2.3 million Americans are currently incarcerated, and subjected to the unjust and dangerous conditions that plague our prison systems.
114 million people have immediate family who have been incarcerated. That’s nearly 1 in 3 Americans who have been separated from loved ones.
And 100 million people have family dealing with the barriers and trials that appear once they’ve left prison or jail.
It’s clear that we have a lot more work ahead of us. But city by city, we ARE dismantling this deadly “justice" system, holding police accountable, and keeping families together. To date, millions of people are under the jurisdiction of compassionate DAs that we endorsed and that YOU helped elect. That wouldn’t be possible without your support.
If you can, please help keep this powerful work going by chipping in today. We have a big budget deadline at midnight tonight, and the amount we raise will determine our organizing capacity for the dozens of DA’s we’re backing this year.
As police unions and super PACs fight to maintain the mass-incarceration status quo, we’re gearing up to fight back with another progressive wave of leaders who are dedicated to stopping them.
Appreciate you,
The Real Justice team
Pol. Adv. Paid for by Real Justice PAC, realjusticepac.org
Not authorized by any federal, state, or local candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate.
We are beginning to make progress in creating a government that works for all people, and not just the very wealthy. But we still have a very long way to go.
By now you’ve heard the big headlines. The $1,400 direct payments, the massive expansion of the child tax credit, the extension of unemployment benefits and the production and distribution of tens of millions of vaccine doses that are desperately needed if we are to crush this pandemic.
What you might not have heard is that we have made primary health care far more accessible by doubling funding for Community Health Centers and tripling funding to get doctors, dentists and nurses into medically underserved areas. We have also substantially increased funding for afterschool and summer programming for kids who have been stuck at home for the past year, who will now be able to do activities this summer.
These are major steps forward.
But in this time of unprecedented crises, it is not enough. Joe Biden knows that, I know that and you know that.
The agenda the president laid out in his speech on Wednesday gives Congress a good road map, but we need to go further if we are going to seriously combat the enormous economic, health and environmental crises facing our country.
As Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, I’ll take a lead role in helping to draft much of this legislation. I look forward to hearing from you as to what should be in this multi-trillion dollar bill.
But right now, I wanted to talk with you about one area I will be especially focused on.
It is outrageous that more than fifty years after Medicare was enacted, seniors still do not receive basic hearing, vision and dental coverage. Many seniors are left unable to see because they can’t afford eyeglasses, unable to hear because they can’t afford hearing aids and have trouble eating because they can’t afford dentures.
It is also time to acknowledge that we must lower Medicare eligibility for the millions of older workers who are in desperate need of health care.
It is the moment for a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress to do what the American people want. We must expand Medicare benefits and lower the age of Medicare eligibility. Using our majority to take this step is not only the right thing to do for the American people — it’s good politics as well.
These steps might seem expensive, and they are. But here is something amazing. We can pay for the entire cost of these additions to Medicare, by allowing the program to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs.
As incredible as it sounds, the Medicare program is not allowed by law to negotiate with drug companies over the cost of medications seniors purchase. The lobbying power of the big drug companies means they are ripping off the government and charging the American people any price they want. Not only that. Because of the power of the pharmaceutical industry, all Americans are forced to pay — by far — the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. This absurdity must end.
Negotiating drug prices is what every other major country on earth does. The Veterans Administration does it. Only Medicare is prohibited from taking this obvious step.
This is the very definition of a win-win-win situation. Seniors pay lower prices for prescription drugs and receive hearing, vision and dental care. Millions more Americans become eligible to participate in the Medicare program. And we lower prescription drug costs for all Americans.
It’s almost insane to think that we would have to fight for these obvious steps. But we must. That is why I will be calling on you in the next few weeks to take action to support the expansion of Medicare.
So, in the days and weeks ahead, it is incumbent upon all of us to make our voices heard. Because the only way we win is when we stand together and fight back.
We are making progress. But in this pivotal moment we have the opportunity to advance our cause more than at any time in recent history.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
This is important, so please sign Bernie's petition:
Tell Democratic leadership that we must expand Medicare eligibility and benefits, AND demand the program be allowed to negotiate prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry.
resident Joe Biden gave his first speech to a joint session of Congress this week and by most accounts, it was a successful event. The TV ratings weren't high but according to snap polls, those that did watch liked what he had to say and the media were complimentary about his delivery and presentation — which is half the battle.
Biden introduced a new piece of legislation called the American Family Act which features items such as paid family leave, universal daycare and preschool, free community college, elder care, and a number of other initiatives that other developed countries have had for years but which Americans have been staring at longingly from afar. It's obvious that if we want a 21st Century economy, we're going to have to at least catch up to what other countries have been doing since the middle of the 20th.
His initiative comes on the heels of the previously announced American Jobs Act (aka Biden's infrastructure plan) and the already passed American Rescue Plan Act, as well as his administration's very successful vaccine roll-out. Considering that Biden had virtually no transition and came into office on the heels of an insurrection and in the middle of a global pandemic, that's not a bad first 100 days.
But the hard work is really just beginning.
The government has responded well to the pandemic crisis, which is a refreshing change from the previous administration. And the big COVID relief package has given the economy the boost it needed to recover (and it is recovering smartly). But Biden's platform is much more ambitious. Taking office at a time of great turmoil in the country after years of unnecessary wars, economic and social stagnation, as well as pent-up demand for racial justice, he and the Democrats have decided to try to enact a truly transformative agenda.
Of course, that is a very tall order. As we are all well aware, the Democrats have a very narrow majority in the upper chamber and there are a few senators who seem to be determined to pare down these ambitious goals in the name of "bipartisanship" and "fiscal responsibility." If that sounds familiar, it should. Centrist Democrats have been wringing their hands over deficits and taxes for the past 40 years, a form of inherited political PTSD from the Reagan Revolution. But there are fewer of them than there used to be and it's always possible that after much cajoling, sweet-talk and flattery, party leaders will find a way to corral them into going with the program without watering it down to nothing but a puddle of lukewarm water.
And then there is the GOP.
One of the reasons the first hundred days are often able to produce some big achievements is that the other party is usually back on its heels. There's a period of confusion about what went wrong, a jockeying for power, and indecision about how best to deal with the new majority. It takes a while to settle down and decide on a strategy. And in this case, all of that is magnified by the fact that Donald Trump refused to concede the election and his followers staged a violent insurrection to stop the peaceful transfer of power and the whole ordeal still looms over the party like a big nuclear cloud.
The stories about pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago, Twitter selfies of House leaders groveling for forgiveness after suggesting that Trump's behavior on January 6th was irresponsible and the dispensing of phony "awards" to make him feel valued, all expose the ongoing illness at the heart of the party. Despite some attempts by Never Trumpers and some obvious positioning by ambitious politicians looking for an opening, the base of the party is still under the control of Donald J. Trump and that means everything is still really all about him.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that Republican dogma was pretty much discredited even before Trump came on the scene. He drop-kicked most of it into oblivion with his incoherent program of libertine values, trade wars, tax cuts, deficits and wall building. He had a hold on the voters the Republican establishment couldn't bear to cross so even aside from enabling his disgusting personal behavior, they gave up any claim to ideological credibility. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can wax on about the Democrats' "court-packing" or attempting to usurp the sacred process of the Senate but it will just elicit laughter.
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina tried to revert to the pre-Trump talking points in his rebuttal to President Biden on Wednesday night and it sounded downright bizarre, as if we were listening to a scratchy, old recording of some radio speech in the 1930s. He complained about the American Families Plan being "even more taxing, even more spending, to put Washington even more in the middle of your life — from the cradle to college" and called the infrastructure plan a "partisan wish list."
Yawn. After the Trump spending spree they all gleefully signed on to, those tired old saws have no credibility at all. Times have changed. Last Sunday's NBC News poll showed that 55 percent of Americans thought the government should focus on doing more to help people, while just 41 percent said it was already trying to do too many things. As the NY Times pointed out, "in the 1990s, it was the other way around; during the George W. Bush and Obama presidencies, NBC polls usually found the country more evenly split."
Still, Scott denounced Biden for dividing the country, disingenuously blaming him for the fact that Republicans unanimously refused to vote for his COVID relief bill when Democrats all voted for Trump's. He unctuously declared "COVID brought Congress together five times; this administration pushed us apart," giving Tucker Carlson a run for his money for the troll of the year award. But it was his Trumpian flourish on the issue of race that shows that the culture war is really all Republicans have left. Scott pulled out the "reverse racism" card, virtually guaranteed to make the Trump followers squeal with delight to see a Black politician defend their point of view.
The Republicans cannot credibly oppose Biden's agenda. Their arguments about debt and tax cuts have been refuted, their ideas about radical individualism have been shredded by our experience with the pandemic, their claims to moral authority in the wake of Trump are simply laughable. All they have is power and they will wield it mercilessly. But they have no way to explain it to the broader American public that makes any sense.
The only question, then, is whether or not that makes any sense to the centrist Democrats like West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin or the two senators from Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly. Sadly, there is a fair chance that other than the hardcore Trumpers who will believe anything they're told, these Democratic senators will be the only people in America to whom it does. They must be persuaded that now is the time, while the Republicans are ideologically spent and the economy is set to blast off, to do something real and meaningful for the American people.
These occasions don't come very often. It would be a crime if the Democrats let this chance slip from their grasp.
How do we come to a point where this organization has no money to operate? Yes this is a very real funding crisis. Right here, right now. We are battling for the basic resources we need to keep publishing. Our opponent, our adversary is apathy.
We do great things with the resources we are given.
Bombshell Letter: Gaetz Paid for Sex With Minor, Wingman Says Jose Pagliery and Roger Sollenberger, The Daily Beast Excerpt: "A confession letter written by Joel Greenberg in the final months of the Trump presidency claims that he and close associate Rep. Matt Gaetz paid for sex with multiple women - as well as a girl who was 17 at the time."
“On more than one occasion, this individual was involved in sexual activities with several of the other girls, the congressman from Florida’s 1st Congressional District and myself,” Greenberg wrote in reference to the 17-year-old.
“From time to time, gas money or gifts, rent or partial tuition payments were made to several of these girls, including the individual who was not yet 18. I did see the acts occur firsthand and Venmo transactions, Cash App or other payments were made to these girls on behalf of the Congressman.”
The letter, which The Daily Beast recently obtained, was written after Greenberg—who was under federal indictment—asked Roger Stone to help him secure a pardon from then-President Donald Trump.
A series of private messages starting in late 2020—also recently obtained by The Daily Beast—shows a number of exchanges between Greenberg and Stone conducted over the encrypted messaging app Signal, with communications set to disappear. However, Greenberg appears to have taken screenshots of a number of their conversations.
“If I get you $250k in Bitcoin would that help or is this not a financial matter,” Greenberg wrote to Stone, one message shows.
“I understand all of this and have taken it into consideration,” Stone replied. “I will know more in the next 24 hours I cannot push too hard because of the nonsense surrounding pardons.”
“I hope you are prepared to wire me $250,000 because I am feeling confident,” Stone wrote to Greenberg on Jan. 13.
In a text message to The Daily Beast, Stone said that Greenberg had tried to hire him to assist with a pardon, but he denied asking for or receiving payment or interceding on his behalf. He did, however, confirm he had Greenberg prepare “a document explaining his prosecution.”
In the private text messages to Stone, Greenberg described his activities with Gaetz, repeatedly referring to the Republican congressman by his initials, “MG,” or as “Matt.”
“My lawyers that I fired, know the whole story about MG’s involvement,” Greenberg wrote to Stone on Dec. 21. “They know he paid me to pay the girls and that he and I both had sex with the girl who was underage.”
As part of the effort to obtain a pardon, Greenberg wrote multiple drafts of his confession letter. The Daily Beast obtained two typed versions and an earlier handwritten one. Certified forensic document examiner and handwriting expert Wendy Carlson compared the letter to writing samples obtained through two public records requests. She said it was her professional expert opinion that the person who authored a 2019 financial disclosure for Joel Greenberg, as well as Greenberg’s 2020 Board of Elections form, was the same as the author of the letter.
“The person who authored the forms has been identified as the person who authored the letter,” Carlson said.
In those letters, Greenberg detailed his relationship with Gaetz. He confessed to paying young women for sex. And he claimed that he, Gaetz, and others had sex with a minor they believed to be 19 at the time. Greenberg said he learned she was underage on Sept. 4, 2017, from “an anonymous tip” and quickly contacted Gaetz.
“Immediately I called the congressman and warned him to stay clear of this person and informed him she was underage,” Greenberg wrote. “He was equally shocked and disturbed by this revelation.”
Greenberg continued in the handwritten draft that he “confronted” the then-17-year-old and explained to her “how serious of a situation this was, how many people she put in danger.”
“She apologized and recognized that by lying about her age, she endangered many people,” he continued. “There was no further contact with this individual until after her 18th birthday.”
But after she reached the age of legal consent in Florida, Greenberg re-established contact. As The Daily Beast previously reported, about five months after her 18th birthday, Gaetz sent Greenberg $900 in two Venmo transactions—one titled “Test” and the other titled “hit up ___.” The blank contained a nickname for this girl, and Greenberg paid her and two other women a total of $900 about six hours later.
In his confession letter, Greenberg also admitted he facilitated Gaetz’s interactions with college students—and paid them on his behalf.
“All of the girls were in college or post college and it was not uncommon for either myself or the Congressman to help anyone [sic] of these girls financially, whether it was a car payment, a flight home to see their family or something as simple as helping pay a speeding ticket,” Greenberg wrote.
A partial record of Greenberg’s Venmo and Cash App transactions suggests that payments were usually for a lot more than “gas money.” The Daily Beast identified more than 150 Venmo payments from Greenberg to women, as well as more than 70 additional payments on the Cash App, that were generally between $300 and $500—though some exceeded $1,000. The Daily Beast also talked to 12 of the more than 40 different women who received money, and they all said they understood Greenberg was paying them at least in part for sex.
Greenberg, a disgraced local politician in Florida, currently faces a sweeping 33-count indictment that ranges from stalking to sex trafficking. In March, The New York Times revealed that the initial investigation into the Seminole County tax official expanded as agents looked into his role in arranging paid sexual encounters for his friend, Matt Gaetz.
Federal prosecutors have not criminally charged Gaetz—or even publicly confirmed the expansion of their probe. While Gaetz acknowledges the existence of the investigation, he denies having sex with an underage teen. But at some point, Greenberg began to cooperate with investigators, a development his lawyer has suggested poses a serious problem for Gaetz.
That defense lawyer, Fritz Scheller, declined to comment for this story, citing attorney-client privilege.
Gaetz’s office did not respond. However, Logan Circle Group, an outside public relations firm Gaetz has hired, sent the following statement:
“Congressman Gaetz has never paid for sex nor has he had sex with a 17 year old as an adult. We are now one month after your outlet and others first reported such lies, and no one has gone on record to directly accuse him of either. Politico, however, has reported Mr. Greenberg threatening to make false accusations against others, which seems noteworthy for your story and in fact sounds like the entirety of your story. Congressman Gaetz has had no role in advocating for or against a pardon for Greenberg and doubts such a pardon was ever even considered.”
The Politico article referred to in the statement does not say Greenberg was threatening to make false accusations against others, but does say that an associate claimed Greenberg had warned friends that “everyone is going to need a lawyer.”
Neither the U.S. Secret Service nor federal prosecutors with the Middle District of Florida would provide comment for this article either, citing a policy of not confirming or denying the existence of an ongoing investigation.
In the final months of the Trump presidency, Greenberg and Stone exchanged several texts about a pardon over the encrypted messaging app Signal. While images show that the pair frequently set messages to automatically delete, Greenberg regularly took screenshots of their communications.
Stone, who received a presidential commutation in July but at the time had not yet been pardoned, communicated with Greenberg for months about the latter’s desire for a pardon.
The messages show that in November, the pair discussed putting together a “document,” which later took the form of a confession letter and background missive about all the ways in which Greenberg had been loyal to Trump. In their early conversations, Greenberg told Stone that the letter was “about 8-10 pages” and asked if it should be shortened.
“No,” Stone replied, “use as much space as you need to tell the story fully but be certain to include your leader ship [sic] for Trump prominently.”
Greenberg almost immediately responded that he had “killed” himself for Trump. “And I’ve killed my self [sic] for Matt,” he said.
The letter went through multiple drafts and detailed Greenberg’s encounters with Gaetz, but it also focused on Greenberg’s early support of Trump’s run in 2016, such as posting a “Super Trump” highway billboard on Interstate-4. (A version of the letter actually includes the image Greenberg used for the billboard.)
On Nov. 20, 2020, Stone told Greenberg he had received “the document” and would show it to the team that “got me my commutation.”
“I will review it with them and give you a budget. This is very doable and the time is now,” Stone wrote.
An update from Stone came just after midnight on Dec. 8: “Your thing is being looked at and I will have an answer by Saturday as to whether you have a viable shot for justice and how to go about it.”
“Thank you so much Roger,” Greenberg replied. “I am very thankful for you. I pray that the Lord will help. I remain optimistic and will wait to hear back from you.”
Stone quickly sought to dampen expectations surrounding “the whole pardon circus.”
“This is treacherous territory with a lot of different players such as Jared and Giuliani playing a hand,” Stone wrote, presumably referring to Trump adviser Jared Kushner and the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. “I have two things I’m trying to get done. Sit tight.”
On Dec. 21, Greenberg told Stone that government investigators were pressing him to cooperate. “The FBI, DOJ, Secret Service and a bunch of people from DC have repeatedly made attempts to meet with my [sic] lately. I have declined. But they are definitely ramping up pressure.”
“They want me to flip,” he continued. “They have made offers which I’ve declined. I even fired my lawyers this week because they tried to convince me to cooperate and that a pardon was impossible.”
Greenberg then revealed to Stone that his former lawyers were aware of the “whole story” regarding Matt Gaetz’s role.
“My lawyers that I fired, know the whole story about MG’s involvement. They know he paid me to pay the girls and that he and I both had sex with the girl who was underage. So naturally they think that is my golden ticket,” Greenberg wrote.
“And while I have not had any communication with MG, he absolutely has to know that the sex charge they hit me with would be what they would hit him with,” Greenberg continued.
A distressed Greenberg told Stone that he felt “abandoned" by his allies, but emphasized that Gaetz—who was ”like a son” to the President of the United States—could save him: “One conversation with POTUS and he can get this done and it all goes away.”
Greenberg said that while he had discussed pardons with Gaetz’s lawyer, he had not heard a reply and would “have to do what's best for me and my family” after Trump left office.
“You think MG is going to come visit me in prison?” he said, then proposed the $250,000 Bitcoin deposit.
Stone replied that he had considered those points, but “cannot push too hard because of the nonsense surrounding pardons.”
As Trump neared his final days in office, he signaled an intent to issue a wave of pardons, and reports at the time suggested legal reprieve could be had for the right price. Stone communicated with Greenberg about his efforts to navigate the heavy traffic of pardon-seekers.
On Dec. 23, Trump pardoned Stone for the crimes from his 2019 conviction. The next day, on Christmas Eve, Stone acknowledged to Greenberg that he was having difficulty with the Gaetz dimension.
“It is hard for me to understand why MG would do nothing[.] Yes he is potentially damaged if the matter goes forward,” Stone wrote. The three men—Greenberg, Stone, and Gaetz—all shared a friendship dating back several years, and Stone apparently couldn’t figure out why Gaetz wouldn’t help Greenberg get a pardon.
But on the morning of Jan. 13, Greenberg received this text from Stone: “Today is the day. We will know by the end of the day. I think you sent me some document but it disappeared. I hope you are prepared to wire me $250,000 because I am feeling confident.”
There was only a week left in the Trump presidency. It’s unclear if money was ever exchanged, but Greenberg offered to pay extra if Stone could, in fact, get him a pardon.“If you can get this done today I’ll add another 50k,” Greenberg texted Stone.
In a subsequent message, Stone wrote that White House lawyer Pat Cipollone had taken Greenberg’s name out of the list of hundreds of people who might be pardoned. Cipollone didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment Thursday, but according to three people familiar with the matter, Greenberg’s name repeatedly made it to the Trump White House for a presidential pardon. The Daily Beast was shown an image of one such list, and Greenberg’s name and a favorable mini-profile were indeed included.
Administration officials swiftly shot down Greenberg’s application, however, and several senior White House officials at the time said they were not even aware that Stone was involved in a behind-the-scenes maneuvering.
But as Stone explained it in a Jan. 30 text—a full 10 days after Trump left office—Gaetz was partly to blame.
“What I don’t understand is why MJ would not help me at all and actually told me not to help you which I tried to do anyway. In the end it would not have mattered. Cipollone killed everything we wanted to get done and that includes stuff MG wanted,” Stone wrote, immediately clarifying that “MJ” was a typo and that he meant “MG.”
“Ok. He actually said not to help me? Wow,” Greenberg replied.
“If you repeat it you’re really going to hurt me,” Stone warned.
“I won’t Roger. I don’t and haven’t talked to him. I won’t,” Greenberg said.
Stone acknowledged Thursday night that there may be “copies of correspondence between me and Mr. Greenberg,” but he questioned whether they were complete, unedited, or accurate.
“I made no formal or informal effort in regard to a pardon for Mr. Greenberg,” Stone said. “I recall requesting a document explaining his prosecution The [sic] details of which I was unfamiliar with.”
“I never requested or received a penny from Mr. Greenberg,” he added. “I recall him offering to retain me and I declined. To be clear I did advocate pardons for a number of people who I had [sic] been unfairly treated by the justice system and was compensated by no one for doing so.”
“Urge you to be very careful,” Stone said at the end of his text. “I will take any appropriate legal action in the event that you publish anything that is false or defamatory. Sounds to me like you have been presented some kind of cut and paste record.”
The FBI executed search warrants at Mr. Giuliani's home and office in Manhattan on Wednesday. (photo: Jeenah Moon/The New York Times)
Report: Giuliani's Role in Ukraine Ambassador's Firing Under Scrutiny by Feds Ben Protess, William K. Rashbaum and Kenneth P. Vogel, The New York Times Excerpt: "Two years ago, Rudolph W. Giuliani finally got one thing he had been seeking in Ukraine: The Trump administration removed the U.S. ambassador there, a woman Mr. Giuliani believed had been obstructing his efforts to dig up dirt on the Biden family."
Prosecutors want to scrutinize Rudolph W. Giuliani’s communications with Ukrainian officials about the ouster of the ambassador, Marie L. Yovanovitch.
wo years ago, Rudolph W. Giuliani finally got one thing he had been seeking in Ukraine: The Trump administration removed the U.S. ambassador there, a woman Mr. Giuliani believed had been obstructing his efforts to dig up dirt on the Biden family.
It was a Pyrrhic victory. Mr. Giuliani’s push to oust the ambassador, Marie L. Yovanovitch, not only became a focus of President Donald J. Trump’s first impeachment trial, but it has now landed Mr. Giuliani in the cross hairs of a federal criminal investigation into whether he broke lobbying laws, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The Contra Costa Sheriff's Office released video footage of the fatal shooting by Deputy Andrew Hall of Tyrell Wilson (pictured), a 32-year-old man who is homeless, in Danville in March. (photo: Contra Costa Sheriff Office)
California Cop Guns Down Jaywalker, He Had Killed Before Guardian UK Excerpt: "A white sheriff's deputy in the San Francisco Bay Area shot and killed a Black man in the middle of a busy intersection about a minute after trying to stop him on suspicion of throwing rocks at cars last month, newly released video showed."
Body-camera footage shows Andrew Hall fatally shooting Tyrell Wilson less than two years after killing Laudemer Arboleda
white sheriff’s deputy in the San Francisco Bay Area shot and killed a Black man in the middle of a busy intersection about a minute after trying to stop him on suspicion of throwing rocks at cars last month, newly released video showed.
The graphic body-camera footage shows Andrew Hall shooting Tyrell Wilson, 33, within seconds of asking him to drop a knife on 11 March in Danville.
The footage was released on Wednesday, the same day prosecutors charged Hall with manslaughter and assault in the fatal shooting of an unarmed civilian more than two years ago, and intensified criticism of local prosecutors for not taking a quicker decision in the 2018 killing.
The video released this week shows Hall calling out to Wilson and walking toward him as Wilson walks away. Wilson eventually turns to face the deputy, holding a knife, and says: “Touch me and see what’s up.”
As they stand in the intersection, Hall asks him three times to drop the knife as Wilson motions toward his face, saying: “Kill me.” Hall shoots once, and Wilson drops to the ground as drivers watch and record video.
The entire confrontation lasts about a minute.
An attorney for Wilson’s family released another video on Thursday taken by someone stopped at the intersection.
“It doesn’t seem like he was doing anything,” someone says.
The attorney, John Burris, said Hall was unnecessarily aggressive toward Wilson, who was not causing any problems and was backing away from the deputy before he was shot without warning.
“This is a homeless man. He’s walking away, minding his own business. He’s basically saying go away, leave me alone,” Burris said. “You felt compelled to kill him.”
The Contra Costa county sheriff, David Livingston, said the videos showed Wilson was threatening Hall and was possibly throwing rocks at drivers. “He did threaten Officer Hall,” Livingston said. “And he did start advancing toward Officer Hall in the middle of a major intersection. Officers are forced to make split-second decisions to protect themselves and the public, and that’s what happened here.”
Burris also represents the family of Laudemer Arboleda, a 33-year-old Filipino man shot nine times by Hall during a slow-moving car chase.
Deputies slowly pursued Arboleda through the city of Danville after someone reported a suspicious person in November 2018. Sheriff’s department video shows Hall stopping his patrol car, getting out and running toward the car Arboleda was driving. Hall opened fire and kept shooting as Arboleda’s car passed by, striking him nine times.
Hall testified at an inquest that he was afraid Arboleda would run him over.
The Contra Costa county district attorney’s office this week brought criminal charges against Hall, a rare occurrence in police shootings. The office said it charged Hall with felony voluntary manslaughter and felony assault with a semi-automatic firearm in that shooting.
“Officer Hall used unreasonable and unnecessary force when he responded to the in-progress traffic pursuit involving Laudemer Arboleda, endangering not only Mr Arboleda’s life but the lives of his fellow officers and citizens in the immediate area,” the district attorney, Diana Becton, said in a news release.
Burris said both Wilson and Arboleda were mentally ill.
Hall’s attorney, Harry Stern, said prosecutors previously deemed the deputy’s use of force in the 2018 case justified. “The timing of their sudden reversal in deciding to file charges seems suspect and overtly political,” Stern said.
An election worker stamps a vote-by-mail ballot before placing it in an official ballot drop box at the Miami-Dade County Board of Elections in Doral, Florida, on Oct. 26. (photo: Lynne Sladky/AP)
At Francisco de Paula Santander bridge on the border between Colombia and Venezuela, on February 23, 2019, opposition supporters unload humanitarian aid from a truck that was set on fire. (photo: Marco Bello/AFP)
rand Canyon National Park officials want to kill hundreds of bison over five years, and they need volunteers to help.
The park’s bison population has grown to about 600 bison in the North Rim, according to the National Park Service. Officials are hoping to reduce that number to less than 200 by killing or relocating them.
“This action is necessary due to the rapid growth of the bison population and the transition from the herd using state and U.S. Forest Service lands into almost exclusively residing within Grand Canyon,” National Park Service officials said on its website. “Impacts from grazing and trampling on water, vegetation, soils, and archaeological sites, as well as on visitor experience and wilderness character also necessitate action.”
This year to reduce the population, park officials want volunteers to kill and remove the bison.
How does that work?
Volunteers would be part of a “lethal removal” process that’s a little different than a hunt. The animals are only killed for management purposes. It’s not a recreational hunt.
People need to apply to be a volunteer during the 48-hour window starting May 3 at midnight. Then people will be selected in one draw.
“The lottery … will send applicants to the park for provisional selection,” the National Park Service said. “Final selection will be contingent on meeting the volunteer qualification criteria.”
During the 2021 season, there will be four, five-day periods when volunteers will remove bison. Volunteers have to complete a training on the first day and can’t select which week they participate in.
People who are chosen are then responsible to gather three to five “support volunteers” to help them during the week. They can be family members or friends.
Volunteers also need their own camping equipment, firearms and non-lead ammunition.
The exact process of the lethal removal isn’t explained by the National Park Service, but the volunteers will be able to harvest some meat.
Who can volunteer?
Grand Canyon officials want the volunteers to be skilled and serious about the operation. Every volunteer is required to pass a firearms safety course and a marksmanship proficiency test.
“You must show that you can handle your rifle safely and follow directions from a range master,” the National Park Service said.
Volunteers also will need to haul bison carcasses, which can be very heavy. Bison can weigh up to 2,000 pounds. They will need to do this on foot.
Additionally, the volunteers must meet a number of other requirements, including:
Be a U.S. citizen 18 years or older
Providea photo I.D.
Prove they are physically fit
Pass a background check that shows no history of criminal or wildlife violations
Is there push back on this process?
Some activist groups think shooting and killing hundreds of bison isn’t humane or necessary.
Alicyn Gitlin of the Sierra Club told The Associated Press last year that she would rather the bison be removed from the area entirely.
“I’m very nervous about there being a perpetual dependency on this use of people having to go into the park and shoot,” she told the AP.
“If it happens, the NPS will not only be targeting the very symbol of the agency itself and our national mammal, but spilling their blood in or around yet one more jewel of our nation’s most beloved network of federal lands,” the group wrote.
The National Park Service said they are removing the bison to protect park resources and is the only way to reduce the population of the bison herd quickly.
“Individuals or groups who wish to express their opposition/concern may do so as part of the rights protected and guaranteed by the First Amendment,” the National Park Service said. “Those wishing to exercise their First Amendment rights should review the park website for information about permits.”
resident Joe Biden gave his first speech to a joint session of Congress this week and by most accounts, it was a successful event. The TV ratings 
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wo years ago, Rudolph W. Giuliani finally got one thing he had been seeking in Ukraine: The Trump administration removed the U.S. ambassador there, a woman Mr. Giuliani believed had been obstructing his efforts to dig up dirt on the Biden family.
rand Canyon National Park officials want to 
