29 May 20
RSN exists because we have rock-solid core of dedicated supporters. That’s the reason RSN has not been broken. It’s only a few hundred small donors but they are the backbone of the organization.
We need a few more.
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Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
Founder, Reader Supported News
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28 May 20
Matthew Schneier, The Cut
Schneier writes: "Dr. Anthony Fauci, who knew Kramer during his tenure at the National Institutes of Health - they were enemies and later became friends - long before he became America's coronavirus czar, once said: 'In American medicine, there are two eras: before Larry and after Larry.'"
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Schneier writes: "Dr. Anthony Fauci, who knew Kramer during his tenure at the National Institutes of Health - they were enemies and later became friends - long before he became America's coronavirus czar, once said: 'In American medicine, there are two eras: before Larry and after Larry.'"
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Building burning in Minneapolis. (photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty)
'No Restraint': Violent Chaos in Minneapolis Could Spark the Next Ferguson
Solomon Gustavo and Kelly Weill, The Daily Beast
Excerpt: "Flames and black smoke poured into the sky here early Thursday as protests over the death of George Floyd took a violent turn, with multiple local businesses and residential buildings near police headquarters set ablaze and at least one person fatally shot in the area."
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Solomon Gustavo and Kelly Weill, The Daily Beast
Excerpt: "Flames and black smoke poured into the sky here early Thursday as protests over the death of George Floyd took a violent turn, with multiple local businesses and residential buildings near police headquarters set ablaze and at least one person fatally shot in the area."
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KN95 masks made by some Chinese manufacturers are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. (photo: Lev Radin/Getty)
Masks Sold by Former White House Official to Navajo Hospitals Don't Meet FDA Standards
Yeganeh Torbati and Derek Willis, ProPublica
Excerpt: "The Indian Health Service acknowledged on Wednesday that 1 million respirator masks it purchased from a former Trump White House official do not meet Food and Drug Administration standards for 'use in healthcare settings by health care providers.'"
Yeganeh Torbati and Derek Willis, ProPublica
Excerpt: "The Indian Health Service acknowledged on Wednesday that 1 million respirator masks it purchased from a former Trump White House official do not meet Food and Drug Administration standards for 'use in healthcare settings by health care providers.'"
EXCERPT:
The IHS statement calls into question why the agency purchased expensive medical gear that it now cannot use as intended. The masks were purchased as part of a frantic agency push to supply Navajo hospitals with desperately needed protective equipment in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
ProPublica revealed last week that Zach Fuentes, President Donald Trump’s former deputy chief of staff, formed a company in early April and 11 days later won a $3 million contract with IHS to provide specialized respirator masks to the agency for use in Navajo hospitals. The contract was granted with limited competitive bidding.
IHS said its Navajo office “has used every available avenue to purchase more supplies and keep up with the demand.”
The masks provided by Fuentes “are not approved by the FDA or covered by an Emergency Use Authorization for use in healthcare settings by health care providers,” the agency said.
In addition, some of the masks have packaging stating that the product is a “non-medical device.” “These masks will not be used in a clinical setting,” the agency said.
Until now, it was unclear who had manufactured the masks that Fuentes’ firm had provided to IHS and thus impossible to know if they met FDA certifications. Contract data shows that IHS asked for KN95 respirator masks, a Chinese version of specialized N95 masks, which provide far greater protection from viruses than ordinary masks.
On Wednesday, IHS told ProPublica the masks sold by Fuentes were made by four Chinese manufacturers and are registered in an FDA database, but have not met the regulator’s relaxed pandemic-era standards for Chinese-made masks.
Fuentes charged the government $3.24 per mask, which is higher than the pre-pandemic rates for respirator masks and far higher than prices charged for masks that can’t be used in hospital settings
When the state of New York appealed a judge's order to let Jalil Muntaqim out of prison due to the pandemic, it delayed his release. The elderly man was recently hospitalized with a coronavirus infection he got behind bars. (photo: Bryan Shih)
New York Appealed to Keep an Elderly Prisoner Behind Bars - Then He Got Coronavirus
Natasha Lennard, The Intercept
Lennard writes: "Had the judge's April ruling been permitted to stand, Muntaqim could well have been saved this fate."
Natasha Lennard, The Intercept
Lennard writes: "Had the judge's April ruling been permitted to stand, Muntaqim could well have been saved this fate."
EXCERPTS:
As of this week, according to New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision data, 492 people incarcerated in the New York State system have tested positive for Covid-19; 408 of those individuals have reportedly recovered, but 16 have died. Aligning with the vast overrepresentation of people of color in the New York prison population, 81 percent of prisoners who have died from coronavirus complications are people of color.
Muntaqim, like so many thousands of other incarcerated people, poses no risk to public safety. He has served his minimum sentence for the killing of two New York Police Department officers in 1971, and he is eligible for parole; his co-defendant was rightfully freed on parole two years ago. (Since 2000, eight former Black Panther Party members have died while incarcerated, all aged between 39 and 71; most were in their 50s and 60s.)
Those invested in social justice and the black liberation struggle have long argued for Muntaqim’s freedom. But it is not a question of political allegiance as to whether a person facing physical peril should be released during the pandemic; the release of elderly and medically vulnerable people is a public health imperative.
Given that nearly a quarter of the 40,500 people incarcerated in New York state prisons are older adults, many with preexisting health conditions, the release figures are vanishingly small.
Meanwhile, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has shown negligence at best and disdain for life at worst in his dismissal of questions about granting clemencies.
The government’s decision to actively pursue an appeal in Muntaqim’s case — to spend resources and time to halt the release of a man who has been incarcerated since he was 19 years old, who could be released safely into a welcoming community committed to his care — is a most vile betrayal of justice in favor of a carceral ideology.
Any reasonable effort to bar “cruel and unusual” punishment should mean emptying all prisons. But, at a time of unprecedented health risks, a failure to dramatically depopulate prisons makes a farce of the notion that “cruel and unusual punishment” is prohibited. Instead of letting an aged and infirm man go, the government is fighting to keep Muntaqim behind bars, exposed to a potentially deadly virus.
In the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision appeal, the attorney general argued that Muntaqim’s petition had failed to establish that “officials have been deliberately indifferent to a substantial risk of serious harm to his health or safety,” as is necessary to constitute an Eighth Amendment violation. The government cited numerous efforts prison facilities, including Sullivan, have made to contain the spread of the virus, such as quarantines and readily available medical care. And the state is no doubt nervous of seeing case law established that holds prison conditions to be possible constitutional violations, for which the only remedy is a person’s release.
“It’s time for him to come home,” Muntaqim’s 86-year-old mother, Billie Brown, told me as she held back tears on a phone call from her Georgia home. “He has a safe home to go to, where he has his own bedroom and bathroom, with friends in Rochester,” she said. “I’m just devastated, it’s such an injustice.”
The attorney general’s office has taken a different lesson from the longtime prisoner falling ill. In a brief filed prior to Thursday’s court hearing, the attorney general argued that Muntaqim’s sickness is no proof of unconstitutional treatment, nor evidence that he needs to be released.
Rather, the brief asks that the judge’s original decision to release Muntaqim now be vacated, since the circumstances of his petition have changed. He was originally granted release based on fears of contracting this potentially deadly virus, but now those fears have been realized, the brief argues that the concerns of the original petition are no longer valid.
It is hard to overstate the cynicism in such logic. And it is impossible to ignore the priorities of those in political and judicial leadership who, in the face of this health care emergency, argue that there is justice in keeping an aging and infirm man behind bars.
ICE officers. (photo: TIME)
An Immigrant Says She and Two Others Were Raped Inside an ICE Detention Cell Right Before Being Deported
Adolfo Flores, BuzzFeed
Flores writes: "The woman alleges the assaults happened for over an hour inside a dark, isolated cell at a facility operated by a private prison company."
Adolfo Flores, BuzzFeed
Flores writes: "The woman alleges the assaults happened for over an hour inside a dark, isolated cell at a facility operated by a private prison company."
n immigrant woman sued a private prison company on Wednesday alleging she was raped inside an ICE detention center in Texas that resulted in her giving birth to her attacker's daughter.
The woman, identified in the complaint as Jane Doe, was detained at the Houston Processing Center, operated by CoreCivic, a private prison company paid by the federal government, for about three months in 2018. The afternoon before Doe, a Mexican citizen, was supposed to be deported to Mexico, she and two other women were taken from an area that normally housed a group of 20 to 30 detainees and moved to a dark, isolated cell, the complaint states.
Around midnight, three men in streetwear entered the cell and sexually assaulted all of the women. One of them slapped and punched Doe's face before twisting her hand behind her back, according to the complaint. Terrified, Doe said she tried to resist being raped, but ultimately stopped because her attacker kept hitting her.
The women were deported the next day on June 2, 2018, via bus without the chance to shower, Doe with bruises on her face and another woman with a busted lip, according to the lawsuit.
Doe said shortly after returning to Mexico, she discovered she was pregnant. She knew it was from the rape because she hadn't had sex for two years before being attacked or anytime between the assault and the birth of her daughter in 2019, the complaint states.
"This nightmare has caused me great harm and stress. I hope the United States government and the directors of these private jails prevent this violence from happening to others," Doe said in a recorded statement provided to BuzzFeed News.
In a statement, CoreCivic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America, said the company had not been served with the complaint and doesn't comment on pending litigation.
"More broadly, we are committed to the safety and dignity of every detainee entrusted to our care. We have a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse and sexual harassment," CoreCivic spokesperson Amanda Gilchrist said.
ICE said in a statement that it does not comment on pending litigation, but said lack of comment should not be taken as agreement with any of the allegations.
"ICE employees and contractors are held to the highest standard of professional and ethical conduct," the agency said. "Incidents of misconduct are treated with the utmost seriousness and investigated thoroughly. When substantiated, appropriate action is taken."
Michelle Simpson Tuegel, a Dallas-based attorney representing Doe, said what her client had endured was the stuff of nightmares.
"This probably happens more often than reported," Simpson Tuegel told BuzzFeed News.
A report created by CoreCivic and submitted to the government found there were at least eight allegations of sexual assault made against employees at the Houston Processing Center in 2017. According to the company, one was substantiated and seven were unfounded. There were also four reported sexual assaults between detainees reported in 2017, with one substantiated, two unsubstantiated, and one unfounded.
Even if a report is made, very few sexual and physical abuse allegations against agencies under the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, are investigated by US officials, according to a 2017 analysis using government data.
Freedom for Immigrants, an advocacy organization formerly known as Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement, found that of at least 33,126 complaints between January 2010 and July 2016, officials investigated just 225 of the complaints, or 0.07%. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which released the figures used in the analysis, did conduct 570 total investigations of sexual and physical abuse, but only 225 arose from a complaint.
Even though her client was deported, Simpson Tuegel said she still has the right to sue CoreCivic in addition to the three attackers.
"I hope we're able to proceed to the point of a jury trial and let citizens decide if companies should be paid billions of dollars to do this to people," Simpson Tuegel told BuzzFeed News. "If you don't care about the people, you should at least care about rape on the taxpayer's dime."
CoreCivic is one of the largest private prison companies in the US and detains immigrants under contracts with ICE. The company said it generated $1.98 billion in revenue in 2019.
ICE's sprawling immigration detention system, which relies on private prison companies like CoreCivic and Geo Group, has for years been accused of providing substandard medical care. A whistleblower report obtained by BuzzFeed News said three people died in ICE custody after receiving inadequate medical treatment or oversight, and said official reports on a fourth person’s death were “very misleading.”
Doe remains in Mexico and said she continues to suffer mental and physical pain as a result of her rape, the complaint states. Doe said her daughter was born via cesarean section and that she suffered complications during her birth, leading to substantial blood loss and an eight-day hospitalization.
Doe has also suffered from shame within her family after telling them about her sexual assault.
Doe is seeking punitive damages for negligence, assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress among other charges. The lawsuit names CoreCivic, the facility's warden Robert Lacy, assistant warden David Price, and the three unidentified men accused of raping the women as defendants.
Saudi forces in Yemen. (photo: AFP)
Sen. Bob Menendez | Pompeo Is Trying to Do Another Arms Deal With Saudi Arabia. Congress Must Stop Him.
Sen. Bob Menendez, CNN
Menendez writes: "The American people have the right to know that while the Trump administration cannot seem to be bothered to build a political coalition to combat the biggest pandemic in a century, the administration has recently managed to find a way to double down on President Donald Trump's repulsive embrace of Saudi Arabia's murderous regime."
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Sen. Bob Menendez, CNN
Menendez writes: "The American people have the right to know that while the Trump administration cannot seem to be bothered to build a political coalition to combat the biggest pandemic in a century, the administration has recently managed to find a way to double down on President Donald Trump's repulsive embrace of Saudi Arabia's murderous regime."
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Wolf pups with their mother at their den site. (photo: Getty)
Trump Rollback Allows Hunters to Kill Bears and Wolves in Their Dens
Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch
Davidson writes: "In another reversal of Obama-era regulations, the Trump administration is having the National Park Service rescind a 2015 order that protected bears and wolves within protected lands."
Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch
Davidson writes: "In another reversal of Obama-era regulations, the Trump administration is having the National Park Service rescind a 2015 order that protected bears and wolves within protected lands."
The new rule, remarkable in its cruelty, will allow hunters to shoot bears, wolves, along with their cubs and pups while the animals are in their dens in the popular Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. It also puts ends a ban on some nefarious practices like luring bears with doughnuts, according to The Guardian.
Jesse Prentice-Dunn, policy director for the Center for Western Priorities, told The Guardian that the rule change is "amazingly cruel" and said it was "just the latest in a string of efforts to reduce protections for America's wildlife at the behest of oil companies and trophy hunters."
The National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued separate statements that their actions are designed to align federal and state law, according to the Anchorage Daily News. The National Park Service manages 10 preserves in the state, including Denali National Park and Preserve. The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge lies west of the park.
NPS Alaska spokesperson Pete Christian told Alaska Public Media that although practices like killing bears and wolves in dens go against the Park Service's mission, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which created or expanded many of Alaska's national preserves, grants the state management authority.
"It supercedes, to some extent, the NPS Organic Act and some of our regular management policies, and so the parks up here were designed to have preserve units in them which allow for hunting and trapping as per state law," Christian said.
The Park Service decision to defer to the state is the latest move in a legal conflict around who has ultimate authority over the protected lands. The conflict dates back to 2015, when the Obama administration initially banned certain state-permitted predator harvests on Alaska's preserve lands, as Alaska Public Media reported.
While the number of hunters that will actually plow ahead into the national preserve to hunt bears and wolves in their dens is probably quite small, the spirit of the practice is extreme and inconsistent with the values of the national preserve, according to Pat Lavin with the Defenders of Wildlife in Anchorage who spoke to Alaska Public Media.
"The Trump administration has shockingly reached a new low in its treatment of wildlife," Defenders of Wildlife President Jamie Rappaport Clark said, as the CBC reported. "Allowing the killing of bear cubs and wolf pups in their dens is barbaric and inhumane."
The new rule also allows hunters to shoot caribou from traveling motorboats and to kill swimming caribou, according to the CBC.
As The Guardian noted, the move is part and parcel with a pattern from Trump's Department of the Interior, which has consistently sought to expand access to public lands to hunters and fossil fuel companies. Last month, it proposed expanding public hunting and fishing access by more than 2.3 million acres on 97 national wildlife refuges and nine national fish hatcheries.
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