Monthly Archives: July 2017

On a hot and languid morning in the city, as police made their usual patrols on littered streets with boarded-up buildings, a jubilant scene bloomed inside the gymnasium of Thirman L. Milner School.

Hip-hop thumped from a portable speaker at half court, the post-breakfast soundtrack for dozens of Hartford children who freestyled dance moves with shoulder leans and leaps into the air, fists raised to the ceiling minutes of unabashed joy that cut through the gym's stuffy humidity.

The elementary students were here for a summer literacy program called Freedom School, and for many there was nowhere else they'd rather be.

When the school's namesake arrived in his tan suit and offered a "good morning," the response for 83-year-old Thirman Milner, who was Hartford's first African American mayor, came to the beat of a drum.

"G-O-O-D M-O-R-N-I-N-G!" the kids chanted, before translating the greeting to Spanish. "Buenos dias!"

Midway through the six-week Freedom School program, a national initiative in its second summer at Milner, students had become well-versed in Afrocentric call-and-response, in affirmation and exultation, in letting their guard down enough to dream. They had taken field trips to farms, museums and bowling alleys, and picnicked near the pristine roses of Elizabeth Park, less than three miles from Milner's concrete courtyard.

Mark Mirko / Hartford Courant

Milner is a chronically low-performing neighborhood school in the North End. During Freedom School, children are told that they can be good readers and that they are worthy.

Messages of self-empowerment, and of helping one's community, are in the songs they sing and the culturally relevant books they read. As a guest reader that morning, Milner, the ex-mayor, brought a children's book version of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech.

"It builds their confidence up to make them believe in themselves that they can do anything," said Tamara Jones Roberts, one of the Milner mothers who took cellphone photos of their children dancing in the gym. The free spirit is part of a morning ritual called "Harambee!," which the program translates to "let's pull together" in Swahili. Students at the Milner site range from kindergartners to those who just finished third grade.

"Sometimes, outside of school," Roberts said, "they don't get that positive energy."

The network of Freedom Schools was founded by the Children's Defense Fund and the Black Community Crusade for Children in the 1990s, rooted in social justice tenets dating back to the civil rights movement. Now the Children's Defense Fund oversees sites in more than 25 states across the country, including three Freedom Schools in Connecticut all in north Hartford, where the programs preach a love for reading as an antidote to the blight of poverty.

Educators for Freedom Schools say the immediate goal is to stem summer reading loss, although the bigger vision revolves around literacy as power and disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately hurts black and Latino students.

"We don't want them to slip off in the summer," said Danny Baker, 23, of Hartford, one of the college students helping out children at Milner's Freedom School. "We want them to know that learning is a year-round thing ... . And I tell my students that they are the best, so don't let anybody tell them they're less than that."

Mark Mirko / Hartford Courant

A Hartford church group hosted an early version of the summer program in the mid-'90s, recruiting college students known as "crusaders" who helped students with their academics and self-esteem.

It would be another two decades before the current model took root in Connecticut's capital. Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, gave a speech at the University of Hartford three months after the Dec. 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

Addressing hundreds in the audience, Edelman "challenged us to start Freedom Schools to have a more peaceful environment, so that's how it started," said Marge Swaye, a former director of literacy and language arts for the Hartford school system who helped set the wheels in motion.

The Women's League Child Development Center on Main Street, near SAND School, became a Freedom School site last summer and hosts 50 elementary students with $62,000 in funding, Swaye said. Milner's program is sponsored by Christian Activities Council, a community organizing group down the street from the school that raised $100,000 from a mix of public, church and philanthropic sources for the full-day program that regularly draws about 75 students who attend for free.

"It's designed to infuse a social-action component into literacy," said Cori Mackey, executive director of Christian Activities Council. "It really fits our mission of developing leaders."

Phillips Metropolitan CME Church on Main Street also hosts a Freedom School in a modified program, said Swaye, who is looking to expand to more Hartford schools and community groups.

The Hartford school system provides breakfast and lunches, as well as certified teachers in the case of Milner, which is designated as one of the district's Early Start summer schools. While not all of the Freedom School students at Milner attend the school during the regular academic year, many of them do and school leaders say it is critical to improve their reading skills by third grade.

Third-grade reading is a fundamental benchmark in education: Research has shown that children who fall behind at this pivotal point are less likely to graduate from high school, perpetuating the cycle of poverty. Year to year, test scores show that few Milner third-graders are proficient in reading.

Experts say this achievement gap is why summer literacy initiatives are especially crucial for children in poor neighborhoods, who are more prone than wealthier students to losing reading skills during the extended break. Upper-income families have more resources to invest in camps, lessons or arrange for other structured activities that often weave in literacy, such as writing a script for a play at summer camp, said Catherine Augustine, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation.

Milner teacher Susan Hunt-LaKose, who usually teaches fifth grade during the year, said her Freedom School students had just read "Destiny's Gift" by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley, the story of a local bookstore on the verge of shutting down because rent is too high. An African American girl named Destiny, who loved hanging out at the store, rallied the community to try to save it.

"All you heard was, 'This reminds me of ... ,'" Hunt-LaKose said of her students. "It empowers them, even from a young age, to know that they make a difference."

Program leaders at Women's League and Milner said they assessed a sample group of students last summer, and found that at the end of the program, the vast majority had maintained or improved their reading level. Hunt-LaKose, in her second Freedom School summer, said the book selections with themes such as immigration and overcoming racism are enticing for kids because they can connect the reading to their everyday lives.

In a Milner classroom, students were asked what special talents they could use to help their community. Cesar Feliz, 7, who will be entering third grade soon, spoke of living his truest self.

"I'm just me. I'm my own person, and I will always be that person, and I will always be myself," Cesar told his teacher. "I am not a weapon I am me."

Go here to see the original:

At 'Freedom' Summer School, Hartford Students Get Immersed In Literacy And Liberty - Hartford Courant

A demonstration outside a courthousein Istanbul, Turkey in solidarity with the staff of the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet on trial over alleged support to terrorist groups, July 24, 2017.

A journalist prosecuted for allegedly helping a group which he spent years criticizing in his work. Emails received but not answered from people the government views as undesirables, and newspaper clippings presented as evidence of criminal wrongdoing. A cartoonist in the dock.

Kafkaesque is an over-used term. But it seems appropriate when trying to capture the prosecution of 17 journalists, editors, and other staff at Cumhuriyet newspaper that began this week over charges that they have aided and abetted groups the government has designated terrorists.

That the groups in question the armed PKK group and the Gulen movement have diametrically opposed agendas hardly seems to matter.

And the evidence against the defendants appears to consist largely of the newspapers content: articles, op-eds, as well as social media posts and phone records. There appears to be nothing that would indicate any kind of criminal wrongdoing, much less helping terrorism.

Cumhuriyet has been in the states sights for some time. Its former editor Can Dndar and the Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gl were convicted in May 2016, and sentenced to more than five years imprisonment for allegedly revealing state secrets by publishing video and photographic evidence of arms being sent to Syria. They are still on trial in a separate process accused of aiding a terrorist organization. An opposition member of parliament alleged to have shared the footage of the arms transfers with the newspaper was jailed in June.

The Cumhuriyet staff are hardly alone. As a recent Human Rights Watch report showed, critical journalism has been under assault by the Turkish state for several years, with the crackdown greatly accelerating after the failed coup attempt in July 2016.

Over the past year, hundreds of outlets have been shuttered or taken over under state of emergency powers. More than 160 journalists and media workers are now in prison or pretrial detention, according to Turkish media watchdog NGO P24. They include 10 of the Cumhuriyet staff currently on trial.

For those hoping that the courts will see the flimsy evidence brought against journalists for what it is, it is worth noting that in March, a court ordered the release on bail of a group of journalists who had already been in pretrial detention for an extended period. But after criticism in pro-government media that decision was reversed and the judges involved were suspended from duty.

International scrutiny of Turkeys record on media freedom and solidary for its embattled journalists has never been more important.

Link:

In Turkey, Freedom of Expression is in the Dock - Human Rights Watch

Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, STF

Click through to see lawmakers' reaction to the proposal.

Paul announced that he would not support the bill in its current form, but would be "open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor." He stated: "It does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their health care costs.

Paul announced that he would not support the bill in its current form, but would be "open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor." He stated: "It

Cruz also announced that he will not support the bill in its current form. He states: "As currently drafted, this bill draft does not do nearly enough to lower premiums. That should be the central issue for Republicans repealing Obamacare and making healthcare more affordable. Because of this, I cannot support it as currently drafted, and I do not believe it has the votes to pass the Senate."

Cruz also announced that he will not support the bill in its current form. He states: "As currently drafted, this bill draft does not do nearly enough to lower premiums. That should be the

Lee also stated that he will not support the bill. He tweeted: "It does not appear that health care bill draft will repeal Obamacare and lower health care costs as we promised to do."

Lee also stated that he will not support the bill. He tweeted: "It does not appear that health care bill draft will repeal Obamacare and lower health care costs as we promised to do."

Johnson told reporters that he will not vote for the bill, and that Republicans and Democrats should start over on a bipartisan health bill.

Johnson told reporters that he will not vote for the bill, and that Republicans and Democrats should start over on a bipartisan health bill.

Collins was noncommittal, and her office issued the following statement: "Senator Collins will carefully review the text of the Senate health care bill this week and into the weekend. She has a number of concerns and will be particularly interested in examining the forthcoming CBO analysis on the impact on insurance coverage, the effect on insurance premiums, and the changes in the Medicaid program."

Collins was noncommittal, and her office issued the following statement: "Senator Collins will carefully review the text of the Senate health care bill this week and into the weekend.

Franken criticized the bill, tweeting: "Minnesotans understand that the GOP health care bill will harm the well-being of millions of people in our state and across the country."

Franken criticized the bill, tweeting: "Minnesotans understand that the GOP health care bill will harm the well-being of millions of people in our state and across the country."

Hatch praised the bill, stating: "The discussion draft released today is an important step in our effort to replace Obamacare with patient-centered reforms that address costs, provide more choices, and ultimately put Americans not Washington back in charge of their health care."

Hatch praised the bill, stating: "The discussion draft released today is an important step in our effort to replace Obamacare with patient-centered reforms that address costs, provide more

Heller expressed "serious concerns" about the bill and issued the following statement: "Throughout the health care debate, I have made clear that I want to make sure the rug is not pulled out from under Nevada or the more than 200,000 Nevadans who received insurance for the first time under Medicaid expansion. At first glance, I have serious concerns about the bills impact on the Nevadans who depend on Medicaid."

Heller expressed "serious concerns" about the bill and issued the following statement: "Throughout the health care debate, I have made clear that I want to make sure the rug is not pulled

Scott was supportive of the bill, calling it "a much better plan than Obamacare."

Scott was supportive of the bill, calling it "a much better plan than Obamacare."

Blunt offered his support of the bill, stating: "The draft health care legislation preserves access to care for people with pre-existing conditions, strengthens Medicaid and does not change Medicare, gives people more health insurance choices, and allows people to stay on their family health insurance plan until they are 26...American families need a more reliable and affordable health care system, and this bill takes important steps in that direction.

Blunt offered his support of the bill, stating: "The draft health care legislation preserves access to care for people with pre-existing conditions, strengthens Medicaid and does not change

Like other members of his party, Murphy unloaded on the bill. He tweeted: "No tweaks by amendment can fix this monstrosity. If you vote for this evil, intellectually bankrupt bill, it will ruin millions of lives."

Like other members of his party, Murphy unloaded on the bill. He tweeted: "No tweaks by amendment can fix this monstrosity. If you vote for this evil, intellectually bankrupt bill, it

Senate rejects health care measure with Cruz 'Freedom Option'

WASHINGTON A proposal containing Sen. Ted Cruz's measure to allow insurers to sell skimpier, low-cost policies next to Obamacare plans was voted down in the Senate Tuesday night.

The Texas Republican's "Consumer Freedom Option" was part of the latest Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

NO. 1 ISSUE: Poll shows Americans rank it at the top for the first time

The vote came after Republicans were able to break an impasse and begin debating a long-delayed health care bill on the Senate floor.

Story continues below ...

The 57-43 vote was three shy of the 60 needed to pass a procedural hurdle to advance the latest version of the bill.

The vote was among the first of dozens that are expected in the coming days as Republicans seek to fashion Obamacare replacement legislation.

The rest is here:

Senate rejects health care measure with Cruz 'Freedom Option' - Chron.com

Growth continues near Freedom Field

Jacob Reynolds, WMAZ 7:10 PM. EDT July 25, 2017

Sakari and Company

Growth continues near the Freedom Field area in Houston County.

Within the last year, the part of the County near Freedom Field has seen the addition of streetlights, sidewalks, and now a new traffic light.

Local store owners say the area's growth has been great for business and has brought new businesses in.

At Sakari and Company, the new traffic light at their intersection of Cohen Walker Drive and Lake Joy Road is good news.

Being in this location, we noticed that it was difficult for our customers to get here. It was just a weird intersection to be in. So, having that traffic light traffic is a little bit better and it's easier for people to get to our location which helps business, said store manager Lily Ricketts.

Shes been with the company for a year, and a manager at the three-month old clothing store since it opened.

They opened off Lake Joy Road to expand from their existing location in Cordele. Ricketts said they picked this site, because of Houston County's growth.

Knowing what it looked like five years ago, and seeing how it evolved to what it is now, we thought it'd be a good opportunity to be a part of its growth. Because, we saw what it did in a matter of five years, Ricketts said in their store around lunchtime.

Houston County and the City of Warner Robins have spent nearly a million dollars helping expand this part of the County.

That includes streetlights, sidewalks, recreational areas and the new traffic light.

David Dean owns The Butcher Shop off Lake Joy and 96. He says in his three years of ownership, sales have tripled thanks to growth around the store.

I've been here for 45 years and this used to be cow pastures out here. So I mean I've seen the growth ever since I've been here, but I mean yeah just in the last three years we can not only see the difference, but here at the store we've- our customer base has grown, Dean said in his office.

The new traffic light at Lake Joy Road and Cohen Walker Drive also means a smoother ride for his customers.

First of all, the intersection there is a lot easier, I've actually had customers tell me how much easier it is to get in and out of here, Dean said.

That's exactly what County leaders wanted. They said the light is meant to help the flow of traffic and improve safety.

The County spent roughly $200,000 from SPLOST funds to install the light and pedestrian signals.

Construction on the sidewalks along Cohen Walker Drive is still underway.

2017 WMAZ-TV

See the original post here:

Growth continues near Freedom Field area of Houston Co., including new traffic light - 13WMAZ