We are watching a show. Its important to keep that in mind.

It has its villains Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland and other supporters of the liberal, radical left idea that people have the right peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

It has its victims, people in towns where they dont have or need symphony orchestras and art museums and the very idea of street protests fills them with existential horror.

And the show has its hero, too, Donald John Trump, getting tough with those lawless cities, standing between the victims and their fears and not bothering overmuch about constitutional niceties while he does.

Thats how you end up with the recent spectacle of at least one person reportedly snatched off the streets of Portland by federal agents bearing no badges or identifying insignia and stuffed into an unmarked van on no probable cause, or even an allegation of crime. At this writing, Trump is sending federal agents using, presumably, the same tactics to Chicago, which, in his telling, teeters on the edge of criminal anarchy, and he, alone, can save it.

If it smacks of despotism, this idea of government seizing those who it bears repeating are accused of no crime, well, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf tells Fox News that sometimes you have to proactively arrest people. Its a nicely dystopian term that might have come out of The Minority Report, the 1956 novella by Philip K. Dick (also a 2002 film starring Tom Cruise), which posits a world where precogs divine the future, enabling police to prevent crime instead of just solving it. Dick provides other terms Wolf might find useful: precrime, potential criminals, prophylactic pre-detection.

If it occurs to you theres no such thing as precogs, if this all seems to you like a civil liberties nightmare, well, youre missing the point. Again, this is a show.

And give him his due. Trump may have failed as a businessman, an educator, an airline mogul, a casino operator, a steak salesman and a human being, but he knows how to put on a show. He also knows every moment we spend talking about American fascism is a moment not spent talking about Russia putting a price on American heads, which in turn keeps us from talking about the more than 144,000 whove died of a virus Trump said would magically disappear.

Even his distractions have distractions.

In fairness, this march toward fascist dystopia didnt begin in Portland. For years, we saw Black and Hispanic men stopped and frisked in New York City without probable cause. Weve seen cops empowered to take your money and border agents empowered to seize and search your laptops and smartphones, also without probable cause. In 2015, we saw a woman named Charnesia Corley subjected to a police search of her vagina on the pavement at a gas station.

What we havent seen so much is public outrage.

So Trumps innovation is not stomping the Constitution, but making the stomping a show. If it doesnt seem like much of one to you, well, youre not the intended audience. For them, this is Dirty Harry and Rambo all rolled into one. For the rest of us, this show isnt about a tough guy. Rather, its about a second-rate magician whose act has seen better days, whose top hat is worn, whose cards are frayed, whose every move reeks of flop-sweat desperation, the terror that he might be seen as he really is.

Which makes this magician dangerous in the same way a cornered animal is. And if we arent careful, he may pull off one last trick.

He may make freedom disappear.

Leonard Pitts Jr. is a columnist for the Miami Herald, 3511 NW 91st Ave., Miami, Fla., 33172. Readers may contact him via e-mail at lpitts@miamiherald.com.

2020 Miami Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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For his next trick, the showman might make freedom disappear | Column - Tampa Bay Times

Halo Infinite will usher the series towards open-ended gameplay, as glimpsed in the gameplay showcased a few days ago. As part of a recent press Q&A session we were a part of, 343 Industries Studio Head Chris Lee described the approach as taking Halo Combat Evolved, knocking walls down, and giving players complete freedom to explore the ringworld.

The campaign in Halo Infinite is the most ambitious campaign we have ever created in a Halo game. It's this open, expansive experience for players, and it's several times larger than our last two campaigns put together. I think the way to think about it is this is Halo's take on open gameplay and what kind of providing the player with unprecedented levels of freedom can feel like. We really wanted to capture that moment of players being able to kind of feel what it would be like to be on a foreigner ring and unlock secrets and kind of new equipment or upgrades along the way as they're playing through the campaign. And I have one way to kind of give them more concrete examples when you're looking at the demo. We showed and you're on the elevator looking out over that vista. There's a ton of the ring that you can see there and that is just part of the space that players will be able to explore and where Master Chief's story will take you throughout our campaign experience.

One way to think about it that we talked about sometimes is to think about taking Halo CE, knocking the walls down and then giving players the freedom to explore. And while we have that kind of open experience, we do want there to be equipment and upgrades that you can find in the world along the way, so there are things that you can engage with along the way to do that as you traverse the world and continue Master Chief's story.

Halo Infinite is coming out this Holiday on PC (Steam, Microsoft Store), Xbox One and Xbox Series X. Check back later today for our full transcript of the Q&A with 343 Industries.

Halo Infinite Multiplayer Not Delayed Devs Insist, But There Are Rumors its Free-to-Play

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Halo Infinite Is Halo CE with Walls Knocked Down and Freedom to Explore, Says Dev - Wccftech

TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) A Fort Worth bar was one of more than 800 that opened illegally this weekend as part of a nationwide protest called Freedom Fest.

This isnt the first time the Rail Club Live in Fort Worth has defied Governor Greg Abbotts shutdown order either. The bar opened on July Fourth, too.

Abbott ordered bars to close for the second time during the pandemic in effort to slow a surge in COVID-19 cases across the state.

Our businesses are doomed, said co-owner Chris Polone. Like I said before, we have nothing to lose. We can either fight this thing, Or we can starve ourselves out.

Polones license was suspended earlier this month. But any repercussions, are worth it, according to him.

Im responsible for 15 employees ability to feed their children and thats big, thats a huge burden, and I dont see any other way to do it than to do this, he said.

Earlier in the month, he told CBS 11 News thathis decision to open is not to spit on everyones face or the government, but because of a double standard he believes is in place due to restaurants and other businesses being allowed to stay open.

Rail Club Live doesnt sell food.

Polone said he lost more than $15,000 the weekend after he had to close.

Some of my competitors are allowed to stay open because they sell food, he said during a Facebook Live. Literally the only difference between us and them is you cant order a burger with your beer at my bar.

Agents with the Texas Alcoholic and Beverage Commission visited the Rail Club over the weekend and didnt shut it down.

Latest Coronavirus News | Coronavirus Resources

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We Can Either Fight This Thing, Or Starve: Texas Bars Open Illegally As Part Of Freedom Fest - CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

Who has more freedom of movement in a combat zone: a highly trained and well-resourced Special Operations fighter, or an untrained volunteer working for a cash-strapped religious non-governmental organization (NGO)?

In the authors opinion and experience, the answer is the NGO worker and by a long shot. The reason for this predominantly boils down to organizational culture, resources, and risk tolerance. Is this a perfect basis for comparison? Definitely not. But it certainly provides differences to be identified and appreciated for the purposes of healthy discussion.

Life is certainly full of risks, many of which we automatically accept, cannot change, and do not even consciously consider. Doing so would be debilitating, counter-productive, and would not lead us in the path of a peaceful and meaningful life. But what happens when an organization loses sight of this and trends towards risk aversion? What if risk tolerance is so low that it precludes operational success? What is the relationship between risk management and acceptable war costs?

Risk management is the bane of all staff officers and the primary mechanism by which the military attempts to identify and assess risk. Risk management is not a new concept and was born from the well-intentioned desire to minimize risk to the mission and the force.

Military operations and special operations, in particular are inherently dangerous. Static line and free-fall parachuting, live-fire weapons training, advanced driving courses, and many other activities come with generous helpings of inherent risk. Indeed, recently, a MARSOC Raider was tragically killed during an airborne operation at the Army Airborne School at Fort Benning. (The incident is currently under investigation.)

Risk increases once the environment transitions from a controlled training one to the real world. For the men and women undertaking both conventional and special operations, these risks are calculated and mitigated as much as possible through extensive training, experience, rehearsals, and planning.

Naturally, the desire to mitigate risk to ones self and comrades is completely well-founded. At the individual level, a lot of risk management occurs automatically and is reinforced by our natural instincts to survive and escape danger. Organizations adopted this natural ability and codified it in the form of formalized risk assessments, policies, and procedures to be undertaken prior to any activity, whether in training or on a real-world mission.

It is the authors opinion that policy and some measure of structure for risk management are incredibly valuable. They help standardize risk management and offer a framework that can be replicated across a diverse range of complex operations. However, we must distinguish between risk management and mitigation. It is not possible to remove or control risk. The best one can do is attempt to identify and mitigate it, and then continue with the mission.

Depending on our definition of success, we can obtain a sense of successful risk mitigation strategies simply by comparing the number of isolated personnel incidents between aid workers and military members in hazardous regions (particularly among French aid workers, it seems). There is clearly some benefit to robust risk management policy as executed by the military compared to the almost haphazard approach of NGOs.

So why and how does an untrained, cash-strapped NGO volunteer have more freedom of movement in a combat zone?

We recently had the opportunity to speak with an aid worker who volunteered with a religious NGO in Iraq for a period of several months almost the same amount of time as a typical Task Force deployment. When swapping stories of familiar areas, sights visited, and experiences with the various cultures, the amount of freedom and mobility the aid worker experienced was remarkable.

One of the most surprising observations was the aid workers mobility given his appearance. We shared common ethnicity, appearance, and language skill. This man was easily identifiable as a Westerner. However, it did not impact his mobility whatsoever. The aid worker traveled alone across the country with zero support, communication plans, contingency plans, or weapons. And he did just fine, never experiencing a single incident that threatened his safety and well-being. Nobody seemed to care who he was or what he was doing, and if anyone did ask, it was primarily out of curiosity.

The authors initial observation? By operating as a true singleton, one becomes so obscure and low profile that the demand for such exhaustive organizational risk management measures appears to change (within reason).

Is a low profile a guarantee of safety and security for sensitive military operations? Of course not. But anecdotally, the stark contrast between the two cultures (NGO and military) as they pertain to freedom of maneuver (aka mobility) and relative effectiveness, present a compelling contrast that needs to be examined further.

Lets take a look at some vignettes.

When overseas, checkpoints are normally unpleasant. It can be difficult to assess under whose control they are and what actions will be taken if a team comes across one. What should be a routine check for papers and payment of a checkpoint management fund fee could quickly escalate to extensive questioning, detention, and an international incident. Therefore, checkpoints are generally avoided.

That aid worker, however, frequently traveled alone through a number of Arab, Kurdish, and other checkpoints with impunity, oftentimes interacting with forces such as the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Front (PMF) militias. They gave him no trouble whatsoever, even though he was a Westerner (this is borderline astounding given general Iranian animosity and malign influence, especially given tensions last year).

More often than not, the aid worker was not asked to furnish any documents (i.e. a visa), despite traveling through diverse regions under the control of militia or others. He barely spoke the language, was not armed, did not have a quick reaction force on standby. Yet, he could still come and go as he pleased.

In the military, missions generally only gain approval after extensive staffing (oftentimes spanning weeks or, more realistically, months-long) planning, rehearsal, numerous CONOPs, decision briefs, progress updates, white papers, and other such bureaucratic operational mission planning requirements.

While the author did not wish to ruin pleasant conversation with a discussion of such laborious bureaucratic processes, we can only surmise that NGO operations do not require such extensive feats of coordination, pre-briefing, read-aheads, or staff churn. Or so wed like to think.

Whereas military operations are normally staged from highly defended and built-up forward operating bases or other locations, the aid worker lived alone, unprotected, in the middle of a small town outside Mosul. He frequently moved in taxis or rented vehicles across the region, only speaking a little of the local language. He relied on the goodwill and relationships of locals and used his local connections to help guarantee his personal security, safety, and welfare all of which he built and maintained himself.

Most remarkably, the aid worker successfully accomplished this despite living and working in Iraq at a time of great uncertainty following the U.S. targeted killing of former Iranian Quds Force commander, Qasem Soleimani.

The benefits of assessing the aid workers mobility in Iraq are most useful when attempting to replicate his general placement and access to a large geographical area that is inhabited by a number of diverse populations. Such environments are something Special Operations attempt to replicate when conducting sensitive activities.

Without highlighting any of the operational details that make sensitive Special Operations successful, the anecdotal contrast with the mobility experienced by the aid worker remains noteworthy. Certainly, there is an extensive and well-exercised framework in place that provides a reasonable amount of risk mitigation during special operations. Processes ensure redundancy, security, safety, structure, and support.

This generally applies to all aspects of mission planning and execution. What such military operations lack in relative agility and mobility they arguably compensate for with robustness. Need a quick reaction force? One call away. Miss your communications window? Theres a variant time and explicit plan in place for what to do next. About to be overrun? Fire mission is incoming.

This is not to say that NGOs lack such risk mitigation capacity. All organizations stand to benefit from risk management and generally seek to mitigate risk in a manner that better enables their operations.

But are Special Operations becoming victims of their own meticulous planning and mission execution? Has risk management transformed into risk aversion as commanders tolerance for risk decreases with the rise of no-fail expectations? Have we been culturally conditioned to expect zero casualties, exposure, or adverse impacts to our mission and force? At what point do we shoot ourselves in the foot with exhaustive mission planning and approval processes that limit our ability to operate in a capacity similar to the aid worker, i.e. autonomous, alone, and unafraid?

Thanks for listening.

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Risk aversion in Special Operations: When aid workers have more freedom in a combat zone - SOFREP

If youve read my columns this month, youll be expecting my third of four July Freedom columns. However, you arent likely expecting the topic of Freedom of the Press from a spirituality columnist.

These days, Freedom of the Press feels more like a free-for-all. Anyone with a twitter account and smartphone can claim theyve uncovered the real facts -- a phrase as redundant as burning fire.

Perhaps youve even wondered, How do I know that Chaplain Norris is telling the truth?

Its a question that was asked of me 15 years ago by the editor of a small biweekly newspaper in Elk Grove, Calif.

He called to clarify a discrepancy he saw in my column about a premature baby.

You say he in one paragraph and she in another. Which is it?

It doesnt matter. Say whatever you like, I said. As a chaplain, Id interchanged the pronoun to protect the privacy of the family.

A long exhale informed me he was about to tell me exactly what he thought.

If youre going to change the facts in any way, he cautioned, then you need to disclose your intentions. He was clear that he wouldnt tolerate any irregularities in his paper.

This journalistic experience from 2005 may have you wondering how one finds a trustworthy news source in 2020. Below, I have paraphrased some helpful suggestions from Michael Lewis article Fake News? 8 Ways to Determine If a News Story Is Reliable.

1. What are the writers credentials? A good journalist goes to journalism school or some equivalent and finds employment by a trusted news outlet. (In my case, I have a BA in Journalism, an MFA in Writing, and am currently enrolled in a masters program in journalism.)

2. Is the story reported by only one source? The source you read may be the first to report a story, but it shouldnt be the only one. When it comes to a straight news story, I find that CNN and FOX should sound nearly alike.

3. Read past the headlines. Fun fact editors write headlines, not reporters. Often, the negative emails I get come from folks whove interpreted my column based solely on the headline.

4. Use fact checkers to confirm content on social media. Google Scholar will take you right to the source, but easier sites include http://www.snopes.com, Fact Checker, PolitiFact, and FactCheck. None of these are without some bias. My journalism instructors always required two substantiating sources and good notes that back up my quotes.

5. Is it fact or opinion? You shouldnt detect an opinion in a hard news story, but opinion pieces should still be supported by facts. While my columns are factual, you should consider most to be inspirational opinion.

6. How old is the information? A video posted to Twitter last week was Dr. Fauci saying masks are a waste of time. This was expired advice, but it was portrayed to be valid. When I Google information, I often use the tool tab that allows me to sort by date.

7. Avoid the extreme. Truth is found in the middle. If you tune your ears to the far right by listening to Infowars or you are a Patribotics kinda person, then youve likely stopped reading me by now. Hopefully, most of you are unfamiliar with either of these conspiracy theory sites.

These extreme sources are easily identified by their overuse of the term Lying Press. Labeling the press as fake or liars doesnt make it so. Hitler did the same thing when he popularized the phrase 'lgenpresse to attack the media unsupportive of the Nazi Party.

I take personal offense at the term. I know many journalists. Most are quiet, deliberate people who keep their nose to the grindstone in search of the facts. Their standards are high in their use of each word and their terms are precise. No one among us is unbiased, but I can attest that most journalists I know are factual.

And last, Ill put my chaplain hat back on to tell you this:

A liar is someone who is being intentionally misleading for personal gain. If they dont meet that criteria, then I would prefer to grant them grace.

But, hey, thats only this chaplains opinion.

Sources

Read more at http://www.thechaplain.net. Email: comment@thechaplain.net. Voicemail (843) 608-9715. Twitter @chaplain.

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Freedom of the Press | Columnists | islandernews.com - Islander News.com

Human rights activists around the world have been protesting in front of Chinese embassies in solidarity with Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement over recent Fridays. The string of protests are part of a weekly Fridays for Freedom campaign, which aims to coordinate international support for the citys democratic movement.

Organised by NOW!, an NGO which advocates for global democracy, the initiative was joined by participants from six continents. Demonstrators hailed from cities such as Brussels, Barcelona, Milan, Montreal, Turin, San Francisco, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, London, Helsinki, Glasgow, Edinburgh, San Jos, Kampala, Manchester, Buenos Aires, Melbourne, and Toronto.

Protesters gathered with placards demanding freedom for Hong Kong. Some displayed flags with slogans now banned in the city under the new national security law.

Other protesters held yellow umbrellas, a symbol of the 2014 Umbrella Movement which saw hundreds of thousands occupy the citys streets in support of universal suffrage.

We are witnessing one of the darkest periods of history unfolding: millions of people are losing their rights and freedoms, and the world is standing down. As governments are bowing to Chinas economic muscles, people of the world need to stand in solidarity with Hongkongers and demand better from world leaders, NOW!s co-executive directors said in a statement.

Thats why we are incredibly proud of the brave activists, who in all corners of the globe are standing up to ensure that world leaders protect Hong Kong and democracy!

One group from Sweden also protested against the treatment of the Uighur community in Xinjiang, China. Video footage which remerged on social media recently showed shackled, blindfolded and shaven members of the Uighur ethnic group being lead onto trains in northwestern China.

The international protests coincide with increasing pressure from Western governments over Hong Kongs national security law, enacted by Beijing in June.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump ended Hong Kongs special trading status and signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, empowering the US to impose sanctions on officials involved in the passing of the law. Meanwhile, the UK, Australia and Canada have all suspended their extradition treaties with Hong Kong as a response to the legislation, which could see suspects face trial in the mainland.

On June 30, Beijing enacted laws to prevent, stop and punish behaviours in Hong Kong that it deems a threat to national security. The legislation was inserted into the citys mini-constitution, bypassing the local legislature, in order to criminalise subversion, secession, foreign interference and terrorism.

The move which gives police sweeping new powers alarmed democrats, civil society groups and trade partners, as such laws have been used broadly to silence and punish dissidents in China.

Hong Kong government officials have said that the new law is crucial to safeguard against the sometimes violent protests which have the city since last June.

In the few weeks since the laws passing, democracy books have been pulled from the citys public libraries, the slogan liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our time has been banned, and students have been forbidden from partaking in any political activities at school.

According to organisers, the Fridays for Freedom campaign has attracted 700,000 followers online. The initiative forms part of a wider campaign, Waves of Freedom, which aims to create an international coalition to implement measures to safeguard Hong Kongs remaining freedoms and advocate for democracy for the city. The next protest will take place this Friday.

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In Pictures: Activists around the world stage Fridays for Freedom protests in solidarity with Hong Kong pro-democracy movement - Hong Kong Free Press

Juvenile lifer gets second chance at freedom 30 years later

Michael Lehman was sentenced to life at 14, freed at 44

Updated: 11:59 AM EDT Jul 24, 2020

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should someone be held accountable for the rest of their lives for crimes they committed as a minor? According to the Supreme Court, some may not have to anymore. Very few can point to the exact moment that changed the course of their life. But Michael Lehmann can. It was the night of June 18th 1988. Michael, then only 14 years old, met up with two boys he knew from his York Pennsylvania group home. Michael Duane, Morning Wake and Miguel Yoder went to see a known drug dealer from the area, Cornell Mitchell. He befriended the boys just a few days before. Together, the group devised a plan to rob a counselor at the home who they thought was too harsh and to rule oriented. They wanted to retaliate against Kwame A. BT's way of managing the group home. Michael would testify in court that he agreed to the plan because the others had threatened to kill him if he didn't go along with it and he didn't want to be seen as a wimp. He offered to act as a lookout and helped the group get inside Undetected explained that I had the window open. Hey, Where you going? In there. One of the home while we're all for our night and then a little big night, Wayne. Morning. Way. Get Miguel. You were gonna go downstairs with him. They appear. And as he waited, Michael said he heard a struggle and left his lookout post to see what was happening. The others wouldn't let him in quantities room. I went back upstairs down the hallway and I realized that they weren't just robbing and they were killing me. Kwamie was stabbed 21 times. After the attack, the group drove to the neighboring town of Harrisburg, where they dumped their knives and bloody clothes, then use the stolen money to buy bus tickets back to York. Police arrested all four of them. The following day, I realized I could have got out of it. But be any of that, I could've done anything. I pray to God. At his trial, Michael testified in his own defense. He thought that because he was just the lookout, he could set the record straight. But the jury didn't see it that way. Michael was found guilty of robbery, conspiracy and murder. At 15 years old, he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. Just everything Shut down. Well, yes, I was there. Yes, Look out. Yes, I told something. And yes, I help them evidence, but I didn't kill anyone. Michael was sent to prison to live out the rest of his days. That is, until the Supreme Court decision changed everything. In 2012 the Supreme Court ruled that a mandatory life sentence without parole should not apply to people convicted of murder as juvenile's in 2016 they decided that ruling should apply retroactively, meaning any juvenile convicted before 2012 should be given a chance of parole. At 45 years old, Michael was released in 2018. I held out for I. Pennsylvania has the highest number of juvenile lifers, with a total of 523. 200 have been released so far. States rehabilitation program for juvenile lifers helps them acclimated to life after prison. The program offers things like virtual reality sessions in prison to show them where they'll be living and support groups once they're released. They are not the juveniles that they were when they committed a crime, and because of that, we believe where I believe that they deserve a second. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, the re offending rate of juvenile lifers is substantially lower than in the general prison population, where in Pennsylvania, about 60% of all parolees get rearrested within a few years of release. There's always a concern with any population that you deal with. We monitor all of our juvenile lifers closely until we feel comfortable enough where the juvenile lifer in question is actually proven that he's going to be successful. There are those, however, who aren't just hopeful about the program, like the state's lead voice for crime victims. Gen Storm. At some point, the cameras will go away. Some of the immediate resource is will go away. And are these people equipped to succeed? And I don't think we're gonna know that for 35 years. The Supreme Court's ruling wasn't welcome news for Sherry McMichael and Melissa Vaquero, whose brother, Steven Turner, was 11 years old when he was brutally murdered by their 16 year old neighbor. Because of the Supreme Court decision, their brother's killer will now be eligible for parole. You never get over it. You never, ever get over it. The pain is just a deep, the sorrows Justus deep and it just never goes away. I promised my mother on her deathbed that we would make sure that this man never got out of jail. Sherry and Melissa say they don't believe all juvenile lifers should be denied parole. They just want some discretion used in how convicted murderers air getting released. The pair are fighting to keep Stevens killer in prison. They're certainly going to be some unjust punishments. I've seen some of them. There's also going to be some that the key needs to be thrown away, and there's a reason why they gave them no parole. Our case, I feel, is one of them for Michael Lehmann. He thinks back on the night that changed his life often, but all he could do is move forward. When I got out of prison, I stepped out the front door. I took a breath and I started a new chapter in my life. I can't change anything. All I can do is try to be the best person I can be. In the year after his release, Michael secured full time employment, a driver's license and even found love. While it hasn't all been smooth sailing, Michael is grateful. And in those moments where it becomes too much, he has a place to go and reset. My vision was narrowed by fences and razor wire for so long to just have this view of just this expanses, you know, it's easy toe. Just take that deep breath and just let things go. We spoke with WGCL reporter Matt Barkero, who spent over a year with Michael, his story and many other juvenile lifers whose lives changed completely because of this court ruling. A lot of the juvenile lifers that we talked with compared their released being an infant where here they are has grown adults, but they're experiencing all these things for the first time. Something as simple as cell phones is also a really big hurdle for them, because those were things that when they were kids back in the eighties, some of the seventies, somewhere in jail, like sixties, never saw before I put myself in their shoes was something that I went to explore. Many juvie lifers described the guilt they feel with their release. Can you elaborate on this deal? I can't speak to all of them. But in the ones that we talked with, they do feel that they will never forget what they did. And Michael Lehmann doesn't want to forget. She thinks that keeping this burden with him, it's it's who he is, and it will help him continue on life. The guilt that they feel is here. They are getting their lives back. Essentially, they get to go home. They get to be with their loved ones, but they know the back of their head. Their victims families don't get that second chance. It was really important for Michael, aiming to explain what juvenile lifers are, what their experience really is because they're getting free. This story was a big endeavor. Was there any part of your experience working on it? That was particularly surprising. The biggest surprise for me in talking with these juvenile lifers was learning that freedom was not a celebration, and I just assumed that someone who's been in jail for 30 40 50 years on the day that they're released, you know, they're gonna walk out of the prison and just like the sun would be shining. And they're gonna just celebrate with their family, and it's going to be this big happy occasion. But we met many juvenile lifers who their release day was nothing like that. They just don't know how to take those first couple of steps. They're also leaving behind all of their friends. Think about it. You grow up in jail, your cell mates and the guys and girls on your on your block. I mean, those are the people that you have shared your whole life with. And now here you are being free and you're leaving everything you know. Back in jail, however, the families of victims reacted to these re sentence sings. So Kwamie Beaty's family is a good example of many families of victims of juvenile lifers. They were never expecting their loved ones killer to be free. They thought that this chapter in their lives was gonna be put to bed. And here we are 30 years later, and the possibility that their loved ones killer it's not gonna be living in their community again was something that they don't think is right. Some are trying to fight that, and Stephen Turner's family is still very concerned that John Waters is not a changed man, and if he is free that he could kill again. How did the local community react after W G. A. L special aired, a lot of viewers reached out to us and told us that they feel conflicted about this issue going into it. Maybe they did not believe that these juvenile lifers should ever have been released. But in seeing Michael, Story has one example, but also some of the others. They were able to put themselves in the shoes of these juvenile lifers and realize that maybe it was a mistake, a horrible mistake, but a mistake nonetheless, when they were 14 15 16 years old. And maybe you can redeem yourself. Maybe you can go through that process of prison and come out a better person.

Juvenile lifer gets second chance at freedom 30 years later

Michael Lehman was sentenced to life at 14, freed at 44

Updated: 11:59 AM EDT Jul 24, 2020

In June 1988, Michael Lehman was the lookout for a crime in York, Pennsylvania. A crime that left Kwame Beatty, a 23-year-old youth counselor, dead. Four men who lived at the group home where Kwame Beatty worked were arrested for his murder, including Lehman. After he was convicted, Lehman was sentenced to life in prison. He was just 14-years-old.He fully expected to live out the rest of his life behind bars, until a 2012 Supreme Court ruling found that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional for juvenile offenders. Nationwide, these so-called "juvie lifers" had their cases re-examined. Pennsylvania, alone, had over 500. Michael Lehman was one of them. And in 2018, he was released.So much of todays news emanates from New York, Washington or Los Angeles, but what we know is that amazing, authentic and genuine stories are being told around the country every day. Each week "Dispatches from the Middle," which originally aired on Facebook Watch, takes a deep dive into one powerful local news story and gets a behind-the-broadcast look at how it came together.For stories like this and more, follow "Dispatches from the Middle" on Facebook Watch and subscribe to Stitch on YouTube.Read More: Project CommUNITY - Juvenile Lifers: The Long Road to Redemption

In June 1988, Michael Lehman was the lookout for a crime in York, Pennsylvania. A crime that left Kwame Beatty, a 23-year-old youth counselor, dead.

Four men who lived at the group home where Kwame Beatty worked were arrested for his murder, including Lehman. After he was convicted, Lehman was sentenced to life in prison. He was just 14-years-old.

He fully expected to live out the rest of his life behind bars, until a 2012 Supreme Court ruling found that mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional for juvenile offenders. Nationwide, these so-called "juvie lifers" had their cases re-examined. Pennsylvania, alone, had over 500. Michael Lehman was one of them. And in 2018, he was released.

So much of todays news emanates from New York, Washington or Los Angeles, but what we know is that amazing, authentic and genuine stories are being told around the country every day. Each week "Dispatches from the Middle," which originally aired on Facebook Watch, takes a deep dive into one powerful local news story and gets a behind-the-broadcast look at how it came together.

For stories like this and more, follow "Dispatches from the Middle" on Facebook Watch and subscribe to Stitch on YouTube.

Read More: Project CommUNITY - Juvenile Lifers: The Long Road to Redemption

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Juvenile lifer gets second chance at freedom 30 years later - WXII The Triad

In honor of the recent passing of two of the original Freedom Riders, longtime Georgia Congressman JohnLewisand the Reverend C.T. Vivian, the PBS history series American Experience is streaming Stanley Nelsons documentary, Freedom Riders, on PBS.org and the PBS Video App.

Hundreds of marchers hold hands as they cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., on Sunday, ... [+] March 7, 2004. It is the 39th anniversary of the civil rights march across the bridge when state troopers used tear gas and billy clubs against activists marching. Front row from left: U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. C.T. Vivian. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

The winner of three Primetime Emmy Awards and first broadcast in 2011,Freedom Riders tells the powerful, harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of six months that transformed America. From May until November 1961, over 400 Black and white Americans risked their lives and many endured imprisonment and savage beatings by traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South.

Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws in order to test and challenge a segregated interstate travel system, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism. The filmfeatures testimony from government officials, journalists who witnessed the rides firsthand, and the Riders themselves, includingLewisand Vivian, who recount their experiences.

During the making ofFreedom RidersI had the honor and the pleasure to get to know and interview JohnLewisand C. T. Vivian, said Nelson. They were true heroes who put their liveson the line to create positive change in the world. The lives of so many, including mine, were forever altered by their heroism. It is important for all of us in this moment to take up their legacy and push for real systemic change. May they rest In peace and power.

We are proud to make this powerful film by Stanley Nelson available for free streaming to the American public, said American Experienceacting executive producer Susan Bellows. As we mourn these two civil rights pioneers, we hope the story of their courage, determination and grace will continue to inspire us all.

A spokeswoman for the series said Freedom Riders would stream for three years and might also be rebroadcast on television at a later date.

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PBS Streams Award-Winning Freedom Riders Documentary To Honor Memory Of Rep. John Lewis And Rev. C. T. Vivian - Forbes

The Centers for Disease Control report face masks can help people from spreading coronavirus to others. Here are the do's and don'ts. Wochit

Sometimes the conversation focuses on effectiveness and folks who cannot wear a mask because of a medical condition. But largely it's about personal freedom of choice.

Before former Vice President Joe Biden delivered his most recent speech in Pennsylvania, a message was aired over the speakers.

Please keep your masks on the entire time, which is now mandated by the state of Pennsylvania and the governor."

The group of roughly 50 people complied and also practiced social distancing at McGregor Industries, a metal working plant near Scranton.

Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was also wearing a mask at the Dunmore factory on July 9.

Campaign stops: Biden, Trump make new push to win voters in battleground Pennsylvania

That same day, President Donald Trump sent his top surrogate, Vice President Mike Pence, to Pennsylvania.

When Air Force Two landed at the Lancaster Airport in Lititz, Pencewas wearing a mask. Hewas greeted by other Republican leaders, such as Congressman Lloyd Smucker, who were also wearing masks.

But most of the people in the crowd of Trump and Pence supporters were not wearing masks or standing at least 6 feet apart.

The president, who was in Washington, D.C., that day, had rarely worn a mask at that point.That changed two days later when he visited Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and wore a mask while visiting patients.

President Donald Trump wears a face mask as he visits Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., July 11, 2020.(Photo: Patrick Semansky, AP)

And it changed even more that Monday night when he posted a photo of himself wearing a mask.

"We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can't socially distance," Trump tweeted on Monday. "There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President!"

The president seems to be changing his stance on masks, but it remains to be seen if Republicans in Pennsylvania will follow his lead.

50 lives: These Pennsylvanians share a similar tragedy, losing their lives to COVID-19

Some top-ranking Republicans in the state have been wearing masks for months, even if they haven't agreed with safety mandates from Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat from York County. That includes U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican from the Lehigh Valley who has been advocating for masks since March, and the new Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler, a Republican from Lancaster County.

But former Speaker Mike Turzai, a Republican from Allegheny County, and dozens of other Republicans in the Legislature have been fighting the mask mandate.

Customers with and without masks intersect at the exit of a home improvement store near York, Pa.(Photo: Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record)

Rep. Russ Diamond, a Republican from Lebanon County, takes credit for starting the mask debate in Pennsylvania.

"I kind of pioneered not wearing a mask," he said.

Diamond said he was the first state Republican lawmaker to publicly show that's he's not wearing a mask.

He has a few problems with wearing masks: They create suspicion that everyone has COVID-19;he thinks they're ineffective;and he thinks they're unfair to people with certain medical conditions.

"We're creating a society where we're all isolated from one another, and we assume everyone is dangerous and carrying a disease," Diamond said. "We're turning it into: Everyone is guilty until they're proven innocent."

Also, despite what numerous scientists and doctors say, he doesn't believemasks work.

Opposition: Lebanon County revolts against Gov. Wolf as no other county in Pennsylvania has done

'Mask shaming': Lebanon Rep. Russ Diamond boasts on social media about not wearing face mask while shopping

He said science seemed to agree with him when the virus was first spreading across the U.S. and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised against masks.

That changed three months ago when the CDC recommended masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

But Diamond hasn't changed his mind.

Rep. Russ Diamond (R-Lebanon) speaks during the protest in Harrisburg on Monday, saying "we cannot allow the cure to be worse than the disease."(Photo: Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record)

"Reusable masks are problematic," he said. "They can get damp and collect bacteria if they're not properly cleaned. If you want to properly wear a mask, get a disposable mask. Too many people fiddle with them and end up touching their face more."

He said another reason he doesn't wear a mask is because he's supporting his fiancee, who has a medical condition that prevents her from wearing a mask. He said wearing a mask triggers her seizures; she recently had a severe seizure while wearing a mask to pick up her medical cannabis.

Wolf's mandate includes medical provisions, but most merchants don't allow customers inside their businesses without a mask, Diamond said.

"If we're going to exclude unmasked people with medical conditions from businesses, then let's knock out wheelchair ramps, too," he said.

More mandates possible: 'We know the virus has not gone away'

Diamond believes the solution - better than a mask mandate from the governor - is forsymptomatic people to quarantine, and asymptomatic people "don't really need to."

Pennsylvania's recent wave of positive COVID-19 cases can be traced to more than just asymptomatic carriers of the disease, according to state health officials.

Diamond, who said he "hates close talkers" and always maintains "5 feet of personal space to begin with," does support social distancing, vigorous hand washing and sanitizing, and washing and changing clothes when coming home from public spaces.

But he does not support masks, and he disagrees with state education guidelines that will require masks in school this fall.

"Teachers have enough to do. Now, they have to be the mask police, too?" Diamond said.

Diamond thinks a happy medium is: "If you want to wear a mask, fine. I won't say anything bad about you. I choose not to wear one. Please don't say anything bad about me. I'm not going to force myself into your personal space."

Masked shoppers exit and enter Target in West Manchester Township while a sign warns them at the entrance that masks are mandatory in accordance with Pennsylvania state orders.(Photo: Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record)

Republicans launched a political battle with Wolf over business shutdowns, saying it was a threat to livelihoods and personal freedoms.

Now, they're saying similar things about masks.

For some Republicans, the mask fight isn't about medicine. It's about mandates.

State Rep. Ryan Warner, a Republican from Fayette County, talked about liberty and freedom in a July 1 video on his Facebook page.

He said he agrees with wearing masks in many situations, but he doesn't think Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levinehas a right to tell people to wear masks because she's not an elected official. Levine was appointed by Wolf.

"The decisions from the governor are unilateral, authoritarian decisions. It is not how we do things," Warner said.

Like Warner, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, a Republican from Centre County, said he doesn't dispute wearing a mask.

"What we're disputing is by using his emergency powers, this governor is dictating it to people," Corman said to the Associated Press. "We live in a free society. People can make decisions for themselves."

Gov. Tom Wolf confirms the first presumptive positive cases of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Pennsylvania during a news conference March 6, 2020.(Photo: Commonwealth Media Services)

The state House and Senate recently voted to strip the governor's emergencypowers and give Pennsylvanians more of a say in how they want to be governed in times of crisis, including if they want to wear masks.

The Legislature previously tried to end the governor'semergency declaration without his consent, but a state Supreme Court ruling ended that effort.

Recently, the Legislature voted to change the state constitution and end the emergency declaration, and Wolf vetoed that plan.

We believe the power of our commonwealth truly rests with the people," said House Speaker Bryan Cutler, a Republican from Lancaster. "Pennsylvania is not a dictatorship, and the voters should ultimately decide."

He said the legislative branch has tried to work with the governor and asked to join a bipartisan task force to manage the crisis.

The governor turned us down, deciding instead to go it alone for months on end," Cutler said.

Pennsylvania Democrats, Republicans and health officials who advocate for masks point out that they are not new in the commonwealth.

They have been used here for more than a centuryin surgeries, dentistry and other medicalsettings, industrial operations, veterinary care and more.

These uses have been met without protest, and masks have been trusted to do what they were designed to do provide a reliable barrier against contamination.

In the simplest terms, they are designed to keep people from getting sick.

Mask supporters say they are a needed tool in the currentpublic health crisis just like they were used to curtail deaths in the 1918 flu pandemic and shouldn't be used as political weapons.

"When we should be fighting this virus, we are fighting about masks," said Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who said he wears a mask every time he goes into public spaces.

He pointed out that it's not just Democratic governors who want state residents to wear masks.

"The governors of Alabama and Texas, and governors in very red states, are pleading for masks," Fetterman said. "They realize it's not a political statement. It's a tool until we get a vaccine."

Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman walks from the Senate chamber after he was sworn into office on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, at the state Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)(Photo: Matt Rourke, AP)

When Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a mask mandate last week, she said she knew the order would be hard to enforce.

"I always prefer personal responsibility over a government mandate, and yet I also know with all my heart that the numbers and the data over past few weeks are definitely trending in the wrong direction, she said.

At the time, Alabama had more than 58,000 positive cases and hospital intensive care units were overwhelmed.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last week defended his mask mandate in a video message.

"Now, I know that many of all you are frustrated. Soam I," he said. "I know that many of you do not like the mask requirement. I dont either. It is the last thing that I wanted to do. Actually the next to the last. The last thing that any of us want is to lock Texas back down again.Each day the facts get worse. If we don't slow this disease quickly, our hospitals will get overrun, and I fear it will even inflict some of the people that I'm talking to right now."

Republican governors in Arkansas, Maryland, North Carolina and Ohio offered similar messages.

And former Republican governors in Pennsylvania say they support Wolf's mandate.

Tom Ridge(Photo: File)

All Pennsylvanians should heed the Wolf Administrations directives to wear a mask when out of the home, former Gov. Tom Ridge said in a statement. Like all Pennsylvanians, Gov. Wolf and Secretary Levine are hoping to avoid the COVID-19 spikes impacting other states so that we can get our economy back up and running as soon as possible. Wearing a mask is a simple, selfless act all of us should support.

His successor echoed that.

"Wearing your mask amounts to saying lets beat the virus now, not later when it might be too late,"former Gov. Mark Schweiker said in a statement.

About 100,000 Pennsylvanians have tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 7,000 have died. More than 4,800, or 68 percent,of those deaths have been in nursing homes.

While many Pennsylvanians have been able to go outside and experience some kind of summer, even if it's a masked one, tens of thousands of nursing home patients are still living in isolation because of the continued spread of infection.

Levinesaid the coronavirus typically enters nursing homes through workers who are asymptomatic carriers of the disease. It's imperative that those workers and the people they come into contact with in public are wearing masks, she said.

As the health secretaryalways says, "Your mask protects me, and my mask protects you."

The nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci and the CDC say masks protect everyone.

That includes the growing number of Pennsylvanians in their 20s who are getting and spreading the disease.

Pollster and political analyst Terry Madonna, who usually refrains from taking a side in political issues is taking a side in the mask debate.

"I am very, very supportive of wearing a mask in public," Madonna said. "I understand the cons in the issue. I understand the argument. But this is temporary, and it involves life and death. Wearing masks in public seems reasonable to me."

Candy Woodall is a reporter for the USA Today Network. She can be reached at 717-480-1783 or on Twitter at @candynotcandace.

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In Pennsylvania, fight against wearing masks involves some key Republicans, and liberty - York Daily Record

It sounds like a movie trailer for a political thriller, complete with baritone narrator and heart-pounding music like the kind you expect from a Jason Bourne film.

This ishow it starts, the narrator intones. A president out of control as polls forecast his downfall.

In a small city far from the Beltway, shadowy men, no badges, noidentification, deputized by a rogue attorney general snatch so-called enemies of the state off the streets.

Oh wait, Ive seen this movie before, still living it in fact. Thatsmall city is Portland, Oregon, where federal agents were let loose to smack around peaceful protesters.

The trailer is the latest political ad from The Lincoln Project. It goes on to recount in some detail the thuggery that went on in Portland, noting that your town couldbe next, because Trump doesnt believe in the right of peaceful protest -- or most things related to a democracy, for that matter.

This is How it Starts, is the adstitle and refrain. It refers to how the end of freedom starts unless people go to the polls in November and vote Trump out.

I wish Bidens people would start making ads thiscompelling.

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This Is How The End Of Freedom Starts, According To New Political Ad 07/21/2020 - MediaPost Communications

SPEECH

MICHAEL R. POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA

NATIONAL CONSTITUTION CENTER

JULY 16, 2020

AMBASSADOR GLENDON:I am Mary Ann Glendon. Im chair of the Commission on Unalienable Rights, and on behalf of my fellow commissioners, some of whom are here today, I want to welcome you to this presentation of ourreport.

I came in here earlier this morning, and when I saw the seating arrangement, it reminded me of Giacomettis Figures in a Public Square. Those seats looked so distant from one another and so lonely, and of course, that whole sculpture was meant to be an evocation of estrangement of modern man. But now that I see people in the seats, its really just the opposite, and I want to thank you so many of you for having come here today. I know that travel is difficult, and I know youre all here because you care about public life, unlike Giacomettis estranged figures.

So a year ago, when Secretary Pompeo established this commission, he gave us only two very terse instructions: One was to ground our work in the principles of the U.S. founding and in the principles of the international human rights project specifically the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and the second was to keep our work at the level of policy Im sorry, of principle and not to get involved in policy, where the State Department is already very well supplied with policymakers. And at the time a year ago, many people wondered, well, whats the point of having a commission that doesnt concern itself with the burning issues of the day?

And one answer possibly an answer to that is something that former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said many years ago. He said when I was a professor, I could work on whatever subjects I wanted and take as much time as I wanted, and a policymaker is always under pressure, has to make decisions in haste sometimes, sometimes on very limited information. And the risk, he said, for the policymaker is that the urgent will sometimes drive out the important. That risk, of course, will never be fully eliminated, but Secretary Pompeo did take a step toward alleviating it when he asked for a study about going back to basics and looking at the principles behind the United States commitment to human rights internationally.

Still, some people asked why now, when so many other matters are pressing for attention. Why have such a study now? And Ill just suggest a few answers. You can think of more, perhaps, but certainly one is the information we got from Freedom Houses report this spring where they told us that political and civil rights worldwide have declined this year for the 14th consecutive year and that half the worlds population 4 billion people currently live under autocratic or quasi-authoritarian regimes.

And perhaps thats why some powerful countries are now openly challenging the basic premises of the great post-World War II human rights project, and by challenging the premises, they are undermining the already fragile international consensus behind the ideas that no nation should be immune from outside scrutiny of how it treats its own citizens and that every human being is entitled to certain fundamental rights simply by virtue of being human.

China, in particular, is aggressively promoting a very different concept in which national priorities of various sorts prevail over the basic rights of speech, assembly, religious freedom, and free elections.

Another set of threats to human freedom and dignity are emerging in technological advances artificial intelligence, biotechnology, data collection, sophisticated surveillance techniques.

I could go on. But what hasnt changed what hasnt changed is the fact that millions of women and men are suffering arbitrary imprisonment, torture, and those women and men are looking to the United States as a beacon of hope and encouragement.

For the commissioners over these past several months, its been humbling as well as moving to see American flags in the hands of so many of the Hong Kong protesters. And it was the fact for us that so many people in so many places count so much on the United States yes, even in the ways that our country falls short of its own ideals, it was that fact that led us to our principal conclusion, which was that as a nation that came into being by affirming certain unalienable rights that belong to everyone everywhere, the United States must now rise to the challenges with the same energy and spirit that it brought to the building of a new international order in the post-World War period.

I hope that those of you who would like to hear more about the report will join us at 4 oclock this afternoon for the public meeting, but now we must turn to todays program, where were very fortunate to have with us Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, who will present the invocation; after which we will hear the remarks of the Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo; which will be followed by a conversation between the Secretary and myself in which he may reveal whether the commissions report did or did not come close in any way to what he expected of it.

Please join me in welcoming Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Cardinal Timothy Dolan. (Applause.)

And please remain standing for the National Anthem, which will be performed by Army Sergeant First Class Charis Strange.

(The National Anthem was sung.)

CARDINAL DOLAN:Well done. Thanks, Sergeant. Here we go, Mary Ann.

Let us pray, and pray we must, we citizens who cherish this one nation under God, a duty flowing from our bold confession. In God we trust.

So we readily praise the creator who has bestowed upon and ingrained into the very nature of his creatures certain inalienable rights, acknowledged by the founders, enshrined in our countrys normative documents, defended with the blood of grateful patriots. You you, dear Lord have bestowed these inalienable rights not kings, tyrants, or any government; rights flowing from the innate human dignity of the person and the sacredness of all human life. You have made self-evident in reason and nature celebrated in your own revelation.

And while we will never give up beseeching you, dear God, to mend our every flaw, we renew our gratitude for this homeland founded on these inalienable rights, asking your blessing upon this noble project initiated by Secretary Pompeo and Ambassador Glendon and your guidance as we renew our sense of duty to share our countrys wisdom on rights inherent to the very nature of the human person never, ever to be trampled.

To the sovereign of the nations, creator of all, bestower of rights, be honor and glory for ever and ever, amen.

AMBASSADOR GLENDON:Now its my great pleasure to introduce the person whose idea it was to have a study that would help to ground American diplomacy in the principles of our founding and in the principles of the international human rights project, and it is my great pleasure, Mr. Secretary, to present you with a copy of our report.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Secretary of the United States Michael R. Pompeo. (Applause.)

SECRETARY POMPEO:Good afternoon, everyone. It is wonderful to be here. Its beautiful. Its absolutely beautiful here.

Thank you, Mary Ann, for that lovely introduction. I am confident that when we first met and I was a 27-year-old former Army captain that Id be standing here today with you in this beautiful place talking about this important moment.

I was very moved by the rendition of the National Anthem. Lets give a round of applause again to Sergeant First Class Charis Strange. (Applause.) None of you should be surprised that I chose an Army person to come give the opening singing.

Cardinal Dolan, thank you. Bless you for being here today. We are blessed to have you here.

I want to express too my appreciation for the National Constitution Center for hosting us. It took some doing to organize. This isnt how this is normally laid out. Lets give the people who made this all happen from this institution a big round of applause as well. (Applause.)

Im happy too that so many of you took the time to come to Philadelphia a place intentionally chosen even if we do have to be socially distanced. And to those watching livestream atstate.gov, welcome.

A special welcome today too to the commission members who could make it here: Paolo Carozza and David Pan, and to Peter Berkowitz, the commissions executive secretary and the head of the State Departments Policy Planning Staff. We also have Duncan Walker and the rapporteur for the committee Cart Weiland here. I know that all of you and your colleagues put a lot of hard work into this report, and thank you so much for that.

I want to take just a second as well to acknowledge the commissioners who could not be here today: Kenneth Anderson, Russell Berman, Hamza Yusuf Hanson, Jacqueline Rivers, Katrina Lantos-Swett, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, and Christopher Tollefsen. I value deeply the contributions that each of you made to this important report.

I want to thank too there were lots of public comments. We had a number of public meetings. There were many people who voiced a diverse set of opinions. I want to thank people who contributed, like Martha Minow, Cass Sunstein, and Orlando Patterson, who came to share with us their thinking about how we should write this report.

I know too that the commission is welcoming and providing a further opportunity for public input as we complete our work later this afternoon.

And a special thanks to you, Professor Glendon. You are amongst the most significant inspirations for this report that were unveiling here today.

Many of you will know this, but I spent a few years a few years under Mary Anns tutelage. I was a research assistant for her. She paid me 7 bucks an hour. I thought I was rich. (Laughter.) It was one of my greatest gifts in life.

Ive now read nearly everything youve written. I dont agree with all of it (laughter) but we had a fun time. We debated human rights. We agreed on the big things, the important things, the things that really matter about this remarkable nation.

We agreed that our founders traveled to this great land to enjoy the fruit of freedom, not to spread subjugation.

We agreed, as Professor Glendon, the former 1960s civil rights advocate, wrote in her great workRights Talk,that A rapidly expanding catalog of rightsnot only multiplies the occasion for risks of collision, but risks trivializing core American values.

We agreed that the Declaration of Independence itself is the most important statement of human rights ever written. It made human freedom and human equality our nations central ideas.

And as I said to the Claremont Institute now just over a year ago, we agreed that America draws strength and goodness from her founding ideals and that our foreign policy must be grounded by those ideals as well.

But we know this: We cant do good at home or abroad if we dont precisely know what we believe and why we believe it.

And thats why I asked Professor Glendon to form a commission composed of some of the most distinguished scholars and activists. I asked them not to discover new principles, but to furnish advice on human rights grounded in our nations founding principles and the principles of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Because without this grounding without this grounding our efforts to protect and promote human rights is unmoored and, therefore, destined to fail.

And so the Commission on Unalienable Rights was born.

These rights, these unalienable rights, are essential. They are a foundation upon which this country was built. They are central to who we are and to what we care about as Americans.

Now, I think Cardinal Dolan referred to this, but Americas founders didnt invent the unalienable rights, but stated very clearly in the Declaration of Independence that they are held as self-evident that human beings were created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights among [those] are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

So too did these bright men know that each human being has inherent worth, just by virtue of his or her own humanity a deeply Biblical idea. As Alexander Hamilton wrote, The sacred rights of mankindare written, as with a sun beamby the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.

Now, that may seem commonplace to some of you, but this was a momentous idea. Until 1776, human beings pretty much everywhere were ruled by might and brutality.

The founders changed the course of history when they established a nation built on the premise that government exists not to diminish or cancel the individuals rights at the whims of those in power, but to secure them.

Ill never forget Ill never forget being spellbound by the founders ideas for the first time. As a cadet, too many years ago now, at West Point, I was issued uniforms, a rifle, and the Federalist Papers. I still have that copy. Some have seen it on my desk. Its a bit more tattered now. But Ive continued to go back to that and harken back to those central ideas that these men brought to this great nation. And its important its important for every American, for every American diplomat, to recognize how our founders understood unalienable rights.

As youll see when you get a chance to read this report, the report emphasizes foremost among these rights are property rights and religious liberty. No one can enjoy the pursuit of happiness if you cannot own the fruits of your own labor, and no society no society can retain its legitimacy or a virtuous character without religious freedom.

Our founders knew. Our founders knew that faith was also essential to nurture the private virtue of our citizens. The report speaks to that.

In his now famous letter from 1790, a letter to the Jews of Newport, George Washington proudly noted that the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.

Our founders also knew the fallen nature of mankind. Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 10: Men are ambitious, vindictive, rapacious.

So in their wisdom, they established a system that acknowledged our human failings, checked our worst instincts, and ensured that government wouldnt trample on these unalienable rights.

Limited government structured into our documents protects these rights. As the report states, majorities are inclined to impair individual freedom, and public officials are prone to putting their private preferences and partisan ambitions ahead of the public interest.

The genius the genius of our founders was evident to one man in particular. In 1838, a 29-year-old 28-year-old lawyer gave a speech to the local young mans lyceum in Springfield, Illinois.

Abraham Lincoln said, quote, We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us.

This is still true. This is still true of America today. America is fundamentally good and has much to offer the world, because our founders recognized the existence of God-given, unalienable rights and designed a durable system to protect them.

But I must say, these days, even saying that America is fundamentally good has become controversial.

The commission was never intended to time the release of this report to the current societal upheavals that are currently roiling our nation. Nevertheless, the report touches on this moment, and so will I, because todays unrest directly ties to our ability to put our founding principles at the core of what we do as Americans and as diplomats all across the world.

Now, its true that at our nations founding our country fell far short of securing the rights of all. The evil institution of slavery was our nations gravest departure from these founding principles. We expelled Native Americans from their ancestral lands. And our foreign policy, too, has not always comported with the idea of sovereignty embedded in the core of our founding.

But crucially crucially the nations founding principles gave us a standard by which we could see the gravity of our failings and a political framework that gave us the tools to ultimately abolish slavery and enshrine into law equality without regard to race.

You dont always hear these ground truths today. Nor do you hear about the greatest strides our nation has made to realize the promise of our founding and a more perfect union.

From Seneca Falls, to Brown vs. Board of Education, to the peaceful marches led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Americans have always laid claims to their promised inheritance of unalienable rights.

And yet today, the very core of what it means to be an American, indeed the American way of life itself, is under attack. Instead of seeking to improve America, too many leading voices promulgate hatred of our founding principles.

President Trump spoke about this at Mount Rushmore on the Fourth of July. And our rights tradition is under assault.

TheNew York Timess 1619 Project so named for the year that the first slaves were transported to America wants you to believe that our country was founded for human bondage.

They want you to believe that Americas institutions continue to reflect the countrys acceptance of slavery at our founding.

They want you to believe that Marxist ideology that America is only the oppressors and the oppressed. The Chinese Communist Party must be gleeful when they see theNew York Timesspout this ideology.

Some people have taken these false doctrines to heart. The rioters pulling down statues thus see nothing wrong with desecrating monuments to those who fought for our unalienable rights from our founding to the present day.

This is a dark vision of Americas birth. I reject it. Its a disturbed reading of history. It is a slander on our great people. Nothing could be further from the truth of our founding and the rights about which this report speaks.

The commission reminds us its got a quote from Frederick Douglas, himself a freed slave, who saw the Constitution as a glorious, liberty document. That it is.

America is special. America is good. America does good all around the world.

In recent weeks, Ive had the chance to walk around Arlington Cemetery a few times, as I was thinking about today. And Ive been reminded of the hundreds of thousands of young men America sacrificed during the Civil War. We forget them at our peril.

And that grand struggle for rights wasnt the only one in American history. There are many remarkable Americans still engaged in the drive to fulfill the Declarations promises.

One of them is here with us today, David Hardy. David was the founding CEO of Boys Latin School a charter right here in Philadelphia. Hes still very involved in the charter school community.

At Boys Latin, and other schools like it, aspiring young men, nearly all of them from some of the most difficult parts of Philadelphia, have a better chance to pursue their happiness. Eighty-nine percent of the students there matriculate to college.

He David has devoted the great part of his adult life to equal opportunities for a good education, often called the civil rights movement of our time.

Mr. Hardy, please stand. And lets give him a round of applause. (Applause.) David, thank you again for being with us here today.

Our nation, too, has the responsibility to inculcate our founding values and reward their adoption. C.S. Lewis said it best when he lamented that we make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.

We must do better. America must build on its founding ideals and its leader must fearlessly defend them.

It is clear and this report makes it even more so it is clear that unalienable rights are central to who we are as Americans. But heres where I come in as Secretary of State. They have to underpin our foreign policy.

The Declaration itself is a foreign policy matter. It was written to explain why our nation broke away from British tyranny.

If we truly believe if we truly believe that rights are unalienable, inviolate, enduring, indeed, universal, just as the founders did, then defending them ought to be the bedrock of our every diplomatic endeavor.

Indeed, our own commitment to unalienable rights at home has proved a beacon of hope for men and women abroad pursuing their own liberties.

The examples are countless. Ill just give a couple.

Natan Sharansky when he heard of President Reagans Evil Empire speech while imprisoned, he said it was a ray of hope in the darkness of his punishment cell.

Last year Professor Glendon referred to this Hong Kong waved the American flag as they protested a communist crackdown. There is no symbol of freedom more recognizable all around the world.

Today, Im proud to have with us Wei Jingsheng, who is considered the father of todays Chinese democracy movement. On December 5th, 1978, the young electrician from Beijing Zoo shook the world by bravely posting an eloquent essay on Beijings short-lived Democracy Wall.

Mr. Wei boldly insisted that the CCPs Four Modernizations in industry, agriculture, defense, and science werent enough to truly make China a modern a modern and civilized nation.

Hearkening back to the May Fourth Movement, generations earlier, he said China needed a fifth modernization: democracy.

The Chinese Communist Party repeatedly threw Mr. Wei in jail for his advocacy.

In 1997, he emigrated. He emigrated to America, where he has continued his courageous call for the Chinese Communist Party to honor the unalienable rights that God has given to every Chinese citizen from Tibet to Tiananmen and from Hong Kong to Hubei.

Mr. Wei, please stand and be recognized. (Applause.) Its a blessing to have you with us here today. Thank you, again.

Now, if you believe our founding principles should inform foreign policy, and especially the promotion of unalienable rights, we have to lay down a framework a framework for how to think about this around the world.

Now, we have to be realistic, because our first duty is, of course, to secure American freedoms. Thats what I raised my right hand to do, when I was sworn in as Americas Secretary of State.

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Unalienable Rights and the Securing of Freedom | US Embassy & Consulate in Kazakhstan - US Embassy and Consulate in Kazakhstan

OPINION: Pity the poor political junkie whos developed a twitch from worrying about missing a news bulletin.

Keep up junkie, cancel all lunches and coffee dates. Your job is to remain by the radio and be alert at all times to the latest whiff of a political scandal.

The name of this game is speed chess, as pawns, knights, bishops and kings take a tumble, and queens do their best to stay out of harms way.

Stuff

While Queen Jacinda prefers to stay on the ground, Queen Judith likes to fly low over Parliament, writes Jane Bowron.

Judith Collins likes to lay her traps feeding patsy questions to a host on her happy place, the AM breakfast show.

READ MORE:* Politics is worth saving. Is Parliament?* I'm a National MP, get me out of here! * Inglorious end to a lifetime of influence for Michelle Boag* The Detail: Who is new National leader Judith Collins?

Collins breached the rules of leader engagement by putting it out there she got mail from a third party pertaining to a Labour ministers conduct, pre-empting the announcement of her opposite.

Queen Judith likes to wear her World War II helmet and fly low over Parliament to show off her latest kill markings on the side of her plane.

Queen Jacinda prefers to stay on the ground making noble speeches to the troops about why it is a far, far better thing she does now in sacking a knight, whos had illegal nights with one of his underlings.

Kevin Stent/Stuff

Jane Bowron: We become blas about our hard won and precarious sealed-off freedom in our tyranny of isolation as the corona rages the rest of the world.

Politicians, parliamentary public servants, and gallery journalists anxiously trawl back through their memory banks, thanking their lucky stars that a compulsory Canoodle Tracing app wasnt around the last time they lay across enemy lines and touched forbidden fruit.

How will this all end? Perhaps a meeting will be arranged between the two leaders where it is agreed that in the interests of the country and the need for a good clean fight, there will be an exchange of files. Each queen will bring her smut dossier to the meeting, agree to stop extra-marital affair banking, and promise to play nice.

Meanwhile, cabinet ministers grow tired and irritable from the additional portfolios they are suddenly over-burdened with. Like school students listing to one side with heavy cases of text books, they struggle the corridors of power trying to dodge media to get to their offices and resume work.

The electorates memory is shattered by scandals, but some of them vaguely remember a kindly doctor whose every word they hung on as he relayed to them the daily numbers of a pandemic. Sometimes they catch sight of him lodged way down in the news list, and blush at the memory of a crush.

Monique Ford/Stuff

Remember the kindly doctor, whose every word was hung on as he relayed the daily number of the pandemic.

In olden days, New Zealanders would watch the international news and feel embarrassed at how far behind and backward we were compared to the rest of the sophisticated world. Ten years behind in clothes and culture we would try to wrangle jeans and LPs from the vaguest of overseas contacts in order to appear hip.

Now we watch the news and see those countries we once revered going back into lockdown, and recoil in horror at peacefully protesting cities being quelled by fascist forces. Meanwhile we are spoilt for freedoms of choice pondering cannabis legislation and control, and end-of-life choice referendums.

Various tsk tsk noises are made about an urgent need for a parliamentary conduct of code to avoid moral collapse in the highest echelons, while Team 5 Million lose sight of our code of conduct over the virus.

We become blas about our hard won and precarious sealed-off freedom in our tyranny of isolation as the corona rages the rest of the world. Numbed by our privileged new normal, we barely register pride when a news bulletin tells us we have the lowest death rate from Covid-19 in the developed world, and theres been no evidence of the virus in the community for over 28 days.

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NZ has become 'too blas' about its hard-won freedom from Covid - Stuff.co.nz

If youve read my columns this month, youll be expecting my third of four July Freedom columns. However, you arent likely expecting the topic of Freedom of the Press from a spirituality columnist.

These days, Freedom of the Press feels more like a free-for-all. Anyone with a twitter account and smartphone can claim theyve uncovered the real facts -- a phrase as redundant as burning fire.

Perhaps youve even wondered, How do I know that Chaplain Norris is telling the truth?

Its a question that was asked of me 15 years ago by the editor of a small biweekly newspaper in Elk Grove, Calif.

He called to clarify a discrepancy he saw in my column about a premature baby.

You say he in one paragraph and she in another. Which is it?

It doesnt matter. Say whatever you like, I said. As a chaplain, Id interchanged the pronoun to protect the privacy of the family.

A long exhale informed me he was about to tell me exactly what he thought.

If youre going to change the facts in any way, he cautioned, then you need to disclose your intentions. He was clear that he wouldnt tolerate any irregularities in his paper.

This journalistic experience from 2005 may have you wondering how one finds a trustworthy news source in 2020. Below, I have paraphrased some helpful suggestions from Michael Lewis article Fake News? 8 Ways to Determine If a News Story Is Reliable.

1. What are the writers credentials? A good journalist goes to journalism school or some equivalent and finds employment by a trusted news outlet. (In my case, I have a BA in Journalism, an MFA in Writing, and am currently enrolled in a masters program in journalism.)

2. Is the story reported by only one source? The source you read may be the first to report a story, but it shouldnt be the only one. When it comes to a straight news story, I find that CNN and FOX should sound nearly alike.

3. Read past the headlines. Fun fact editors write headlines, not reporters. Often, the negative emails I get come from folks whove interpreted my column based solely on the headline.

4. Use fact checkers to confirm content on social media. Google Scholar will take you right to the source, but easier sites include http://www.snopes.com, Fact Checker, PolitiFact, and FactCheck. None of these are without some bias. My journalism instructors always required two substantiating sources and good notes that back up my quotes.

5. Is it fact or opinion? You shouldnt detect an opinion in a hard news story, but opinion pieces should still be supported by facts. While my columns are factual, you should consider most to be inspirational opinion.

6. How old is the information? A video posted to Twitter last week was Dr. Fauci saying masks are a waste of time. This was expired advice, but it was portrayed to be valid. When I Google information, I often use the tool tab that allows me to sort by date.

7. Avoid the extreme. Truth is found in the middle. If you tune your ears to the far right by listening to Infowars or you are a Patribotics kinda person, then youve likely stopped reading me by now. Hopefully, most of you are unfamiliar with either of these conspiracy theory sites.

These extreme sources are easily identified by their overuse of the term Lying Press. Labeling the press as fake or liars doesnt make it so. Hitler did the same thing when he popularized the phrase 'lgenpresse to attack the media unsupportive of the Nazi Party.

I take personal offense at the term. I know many journalists. Most are quiet, deliberate people who keep their nose to the grindstone in search of the facts. Their standards are high in their use of each word and their terms are precise. No one among us is unbiased, but I can attest that most journalists I know are factual.

And last, Ill put my chaplain hat back on to tell you this:

A liar is someone who is being intentionally misleading for personal gain. If they dont meet that criteria, then I would prefer to grant them grace.

But, hey, thats only this chaplains opinion.

Sources

Read more at http://www.thechaplain.net. Email: comment@thechaplain.net. Voicemail (843) 608-9715. Twitter @chaplain.

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Freedom of the Press | Columnists - Islander News.com

Although his articles in Life, serialised in the Sunday Express in Britain in 1947, were a jaunty, innocuous and even favourable account of the royal family and its daily life, to Queen Mary they were deplorable.

"I was surprised you thought it a pity I wrote so many private facts," the Duke replied to one of her steely missives.

"I would submit that the personal memoir of Papa undertaken by John Gore at your and Bertie's request contains far more intimate extracts from Papa's diaries and glimpses into his character and habits that I would have dared to use."

This seems a fair point.

Fuelled by a gnawing sense of injustice that he was refused the role of a roving ambassador to the US by his brother, Bertie, Edward wrote his version of the abdication."A King's Story: The Memoirs of The Duke of Windsor" was published in 1951. It's eminently readable, with some priceless lines. "Christmas at Sandringham was Dickens in a Cartier setting," he wrote.

He describedbeing dispatched, in tears, to the Royal Naval College in the Isle of Wight in 1907 the bizarre assurance from his father that "I am your best friend."

Although he was desperately hurt by his family's refusal to accept Wallis Simpson, he still tempered his account.The book was a commercial success, selling 80,000 copies in the UK in the first month. But the royal court, and courtiers, were aghast.

"All of them express disgust at a former King of England selling for money his recollections of his family life, in a form that is indecent and for a motive that it squalid," thundered his former equerry, Alan "Tommy" Lascelles.

What upset Lascelles the most were the passages detailing the Duke's love for Wallis Simpson the omission of which would have been glaring, considering that the King had abdicated for her. "It is obscene to write gainfully about ones own love affairs," the equerry fumed.

That is exactly what the Duchess of Windsor did in her autobiography, "The Heart Has Its Reasons", which she published in 1969, long after any form of reconciliation with her in-laws was likely.

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'Finding Freedom' suggests the Sussexes have not yet burned their bridges - Telegraph.co.uk

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) On a sweltering day, roughly one thousand protesters converged on the Capitol steps at high noon hoping to turn up the heat on Governor Wolf and his various orders to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic.

Do we have any God-fearing, freedom-loving, flag-waving patriots in the house? asked the National Anthem singer before belting out the Star Spangled Banner to great applause.

Rally goers came armed with anti-Wolf signs, flags, and t-shirts. Many came armed with pistols on hips or rifles slung across chests. It was a peaceful gathering though.

We dont want to be a nanny state, said co-organizer Michael Daino. We want to be free Americans and walk as free Americans.

Although the entire state is now in the green phase, this Assembly for Freedom rally railed against Wolfs various shutdown orders.

We are seeing our freedoms getting eaten away by edicts, said attendee Joel Saint, a pastor from Lancaster County. Why do we have a constitution if a governor can just say, Hey, Im gonna shut down that business, and it gets shut down?

Several Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Frank Ryan (R-Lebanon), took to the podium to complain about Wolfs executive orders that largely sidestepped the legislature. He understands the frustrations exhibited on the Capitol steps.

We dont live in a dictatorship but unfortunately one of the hallmarks of our nation is justice and the scales of justice have been tipped against the citizens, Ryan said.

The mostly mask-less crowd couldnt conceal its disdain for Wolfs mandate on face coverings. One of the loudest cheers went to a man at the microphone who shouted, I havent worn a mask on my face a single time since the beginning of this.

The applause was raucous.

Several women wore t-shirts saying, Pennsylvanians for mask-less education.

Governor Wolf wants all our kids to wear masks in school, said Jamie Walker, a mother of three from Bucks County. Theres no way schools can open if kids have to wear masks because teachers cannot be mask police.

Mike Lingg traveled from Pittsburgh to attend the rally. He said he supports bar and restaurant owners who have recently seen new Wolf-mandated restrictions. He too, however, went without a mask in the throng.

I think we should have free will, Lingg said. If we want to wear a mask, we wear a mask. If we dont, I dont think we should be shamed because of it and theres a lot of that going on right now.

Theres also a lot of new science all of it shows mask-wearing reduces the spread of the virus and can help to drop infection rates. To the folks gathered on the steps of the Capitol though, personal freedom is more important than stopping Covid-19s freedom to roam.

There is a virus and unfortunately its killed some people, Daino said. Let it run its course. Theres like a 99% recovery rate.

Organizers called for 20,000 patriots to attend the rally but the actual turnout was estimated in the 1,000 to 1,500 range.

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Freedom rally at Capitol blasts Governor Wolfs handling of coronavirus - ABC27

Why do I feel so queasy about the idea of mandatory masks? Yes, theyre uncomfortable and impersonal, whether youre sporting a fancy patterned silk number or a disposable face-napkin. Theres the questionable timing, the impact on shopping habits, the risk of mission creep and the sheer normalisation of something deeply abnormal.

Still, Im prepared to wear them, albeit temporarily in a choice between full lockdown and a mask, the latter wins hands down. Easily the biggest cause of my unease is the Government trying to enforce them. Had a freedom-lover like Mrs Thatcher mandated masks, wed have known beyond doubt it would be a proportionate, strictly time-limited measure. Not this administration.

Little by little, Boris Johnsons Government has sidelined free markets and personal responsibility, a phenomenon most evident in the current obesity crusade, with measures likely to includemore prominent labelling of food and tight advertising restrictions. The latter, though billed as targeting junk food, are in fact incredibly far-reaching; applying to anything high in fat or salt (including unforgivably cheese, a food no sane person could describe as junk). How depressing that we voted for Cavaliers and ended up with a bunch of Puritans.

The definition of madness is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. Why, then, is the Government treating the NHS (sorry, Our NHS) with the same misplaced reverence as any Labour administration? Why are teachers, many of whom dismally abandoned their pupils during the pandemic, receiving an above-inflation pay rise when the economy has shrunk by a fifth and private sector workers are being furloughed and laid off in their millions? No government can bar people from their livelihoods and refuse to support them, but where is the free market plan for ending lockdown?

True, there are glimmers of hope in the sensible deregulation measures introduced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which should stay in place for as long as temporary taxes normally do (take income tax supposedly a short-term levy to fund the Napoleonic Wars, which we appear to have won some centuries ago). But the lack of co-ordination between departments is palpable and at times, faintly ridiculous. While Robert Jenrick is allowing restaurants to operate as takeaways without a licence and Rishi Sunak is subsidising the nations Nandos outings, the same Government is compelling eateries to enforce complex rules on masks and restricting their ability to advertise.

When the PM appointed his Cabinet, it was hailed as the most capitalist ever. Guardian op-eds prophesied a terrifying vision of deregulated Britain, noting, with horror, that several Cabinet members had contributed to the free-market pamphlet, Britannia Unchained. What happened to that Government of disrupters, with its 80-seat majority, and a Cabinet supposedly stuffed to the rafters with swashbuckling free marketeers? Sadly, I fear the mask has slipped.

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Love of freedom is the missing ingredient in this Tory government - Telegraph.co.uk

Hes finally out of jail!

By Erick Johnson

Twas the night before Tuesday, July 21. Roosevelt Myles Jr., was unable to sleep. The biggest gift of his life would come in less than 24 hours. He had waited for it for nearly three decades. He finally fell asleep at 2 a.m.

Later that morning at 10:15, Myles walked out of jail, a free man after 28 years behind bars.

A rainy morning, there was little fanfare outside the Illinois River Correction Center, but there was plenty of sunshine among Myles and his loved ones.

Wearing a face mask, T-shirt and gray sweatpants, Myles threw his arms in the air and walked to a waiting black Chevrolet Impala. Myles threw several bags of clothes into the back seat before he and the driver, fianc Tanya Crowder, drove off, leaving behind years of pain, while starting a new journey as a free man.

Myles was finally released from prison Tuesday after earning good time that shaved two years off his sentence. It was the first big step in Myles getting his life back. Now an ex-felon and certified paralegal, Myles is looking forward to getting readjusted to society while stepping up his life-long effort to clear his name, with his freedom and easier access to resources.

Myles is free but his legal battle is not over.

He is now an ex-felon with a criminal record. All eyes are on the Cook County States Attorneys office, which for the last three years has kept Myles in jail by opposing his post-conviction appeal for a hearing. But the wheels of justice began to turn in Myles favor. A recent appeals court ruling will finally give Myles his day in court to clear his name and seek justice for his wrongful conviction.

On Tuesday, Myles first order of business was a trip to the barber shop. Then came a visit to his sisters house. After that, the phone calls and celebrations began as Myles enjoyed a day that he thought would never come.

His mother and father died while waiting for their son to come home, but to Myles, they were rejoicing from Heaven.

This is just surreal, he said, as he sat in a recliner in the home of his fianc Tanya Crowder. I cant believe that Im here.

On his first day of freedom, a Crusader reporter followed Myles around Peoria. The first stop was Major League, a popular Black barber shop in a strip mall in Peoria. As Myles sat quietly, a barber cut down his white, overgrown afro to a sharp crew cut (the barber in the jail was unavailable for weeks as the prison remained on lockdown because of the coronavirus). As the barber clipped away, Myles, known to many as Blue called out to Boo, a man Myles knew in Peoria before he moved to Chicago after his teenage years.

With a fresh haircut, Myles went to Peorias predominately Black East Bluff neighborhood where Myles sister, Sharon Myles-Stephens and her husband, Robert live. After entering the one-story house, Myles immediately went to a shelf in the living room, where two urns contain the ashes of his mother and father. He looked at them and simply stared for a minute.

Three years ago, they died seven months apart, while Myles was still in jail. They waited decades for their sons freedom but never lived to see this day come. With a jail officer, Myles had attended his mothers wake, but he was unable to do the same for his father. The familys plans to bury their ashes in a cemetery in Yazoo, Mississippi have been on hold until Myles was released from prison.

Its just one of several events that were delayed while Myles remained behind bars. The other important event is a wedding to marry his fianc, Crowder. She met Myles through his sister Sharon in 2012. Sharon, a nurse at a doctors office, met Crowder when she was preparing for knee surgery.

For Myles, the biggest delay is getting his conviction overturned and obtaining his Certificate of Innocence.

In 1996, Myles was convicted for killing teenager Tony Brandon on November 16, 1992 on the West Side. The states main witness, Octavia Morris, in 2018, signed an affidavit saying that Chicago police officers visited her mothers house six times to force her to confess that Myles committed the murder during the trial.

During those proceedings, Myles alibis, Michael Hooker, and his brother, were not called to testify. No DNA evidence was presented linking Myles to the crime.

A detective on the Discovery Networks television show Reasonable Doubt, said Myles is innocent and that the murder was a set up. Police arrested Myles as he was on his way to a store in the neighborhood.

After an appeals court granted him a hearing in 2000, Myles never had his day in court. He went through a string of public defenders.

In 2017, New York Attorney Jennifer Bonjean took Myles case. Bonjean pushed to get Myles the hearing he never received, but in 2019, Judge Dennis Porter denied his appeal after prosecutors at Cook County States Attorney Kim Foxxs office argued Myles post-conviction case had no merit.

Myles went back to the appeals court, which disagreed with Judge Porters ruling. Bonjean filed a motion for a hearing and is now waiting for the next move from Foxxs office. Prosecutors have until Friday, July 24 to respond before the 70-day deadline expires.

With their main witness admitting making a false confession and their case crumbling, Foxxs office has resisted pressure to drop its opposition to Myles post-conviction appeals.

In the meantime, Myles must wear an ankle bracelet for his first 30 days after prison. He must notify his parole officer before he goes anywhere.

Meanwhile, Myles is working with Job Partnership, Peorias re-entry program, which helps former inmates get readjusted to society and obtain jobs through job training and counseling sessions that help polish resumes and work skills. Mila Brown, an administrative assistant, said, her office is seeking to get Myles a full-time job making between $12 to $15 an hour.

Myles said he received a job offer working at a law firm in Hinsdale after completing his certification for paralegal in jail.

Looking to Advertise? Contact the Crusader for more information.

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Freedom at last: Roosevelt Myles released after 28 years behind bars | The Crusader Newspaper Group - The Chicago Cusader

The Scottish Greens, while supporting the intention of the bill, are also understood to have concerns over unintended consequences while Scottish Labour expressed reservations . James Kelly, the Scottish Labour MSP, said: Even the terminology within these proposals is concerning, especially around the use of 'insulting' which is subjective and could cause serious legal confusion.

Amanda Millar, President of the Law Society of Scotland, said she backed the Scottish Governments stated aims of the legislation, which include consolidating existing legislation and clamping down on genuine hate crimes.

However, she added: We have significant reservations regarding a number of the Bills provisions and the lack of clarity, which could in effect lead to restrictions in freedom of expression, one of the foundations of a democratic society. We have real concerns that certain behaviour, views expressed or even an actors performance, which might well be deemed insulting or offensive, could result in a criminal conviction under the terms of the Bill as currently drafted.

The Holyrood committee will be able to amend the Bill before it progresses and is expected to take extensive evidence on the provisions. The SNP would not be able to force it through without the backing of another party.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: As Lord Bracadale made clear in his independent review of this area of law, the new stirring up hatred offences will not stifle legitimate views from being offered or seriously hinder robust debate.

The Bill continues to allow people to express controversial, challenging or offensive views, as long as this is not done in a threatening or abusive way that is intended or likely to stir up hatred.

The Bill ensures stirring up of hatred offences do not unduly inhibit freedom of expression protections set out in the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Bill actually includes provisions on freedom of expression to ensure the prohibition on stirring up hatred will not unduly restrict peoples right to express their faith, or to criticise religious beliefs or practices or sexual practices.

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SNP's hate crime bill poses 'grave threat' to the freedom of the press and risks 'society of fear' - Telegraph.co.uk

By Community Member | July 22, 2020 5:54 pm

Did you see where Virginias Legislators submitted 3,900 bills this year? Approximately 1,289 of them cleared both houses and were approved by Governor Ralph Northam. If you that is extreme, just think how many laws have been approved over the years that were written to control our lives.

There are a total of 50 states and the federal government making laws, ruling over our very lives everyday and restricting our freedom. I bet from the moment we rise from our beds everyday that we could be charged for a dozen unknown violations before we retire for the day.

Arent you happy that we have elected politicians that are so eager to protect us from ourselves? I get so excited every time our legislators gather to write more regulations to protect us. It gives me great peace of mind that we have such thoughtful politicians. Doesnt it feel the same for you too? Ha!

I dont know about any of you, but I think these overprotective politicians would serve us better if they would get rid of some of these overreaching laws and give us freedom of choice and liberty granted under the Constitution. They took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. Oh! And to serve the people.

Slowly, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is being taken from us and replaced for a more socialistic, dictatorial government. We are heading for serfdom to our government.

Be afraid my fellow citizens. Be very afraid.

Robert WhittakerProvidence Forge

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Letter to the Editor: Overreaching laws are taking away our freedom - - New Kent - Charles City Chronicle

Joe Rogan, host of one of the most popular podcasts on the planet, said that he decided to move from Los Angeles, California, to Texas because he wanted "a little bit more freedom."

Rogen explained further the decisions behind his move during his podcast conversation with guest Joe De Sena, the CEO and founder of Spartan and the Death Race.

"I'm outta here," said Rogan when De Sana asked him about moving. "I'm gonna go to Texas."

"I just want to go somewhere in the center of the country, somewhere it's easier to travel to both places, and somewhere where you have a little bit more freedom," he explained.

"Also I think that um, where we live right here in Los Angeles is overcrowded. And I think, most of the time that's not a problem. But I think it's exposing the fact that it's a real issue, when you look at the number of people that uh, are catching COVID because of this overpopulation issue," Rogan continued.

"When you look at the traffic, when you look at the economic despair, when you look at the homelessness problem that's accelerated radically over the last six, seven, ten years, I think there's too many people here," he added.

"I think it's not tenable, I don't think that it's manageable. And every mayor does a s**t job of doing it because I don't think anybody could do a great job of it. I think there's certain things you're gonna have to deal with when you have a population of whatever the f**k L.A. is, it's like twenty million plus people," Rogan said.

"It's just too many people," replied De Sena.

"It's too many people," Rogan agreed.

The UFC host and former "Fear Factor" host has hinted previously that he was considering such a move. In May he cited the coronavirus lockdown restrictions imposed by the Democratic leadership as the main reason for his inclination to move to Texas.

"If California continues to be this restrictive, I don't know if this is a good place to live," said Rogan. "I might jet. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding, this is silly. I don't need to be here."

According to a report in 2019, nearly 700,000 Californians moved from the Democrat-controlled state in 2018, with more than 86,000 resettling in Texas. Despite those moving out, California's population grew to 40 million in 2018.

Joe Rogan is Leaving LA for Texaswww.youtube.com

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Joe Rogan is leaving Los Angeles and moving to Texas because there's more freedom there - TheBlaze