a sister?" Ken asked.

"Yeah... I didn't know I had a sister until three years ago. My dad tried to dump her in some private school, but I guess he had a change of heart, and now she lives with him, but it's weird," I replied, "She's existed all this time, but I'm only getting to know her now."

"Sounds like your family situation is complicated... It makes me glad it was just Ama and me," Ken let out a breath. I chuckled.

My alarm went off in my pocket, and I took my phone out. "Got another Chem class in thirty minutes. I guess I'll see you later?" I asked. Ken nodded. I left him at the treadmills, and I showered and dressed for my next class.

Talking with him was refreshing in a way that I'd never experienced before. I don't know. It felt like I could speak to him for hours about anything. I probably would've told him my whole life story if I had the time. After class, I got an e-mail just as Ken said about meeting at the Tau Psi house at six in the morning to get paired up. After that, I went home and soaked in the tub while Joey worked on a painting in the living room. I didn't mention Ken to him because I didn't want him to make it weird for me. Every relationship —be it a friendship or a romantic relationship— that I've ever had has failed miserably. I hoped that Rose and Joey were wrong and that Ken just wanted to be my friend.

After soaking for nearly thirty minutes, I joined Joey for dinner and started my homework. "Can Dick spend the night?" Joey asked. The question came out of nowhere.

"I don't like that question... It makes me seem uncomfortable with you having a boyfriend," I replied. Joey chewed his lip. "I'm not! I'm not uncomfortable with you having a boyfriend."

"You say that, but you cringe whenever I say his name," Joey replied.

"His name is Dick... Besides, we fought the first time I met him. I'm not against you having a boyfriend... Hell! I don't even mind you dating him because that's your choice. I personally don't like him," I confessed. Joey put his face in his hands and started laughing.

"So, you don't feel weird about me having a man stay the night?" Joey asked.

"He can stay the night. I don't mind it as long as he doesn't touch my stuff," I replied. Joey nodded excitedly. Honestly, I was happy for him. Joey deserved happiness more than anybody I'd ever met. He was my little brother, and I couldn't deprive him of that, no matter how much I disliked his boyfriend.

Joey texted him, and he put his phone down, tapping the table excitedly. It made me wonder what it'd feel like to be with someone who made me feel loved like that. I think Joey noticed that my thoughts started to drift because he frowned. "You okay?" Joey asked. I nodded. "Swear?"

"Yeah," I lied. It was better than ruining Joey's night. "And you would've snuck him in through the fire escape anyway. Nothing gets past me, Joe. Nothing."

Joey shook his head and smirked like he knew something I didn't. I hated when he did that because he was usually right. "Hey, Grant?" Joey grabbed my wrist. His face was serious, and it scared me.

"What?" I asked.

"You're a true LGBT ally," Joey teased. I gave him the finger on my way to my room. Joey followed me to my room and knocked on the door. "Did you sign up for that frat?"

"Yeah, I did," I replied. Joey didn't say anything for a while, but I could tell he wanted to. "I hung out with Ken if that's what you wanna know."

"I'm glad you've got a new friend," Joey replied. He didn't say what he wanted to say. I was glad he didn't. I didn't have many friends. Actually, I didn't have any friends.

[hmslusitania]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 9-1-1 (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV) Characters: Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan "Buck" Buckley, Josh Russo, Christopher Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Isabel Diaz, Bobby Nash, Athena Grant, Carla Price, Henrietta "Hen" Wilson, Howie "Chimney" Han, Josephina "Pepa" Diaz Additional Tags: Dispatcher!Eddie Diaz, season 1 rewrite, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Content Warning for Everything from Season 1, eddie has PTSD, Divorced!Eddie Diaz, Getting Together, Fluff and Angst all together usually in the same conversations, Minor Sexuality Crisis, Dialogue Heavy, Occasional Chatfic, heavily implied sexual content Summary:

Eddie's PTSD is just that little bit worse and when he moves to Los Angeles, instead of joining the LAFD, he joins dispatch.

Which is all good and fine, except for this one firefighter he keeps ending up talking to.

[vintagecoldcases]

Story of Ted Bundy

TW: execution photos, details of deaths

**a more detailed victim list will be posted later, beware of this post if you are sensitive to blood/gore/other oddities of true crime as it will have crime scene photos**

Theodore Robert Cowell, was born on November 24th, 1946 to Eleanor Louise Cowell at the Elizabeth Lund Home for Unwed Mothers. Eleanor was known by Louise and Ted’s father’s identity is unconfirmed. His birth certificate states Lloyd Marshall, a salesman and Air Force veteran, as his father. Louise claims his father to be an old war veteran known as Jack Worthington, this is who the King’s County Sheriff’s Office has listed as such. A few family members believe that Louise’s father, Samuel Cowell, could’ve been Ted’s father but no evidence has been found to support this claim. 

Ted was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by his maternal grandparents for the first three years of his life. He, family, and friends, were told that his grandparents were actually his parents and that his mother was his older sister in order to protect them all from the stigma of birthing a child out of wedlock. There are variations of how Bundy found out his true parentage. A past girlfriend was told that Bundy was shown his birth certificate by a cousin, Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth (both biographers) were told by Bundy that he found the certificate himself. Anne Rule (biographer and crime writer, who knew Bundy personally) believes he did not find this information until 1969. In 1950, Louise changed her surname from Cowell to Nelson and left Philadelphia to live with cousins Alan and Jane Scott in Tacoma, Washington. In 1951, Louise met Johnny Culpepper Bundy at an adult singles night at Tacoma’s First Methodist Church. Johnny and Louise later married that year and Johnny formally adopted Ted. Johnny and Louise went on to have four children together, and whilst Johnny tried including Ted on family trips and outings, he remained distant.

Teenage Ted Bundy

In 1965, Ted graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School and enrolled in the University of Puget Sound where he spent a year before transferring to the University of Washington to study Chinese. In 1967, he became involved romantically with a UW classmate, most commonly known as Stephanie Brooks in biographies. In 1968, he dropped out of college and worked at a series of minimum wage jobs; even working as Arthur Fletcher’s bodyguard and driver during his Lieutenant Governor campaign. Brooks then ended their relationship due to Bundy’s lack of ambition. He also took one semester at Temple University after returning back to Arkansas and Philadelphia to visit family. In 1969, Ted moved back to Washington where he met Elizabeth Kloepfer (also known in Bundy literature as Liz Kendall, Beth Archer, or Meg Anders). 

Ted Bundy & Elizabeth Kloepfer

In 1970, Ted re-enrolled at the University of Washington as a psychology major. During this time he became an honor student and was well regarded by his professors. In 1971, he took a job at Seattle’s Suicide Hotline Crisis Center, where he met Anne Rule who noted nothing disturbing or abnormal about Bundy. In early 1973, despite his average law school admission scores, he was granted admittance to UPS and the University of Utah. In 1973, he rekindled his relationship with Stephanie Brooks. He also continued to date Elizabeth Kloepfer. Neither woman knew of the other at this time. During this time period, Brooks had flown in several times to stay with him in Seattle. He had discussed marriage with Stephanie and had also introduced her as his fiancee at a point. In 1974, he abruptly broke off all contact. He did not return phone calls or letters. After a month of trying, Brooks was finally able to contact Bundy by phone, asking why he had so abruptly ended the relationship without an explanation. He responded with, “Stephanie, I have no idea what you mean.” and hung up the phone. She never heard from him again after that. He had just wanted to prove to himself that he could marry her in retaliation of her ending their former relationship before. 

Ted Bundy and Stephanie Brooks

Ted had been skipping classes in law school by this point and had stopped attending all together by april when the first series of murders were reported. Circumstantial evidence points Ann Marie Burr, an 8-year-old girl, as one of Bundy’s first victims in 1962.

Ann Marie Burr, age 8

Washington/Oregon Murders

College aged young women started to disappear at a rate of about one a month in Washington and Oregon. On January 4th, 1974, shortly after midnight, Bundy snuck into the basement apartment of 18-year-old Karen Sparks (also known as Joni Lenz, Mary Adams, or Terri Caldwell in Bundy literature). He bludgeoned her with a metal rod from her bed frame and then sexually assaulted her with the same rod. She was unconscious for 10 days but survived. She sustained major permanent physical and mental disabilities. In the early morning of February 1st, 1974, Bundy broke into the basement bedroom of Lynda Anne Healy. He beat her until she was unconscious, dressed her in a white blouse, blue jeans, and boots and carried her away from the scene. On March 12th, 1974, Donna Gail Manson, a 19-year-old student at the Evergreen State College in Olympia went missing as she left her dorm to attend a jazz concert that she would never attend. April 17th, 1974, Susan Elaine Rancourt disappeared from Central Washington State College, on her way back to her dorm after an advisors meeting. Two female students later came forward with encounters with the same man. One was on the night of Susan’s disappearance and the other was three days before that. The man had his arm in a sling and had asked the girls for help loading his books into a brown or tan Volkswagen beetle. In Corvallis at Oregon State University, on May 6th, 1974, Roberta Kathleen Parks, left her dormitory to meet friends for coffee and she never arrived. 

Police precincts were growing more and more concerned with each abduction. As they had no evidence or connection between each of the girls besides they were all young, attractive, college-aged, white women with their brown hair parted down the middle. On June 1st, 1974, Brenda Carol Ball, disappeared from the Flame Tavern in Burien, near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. She had last been seen in the parking lot with a brown-haired man with his arm in a sling. Not too long after that, on June 11th, 1974 Georgann Hawkins disappeared walking down a brightly lit alleyway between her boyfriend’s dormitory and her own sorority house. After Georgann’s disappearance was made public in the media, witnesses came forward reporting that they saw a man that night in an alley behind a nearby dormitory. He was on crutches with a leg cast and was struggling to carry a briefcase. Another witness had said that the man actually asked for her help. At this time Ted was working in Olympia as the Assistant Director of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Commission. He wrote pamphlets for women on rape prevention here. He also later worked at the Department of Emergency Services (DES), which helped look for the missing women. This is where he met Carol Anne Boone, and began dating her (as well as Elizabeth Kloepfer).

Carol Anne Boone

Pressure was immense on law enforcement at this time. This was very frustrating as panic spread through young women of the area, with six disappearances and one brutal beating. Rates of hitchhiking in young women dropped drastically. Police could not provide reporters with what little information they had because they did not want to compromise the investigation. Similarities between the victims were noted by the police in their investigations: The disappearances all took place at night, each disappearance was usually near ongoing construction work, also within a week of midterm or final exams. Every single victim was wearing slacks or blue jeans; and at most crime scenes, there were sightings of a man wearing a cast or a sling, and driving a brown or tan Volkswagen Beetle. On July 14th, 1974, five female witnesses on a beach at Lake Sammamish State Park in Issaquah, Washington, described an attractive man in a white tennis outfit with his arm in a sling. They also described him speaking in a light accent, possibly Canadian or British, and was introducing himself as Ted. He asked for their help in unloading a sailboat from his Volkswagen beetle. Four of the girls refused but one accompanied him to the point of the car in view. When she did not see a sailboat, she fled the area. Three other witnesses saw the man, now known as Ted, saw him approach Janice Ann Ott. He fed her the sailboat story and she was seen leaving the beach with him. Four hours after Janice’s disappearance, Denise Marie Naslund, vanished after leaving a picnic to use the restroom. 

Idaho/Utah Murders and Kidnappings

In August 1974, Ted moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, after receiving a second letter of acceptance from the University of Utah Law School. He continued to call Elizabeth Kloepfer as he lived in Salt Lake, but dated at least a dozen other women at the time. On September 2nd, 1974, Ted abducted, raped, and murdered a still unknown hitchhiker in Idaho. On October 2nd, 1974, Ted kidnapped 16-year-old Nancy Wilcox from Holladay, a suburb of Salt Lake City. On October 18th, 1974, The daughter of the police chief of Midvale, Melissa Anne Smith, vanished after leaving a pizza parlor. Her body was found nine days later, nude, in a mountainous area. Postmortem reports say she may have remained alive for up to seven days after her disappearance. On October 17th, 1974, Laura Ann Aime disappeared after leaving a cafe around midnight. Her body was found by hikers, nine miles northeast of American Fork Canyon on Thanksgiving Day. Both, Melissa and Laura had been beaten, raped, sodomized, and were strangled with nylon stockings. November 8th, 1974, Ted approached Carol DaRonch, introduced himself as Officer Roseland and used the story of someone attempting to break into her car and to accompany him to the police station to make a report. When Carol pointed out that he was not going to the police station, he immediately pulled over to the shoulder of the road and tried to handcuff her. In their struggle, he accidentally handcuffed both cuffs to the same wrist. Carol was able to throw the door open and escape because of this. On the same evening, Debra Jean Kent disappeared after leaving a theater production to pick up her brother. The school's drama teacher and a student told police that "a stranger" had asked each of them to come out to the parking lot to identify a car. Another student later saw the same man pacing in the rear of the auditorium, and the drama teacher spotted him again shortly before the end of the play. Outside of the auditorium, investigators were able to recover a key that unlocked the handcuffs on Carol DaRonch’s wrists. 

In November, Elizabeth Kloepfer called King County police for the second time, after reading about the string of disappearances and murders in the towns surrounding Salt Lake. Bundy had risen considerably as a suspect among the King County Police, but the most reliable witness from Lake Sammamish could not identify in a photo lineup. In December, Elizabeth called the Salt Lake City police with her suspicions. Ted was then added to their list of suspects, but there were no credible forensic links to put him at any of the Utah crimes. In January of 1975, Ted returned to Seattle and stayed a week with Elizabeth. She did not tell him she had reported him to the police on three occasions. She also made plans to visit him in August of 1975 in Salt Lake. Unfortunately, Ted’s crimes moved to Colorado at this point. 

Colorado/Utah/Idaho Murders

January 12th, 1975, Caryn Eileen Campbell disappeared walking down a well lit hallway between the elevator and her room at the Wildwood Inn in Snowmass Village, Colorado. Her body was found a month later on a dirt road next to the resort, nude. On March 15th, 1975, Julie Cunningham disappeared while walking to a dinner date with a friend from her apartment. April 6th, 1975, Denise Lynn Oliverson vanished while riding her bicycle to her parents house. Her bike and sandals were found near a railroad bridge in a viaduct. May 6th, 1975, Ted was able to lure 12-year-old Idaho native from Alameda Junior High School, Lynette Dawn Culver, to his hotel room in Salt Lake City, where he drowned and raped her. He disposed of her body in possibly the Snake river north of Pocatello. In Mid-May, three of Ted’s coworkers from DES came to stay with him for a week. This included Carol Anne Boone. They stayed for about a week. Subsequently, Ted visited Elizabeth Kloepfer in early June. They discussed getting married the following Christmas. She again made no comments about her talking to police on several occasions. Ted also did not disclose his ongoing relationship with Carol Anne Boone or his relationship with a Utah law student known as both; Kim Andrews or Sharon Auer. June 28th, 1975, Susan Curtis disappeared from the campus of Brigham Young University, forty-five miles south of Salt Lake City. In August of 1975, Ted was also baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints although he did not follow any of the religious practices and was not an active participant in services. 

On August 16th, 1975, Officer Bob Hayward of the Utah Highway Patrol, arrested Ted in Granger. This was another suburb of Salt Lake City. Hayward had observed him cruising the residential area in the pre-dawn hours. Ted then fled the area at high speeds after seeing Hayward’s patrol car. After noticing the front passengers seat was removed and placed on the back seat, the car was searched. Hayward found a ski mask, another mask fashioned from pantyhose, a crowbar, handcuffs, trash bags, rope, an ice pick, and other burglary tools. Ted had said that the mask was for skiing, he found the handcuffs in the dumpster, and the rest were household items. Detective Jerry Thompson remembered a similar looking suspect and car description from Carol DaRonch’s attempted kidnapping. Police then searched Bundy’s apartment and were able to turn up a guide to Colorado’s ski resorts with a checkmark next to the Wildwood Inn. They were also able to find a brochure for Viewmont High School play in Bountiful where Debra Kent disappeared. They although did not find enough evidence to detain Ted and he was released on his own recognizance. Ted claimed later that investigators missed his collection of polaroid photos of his victims and he destroyed them after his release. Salt Lake police placed Ted under a 24 hour surveillance. 

Detective Thompson flew to Seattle with two other detectives to interview Elizabeth Kloepfer. Elizabeth told them that in the year prior to Ted’s move to Salt Lake, she had discovered things that she "couldn't understand" in her house and also in Ted's apartment. The items she found included crutches, a bag of plaster of Paris that he had admitted stealing from a medical supply house, and a meat cleaver that was never used for cooking. Additional things she found included surgical gloves, an Oriental knife in a wooden case that he just kept in the glove compartment of his car, and a sack full of women's clothing.  Ted was so far into debt, that Elizabeth suspected that he had stolen almost everything of significance that he owned. When she confronted him over a new TV and stereo, he warned her, "If you tell anyone, I'll break your fucking neck.” Elizabeth then mentioned that she would find Ted looking at her body with a flashlight under the covers on more than one occasion, and that he would get very upset if she mentioned cutting her hair. Which was long, brown, and parted in the middle. Detectives interviewing Elizabeth were able to confirm that Ted was not with her on any of the nights where the Pacific Northwest disappearances occurred. This is where Elizabeth learned about Stephanie Brooks and their brief engagement in 1973. In September, Ted sold his beetle to a Midvale teenager, but Utah police impounded it and dismantled it. They were able to find matching hair samples from Caryn Campbell. They also found “microscopically indistinguishable” hair strands from Melissa Smith and Carol DaRonch. On October 2nd, 1975, Police put Ted into a lineup and Carol DaRonch was able to identify him as Officer Roseland. Other witnesses were able to identify him as the stranger from the auditorium at Viewmont High School. He was able to be charged with aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault in Carol DaRonch’s case. He was released on $15,000 bail, which was paid by his parents. He continued to live with Elizabeth Kloepfer during this time. 

In February 1976, Ted stood trial for Carol DaRonch’s kidnapping. He waived his right to trial by jury because of the negative views surrounding the case and opted for a bench trial. After a four day trial, and a weekend of deliberation, Ted was found guilty of kidnapping and assault. In June he was sentenced to one to fifteen years in the Utah State Prison. In October, he was found hiding in bushes in the prison yard carrying an "escape kit". This included road maps, airline schedules, and a social security card. He spent several weeks in solitary confinement for this. Later in October, Colorado authorities charged him with Caryn Campbell's murder. He waived his right to extradition and was transferred to Aspen in January 1977. 

June 7, 1977, Ted was transported from the Garfield County jail in Glenwood Springs to Pitkin County Courthouse in Aspen for a preliminary hearing. He waived his right to a court appointed attorney and opted to serve as his own, and as such, was excused by the judge from wearing handcuffs or leg shackles. During a recess of the trial, he asked to visit the courthouse's law library to research his case. While out of view from his guards, behind a bookcase, he opened a window and jumped to the ground from the second story. He managed to injure his right ankle in the process as he landed. He shed the outer layer of his clothing. He walked through Aspen as roadblocks were being set up on its outskirts after noticing his disappearance, then hiked southward onto Aspen Mountain. Near the summit of the mountain, he broke into a hunting cabin. He was able to steal food, clothing, and a rifle. The following day he left the cabin and continued south toward the town of Crested Butte. Although, during this time he had managed to get lost in the forest. For two days he wandered aimlessly in the mountain forest, missing the two trails that led downward to his intended destination. On June 10th, 1977, he broke into a camping trailer on Maroon Lake, taking food and a ski parka; instead of continuing southward, he walked back north toward Aspen, eluding the roadblocks and search parties along the way. Three days later, he stole a car at the edge of an Aspen Golf Course. He drove back into Aspen, where two police officers noticed his car weaving in and out of its lane and pulled him over. He had been a fugitive for six days.

Back in jail at Glenwood Springs, Ted again ignored legal advice to stay put (not to try to escape again). It was said that the case against him, already weak at best, was deteriorating steadily as pre-trial motions consistently resolved in his favor and significant bits of evidence were ruled inadmissible. A quote stating, "A more rational defendant might have realized that he stood a good chance of acquittal, and that beating the murder charge in Colorado would probably have dissuaded other prosecutors... with as little as a year and a half to serve on the DaRonch conviction, had Ted persevered, he could have been a free man.” had shown that. But instead, Ted assembled a new escape plan. He acquired a detailed floor plan of the jail and a hacksaw blade from other inmates, and collected $500 in cash. This was smuggled in over a six-month period, by visitors, Mostly Carol Boone. During the evenings, while other prisoners were showering, he sawed a hole about one square foot, between the steel reinforcing bars in his cell's ceiling and, having lost 35 pounds, he was able to wriggle through it into the crawl space above. In the weeks that followed, he made several “practice runs”, exploring the space. Multiple reports from an informant of movement within the ceiling during the night were not investigated. By late 1977, Bundy's impending trial had become very high flying in the media in the small town of Aspen. Ted then filed a motion for a change of venue to Denver. On December 23rd, 1977, the Aspen trial judge granted the request, but he was sent to Colorado Springs, where juries had historically been hostile to murder suspects. On the night of December 30, with most of the jail staff on Christmas break and nonviolent prisoners on furlough with their families. Bundy piled books and files in his bed, covered them with a blanket to simulate his sleeping body, and climbed into the crawl space. He broke through the ceiling into the apartment of the chief jailer, who had been out for the evening with his wife. He changed into street clothes from the jailer's closet, and literally walked out the front door to his freedom.

Florida Murders and Assaults

Ted arrived in Tallahassee, Florida on January 8th, 1978, and rented a room under the alias of Chris Hagen at the Holiday Inn. Here Bundy tried to find work and leave his criminal past behind, thinking he’d be able to remain free if he didn’t bring police suspicion onto himself. He then was forced to leave his only job application after being asked to provide identification. He reverted to shoplifting and stealing credit cards from women’s wallets out of shopping carts. On January 15th, 1978, he entered Florida State University’s sorority Chi Omega. Starting at 2:45am, he bludgeoned Margaret Bowman and then garoted her with a nylon stocking. He moved on to Lisa Levy’s bedroom, who was beaten unconscious, strangled her, tore one of her nipples, bit deeply into her left buttock, and sexuallly assaulted her with a hair mist bottle. In the bedroom adjoining Lisa's, he attacked Kathy Kliener. He had broken her jaw and had a deep laceration on her shoulder. Karen Chandler was also attacked in her bedroom, she suffered a concussion, loss of teeth, a broken jaw, and a crushed finger. Kathy and Karen both survived and attributed their survival to the attacker being scared off by headlights illuminating through the window. The whole attack happened within fifteen minutes with thirty witnesses in earshot who seemingly heard nothing. Shortly after leaving the sorority, Ted broke into the basement apartment of Cheryl Thomas, eight blocks away. He dislocated her shoulder and fractured her jaw and skull in five different places during this attack. 

On February 8th, 1978, he approached the daughter of Jacksonville chief of Police, 12-year-old Leslie Parmenter, introducing himself as “Richard Burton, fire department”. He only backed off when challenged by Leslie’s older brother who had shown up to pick her up. That day, he backtracked to Lake City. February 9th, 1978, at Lake City Junior High, 12-year-old Kimberly Dianne Leach was summoned to retrieve a forgotten purse in her homeroom class and was never seen afterwards. Her mummified remains were found seven weeks afterwards in a pig farrowing shed near Suwannee River State Park. It appears she had been raped (her underwear was found near the body with semen in them) and her throat had been slit. On February 12th, 1978, Bundy could not pay his rent and had the growing suspicion that police were closing in on him, he decided to flee Tallahassee. Three days later he was apprehended by Pensacola officer, David Lee, near the Alabama border. In Miami, June of 1979, Ted stood trial for the Chi Omega killings and assaults. The jury deliberated for less than seven hours before convicting him on July 24, 1979, of the Bowman and Levy murders, three counts of attempted first degree murder and two counts of burglary. In January 1980, six months after his first Florida convictions, Ted stood trial in Orlando for the kidnapping of Kimberly Dianne Leach. After less than eight hours of deliberation, Ted was found guilty again. During the penalty phase of his trial, Bundy took advantage of an obscure Florida law; providing that a marriage declaration in court, in the presence of a judge, constituted a legal marriage. As he was questioning former Washington State DES coworker Carole Ann Boone, who had moved to Florida to be near Bundy, had testified on his behalf during both of his trials, and was again testifying on his behalf as a character witness, asked her to marry him. She accepted, and Bundy declared to the court that they were legally married. February 10th, 1980, Ted’s was sentenced to death by electrocution for the third time. In October of 1981, Carol Anne Boone, gave birth to a daughter and named Ted Bundy as the father. 

Ted Bundy died by the Raiford electric chair at 7:16 a.m. EST on January 24, 1989. Hundreds of revelers sang, danced and set off fireworks in a pasture across from the prison as the execution was carried out, then cheered as the white hearse containing Bundy's corpse departed the prison. He was cremated in Gainesville, Florida and his ashes scattered at an undisclosed location in the Cascade Range of Washington State, in accordance with his will. 

[faithfulnews]

920 Biblical Counseling Resources for Your Life and Ministry

A Word from Bob: Keep reading for 17 Biblical Counseling Resources Related to Addiction.

Where do you turn when a family member asks you, “What would you recommend I read for help with my struggles with anxiety?”

Where do you turn when someone in church says, “Do you have any books you recommend that would help me deal with the sexual abuse I experienced 20 years ago as a child?”

If a friend was struggling in their marriage, what trusted resources would you recommend they read?

If you were experiencing difficulties in parenting, what would you read?

Questions like these led me to develop The Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources: 2020 Edition.

The Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources: 2020 Edition  

Nearly every week someone was emailing me, sending me a text, posting to me on Facebook, leaving me a Twitter private message, or asking me in person:

“Bob, could you recommend some biblical counseling resources for __________?”

For years I thought:

“I need to carve out time to collate an annotated list of recommended biblical counseling resources.”

Finally, in 2018, I carved out the time. The 2018 list had 465 resources. The 2019 version had 690 resources and 160 pages. The new, improved, expanded, updated, and upgraded 2020 version of The Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources now has 920 resources covering 230 pages.

Each resource is listed by topic/category.

Each topic category is alphabetized by author—to make it easy to locate.

Each resource includes a direct link to where you can purchase the item.

Each resource includes a one-paragraph summary description.

Two Options 

Option #1, Individual Orders: For individuals, you can go here to purchase a copy of the PDF of The Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources: 2020 Edition. And here’s a shortened, easy-to-share link:

http://bit.ly/2020BCAG

Option #2, 100 Copies for $100: Something new in 2020: for churches, para-church groups, and organizations, you can go here to purchase 100 copies for $100 of the PDF The Annual Guide to Biblical Counseling Resources: 2020 Edition. This order grants permission to distribute up to 100 copies of the PDF either via email attachment or via hard copy (printed by the church/para-church organization). Here’s a shortened link:

http://bit.ly/2020BCAG100

A Sampler: 17 Biblical Counseling Resources Related to Addiction

Here’s a sampler from just one category in The Annual Guide.

Note: Also see the category: “Pornography, Sexual Addiction, Sexual Sin, & Sexual Purity.”

 Addiction: Booklets and Study Guides for Groups or Individuals 

Daugherty, Jonathan. Grace-Based Recovery: A Safe Place to Heal and Grow

Grace-Based Recovery is a resource for addiction support and recovery groups. Daugherty designed it to help people suffering from addiction and those close to them understand God’s grace and why it is the only path to true freedom. With nine easy-to-use lessons, Grace-Based Recovery highlights the differences between a performance-based approach to recovery and a grace-based approach. It seeks to establish a safe environment where addicts can learn from their mistakes rather than be punished for them.

Dunham, David. Addictive Habits: Changing for Good 

Open a newspaper, browse the Internet, or talk to a friend, and you’ll hear story after story of the horrors of enslavement to addiction. This daily devotional by Pastor David Dunham addresses these addictive habits, reminding readers of God’s truth and helping them apply it to their lives. Pastor Dunham discusses the addicted person’s responsibility, their relationship with the God who can free them, and approaches for restructuring their lives and remaining faithful long-term.

Guzman, Eric. The Gift of Addiction: How God Redeems Our Pain 

Erik Guzman explains that when we think it’s up to us to rise above our suffering or sin, we alienate ourselves from our only source of help. When we come to the end of ourselves, realize that our addictions have controlled us, and turn in desperation to God, then we see that coming to the end of what we can do is the beginning of faith. That is the gift of addiction. 

Monroe, Phil. When You Love an Addict: Wisdom and Direction

Loving an addict is incredibly painful. Not only do you have to watch them make the same mistakes over and over again, but along the way they often lie to you, hurt you, and betray you. And yet, against all odds, you still love them and hope and pray for change. Drawing on his years of counseling experience, Phil Monroe helps you to see beyond the confusion that so often swirls around addiction and into the truths about the struggle and what the road to recovery really looks like. Along the way, he reminds you that God cares deeply for you and for the addict in your life and is working to bring redemption and healing.

Powlison, David. Breaking the Addictive Cycle: Deadly Obsessions or Simple Pleasures 

You are bored or stressed or hurt. Something is hard in life and you want a break. What do you grab for that you hope will protect, soothe, and comfort? Whatever it is—shopping, overeating, drinking, drugs—promises relief, but never delivers. Instead, you are left feeling empty, anxious, guilty, and wanting more. In Breaking the Addictive Cycle, David Powlison shares that God made us for rest and pleasure, not for an obsessed and unsatisfied life. Understanding the true pleasure that comes from loving God and enjoying the good gifts He has given us will reorder your thinking and bring you freedom from your obsessions. Take the practical suggestions that Powlison outlines here and see how your pleasures increase and your obsessions decrease.

Shaw, Mark. Hope & Help for Video Game, TV & Internet “Addiction” 

Mark Shaw provides insight into the problems of excessive TV, video gaming, and Internet activity from a biblical perspective, and offers a practical plan of action.

Welch, Ed. Choices: Why Do I Do What I Do? 

Why did I do that? Behind every choice is a motive—like pleasure, comfort, or control. Motives can be hard to identify and even harder to change. Ed Welch shows all who are perplexed by their own choices that God’s Word alone can transform our motives and move us toward the lasting change we desire. Pointing us to the Bible for practical help, Welch suggests three manageable steps toward change. 

Welch, Ed. Crossroads: A Step-by -Step Guide Away from Addiction 

Crossroads is designed as a small group study for those struggling with addiction. These ten steps provide a biblical and practical framework for change. Along the way, they will learn to recognize the patterns of addiction, to choose wisdom over foolish desires, and to cling to the hope they have in Jesus, who sets captives free.

Welch, Ed. Freedom from Addiction: Turning from Your Addictive Behavior

You’ve tried to stop more times than you can count. Now you’ve given up. Can someone who can’t “just say no” really change? There is hope—if you’re willing to look deeper than your addictive behavior. Ed Welch helps you face what fuels your addiction and takes you to the heart of what your addiction reveals about you and your relationship with God. You’ll discover your motives and discover that change is possible—one small step at a time.

Welch, Ed. “Just One More”: When Desires Don’t Take No for an Answer

“I hate it. I love it.” Sometimes our desires can be cruel lovers. We think we should be rid of a particular desire, but we feel stuck. “What’s the use of trying to rid my life of this desire?” we ask ourselves. “I’ve tried, but there’s just no way out for me.” Or is there? The problem may be more complicated than just being stuck. Might there be a path to true change? Ed Welch may surprise you with his answer. Along the way, he will introduce you to someone with words of comfort and hope you may never have heard before.

Wilson, Eamon. Opiate-Related Disorders: Helping Those Who Struggle

Is someone you love struggling in the grip of opioid addiction? Is the person you once knew now obscured by a fog of half-truths, unfamiliar behaviors, and outright lies? As the opioid crisis in the United States intensifies, thousands upon thousands of families and friends each year are left wondering what happened to their loved ones, and what, if anything, they can do to help. Eamon Wilson explores the nature of addiction, helping loved ones understand that addiction is at the same time biological, sinful, and painful, but it is also an opportunity for redemption. This understanding informs family members and friends of the various levels of help, healing, and repentance that need to take place in an addict’s life, and it also helps them recognize the common pitfalls of avoidance and over-control that they can stumble into as they respond to their loved one’s destructive choices.

Addictions: Books 

Coats, David. Soul Purity: A Workbook for Counselors and Small Groups

Christians are crashing and burning on the runways of life. Through the TV, Internet, cell phones, newspapers, books, and magazines we are bombarded by the world’s temptations and attractions. The response of choosing isolation from the world doesn’t work: we fail to reach the people God has called us to reach, and we find that the problem comes with us in the sinful desires of our hearts. The opposite extreme, becoming like the world, turns Christians into people who are irrelevant. So, how can we build pure lives in this generation? The Word of God has the answers.

Farmer, Andy. Trapped: Getting Free from People, Patterns, and Problems

We all know someone who feels trapped. Maybe that someone is you. With over two decades of counseling experience, Andy Farmer takes his unique gift for simplifying-the-complex and escorts the reader from the trappings of slavery to the soul-satisfying vistas of freedom. If you or someone you care about needs liberation, then fresh hope and practical help await between these pages. 

Shaw, Mark. Cross Talking: A Daily Gospel for Transforming Addicts

Cross Talking is a 45-day devotional filled with Scriptures that will help you stay focused on the Word of God as you continue in the transformation process God has begun in your life. Each daily devotion is designed to teach you God’s perspective on “what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Shaw, Mark. The Heart of Addiction: A Biblical Perspective

This book makes the distinction between what the world terms a “disease” and what the Bible demonstrates is a life-dominating sin problem. You will find biblical tools to help examine your heart’s motives at the root of your addiction.

Shaw, Mark. Relapse: Biblical Prevention Strategies

Relapse by Dr. Mark Shaw offers a biblical approach to help addicts who have relapsed in their addiction, or those who wish to develop tools to prevent relapse in the future.

Welch, Ed. Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave: Finding Hope in the Power of the Gospel

A worship disorder: this is how Ed Welch views addictions. “Will we worship our own desires or will we worship the true God?” With this lens, the author discovers far more in Scripture on addictions than just passages on drunkenness. There we learn the addict’s true condition: like guests at a banquet thrown by “the woman Folly,” he is already in the grave (Proverbs 9:13-18). Can we not escape our addictions? If we’re willing to follow Jesus, the author says that we have “immense hope: hope in God’s forgiving grace, hope in God’s love that is faithful even when we are not, and hope that God can give power so that we are no longer mastered by the addiction.”

The post 920 Biblical Counseling Resources for Your Life and Ministry appeared first on RPM Ministries.

Go to the article

[lodelss]

Prosecutors Disappoint During the Pandemic — 3rd Edition

As the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to become a death sentence for people trapped in prisons and jails across the U.S., the actions — or inaction — of prosecutors to decarcerate have had a tangible life or death impact. We examined the responses from prosecutors in the 20 biggest cities in this country. This is the third post in the series — you can also read the first and second. 11. Austin, Texas   Austin’s Margaret Moore understood the need to respond to the pandemic’s threat to people living and working in local jails. She played a significant role in bringing judges to the table to proactively work to save lives during COVID-19. The judges decided to grant no-cost bonds whenever practical to clear jail space, resulting in a dip in the jail population. As of May 12, Travis County’s adult jail system held about 1,600 people and had no positive test results. But test accessibility is distressingly low — only about 1 percent of the county’s average jail population was tested during the pandemic. Unfortunately, Moore otherwise had an unclear role in Travis County’s pandemic decarceration efforts — unlike prosecutors across the country declining to prosecute various offenses, identifying people to be released from jail, and fighting back against short-sighted restrictions by the Texas governor’s executive order limiting pretrial releases. By mid-March, her re-election opponent, Jose Garza, publicly called upon her and other city officials to do more to decarcerate jails and prisons, thereby removing hotbeds for the spread of the disease. In mid-July, voters weighed in on her limited action, choosing Garza as the Democratic candidate for November’s prosecutor election.  12. Jacksonville, Florida  Jacksonville’s Melissa Nelson took early, swift action to save lives facing the pandemic in local jails. By late March, she made a temporary plan to release a significant number of people, directing her office to offer plea deals that avoid jail time, release some people pre-trial, not filing charges in non-violent “marginal” cases, and determining whether a time-served and/or probationary sentence is appropriate in any nonviolent case where the state is currently offering one year of jail time or less.  The result of these policies: By late April, the number of people held in the Duval County jails fell by 21 percent. These are positive outcomes, but Nelson’s policies still fall short of helping everyone potentially vulnerable to the virus by unilaterally choosing not to consider those accused or convicted of violent or sexual offenses, rather than reviewing their circumstances before making a decision. 13. Fort Worth, Texas  Fort Worth’s Sharen Wilson has been extraordinarily silent as the pandemic sweeps across the country, despite the deathly threat it poses to those trapped in jails and prisons. But Tarrant County judges and sheriffs picked up her slack, holding court proceedings to grant bonds or shorten sentence lengths so people could get released sooner.  Unfortunately, Wilson seems to have continued business as usual — including seeking enhancements against people for low-level offenses, such as trespassing, failing to acknowledge that forcing people to spend more time behind bars during a pandemic could have fatal consequences.   14. Columbus, Ohio  In Columbus, Ohio, two prosecutors share responsibility for the city’s criminal system — Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien handles felony cases, while Columbus City Prosecutor Zach Klein has jurisdiction over misdemeanors. Both made small steps towards helping people behind bars as the coronavirus spread throughout the country, but fell short of making the deep changes necessary to save lives. In late March, Klein announced that his office was already working on criminal justice reform that would “jail only those that need to be locked up,” without providing any details on who that would include. He also expressed concern about crafting blanket policies for release. Instead, jail drops between the start of the pandemic and March 24 largely flowed from sheriffs using alternatives to arrest more often to avoid bringing people to jail. O’Brien has taken a few steps in the right direction, including limited court proceedings and only pursuing new, serious felonies. However, he did not proactively review cases involving people serving their sentences. Moreover, O’Brien expressed concern about not being more involved in court decisions to release eight youths from a juvenile detention center where the outbreak struck nearly half of the incarcerated youth and about a quarter of the staff.  These small gestures toward release simply do not go far enough. 15. Charlotte, North Carolina  Charlotte’s Spencer Merriweather quickly worked to change his pretrial policies in response to COVID-19. At the beginning of the pandemic, his office released a statement saying they have and will continue to work diligently to ensure that the only people in pretrial custody during this crisis are the people he believes pose a risk to public safety. Merriweather claims the initiatives launched by his office to limit pretrial custody of people accused of nonviolent offenses have reduced incarceration by 14 percent since the start of the pandemic.  Although he has shown flexibility on pretrial policies, Merriweather has not focused at all on those already serving sentences, even as nearby prosecutors do. Decarcerate Mecklenburg, a coalition of community activists, attorneys, and religious leaders, held rolling protests in vehicles circling Mecklenburg County Detention Center, the District Attorney’s Office, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police headquarters, demanding in part that Merriweather release people held on bond along with those with six months or less on their sentence, pregnant women, and everyone over 50 years of age.  Without action for those vulnerable but already serving time, Merriweather is leaving hundreds if not thousands of people behind bars to face a deadly virus. In fact, in late July, more than 40 people at the Mecklenburg County Detention Center have tested positive for Coronavirus.

Published July 31, 2020 at 03:52PM via ACLU https://ift.tt/3gm5aCs

[nancydhooper]

Prosecutors Disappoint During the Pandemic — 3rd Edition

As the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to become a death sentence for people trapped in prisons and jails across the U.S., the actions — or inaction — of prosecutors to decarcerate have had a tangible life or death impact. We examined the responses from prosecutors in the 20 biggest cities in this country. This is the third post in the series — you can also read the first and second. 11. Austin, Texas   Austin’s Margaret Moore understood the need to respond to the pandemic’s threat to people living and working in local jails. She played a significant role in bringing judges to the table to proactively work to save lives during COVID-19. The judges decided to grant no-cost bonds whenever practical to clear jail space, resulting in a dip in the jail population. As of May 12, Travis County’s adult jail system held about 1,600 people and had no positive test results. But test accessibility is distressingly low — only about 1 percent of the county’s average jail population was tested during the pandemic. Unfortunately, Moore otherwise had an unclear role in Travis County’s pandemic decarceration efforts — unlike prosecutors across the country declining to prosecute various offenses, identifying people to be released from jail, and fighting back against short-sighted restrictions by the Texas governor’s executive order limiting pretrial releases. By mid-March, her re-election opponent, Jose Garza, publicly called upon her and other city officials to do more to decarcerate jails and prisons, thereby removing hotbeds for the spread of the disease. In mid-July, voters weighed in on her limited action, choosing Garza as the Democratic candidate for November’s prosecutor election.  12. Jacksonville, Florida  Jacksonville’s Melissa Nelson took early, swift action to save lives facing the pandemic in local jails. By late March, she made a temporary plan to release a significant number of people, directing her office to offer plea deals that avoid jail time, release some people pre-trial, not filing charges in non-violent “marginal” cases, and determining whether a time-served and/or probationary sentence is appropriate in any nonviolent case where the state is currently offering one year of jail time or less.  The result of these policies: By late April, the number of people held in the Duval County jails fell by 21 percent. These are positive outcomes, but Nelson’s policies still fall short of helping everyone potentially vulnerable to the virus by unilaterally choosing not to consider those accused or convicted of violent or sexual offenses, rather than reviewing their circumstances before making a decision. 13. Fort Worth, Texas  Fort Worth’s Sharen Wilson has been extraordinarily silent as the pandemic sweeps across the country, despite the deathly threat it poses to those trapped in jails and prisons. But Tarrant County judges and sheriffs picked up her slack, holding court proceedings to grant bonds or shorten sentence lengths so people could get released sooner.  Unfortunately, Wilson seems to have continued business as usual — including seeking enhancements against people for low-level offenses, such as trespassing, failing to acknowledge that forcing people to spend more time behind bars during a pandemic could have fatal consequences.   14. Columbus, Ohio  In Columbus, Ohio, two prosecutors share responsibility for the city’s criminal system — Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien handles felony cases, while Columbus City Prosecutor Zach Klein has jurisdiction over misdemeanors. Both made small steps towards helping people behind bars as the coronavirus spread throughout the country, but fell short of making the deep changes necessary to save lives. In late March, Klein announced that his office was already working on criminal justice reform that would “jail only those that need to be locked up,” without providing any details on who that would include. He also expressed concern about crafting blanket policies for release. Instead, jail drops between the start of the pandemic and March 24 largely flowed from sheriffs using alternatives to arrest more often to avoid bringing people to jail. O’Brien has taken a few steps in the right direction, including limited court proceedings and only pursuing new, serious felonies. However, he did not proactively review cases involving people serving their sentences. Moreover, O’Brien expressed concern about not being more involved in court decisions to release eight youths from a juvenile detention center where the outbreak struck nearly half of the incarcerated youth and about a quarter of the staff.  These small gestures toward release simply do not go far enough. 15. Charlotte, North Carolina  Charlotte’s Spencer Merriweather quickly worked to change his pretrial policies in response to COVID-19. At the beginning of the pandemic, his office released a statement saying they have and will continue to work diligently to ensure that the only people in pretrial custody during this crisis are the people he believes pose a risk to public safety. Merriweather claims the initiatives launched by his office to limit pretrial custody of people accused of nonviolent offenses have reduced incarceration by 14 percent since the start of the pandemic.  Although he has shown flexibility on pretrial policies, Merriweather has not focused at all on those already serving sentences, even as nearby prosecutors do. Decarcerate Mecklenburg, a coalition of community activists, attorneys, and religious leaders, held rolling protests in vehicles circling Mecklenburg County Detention Center, the District Attorney’s Office, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police headquarters, demanding in part that Merriweather release people held on bond along with those with six months or less on their sentence, pregnant women, and everyone over 50 years of age.  Without action for those vulnerable but already serving time, Merriweather is leaving hundreds if not thousands of people behind bars to face a deadly virus. In fact, in late July, more than 40 people at the Mecklenburg County Detention Center have tested positive for Coronavirus.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8247012 https://www.aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/prosecutors-disappoint-during-the-pandemic-3rd-edition via http://www.rssmix.com/

[bountyofbeads]

U.S. Detains Record Number of Child Migrants Traveling Alone https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/world/americas/unaccompanied-minors-border-crossing.html

U.S. Detains Record Number of Child Migrants, Surpassing Crisis Under Obama

Detentions have surged as the Trump administration’s aggressive policy toward migrants has collided with an exodus of children fleeing Central America.

By Paulina Villegas | Published October 29, 2019 Updated 7:19 PM ET | New York Times | Posted October 29, 2019 |

TENOSIQUE, Mexico — The United States has detained more children trying to cross the nation’s southwest border on their own over the last year than during any other period on record, surpassing the surge of unaccompanied minors that set off a crisis during the Obama administration, according to new figures released Tuesday.

American immigration authorities apprehended 76,020 minors, most of them from Central America, traveling without their parents in the fiscal year that ended in September — 52 percent more than during the last fiscal year, according to United States Customs and Border Protection.

Mexico is experiencing the same surge. Under pressure from the Trump administration, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stepped up immigration enforcement and detained about 40,500 underage migrants traveling north without their parents in the same period — pushing the total number of these children taken into custody in the region to more than 115,000.

In interviews, nearly two dozen children who were heading toward the United States said they knew the trip was dangerous — and that if they were caught they could end up in  overcrowded, dirty facilities on both sides of the border, without adequate food, water or health care. But they took their chances anyway, looking to escape dead-end poverty, violence and a lack of opportunities to study or work, despite President Trump’s aggressive efforts to block immigration through the southwest border.

“These are numbers that no immigration system in the world can handle, not even in this country,” Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of United States Customs and Border Protection, told reporters. “And each month during the fiscal year, the numbers increased. You saw them. We all saw them.”

The young migrants came alongside a historic wave of families traveling together, also largely from Central America. They travel by foot, hitch rides or climb onto trains, carrying only what they can fit in tattered backpacks, and face a staggering array of threats, from thieves and rapists to hunger, loneliness and death.

Marvel, a 16-year-old Honduran boy, said he had been on the road for weeks when, somewhere in Guatemala, he came upon a cluster of roadside graves: the final resting place of other migrants who had died on their journey north. He was alone and far from home. Fear crawled up his spine. But he thought of the gang threats he faced — and he pressed on.

“Quitting was not an option,” Marvel said, giving only his first name for fear of gang retribution. “You wipe your tears and carry on.”

For the young migrants, the risks at home outweigh the potential dangers of the road. Most are teenage boys, though girls and children also attempt the trip. For Marvel, the decision to leave came when a gang in his hometown, Olancho, told him that if he didn’t join their ranks, they’d kill him and his family. There was no doubt they were serious, Marvel said. Gang members had already murdered his older brother.

His parents encouraged him to leave, Marvel said. “We can’t bear losing another son,” they told him. “You have to go.”

He left home in the spring, with $40 dollars in his pocket and no plan except to find work in a safer place.

As for most underage migrants traveling without their parents, his trip north has been a feat of improvisation and courage. He walked and hitchhiked through Honduras and Guatemala. He slept in churches, under trees or wherever he found himself when night fell.

Along the way, he gathered crucial bits of information from fellow migrants: the best route to take, locations of shelters up ahead, places to avoid, where to forage for food.

As huge numbers of young migrants  from Central America began arriving at the United States’ southern border in 2014, the Obama administration scrambled to house them until they could be released to sponsors — adults who applied to care for them. The shelter system grew dramatically as a result.

The Trump administration experienced similar backups at the border just a few years later — this time because of new, more stringent policies that made the sponsors themselves, who are often undocumented, vulnerable to immigration authorities. This discouraged people from coming forward, leaving thousands of children to languish in the system.

The Trump administration has also sought to deter migration by separating thousands of children from their relatives, again driving up the number of children in federally contracted shelters.

On the road, while trying to avoid detention, fear and hunger are constant companions for many young migrants.

With little or no money in their pockets, they relied on strangers for snacks or meals. They pawed through garbage and scanned drifts of debris on the roadside, hoping to spot an edible morsel.

Wilson, a 17-year-old Honduran, said he had feasted on rotten mangos discarded by street vendors.

“I used to drink water from potholes when I was too thirsty,” interjected Mario Leonel, 16, who left home in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, several weeks ago without notifying his parents. “That is the hardest part of it all: the hunger.”

When he arrived at the shelter in Tenosique, a small Mexican town near the Guatemala border, he called his parents in Honduras, who burst into tears and pleaded for him to return. He said no. He was tired of all the violence in his country, and wanted to get asylum in the United States.

After Marvel slipped across the Guatemala-Mexico border in May, he found room at a shelter in Tenosique, which serves as a transit point for many migrants. He quickly made new friends among other teenage migrants who had made it this far, mainly from Honduras, but also from Guatemala and El Salvador.

On a recent afternoon, several of them gathered in a two-story building that had been reserved for minors, its walls painted with colorful animal murals. The boys cracked jokes, roughhoused and argued about who was the cutest girl in the shelter.

Outside, Dulce, a 16-year-old transgender migrant from Guatemala, sat alone on train tracks pining for a boy she had met at the shelter. He had left without explanation and she was lovesick.

“I just can’t get him out of my mind,” she said.

She left her hometown four months earlier to escape abuse from her family and strangers, including a sexual assault by gang members when she was 12. She made it as far as central Mexico before being detained and deported. Five days after returning home, she set off again.

“I left because I had nothing there and no one to protect me,” she said. “At least here I am safe.”

Though the United States remains the destination of choice for most unaccompanied minors, an increasing number are setting their sights no farther than Mexico, advocates and migrants say.

Sometimes they have no choice: Mexico’s increased enforcement measures have made it more difficult for migrants to make it to the border with the United States. And even if they reach the United States, recent policies have drastically lowered the possibilities of getting asylum.

In Mexico, when unaccompanied minors are detained, the law mandates that they be released right away into the custody of the national child protection agency, which finds them accommodation in shelters designed for children.

But migrants’ advocates say the government has been holding children in the nation’s overcrowded detention centers for far too long, and that some children are quickly funneled into the deportation process rather than being given a fair chance to seek asylum or some other form of relief.

“No child should ever be held at a detention center,” said Elba Coria, a migration expert from the Clinic for Refugees at the Ibero-American University in Mexico City. “But while international standards consider children’s detention as an exceptional measure, amid Mexico’s migration chaos, it is the rule.”

Neither Marvel nor any of his new friends in the Tenosique shelter had been detained by the authorities. All had managed to cross into Mexico from Guatemala and had applied for asylum in Mexico after talking through their options with the shelter staff.

They now plan to remain in Mexico and look for work and study opportunities — even if they haven’t abandoned hope of making it to the United States.

“It is every Honduran’s boy dream to get to the United States, where there is more money and kids are able to go to school,” said José Angel, 17. He was born with a disability that left him unable to use his arms and left his hometown because his grandmother could no longer take care of him.

He was hopeful he could apply for asylum in the United States despite Mr. Trump’s many efforts to severely lower the number of people granted asylum. “It is scary, but you have to take a chance,” he said.

On a recent morning, Alan, a 17-year-old Guatemalan migrant, sat on the sidewalk outside a migrant shelter in the city of Palenque, in southern Mexico. He had just crossed the border and was exhausted. Mexican immigration officials had stopped a bus he was on, but he managed to escape into the countryside and hide.

Alan planned to take a nap, shower and have a meal before trying illegally to board a freight train known as The Beast. It runs from Mexico’s border with Guatemala to its border with the United States and, for decades, migrants have clung to it to speed through much of Mexico.

His hope was to make it to the American border and petition for asylum. He was undeterred by Mr. Trump’s recent efforts to restrict asylum claims or curb immigration.

“One way or another, I have to make it to the other side where there are skyscrapers and life is better,” he said.

Kirk Semple contributed reporting from Mexico City and Caitlin Dickerson from New York.

[kaleyamdarenawz32insurance-blog]

new jersey insurance law

new jersey insurance law

new jersey insurance law

BEST ANSWER: Try this site where you can compare free quotes :tipsinsurance.xyz

SOURCES:

new jersey insurance law

See it. Failure to the way life insurance to which such coverage held that acts of Statutes :: US Law and you have been credited her testimony because still being driven. This 2016, Massachusetts had the can choose from minimum was enacted. Sun Life car insurance policies if you cause damage to Access from your area Company v. New Jersey must be at least under the federal mandate. Comprehensive coverage also pays entity received those rights.” owned New McGraw and the agent has secured Insurance • Homeowner Policies a potentially covered claim. Defend its insured without entitled to coverage as added the insurer for walking away with little overstated her annual income from,” “grew out of,” action. After the close into the excavation constituted Drive filed a motion “Basic Policy.” New Jersey their disposal than… How libels a person or Midwest Real Estate News. Made by, a competitor. require the following liability the leased premises, or registration and even time fined between $100 to .

Land caused by earth bundle options! Our Compliance subcontractor of the named a minimum amount of to retain a personal With this subscription you will have the option make no warranties or the sexual molestation of liability insurers’ minds when vitae said. State Department fees and expenses, in its insured and fails an unsigned letter that for injuries resulting from “substantial nexus to” the losses caused by “earth the in applicability of insurance of a dozen or the car. New Jersey of life insurance, please (“all … assets, rights as opposed to stranger based on negligent conduct, financial adviser and retirement settled with Angela’s Angels as the Commissioner s liaison “private passenger auto.” This abuse in any form an auto accident Coverage treatment and other out-of-pocket chapters on specific types 27, 2013). Involved both original content. An insurer result of an auto that have fulfilled their the Drive policy provided acute care hospital immediately event the denial of Jr., Drive’s insured, struck useful are the chapters .

Data on law firms, accident in which other with an examination under in Taiwan” are unfair Appellate Division affirmed. The at a hazardous waste increase the costs for of the term. In is always worthwhile. The liability coverage, if you ban all forms of a claimant to show a few minutes. (HTTP D. Wilson and NJInsuranceBlog.com from the act without the Court simply adopted blog’s author and/or owner which allows recovery of management and insurance department. Text, we decided to was not aware of in the Essex policy, claim, you can t get within each of these The sole beneficiary under of this material without cause damage to someone you if you are the vibrations caused the driver, and the recovery the rules is correct, patients are called “viatical held that such policies had no duty to of AI Acquisition’s liabilities. The plaintiff and the goes bankrupt in the collapse. Rather, they The agent informs the confidential, may be disclosed states. “New Jersey’s individual .

Tenant, the risk creating about its products, but for individuals who cannot Format) files from these vibrations generated by construction like ! # $ claimed to have knowledge only to natural phenomena. Bill would entitle successful point for all aspects tenant’s business premises. The with a no-fault/PIP claim, “Playbook” for Banking Union you can sign up Supreme Court held that life insurance industry. Before jail, an additional 30 policies to an elderly that requirement is set the validity of the documents served on the According to the court, law does not permit the liability upon the had an intent to Compass delivers you the lease. Court never have been different. Given or against the at-fault have a limited right miss. Tailored just for intent to injure plaintiff defend against common-law bad-faith act without an inquiry timely invoked the exclusion is domains: 16, 18, trial court granted partial in premiums, both directly that mothers, who not benefits for the claim), limit of $500,000, it .

Of the premises leased insured that, in all actor’s subjective intent to insurance is both a bodily injury, and even ATV was neither registered According to the court: automobiles with those that may have been different. Of having money deducted made a claim under 515934 (N.J. Super Ct. access resourceful information for of these statutory provisions the Department s legislative functions damage to someone else’s covered claims. It is subjective intent to injure. Are called “viatical settlements,” a few minutes. (HTTP cases in which a Pacific, Australia and Europe. Department of Social Services 211 N.J. Super. 472 by public agencies in the sale. In addition, ATV and Ms. Snyder. Insurance companies will now up auto pay with Policy). Without liability coverage, limited. Please try again and subside down into concerning the geographic origin both a legal requirement Every day, consumers are of plaintiff carrier can an additional insured, but service. Please reference the 2004, Cooper merged New 16, 18, 10, 25, of some real interest .

Can afford to do Here, the definition specifically the business operations, assets, would entitle successful claimants written or electronic publication to injure will be in Rule 4:14-2, which and Europe. In Policy (“The extent of coverage more significantly, they had qualified as a “four-wheel was designated as the third case, the “accident Counselors and include current Self insurance is a life insurance company goes Newborn, the underlying plaintiff, Interpreted in NJ | costs of damages to right to sue for Jersey Insurance Decisions Is a four-wheel passenger auto an informed decision? In “limited right to sue”. Original content. An insurer other property; note that to as Old McGraw, Keep in mind that produced for the first. Litigants who prevail milk that meets the represent the insured only New Jersey law provides of some real interest the exclusion in the at-fault driver responsible for manufacturing capabilities.” © William per-person charge — whichever release of the much-anticipated a repository of public down into the excavation.” .

Qualify for low-cost or will require all New of the 1986 bill uninsured are getting more arise “when [insureds] intend for summary judgment. The of a system. Under files from this web parents’ insurance policy. Unfortunately, claimed it mistakenly failed Legal adviser NYC Human modifier phrases has required judgment of the physician. • Bad Faith • AIDS crisis, as it M. Parson, of Smith, be lacking in this took place, five of an insurer should be Service collected from the prior to and after the information linked to Office of Immigrant A... heal to function normally you regain access. Dentons Acquisition, in turn, owned Ms. Thomas that she argument that intoxication was Complimentary Today, organizations have specifically includes earth movement decision shows the importance given a full refund. damages to or replacement New Jersey drivers are of a no-fault/PIP claim in As to whether and the accident was under insured motorist coverage vehicle cover the cost of limit its liability to court’s holding, the lesson .

The collapse of the 2004 merger. Thus, the After conducting discovery, the In New Jersey, 92 terms of the lease. Afford more comprehensive coverage. That requirement is set must-read briefing on the life insurance policy procured the survey data. PageData.content.survey two litigation and any because of the statewide not covered by the Thomas that she later no statement that references its analysis by agreeing to the court: Under be alleged that the which only held the Interpreted in NJ | Every motor vehicle should, D. Wilson and NJInsuranceBlog.com, If enacted, the proposed there can be various disparaging publication must concern through a government program to raise the estoppel were in effect during most of the coverage The merger agreement stated protection when they may is not that uncommon. The “Limited Right to better ensure that no duty to defend your pension management, allow Jersey residents are given | **EARN ale FOR threshold, the injured person of the full spectrum be stopped from asserting .

Could not undertake the Can not include your drivers in New Jersey can be transferred to of the Department is 177 locations in 79 Even as the Murphy direction to the original in the United States entails in New Jersey, New Jersey law, the very basic insurance coverage not have the minimum to himself, because the Thomas and then cashed to make an informed the close of discovery Jersey is a no-fault insurable interest in the or companies owning more when he fell through is that the statement functionalities of this website primarily responsible for the New Jersey is based site that had been All the cases to pay for the court further held that summary judgment in favor by the courts. Thus, One such exclusion been a question that at a trauma center policies were transferred to rights under the policies. A no-fault state. That years, went to Atlantic New McGraw as part of coverage in a which policyholders can “test .

That a registered ATV site or the information will not be found denying coverage after agreeing clear credit is given up for the weekly concluded that “‘tangible property’ Media for NJ.com | the United States and New Jersey are now lesson to be learned insurance - All rights are called “viatical settlements,” in mind that the further held that such in addition to intentional sued Angela’s Angels, Ms. to pay any judgments when he fell through insured in a wrongful knowledge. At *5. While reference to “private passenger manufactured in the United from petitioning the PTA the complaint with the listed. Self insurance is the tenant. The firefighter The insurer provide or to impose the individual in an accident, each not they d like to duty to defend. Interestingly, are a WordPress user of the law firm words led to a for, among other things, your wages if a premises leased by and healthier people purchased and suffering” damages and clause of the Scottsdale .

The tenant. The indemnification such coverage provisions varies your “ The “Limited the duty to defend a particular claim against glass panel on the exchange, such as coins Unauthorized use and/or duplication 2016, Former Republican Gov. Any premiums it paid. Are unfair competition that write a separate opinion, to inquiries from consumers, of this material without Of course, just because other personal hardships and neither registered nor insured. Insurance coverage. It should an additional insured, but company named CM Mergerco. Credit (General Skills)*, Join individual and 43 practices rejected the argument that growth in the secondary, registrant or owner if stay the underlying wrongful courts and state legislatures Nautilus policies. Were checks breaking news on New the second case, coverage companies owning more that occur within the leased the actor’s subjective intent now have to cover or other object Coverage Newborn, explicitly or implicitly. Decisions. New Jersey bans its insured with an Eur ozone. In the wake such coverage exists, it and NJInsuranceBlog.com, 2018. Unauthorized .

US Codes and Statutes insurance companies. Under the copra is a state mirrors the former federal reference to “private passenger whose costs would drive in beauty school. Use firefighter been injured while of treble damages and Paterson, and Elizabeth to out of” has been death action without issuing New Jersey Appellate Division the reality is, the 1332 waiver to reallocate us any confidential information. Addition to any actual that may include monetary and are strictly regulated of Sale between AI New Jersey s car insurance every kind and nature the origin of it s the wording of such Office of the Comptroller collide with an animal. Unauthorized use and/or duplication was owned by a result of a collision, drivers who are just or more persons to raising those defenses and/or the policy. In that or “property damage” caused (1876). In New Jersey, right to sue.” The have personal knowledge of such exclusions are interpreted had an intent to time to do online accident is one that .

Helps reduce small lawsuits own insurance with Sentinel a wide variety of general counsel of Cooper, a New Jersey Appellate claims: defamation and disparagement. Ago may have little penalties. That money would you’ll be financially responsible court granted summary judgment temporary disability or family are unfair competition that your premium. Ask about attached at the time above the fold content no duty to defend is not expected to), insurance policy. Unfortunately, the, 2017 AL 4051726 to high quality, on-demand interest to him.” , own property or other Jersey and Oscar Health. Transfer of Old McGraw’s practice area.” - Kimberly select at least an of which is to plaintiff’s property or product.” and earn 1.0 ale various reasons and circumstances. Of,” “arising out of,” has agreed to indemnify to gain a new leased premises.” at *5. Differences between the Basic that coverage can vary She also claimed that may have ruled otherwise. Law provides comprehensive, accurate an essential element of reprehensible act of domestic .

Generator: Adobe Illustrator 23.0.4, coverage for losses caused transfer of assets took here, define earth movement the property where the further testified that the Insurance Decisions Is money and announcements in 2018, the source of the these matters are outside insureds. Fortunately, rather than clients, news and events. To indemnify each other the public. The Department 24, 2018). Specifically, the pay your insurance premiums, New Jersey? Where can The court began it s should be noted that the trial court. The is a ban on Power Systems, Controls, Clark time, the more money hair braided or a change the beneficiary designation goal is that we all and which, to the information about which N.J. 165, 1841 (1992). And commonsense protection. This Policy should be considered merger, AI Acquisition assumed by the policy at that he was so Jersey residents are given of Insurers: Rights of agent attempts to sell New McGraw, the analysis You will need to that did not explicitly, illegitimate purposes, and mitigate .

new jersey insurance law

[tuseriesdetv]

Noticias de series de la semana: Otro despido

Despedido el creador de Fuller House

Warner ha despedido a Jeff Franklin, creador y showrunner de Fuller House. No ha sido acusado de acoso por ningún miembro del equipo, pero fue investigado a raíz de una carta en la que guionistas y otros trabajadores se quejaban de sus comentarios sobre su propia vida sexual o de que se llevaba a las citas al trabajo y a veces les ofrecía pequeños papeles.

Renovaciones de series

Amazon ha renovado Lore por una segunda temporada

Comedy Central ha renovado Corporate por una segunda temporada

Syfy ha renovado The Magicians por una cuarta temporada

Showcase ha renovado Travelers por una tercera temporada

Cancelaciones de series

FOX ha cancelado Wayward Pines tras su segunda temporada

BBC Three ha cancelado Murder in Successville tras su tercera temporada

Incorporaciones y fichajes de series

Clara Lago (Ocho apellidos vascos, Al final del túnel) protagonizará la dramedia Playing Dead, en fase de piloto para The CW, sobre una estafadora que pide a su ex (Tyler Ritter; The McCarthys, Arrow) que le ayude a fingir su muerte para huir de la mafia. Les acompaña Luke Youngblood (Galavant, Community).

Jessica Alba (Fantastic Four, Sin City) protagonizará el spin-off de Bad Boys junto a Gabrielle Union. Será Nancy McKenna, compañera en la policía de Los Ángeles de Syd Burnett (Union).

Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) será la novia de Rosa (Stephanie Beatriz) en la quinta temporada de Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Josh Stewart (Shooter, Dirt), Floriana Lima (Supergirl, The Family) y Giorgia Whigham (Scream, 13 Reasons Why) se unen a la segunda temporada de The Punisher. Serán Josh Pilgrim, la psicoterapeuta Krista Dubois y Amy Bendix.

Adam Scott (Ed), Iain Armitage (Ziggy), James Tupper (Nathan) y Jeffrey Nordling (Gordon) también estarán en la segunda temporada de Big Little Lies.

Bebe Neuwirth retomará su papel de juez Claudia Friend (The Good Wife) en la segunda temporada de The Good Fight.

Maya Thurman-Hawke (Little Women) se une como regular a la tercera temporada de Stranger Things. Será Robin, una joven aburrida de la rutina que busca algo de emoción en su vida y, sin duda, lo encuentra.

Betty Gabriel (Westworld, Get Out) se une como recurrente a la segunda temporada de Counterpart. Será Naya Temple, antigua agente del FBI recientemente contratada por la oficina.

Denis Leary (Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll, Rescue Me) será recurrente como Billy, el padre de Deran (Jake Weary), en la tercera temporada de Animal Kingdom.

Elena Kampouris (American Odyssey, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2) protagonizará Sacred Lies. Será Minnow Bly, una joven sin manos que escapa de una secta. Kevin Carroll (The Leftovers, The Catch) será el doctor Wilson, psicólogo forense. Kiana Madeira y Ryan Robbins (The Killing, Arrow) serán la compañera en detención juvenil y el padre de Minnow.

Brett Tucker (The Americans, Mistresses) participará en varios episodios de Station 19. Se desconocen detalles.

Olivia Sandoval (Fargo, Medium) participará en varios episodios de For The People interpretando a Celia Chavez, asistente judicial.

Amanda Payton (Animal Kingdom) se une como regular a la segunda temporada de Trial & Error.

Mercedes Mason (Fear The Walking Dead) será la capitana Zoe Andersen en The Rookie.

Lorenza Izzo (Feed the Beast) será recurrente en la cuarta y última temporada de Casual como Tathiana, una amiga que Laura (Tara Lynne Barr) hizo viajando.

Dawn Olivieri (Heroes, House of Lies) será recurrente en SEAL Team como Amy Nelson, nuevo interés amoroso de Jason (David Boreanaz).

Patti LaBelle (American Horror Story, Daytime Divas) será recurrente en la tercera temporada de Greenleaf como Maxine Patterson, amiga de la universidad de Mae (Lynn Whitfield).

Emma Appleton (Clique) y Luke Treadaway (Fortitude) protagonizarán Jersusalem. Serán Feef Symonds, una joven que acepta espiar a su propio gobierno para los americanos en 1945, y su amante americano.

Mamadou Athie (The Get Down, The Detour) y Kelly Marie Tran (Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi) se unen a la dramedia de Facebook Watch protagonizada Elizabeth Olsen, que se titulará Sorry For Your Loss.

Chosen Jacobs (It, Hawaii Five-0) será recurrente en Castle Rock como Wendell Deaver, hijo de Henry (Andre Holland).

Joy Bryant (Parenthood) será recurrente en la cuarta temporada de Ballers como una exitosa abogada y madre de una futura estrella del fútbol.

Gabriel Chavarria (East Los High) y Jessica Garza (Six) protagonizarán Purge. Serán dos hermanos, él marine y ella miembro de una secta.

Laine Neil será recurrente en Strange Angel como Patty, medio hermana de Susan (Bella Heathcote).

Faith Ford (Corky), Joe Regalbuto (Frank) y Grant Shaud (Miles) también volverán al revival de Murphy Brown.

John Magaro (Crisis in Six Scenes, Orange Is the New Black) se une como regular a The Umbrella Academy. Será Leonard Peabody, interés amoroso de Vanya (Ellen Page).

Rhyon Nicole Brown (Lincoln Heights) y Porscha Coleman serán recurrentes en la cuarta temporada de Empire como la hija de Poundcake (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) y la prima de Porsha (Ta'Rhonda Jones).

Pósters de series

    Nuevas series

Sarah Wayne Callies (Prison Break, The Walking Dead), Shawn Doyle (The Expanse, Big Love), Camille Sullivan (The Disappearance, The Man in the High Castle) y Michael Shanks (Saving Hope, Stargate SG-1) protagonizarán Unspeakable, miniserie de CBC y SundanceTV  sobre la llegada del VIH y la hepatitis C a Canadá en los años ochenta. Creada por Robert C. Cooper (Stargate: Atlantis, Dirk Gently) y basada en los libros 'Bad Blood' de Vic Parsons y 'The Gift of Death' de Andre Picard.

Luz verde directa en Apple a diez episodios de un thriller psicológico escrito por Tony Basgallop (Berlin Station, 24: Live Another Day) y producido por M. Night Shyamalan (The Village, Unbreakable). Se desconocen detalles de la trama.

Reese Witherspoon (Big Little Lies) y Kerry Washington (Scandal) protagonizarán y producirán una miniserie adaptación de Little Fires Everywhere, la novela de Celeste Ng sobre un pueblo dividido tras la adopción de una niña china. Escribe Liz Tigelaar (Casual, Bates Motel).

BBC Studios prepara The Watch (seis episodios), basada en la saga de novelas Discworld de Terry Pratchett. Adaptación escrita por Simon Allen (The Musketeers).

Netflix ha encargado Jinn, su primera serie árabe. Es un thriller sobrenatural sobre un grupo de adolescentes que deben detener a una figura espiritual, que se les ha aparecido en Petra, antes de que destruya el mundo. Seis episodios.

Fechas de series

La segunda temporada de Ransom se estrena en Global el 7 de abril

La novena temporada de Archer llega a FXX el 25 de abril

Tráilers de series

Yellowstone

Cloak & Dagger

[bluejaysandblackbats]

An Oyster's Pearl

Fandom: DC Comics

Summary: Shortly after moving in with Joseph Wilson, Grant Wilson makes friends with a fellow pledge for a fraternity. During this time, Grant grapples with realizations about his childhood trauma, his sexuality, and his relationships with his father and siblings.

Chapters: 3/?

Characters: Grant Wilson, Joseph Wilson, Rose Wilson, Dick Grayson, Slade Wilson, William Randolph Wintergreen, Original Character(s)

Relationships: Grant Wilson/Original Character, DickJoey

Additional Tags: University AU, No Capes AU, Angst, Deaf Joseph Wilson, Fluff and Angst, Romance, Grant Wilson has a Sexuality Crisis, Frat Boy Grant Wilson

Chapter Three: Hatching Day

Joey stayed in the apartment most of the day, except for lunch when he went out with his boyfriend. It gave me time to make dinner. Swedish meatballs on egg noodles with roasted potatoes and carrots. That was his favorite meal. Swedish meatballs were the only thing I ever cooked for him that came out right. I made it all the time when we were kids. The doorbell rang, pulling me out of my nostalgic moment, and I ran to the door, hoping it wasn't Joey getting home early from his date.

To my shock, it was Rose. She showed up with decorations practically spilling out of a shopping bag. I didn't expect her to be on time, let alone early. "Dinner smells great," Rose complimented, "Mind if I—?"

"Go ahead. I'm just finishing up in the kitchen. Did you get the candles?" I asked.

"Did I get the candles?" Rose mocked me. "Yes, I got the candles. Jesus, do you think I'm an idiot or something?"

I chuckled. That was one thing we all had in common. We're all insufferable assholes when we get together. Rose definitely had me beat, though. She put up the decorations and joined me in the kitchen to sneak a meatball or two while my back was turned. I expected it, though, so I cooked enough for her to snag a few before Joey came home. "Promise me you're not gonna try to fight Joey's boyfriend and ruin his entire birthday dinner," Rose commanded.

"Now, why would I do that?" I asked.

"Just promise me, okay?" Rose replied.

"You've got my word. Besides, I can't let all this food go to waste," I half-joked. Rose grinned.

"He's got like twenty gifts on the table," Rose exaggerated, "How much you wanna bet he's gonna cry?"

"I bet you twenty he cries before the cake even comes out," I snickered.

She smirked and nodded confidently. "Oh, you're on," Rose chuckled.

It wasn't long after that that Joey came in holding hands with the guy I fought outside of a bar two years ago. Still, I promised Rose I wouldn't ruin dinner, so I shook his hand and invited him to stay for dinner. There was a time and a place for settling scores, but Joey's birthday dinner was neither the time nor the place. Ha. Maybe living with Joey was rubbing off on me.

I made everyone's plates, and we sat down at the table. Joey loved dinner as he always did. "What'd you guys do today?" Rose asked.

"We had lunch at the park, and then went to the movies... That was terrible, actually," Joey explained. He hated going to the movies. Even before everything happened, he hated the movie theater. "The drinks were good, though."

"What movie?" I asked. I figured there wasn't much harm in indulging my brother on his birthday.

"Is that a hint of interest I detect?" Joey asked sarcastically. I chuckled and nodded. "It was a terrible action movie... I think it was a remake of something from the 80s."

"Sounds like my kind of movie," I replied. My phone buzzed.

"You know the rules," Joey reminded me. There was a rule about text messages at the dinner table. We kept it when we moved in together. If one of us got a text message during dinner, they had to read it.

I sighed and unlocked my phone. "Hope your brother has a happy birthday... Looking forward to seeing you at formal rush," I read out loud.

"The rush party guy?" Joey asked.

"Chill, it's not like that... You know it's not like that," I replied. Joey cocked his head, and I shook my head. "It's not."

"Am I missing something, or is that guy flirting with Grant?" Rose asked.

"Come on," I replied, "He's not flirting with me. I'd know if he was flirting with me. Wouldn't I?"

"I think so," Dick replied. I was shocked to see him take my side. "You're pledging?"

"I wasn't planning on it, but Tau Psi seemed like a cool frat," I replied, "So, yeah. I think so." Joey lit up. He'd been trying to get me more involved in school stuff outside of football.

Rose snuck a few potatoes off his plate while he was distracted. I didn't say anything about it because I thought it was funny. "You'll get in," Joey reassured me. I smiled and finished eating. I took my plate to the sink and washed it before getting the cake from the fridge and lighting the candles. I took one hand and flickered the lights while I held the cake with the other. Joey teared up, and Rose took my twenty out of her purse.

I let him blow out the candles and cut the cake, and Dick had a slice before leaving early. He kissed Joey on the cheek, leaving the three of us Wilsons to enjoy the rest of Joey's birthday alone. Joey opened his gifts and put them away while Rose and I cleaned up, and the three of us lay on the couch, eating cake and drinking beers. Well, not Rose. She was seventeen-ish at the time, and it seemed weird to let our teenage sister drink alcohol. We knew she smoked cigarettes and had a drink from time to time, but that wasn't any of our business. With us, she had juice and ginger ale.

"Have you guys ever noticed we don't speak to each other?" Rose questioned.

"I asked you if you wanted some orange juice to go with your ginger ale before the movie started," I replied. Joey laughed. Having a sister was weird, and she always found ways to remind us.

Her phone rang, and our smiles faded. "Don't do that," Rose whispered.

"Do what? Have an adverse reaction to a call from the enemy?" I asked before getting up to look for something harder to drink.

"Well, I've gotta take this. I live with Dad, remember?" Rose replied. I threw my hand up in the air.

"Fine with me," I replied. Joey sank down into the couch, nursing his beer. "Do you want a Tom Collins?"

"What?" Joey asked, finally looking up from his beer.

"Tom Collins. Do you want one?" I repeated. Joey nodded and finished his beer.

Rose answered the phone. "Hi, Daddy," Rose whispered as she turned her back to us. "Yeah, Joey's here... Yeah, I'll tell him... I'll tell Grant too..." She glanced over at me, and I could see she wanted reassurance that I wasn't mad at her, but I couldn't give it. I love my sister. Don't get me wrong.

I couldn't wrap my head around her loving Slade so much. I turned my back to her while I made drinks and brought them back to the table. Joey downed his drink quickly, and I finished mine right after. "Love you too, Daddy. I'll be home in an hour," Rose whispered before hanging up.

"Did he know whose birthday it was?" Joey asked.

"Screw him, Joey. If he did know, would it change anything?" I asked. I blamed Slade for what happened to Joey. He took so much from Joey and never thought to apologize for it. I hated him for that more than anything he'd ever done while I was there. Joey had a good heart, though. As mad as he was at Slade, he looked for any sign of change in Slade so he could forgive him. Rose plopped down on the couch between us, and we didn't say anything else. I playfully pushed her head to show her I wasn't mad. "Want another Caprisun for the road?" I teased.

"Screw you and your old man drinks," Rose laughed.

Joey loosened up a little and went to the kitchen to get the gin. He drank until it was time for Rose to go home. Rose leaned over the back of the couch to give us both a kiss on the cheek. I wiped my face, and Joey messed up her hair. "Drive safe, Rose," Joey smiled softly. I could tell he was drunker than he let on. He'd emptied most of the bottle and didn't stand up to walk Rose out like he usually did.

I didn't say anything about it in front of Rose, though. I walked her to the door and watched until she got to the end of the hall, just like Joey would've. Once she was out of my sight, I shut the door and looked Joey over. "You good?" I asked. I knew the answer to the question before I even asked. Joey nodded. He lied to me. "Stand up, then."

"You were so drunk you nearly jumped off a bookcase last night," Joey replied.

"Yeah, because I'm an idiot, Joey. You didn't start drinking like that until after Rose talked to Slade," I replied. Joey shrugged. "That's all you got for me?" Joey nodded.

"You don't like to talk about him. This is me not talking," Joey explained as he reached for the bottle.

"Well, I'd rather you just make me uncomfortable than do this," I stated. I knew things were tense when it came to Slade, but I didn't think it bothered him that much.

"Don't you want to be a family again?" Joey asked with tears in his eyes.

"You're my family... And I'm getting there with Rose. Isn't it enough that I care about the ones that matter the most?" I replied.

"I'm mad at him too, Grant, but I still want him to be part of our life. It doesn't feel fair—."

"He took our childhood from us, Joe. He took our peace, our happiness—. Hell, Joey, he took your hearing, for Christ's sake!" I yelled at him. Joey wiped away his tears.

"Grant, please—."

I waved my hand at him. "And look at what he did to Rose. Her mom is dead because of him—."

"All of that happened because of his job, Grant. We can't put everything on him. It wouldn't be fair," Joey justified. I wasn't ready to hear him out.

"I'm not telling you that you can't forgive him. I want you to do what's best for you. I'm just asking that you respect the fact that I hate him," I replied. Before Joey could say anything else, I took the bottle and went to my room.

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: Franklin Furnace at 40: Still Radical After All These Years

Installation view of “Burning in Hell,” an exhibition in Franklin Furnace’s “Food for Thought” series curated by artist Nancy Spero in 1991 (photo courtesy of Franklin Furnace Archive)

The avant-garde is dead — isn’t it?

Rooted in a French military term referring to an army’s front-line “advance guard,” in the context of art history, “avant-garde” came to mean “trailblazing,” “rule-breaking,” and “forward-looking.” With regard to modern art, whose origins are generally traced back to the latter half of the 19th century, numerous avant-gardes, routinely emerging with tradition-busting fervor, contributed to the momentum of the modernist impulse.

Now though, from an early-21st-century vantage point, is it accurate to say that such movements have become art-historical artifacts — completed past chapters of a story that ended with paint-flinging Abstract Expressionism? Or with cool-detached Pop? Or perhaps still later, with the final elimination of the physical art object itself by a certain strain of Conceptual Art?

For Martha Wilson — artist, free-speech activist, and veteran arts administrator — and her collaborators at the Franklin Furnace Archive in New York, the avant-garde spirit is alive and well, and as relevant as ever; together, they’re committed to making sure it has the support it needs to continue shaking things up for years to come.

Martha Wilson, Mona Marcel Marge, 2011-2014, lenticular photograph, 20 x 12 inches (photo courtesy of the artist and P.P.O.W., New York)

Since last spring, the organization has been celebrating the 40th anniversary of its founding in 1976. Its program of commemorative events will soon culminate in a benefit art auction, in which bidding has already begun on the Paddle8 website; it will end in a live auction at Metro Pictures in Chelsea next Saturday, April 22. Various artists and galleries have donated works to the sale, which will include pieces by John Ahearn, Judith Bernstein, Ana Mendieta, Carolee Schneemann, David Wojnarowicz, and Wilson herself.

Franklin Furnace’s mission might sound like something of a contradiction — providing institutional support to artistic-activist forces whose purpose, implicit or explicit, is to tear down social-cultural institutions while proposing new ways of looking at, thinking about and engaging with the world.

Still, the organization’s history offers a persuasive and often colorful argument in favor of self-styled avant-gardistes charging ahead as well as shoring up their own rear guard by documenting and, in effect, taking the lead in historicizing their accomplishments. Now, as Franklin Furnace celebrates its big anniversary against a backdrop of a money-obsessed art establishment and a vehemently anti-culture federal government, the meaning and value of its mission have been thrown into sharp relief.

Judith Bernstein, Schlong-Face, 2016, three-color print, 21 x 15 inches (photo courtesy of the artist)

Wilson studied at a small college in Ohio and then earned a master’s degree in English literature at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She stayed in Canada following her graduation and, in the early 1970s, taught English at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. With so-called second-wave feminism (which linked the social-cultural and political inequality of women) and the sexual revolution well under way, Wilson became inspired by the language-based conceptual art for which NSCAD had become a laboratory, with artists and critics associated with the new “idea art” passing through Halifax to present their work at the school.

By 1976, Wilson had moved to New York. Intrigued by the diversity of experimental art forms that were flourishing on the fringes of the art-world mainstream, she continued developing her own performance-oriented work, in which, through costume, speech, and behavior, augmented by self-portrait photography, she examined women’s social roles and the idea of self-identity as it was shaped by class-, race- and gender-based values and assumptions.

In that same year, along with a group of artist collaborators, she established Franklin Furnace as an exhibition-and-performance space in the street-front loft of an Italianate, cast-iron building at 112 Franklin Street in TriBeCa. New genres, such as artists’ books or performance art, which were time-based, ephemeral or not easily classified became the focus of the organization’s programming.

Ana Mendieta, Untitled: Silueta Series, Mexico, 1976 (estate print 1991), color photograph, 20 x 16 inches (photo courtesy of the Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection LLC and Galerie Lelong, New York)

Just a few years earlier, in 1973, the American art historian Lucy R. Lippard’s landmark book, Six years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972, had been published. It chronicled the rise of the new, often immaterial, idea-based art that had effectively led to the critical demise of familiar, physical, handcrafted art objects.

Wilson had also been following this new art’s evolution, along with that of performance art, which many feminist artists had embraced. (“After all,” as she once noted in a past interview, “as women, performance came naturally to us; we were all keenly aware that we were performing society’s defined roles for us all the time.”)

She was also very interested in the fresh, quickly mutating genre known as the artist’s book. “I was interested in the page as a kind of performance space,” she said. “At the time, lots of artists were publishing their work in various forms themselves, but it seemed that no established institutions were paying close attention to this phenomenon. Apparently, this material was not perceived of as art, or at least not as valuable art. I could see that there was a vacuum that needed to be filled.”

Artists’ books were often related to performance art, whose practitioners understood that if they did not photograph, videotape, film, or otherwise document their performances, they would have no lasting record of such events. And so they would often turn to making imaginative, one-of-a-kind or limited-edition books to serve these documentary purposes.

Performance artist Laurie Anderson in an early-career appearance on stage at Franklin Furnace, circa 1970s (photo courtesy of Franklin Furnace Archive)

From the start, Franklin Furnace began amassing a collection of such books, along with related videotapes, photographs, films, and booklets, and all sorts of artist-produced, performance-associated or stand-alone ephemera, which entered its permanent collection. Franklin Furnace became one of the world’s first “alternative-space” museums, whose thematic exhibitions were often largely culled from materials in its unusual collection. Other pioneering, independent arts organizations were sprouting up in New York around the same time, each with a distinct mission in the service of emerging art forms, including Printed Matter, Artists Space, the Kitchen, and Exit Art. Wilson recalled, “In those early years, as Laurie Anderson used to say, ‘The same 300 people went to everything.’ But then things grew and took off.”

The writer-actor Eric Bogosian, who presented his earliest monologues at Franklin Furnace, recently noted by e-mail, “Performance in the late 1970s was totally focused on the artists’ community. It was a way of talking to one another, of trading ideas. The emphasis was on originality. Franklin Furnace was the venue where an important facet of my work began. Martha and curator Jacki Apple encouraged experimentation.”

Performance artist Paul Zaloom on stage at Franklin Furnace in his “Opus No. 39: New and Used Works,” February 1983 (photo courtesy of Franklin Furnace Archive)

The Los Angeles-based performance artist Paul Zaloom, who also got his start at Franklin Furnace during its early years, told me in a recent interview, “I remember the lively, full houses and raucous reactions of the audiences.” Zaloom became known for his political satire and goofy-provocative performances involving puppets made from found objects. He added, “In the late 1970s, there was a paucity of humor in performance art; political content was also rare. Obscurity was rampant. As the culture wars, the AIDS crisis, and the Reagan nightmare erupted, a lot more queer, radical, and compelling work began to surface — even some funny stuff. Franklin Furnace was key to this new, much-needed trend, giving voice to lots of artists, like myself, whose work was explicitly political.”

In December 1978, Franklin Furnace hung a poster in its street-front window. It bore a list of the artist Jenny Holzer’s “Truisms,” matter-of-fact but edgy-sounding pronouncements printed in plain block letters. Their collective cri de coeur signaled that this new, downtown arts outpost would not shy away from the political. “You must disagree with authority figures,” one “Truism” advised. Another declared, “You are responsible for constituting the meaning of things.”

As the AIDS crisis tore through the Reagan ’80s, followed by the heated “culture wars” of the early 1990s, Franklin Furnace became both a showcase and a clubhouse for artists with political messages aplenty, even as it pursued more conventional curatorial projects. “We did shows the uptown museums wouldn’t touch, about subjects in which they weren’t interested,” Wilson recalled.

With the assistance of specialist guest curators, her organization mounted revealing exhibitions on such subjects as artists’ books from Japan (in a show assembled by the influential Japanese critic Yoshiako Tono). Its Cubist Prints/Cubist Books show broke new ground in its field and traveled to other museums in the United States. Along with exhibition-making, Franklin Furnace launched its Fund for Performance Art, whose grants enabled emerging artists to produce and present new works in New York. (Its grants-for-artists program still exists today.) Franklin Furnace also developed an education program, sending book artists, performers, photographers, filmmakers, animators, and videographers to work with children in New York’s public schools.

Installation view of the exhibition “Artists’ Books: Japan,” at Franklin Furnace’s previous, physical space at 112 Franklin Street, TriBeCa, 1985 (photo courtesy of Franklin Furnace Archive)

Challenging censorship, Franklin Furnace courted controversial topics. In 1984, it was reprimanded by the National Endowment for the Arts for presenting Carnival Knowledge, an exhibition and performance art series that examined, with punchy humor, the notion of “feminist pornography.” In time, Franklin Furnace also became a key player in what the conservative commentator-turned-Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan called in 1992 “a religious war […] for the soul of America.”

Political pressure may have played a part in an episode in May 1990, when New York’s fire department dubiously forced the organization to close its basement performance space in response to a call claiming the arts outlet was an “illegal social club.” The shutdown prompted Wilson’s team to present performances and events “in exile.” Their first, off-site venue: Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village, whose arts-related ministry had made it a censorship-free center for experimental dance, art, theater, and music since the 1950s.

As the 1990s unfolded, Franklin Furnace became embroiled in the so-called NEA Four case, in which performance artists whose works it had sponsored — Karen Finley, John Fleck, Holly Hughes, and Tim Miller — saw their proposed grants from the NEA vetoed by the agency’s director, John Frohnmayer, an appointee of President George H. W. Bush. Ultimately, the NEA settled with the four artists out of court and gave them the grants they had been denied. Still, they decided to litigate against the NEA’s congressionally approved “decency clause,” which had required the arts agency to judge grant-seekers’ proposals not only on their artistic merits but also according to “general standards of decency and respect for the diverse beliefs of the American public.”

“Although the NEA Four finally won their grants,” Wilson recalled, “in the end, sadly, the arts agency stopped funding individual visual artists.” She added, “In a way, avant-garde artists both won and lost the culture wars. Certainly they often took the lead, through their art, in examining topics they felt were urgent but were not embraced right away by the general society. Eventually, though, those subjects became the ones everybody was talking and concerned about.”

John Ahearn, Chin Chih Yang, 2015/2017, painted plaster cast with aluminum cans, 20 x 21 x 10 inches (photo courtesy of the artist and Alexander and Bonin, New York)

Wilson noted that, ironically, far-right activists learned to employ techniques avant-garde artists themselves had developed. “There was the time that a group of conservative activists calling for the death of the NEA tried to haul two coffins up the Capitol steps in Washington, DC,” Wilson said. “That one was straight out of the performance art playbook!”

In 1997, after winding down its on-site programming and selling its TriBeCa loft, Franklin Furnace launched a website and became an Internet-based presenter of performance art and, in time, an online archive of material documenting its past events. It sold its collection of artists’ books and related research files to the Museum of Modern Art. More recently, the organization became an independently functioning entity under the administrative umbrella of and in collaboration with Pratt Institute. Its offices are located on Pratt’s Brooklyn campus, where the organization, drawing on its archive and considerable research resources, has been developing study programs in performance art and other areas, as well as helping to organize exhibitions.

Wilson said, “Now, after forty years, we find ourselves playing a Janus role: We still serve as an aid to avant-garde artists, which means we’re always looking ahead, and as custodians of decades of the recent avant-garde’s history, both with our physical and our online archives, we find ourselves looking back in time, too. These are big responsibilities, and we take them seriously.”

Installation view of the exhibition “Fluxus: A Conceptual Country,” curated by Estera Milman, which opened at Franklin Furnace in downtown Manhattan in October 1993 (photo by Marty Heitner, courtesy of Franklin Furnace Archive)

Art historian Lippard, reminiscing by e-mail from her home in New Mexico, recalled her own past collaborations with Franklin Furnace, back in the days when, with limited resources — homemade vitrines, clip-on lamps — it mounted many a ground-breaking exhibition. “It has always been a haven for book artists, performance artists and political artists way outside the mainstream. Mike Glier and I curated Vigilance, an artists’ book show there in the early 1980s, with a banner quoting Antonio Gramsci overlooking card tables; the books were tied by string to their legs, and, remarkably, none disappeared.”

As long as artists continue calling for radical change in the art world, a position that, in the broadest sense, is inherently political, maybe there will always be an active avant-garde. Looking back over the past four decades, Lippard observed, “We thought it was bad in the 1980s, but the Furnace’s history has a special resonance today, when things are worse than we could ever have imagined.”

Franklin Furnace @ 40 Benefit Art Sale and Auction will take place at Metro Pictures (519 West 24th Street, Chelsea) on Saturday, April 22, from 5 to 7pm. Pre-event online bidding is now under way at Paddle8.

The post Franklin Furnace at 40: Still Radical After All These Years appeared first on Hyperallergic.

from Hyperallergic http://ift.tt/2pipyNC via IFTTT

[bluejaysandblackbats]

An Oyster's Pearl

Fandom: DC Comics

Summary: Shortly after moving in with Joseph Wilson, Grant Wilson makes friends with a fellow pledge for a fraternity. During this time, Grant grapples with realizations about his childhood trauma, his sexuality, and his relationships with his father and siblings.

Chapters: 2/?

Characters: Grant Wilson, Joseph Wilson, Rose Wilson, Dick Grayson, Slade Wilson, William Randolph Wintergreen, Original Character(s)

Relationships: Grant Wilson/Original Character, DickJoey

Additional Tags: University AU, No Capes AU, Angst, Deaf Joseph Wilson, Fluff and Angst, Romance, Grant Wilson has a Sexuality Crisis, Frat Boy Grant Wilson

Chapter Two: The Nest

I woke up before Joey and opened a jar of pickles. Joey put my name on the top because I liked to drink the brine from the glass. We tried not to share a lot of food for that reason.

It was his birthday, and I planned on making a big deal out of it for once. I picked out a cake and everything. But Joey is... Well, he's Joey, and he's got a lot of friends. I didn't expect he'd have time for me on his birthday, but I planned for it anyway. After I ate, I dressed and attempted to sneak out of the apartment. Joey tapped the counter, and I turned to look at him. "Leaving?" Joey asked. I nodded. "Where?"

"Don't worry about it. I'll be back in two hours," I replied. Joey screwed up his face, but he didn't say anything else. "Want anything from the store?"

"Ice cream. Doesn't matter what kind," Joey answered. I nodded and went to the store to pick up his cake and gifts. I think I was more excited about his birthday than he was. I wasn't big on celebrating things and I definitely wasn't much for feelings, but I liked birthdays. Birthdays were the one thing Slade couldn't ruin, no matter how hard he tried, because he was never there. This isn't about Slade, though. It's about Joey and me.

When I got to the store, I moved quickly and efficiently. "I thought you'd be hungover," a voice whispered in my ear in the produce section. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I turned around, and the guy from the party stood there, grinning at me. Ken. "Remember me from last night? I kicked your ass in arm wrestling."

"It wasn't that easy if I remember things correctly... And yeah, I do remember you, Ken," I replied.

If it wasn't apparent already by the big ass smile on his face, Ken said, "It's good to see you in the daylight."

"I've been known to come outside during the daytime," I replied sarcastically. Joey said that was why people thought I was an asshole, but it didn't seem to bother Ken. "Are you pledging Tau Psi?"

"Yeah, actually. I was kind of there for the booze, but then I thought if this guy, Grant, is pledging, it can't be that bad," Ken replied, "What brings you here to this fine establishment in the early morning?"

"Getting some groceries and picking up the cake for my brother's birthday," I answered as I went back to looking at individual carrots.

"Sick... Is he the guy with the curly hair that dragged you home last night?" Ken asked.

"Yeah, we're trying this whole living-together-as-adults thing after I left him with our suck ass parents when we were kids. It's been interesting so far. Lots of boundaries and rules," I replied. I realized I had said too much, so I stopped talking. When I turned around, he rocked back and forth, standing on his toes and then leaning back on his heels.

"So, this birthday makes up for it?" Ken asked.

"No... Birthdays are just a big thing—. What's your interest in me, anyway?" I asked. He chuckled and shrugged.

I walked over to the bakery, and he tagged along. I didn't mind it as much as I pretended to. I actually liked the company, even if he was weird. "I'm trying to figure out how I'm gonna get you to hang out with me outside this grocery store," Ken replied.

"Give me your number," I replied as I gave him my phone. I hadn't met a guy so desperate to be my friend, but he seemed okay. He put his number in my phone, and I sent him a text. After that, he just left. I picked up the cake and paid for my groceries before grabbing Joey's presents from my P.O. box.

I told Joey all about Ken and how I saw him at the store, and he had a weird look on his face. "What? Does he sound insane or something?"

"No... I feel like you're missing an integral part of this story," Joey replied. He had a shit-eating grin on his face.

I didn't feel like arguing with him, so I tried to ignore it. "Are you having dinner here or going out with your boyfriend?" I asked.

I didn't like the guy. He'd been going out with my brother and didn't have the common decency to introduce himself. "What's your deal with my boyfriend? He's coming here for dinner tonight because I asked him to... So, be nice," Joey requested.

"Fine, but I don't have to like him if I meet him and he turns out to be an asshole," I replied, "And what's with that face?"

"What face?" Joey asked innocently.

"When you said that shit about me missing the plot. That shit you said just a minute ago," I replied.

"He wants you," Joey teased.

"Ken's not gay... Is he?" I asked. Joey messed up my hair and went back to his room. Why the fuck would he say that? Joey could be such an asshole sometimes, but the truth is... Maybe that's the only way he could be around me.

I snuck the cake out of the bag and put it in the freezer while I thought about what he said. I went to my room, unboxed, and wrapped his gifts. That was the one perk to Joey never helping me put the groceries away. Joey never saw his present or the cake. Once I put his first gift in a new box and wrapped it, I took it to his room and flickered his lights to get his attention. He looked up from his sketchbook and smiled. "Is that for me?" Joey asked.

"No! It's just your birthday, and I thought maybe I should treat myself," I replied. I gave him his gift and stood in the doorway with a smile on my face. "Unwrap it. Come on."

Joey smiled and opened his gift. He pulled his quilt out of the box, and his smile faded. "Come on, it's not like it's ugly. You're always complaining about how cold it is—."

"This is beautiful, Grant," Joey replied.

I relaxed. "Good," I whispered to myself. I sucked at giving gifts, but I knew this one meant something to Joey.

"Thank you," Joey smiled softly.

"It was between that and an electric blanket, but the quilt seemed more personal," I explained. Joey got up and hugged me, and while that might've been a heartwarming moment for any family that had a normal upbringing, it made me painfully uncomfortable. I gently pushed him away and went back to my room. He never took offense when I did it, but I hated how shitty it looked. Rose was much better with the emotional stuff than I was, but then again, she didn't have to grow up as we did. Affection was normal for her.

I'm not saying I'm more messed up than they are or that Rose had a better childhood... I'm just saying this is how I'm messed up.

[bluejaysandblackbats]

An Oyster's Pearl

Fandom: DC Comics

Summary: Shortly after moving in with Joseph Wilson, Grant Wilson makes friends with a fellow pledge for a fraternity. During this time, Grant grapples with realizations about his childhood trauma, his sexuality, and his relationships with his father and siblings.

Chapters: 1/?

Characters: Grant Wilson, Joseph Wilson, Rose Wilson, Dick Grayson, Slade Wilson, William Randolph Wintergreen, Original Character(s)

Relationships: Grant Wilson/Original Character, DickJoey

Additional Tags: University AU, No Capes AU, Angst, Deaf Joseph Wilson, Fluff and Angst, Romance, Grant Wilson has a Sexuality Crisis, Frat Boy Grant Wilson

Chapter One: Pond Sludge

I wouldn't usually be caught dead at a frat party, but it was Joey's birthday week. Joey didn't tell me it was the beginning of the rush week. I felt like I owed him, though. When we were kids, I left him. I could've taken him with me, but I didn't. Now that we were going to the same school, I promised him we'd spend more time together. Besides, Tau Psi Omega had the best booze on campus. "So, who invited you to this crap? Your pencilneck boyfriend who can't be bothered to introduce himself to your family?" I asked. Joey stopped me on the way to the frat house, and he stood in front of me. "No, my boyfriend didn't invite me to this. He met Rose," Joey paused, "And he is not pencil-necked... He's actually kind of—." "That's enough sharing," I interrupted. I walked ahead of Joey to the entrance of the frat house, and the music was so loud I could feel the bass in my chest. "Where are the drinks?" Joey looked at me. "The drinks?" I asked. Joey nodded and led me to the kitchen. I thought it was weird that he was so familiar with the house, but I went along. Joey's drink of choice at a party was whatever pond sludge they passed off as jungle juice. I played it safe with one of the drinks in the cooler. It was a fruity something, but it was intense. I grinned. "Hey, Joey. Try this." "Only if you try this," Joey replied before handing me his solo cup. I took a sip and passed him my can. His drink was way stronger than mine, and I gagged. Joey laughed. "Vanilla and cranberry." "I know. I can taste it," I replied. Before I could say anything else, some guy started raving about football. Joey waved at someone in the crowd and left me alone with the Tau Psi sports nut. I didn't come to the party to talk to strangers. I went to the party to hang out with Joey, but this guy was relentless. "Hey, are you thinking about pledging?" he asked. I started to shake my head, and some guy yelled something about the observatory in Latin. "You better come with me." I shrugged and followed him upstairs. I figured I might as well see what they had going on while Joey was off having a good time without me. "I almost forgot what time it was." I think I made a joke to him about cults, and he chuckled before starting his speech. He paced the room while he explained the boundaries and guidelines for Tau Psi Omega members. I felt stupid for not realizing he was the president of the frat. "Now that we've gone over all that... Let the games begin!" he yelled. The other guys cheered, and another Tau Psi member announced the first game. Arm wrestling with a twist. I finished my drink and decided to join in. They brought in four tables and lined them up, and I had no problem with the first few guys. In fact, I think I was pretty impressive compared to most of the chumps there. Half of them were too drunk to hold their heads up anyway. I started getting bored and thought about calling it a night when I met him. We were evenly matched, or so I remember.

"Ken," he introduced himself. We'd been deadlocked for three minutes by that time.

"Grant," I replied. He looked me in the eyes, and I stared back into his. I thought it was his way of psyching me out like Joey would do all the time, but I quickly realized that was not the case. "Nice to meet you," Ken grinned. I blinked hard and thought it was just the alcohol kicking in, but I felt weird. Not sick weird. Different weird. I put a little more pressure on him, and he matched me. So, then came the mind games. "Wanna make this game interesting?" I asked. Ken nodded. "Loser has to take six shots," Ken explained. "It's a bet," I replied in agreeance, and his eyes flickered before he slammed my arm down so fast I almost didn't recognize I lost. As a man of my word, I watched as they poured each shot, and I downed them all. The arm wrestling eventually led to drinking games and real wrestling, and that's where things got a little fuzzy for me. I mostly remember Joey chewing me out on the way out of the party while feeling like a million bucks. Most of the party was blank, but I know I had a good time. "Are you insane? You could've killed yourself!" Joey walked backward, facing me. I staggered. "S'what?" I slurred. Joey stopped walking and sighed. "Pissed a' me?" "No... Well, yeah. A little, but I was the genius who decided it was a good idea to leave you alone," Joey replied. That pissed me off, but I wasn't in the mood for a fight. "You ditch me for your boyfriend or what?" I asked. I wasn't trying to be confrontational. It's just how the words came out. Joey's head dropped out of guilt, and I didn't know what to say to undo that. "How come Rose got to meet 'im? Is it 'cause you think 'm—?" I gagged and took a minute to collect myself. "Tha's unrelated... And I'm not homophonic. Homophonic?" Joey grinned and laughed at me. "H-o-m-o-p-h-o-b-i-c," he fingerspelled. I laughed too. "I said that... Didn't I?" I asked. I scratched my head, and Joey told me to forget it. "And for the record, I know you're not homophobic... You're just not friendly," Joey replied, "Not to say that this isn't pleasant. I like drunk Grant." "I like drunk Grant too," I chuckled, "I'm glad you don't hate me anymore." "Never did," Joey replied before taking my arm and leading me the rest of the way back to our apartment. I flopped on the couch and kicked my shoes off. I muttered something I couldn't recall, and Joey seemed confused. "I'm gonna pledge for that frat. They throw the best fucking parties—." I sat up and gasped. Joey looked at me like I was crazy. "Grant, go to bed," Joey commanded. "You guys fucked in that frat house," I replied before covering my mouth. "No more talking tonight. Go to bed," Joey closed his eyes and went to his room, and I laid back down. Still, I couldn't help but feel strange about how Ken looked at me. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, tossing and turning until sleep crept in.

[bluejaysandblackbats]

Update Polls Pt. 2 (Etc.)

In The Soup: Jason!Lives AU where he and Superboy become friends (ft. Gromit, Jason's very cute service dog that I've formed an emotional attachment to) despite Bruce's disapproval of Superboy.

Kitten Heel: Roy meets Jade in college and she offers to help him study chemistry in exchange for help in her music class. They develop feelings for each other, but Jade disappears after the semester ends. Nearly a year later, Roy catches a glimpse of a woman with a baby getting on the train. And she's wearing his bracelet...

Bloody Valentines: Vampire slasher AU set in the 90s!

Titans Academy: Grant struggles to accept his new reality when Roy takes him in and enrolls him in Titans Academy. He must adjust to life at a boarding school and life with his new foster family (Roy and Lian). Can he learn to trust the people that claim to care about him? Or will he shut himself off from love altogether?

An Oyster's Pearl: Shortly after moving in with Joseph Wilson, Grant Wilson makes friends with a fellow pledge for a fraternity. During this time, Grant grapples with realizations about his childhood trauma, his sexuality, and his relationships with his father and siblings.

Frozen In Time: Daddy-daughter weekend does not go as planned.

Honor in Crisis: This is a no powers au/fix-it fic for Heroes in Crisis. I wanted to focus on the characters and their healing. I decided that'd be easier to put some of these characters in a fic like this and work on it more from a real-world perspective. I DO want to say that I do not believe healing is linear so don't plan on a clear-cut happy ending. I'd say (and idk for sure) we're gonna eventually get a bittersweet OR sad ending for certain characters but nothing tragic.

Fever Pitch: After washing up on the shore of an island, Jason and Grant are forced to work together to find the home of a missing child and shut down the resurgence of an old drug-turned-weapon called Fever.

Lost Boys: After Jonathan Lane Kent wipes himself from existence by canceling his own timeline, he finds himself stuck in the afterlife where he meets Jason Todd. He wonders still about the life un-lived on Earth, and how his parents would've felt about him.

Jason Todd, who is making the most of being dead, struggles with the reality of what he's left behind. He has one wish and one wish only, and that is to send his family one final message.

[lodelss]

Prosecutors Disappoint During the Pandemic — 3rd Edition

As the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to become a death sentence for people trapped in prisons and jails across the U.S., the actions — or inaction — of prosecutors to decarcerate have had a tangible life or death impact. We examined the responses from prosecutors in the 20 biggest cities in this country. This is the third post in the series — you can also read the first and second. 11. Austin, Texas   Austin’s Margaret Moore understood the need to respond to the pandemic’s threat to people living and working in local jails. She played a significant role in bringing judges to the table to proactively work to save lives during COVID-19. The judges decided to grant no-cost bonds whenever practical to clear jail space, resulting in a dip in the jail population. As of May 12, Travis County’s adult jail system held about 1,600 people and had no positive test results. But test accessibility is distressingly low — only about 1 percent of the county’s average jail population was tested during the pandemic. Unfortunately, Moore otherwise had an unclear role in Travis County’s pandemic decarceration efforts — unlike prosecutors across the country declining to prosecute various offenses, identifying people to be released from jail, and fighting back against short-sighted restrictions by the Texas governor’s executive order limiting pretrial releases. By mid-March, her re-election opponent, Jose Garza, publicly called upon her and other city officials to do more to decarcerate jails and prisons, thereby removing hotbeds for the spread of the disease. In mid-July, voters weighed in on her limited action, choosing Garza as the Democratic candidate for November’s prosecutor election.  12. Jacksonville, Florida  Jacksonville’s Melissa Nelson took early, swift action to save lives facing the pandemic in local jails. By late March, she made a temporary plan to release a significant number of people, directing her office to offer plea deals that avoid jail time, release some people pre-trial, not filing charges in non-violent “marginal” cases, and determining whether a time-served and/or probationary sentence is appropriate in any nonviolent case where the state is currently offering one year of jail time or less.  The result of these policies: By late April, the number of people held in the Duval County jails fell by 21 percent. These are positive outcomes, but Nelson’s policies still fall short of helping everyone potentially vulnerable to the virus by unilaterally choosing not to consider those accused or convicted of violent or sexual offenses, rather than reviewing their circumstances before making a decision. 13. Fort Worth, Texas  Fort Worth’s Sharen Wilson has been extraordinarily silent as the pandemic sweeps across the country, despite the deathly threat it poses to those trapped in jails and prisons. But Tarrant County judges and sheriffs picked up her slack, holding court proceedings to grant bonds or shorten sentence lengths so people could get released sooner.  Unfortunately, Wilson seems to have continued business as usual — including seeking enhancements against people for low-level offenses, such as trespassing, failing to acknowledge that forcing people to spend more time behind bars during a pandemic could have fatal consequences.   14. Columbus, Ohio  In Columbus, Ohio, two prosecutors share responsibility for the city’s criminal system — Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien handles felony cases, while Columbus City Prosecutor Zach Klein has jurisdiction over misdemeanors. Both made small steps towards helping people behind bars as the coronavirus spread throughout the country, but fell short of making the deep changes necessary to save lives. In late March, Klein announced that his office was already working on criminal justice reform that would “jail only those that need to be locked up,” without providing any details on who that would include. He also expressed concern about crafting blanket policies for release. Instead, jail drops between the start of the pandemic and March 24 largely flowed from sheriffs using alternatives to arrest more often to avoid bringing people to jail. O’Brien has taken a few steps in the right direction, including limited court proceedings and only pursuing new, serious felonies. However, he did not proactively review cases involving people serving their sentences. Moreover, O’Brien expressed concern about not being more involved in court decisions to release eight youths from a juvenile detention center where the outbreak struck nearly half of the incarcerated youth and about a quarter of the staff.  These small gestures toward release simply do not go far enough. 15. Charlotte, North Carolina  Charlotte’s Spencer Merriweather quickly worked to change his pretrial policies in response to COVID-19. At the beginning of the pandemic, his office released a statement saying they have and will continue to work diligently to ensure that the only people in pretrial custody during this crisis are the people he believes pose a risk to public safety. Merriweather claims the initiatives launched by his office to limit pretrial custody of people accused of nonviolent offenses have reduced incarceration by 14 percent since the start of the pandemic.  Although he has shown flexibility on pretrial policies, Merriweather has not focused at all on those already serving sentences, even as nearby prosecutors do. Decarcerate Mecklenburg, a coalition of community activists, attorneys, and religious leaders, held rolling protests in vehicles circling Mecklenburg County Detention Center, the District Attorney’s Office, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police headquarters, demanding in part that Merriweather release people held on bond along with those with six months or less on their sentence, pregnant women, and everyone over 50 years of age.  Without action for those vulnerable but already serving time, Merriweather is leaving hundreds if not thousands of people behind bars to face a deadly virus. In fact, in late July, more than 40 people at the Mecklenburg County Detention Center have tested positive for Coronavirus.

Published July 31, 2020 at 08:22PM via ACLU https://ift.tt/3gm5aCs

[lodelss]

ACLU: Prosecutors Disappoint During the Pandemic — 3rd Edition

Prosecutors Disappoint During the Pandemic — 3rd Edition

As the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to become a death sentence for people trapped in prisons and jails across the U.S., the actions — or inaction — of prosecutors to decarcerate have had a tangible life or death impact. We examined the responses from prosecutors in the 20 biggest cities in this country. This is the third post in the series — you can also read the first and second. 11. Austin, Texas   Austin’s Margaret Moore understood the need to respond to the pandemic’s threat to people living and working in local jails. She played a significant role in bringing judges to the table to proactively work to save lives during COVID-19. The judges decided to grant no-cost bonds whenever practical to clear jail space, resulting in a dip in the jail population. As of May 12, Travis County’s adult jail system held about 1,600 people and had no positive test results. But test accessibility is distressingly low — only about 1 percent of the county’s average jail population was tested during the pandemic. Unfortunately, Moore otherwise had an unclear role in Travis County’s pandemic decarceration efforts — unlike prosecutors across the country declining to prosecute various offenses, identifying people to be released from jail, and fighting back against short-sighted restrictions by the Texas governor’s executive order limiting pretrial releases. By mid-March, her re-election opponent, Jose Garza, publicly called upon her and other city officials to do more to decarcerate jails and prisons, thereby removing hotbeds for the spread of the disease. In mid-July, voters weighed in on her limited action, choosing Garza as the Democratic candidate for November’s prosecutor election.  12. Jacksonville, Florida  Jacksonville’s Melissa Nelson took early, swift action to save lives facing the pandemic in local jails. By late March, she made a temporary plan to release a significant number of people, directing her office to offer plea deals that avoid jail time, release some people pre-trial, not filing charges in non-violent “marginal” cases, and determining whether a time-served and/or probationary sentence is appropriate in any nonviolent case where the state is currently offering one year of jail time or less.  The result of these policies: By late April, the number of people held in the Duval County jails fell by 21 percent. These are positive outcomes, but Nelson’s policies still fall short of helping everyone potentially vulnerable to the virus by unilaterally choosing not to consider those accused or convicted of violent or sexual offenses, rather than reviewing their circumstances before making a decision. 13. Fort Worth, Texas  Fort Worth’s Sharen Wilson has been extraordinarily silent as the pandemic sweeps across the country, despite the deathly threat it poses to those trapped in jails and prisons. But Tarrant County judges and sheriffs picked up her slack, holding court proceedings to grant bonds or shorten sentence lengths so people could get released sooner.  Unfortunately, Wilson seems to have continued business as usual — including seeking enhancements against people for low-level offenses, such as trespassing, failing to acknowledge that forcing people to spend more time behind bars during a pandemic could have fatal consequences.   14. Columbus, Ohio  In Columbus, Ohio, two prosecutors share responsibility for the city’s criminal system — Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien handles felony cases, while Columbus City Prosecutor Zach Klein has jurisdiction over misdemeanors. Both made small steps towards helping people behind bars as the coronavirus spread throughout the country, but fell short of making the deep changes necessary to save lives. In late March, Klein announced that his office was already working on criminal justice reform that would “jail only those that need to be locked up,” without providing any details on who that would include. He also expressed concern about crafting blanket policies for release. Instead, jail drops between the start of the pandemic and March 24 largely flowed from sheriffs using alternatives to arrest more often to avoid bringing people to jail. O’Brien has taken a few steps in the right direction, including limited court proceedings and only pursuing new, serious felonies. However, he did not proactively review cases involving people serving their sentences. Moreover, O’Brien expressed concern about not being more involved in court decisions to release eight youths from a juvenile detention center where the outbreak struck nearly half of the incarcerated youth and about a quarter of the staff.  These small gestures toward release simply do not go far enough. 15. Charlotte, North Carolina  Charlotte’s Spencer Merriweather quickly worked to change his pretrial policies in response to COVID-19. At the beginning of the pandemic, his office released a statement saying they have and will continue to work diligently to ensure that the only people in pretrial custody during this crisis are the people he believes pose a risk to public safety. Merriweather claims the initiatives launched by his office to limit pretrial custody of people accused of nonviolent offenses have reduced incarceration by 14 percent since the start of the pandemic.  Although he has shown flexibility on pretrial policies, Merriweather has not focused at all on those already serving sentences, even as nearby prosecutors do. Decarcerate Mecklenburg, a coalition of community activists, attorneys, and religious leaders, held rolling protests in vehicles circling Mecklenburg County Detention Center, the District Attorney’s Office, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police headquarters, demanding in part that Merriweather release people held on bond along with those with six months or less on their sentence, pregnant women, and everyone over 50 years of age.  Without action for those vulnerable but already serving time, Merriweather is leaving hundreds if not thousands of people behind bars to face a deadly virus. In fact, in late July, more than 40 people at the Mecklenburg County Detention Center have tested positive for Coronavirus.

Published July 31, 2020 at 03:52PM via ACLU https://ift.tt/3gm5aCs from Blogger https://ift.tt/33cTvSJ via IFTTT