Monthly Archives: May 2021

Support the Emerald with me! Im the publishers mother and an Emerald founding board member. Ive lived in Seattle all my life. Over most of those 76 years, the brilliance, diversity, and beauty of our community lacked a constant spotlight. That was until the Emerald came along. Ive seen my son and the Emerald team sacrifice sleep, health care, self-care, and better salaries elsewhere to keep the Emerald shining a light on our community. Id never ask anyone to make that kind of sacrifice, but I do ask to do what you can today to support the Emerald during our fund drive. Help us celebrate authentic community stories during the Emeralds 7th Anniversary campaign April 26May 5. Donate here. Cynthia Mama Green

by JM Wong

On this years May Day, as we grieve and witness the calamity of state-sponsored or state- manufactured violence; the premature (because utterly preventable) COVID epidemic deaths raging from India to Brazil due to fascist governments more invested in power than people; and the unceasing state lynchings from Columbus, Ohio to North Carolina and Seattle, Washington we need the memories that Lucy Parsons bequeathed our struggles for which this day, International Workers Day, was created.

Lucy Parsons should be a household name at any May Day celebration. She had a vision of freedom for the working classes who had been made by histories of colonialism, slavery, settler violence, and migration. Her vision challenged the internationalism of capitalists who professed a right to universal exploitation while creating borders and racial systems to divide those they exploited or killed. Today, Parsons erasure is part of the whitewashing of labor history in the United States that abets American empire. Remembering her is a reminder that she and so many others, even in the belly of the beast, left us the foundation and resources for a workers internationalism that revokes capitalist claims to exploitation and reconstructs our global connections for the purposes of shared freedom.

Parsons (18511942) was a deeply respected Black anarchist in the radical labor movement in the turn of the 20th century. A descendant of slaves and a founding member of the radical labor union the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Parsons was outspoken against lynching and slavery in the South and organized in defense of the Scottsboro Boys in the early 1930s. I am an anarchist, Parsons proclaimed in an early speech, characterizing her politics as defiant of oppressive political rule. Her legacy unearths a vision of labor history that is intertwined with resistance against white supremacy, that had not yet succumbed to the white nationalism and xenophobia of other labor formations of her time, most notably the Knights of Labor.

The Haymarket Massacre, the precursor to International Workers Day, was an important event in Parsons life. The massacre erupted a few days after the May Day general strike in 1886 in Chicago, where the demand for eight hours of work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for what you will, was met with police violence. The protest broke out into violent confrontation between police and labor organizers. Seven police officers and eight civilians died. Eight more anarchist labor leaders were then executed by the state, including Lucy Parsons husband, Albert Parsons.

Reclaiming the history of May Day requires us to understand the initial confrontations against the police that birthed this significant day, when it was clear that the police were the primary instrument of state and class violence. It also requires us knowing about some of the organizations, especially the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), that were visionary for the workers multiracial, anti-racist organizing. From lumber workers in the Northwest to Black workers in longshore to Chinese workers building the transcontinental railroad and Mexican workers in California and the Southwest, the IWW, better known as the Wobblies, believed in organizing as a working class, defined as lack of access to property and capital, regardless of employment or work in specific industries, guilds, and crafts. The IWWs largest contribution to modern labor movements was putting into practice the belief that the working class, employed or not, needed to be united across race and industry to defeat the monopoly of capitalist power and its means of violent reinforcement: the police.

Fast forward almost a hundred years later, Lucy Parsons vision of class struggle for freedom is still a goal and one that we continue to fight for globally, including here in the belly of the beast. Because uniting the international working class (rather than guilds, crafts, or sects divided by national identities and xenophobia) may be our only path to liberation, as challenging as it may be. As Dr Charisse Burden-Stelly, a Black intellectual, said in a recent discussion on abolition and communism, the ruling class is internationalist, by which she meant that the powers that be from police departments in Seattle trained by the Israeli Defense Force brutally targeting predominantly Black and Indigenous communities here; to the global headquarters of corporations such as Amazon, Uber, Apple creating gig economies and precarious work across the world; and the governing bodies of economic forums such as the World Trade Organization and APEC connect across borders to enforce fierce discipline on the working class globally. To fight back against the forces of oppression, our resistance has to be international and truly liberatory for all people to address the ways in which imperialism, settler colonialism, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and class oppression intertwine.

The original May Day general strike fought for the eight hour work day. Eight hours of work, eight hours of rest, and eight hours to do what you will.

But the promise remains unfulfilled, as this pandemic reveals more starkly than ever.

The ruling class has never kept its promise of the eight-hour workday, even when it is purported to be enshrined in labor law.

Our incarcerated loved ones and families, who are predominantly Black and Brown, do not know the eight-hour workday. Entangled in the suffocating tentacles of the criminal legal system, they are thrown behind walls ruled by arbitrary laws. The Thirteenth Amendment legalizes their enslavement, and the courts enforce their subjugation. Today in the Department of Corrections, even throughout the COVID pandemic, our incarcerated loved ones have not stopped working at their jobs, whether it is the reproductive labor to sustain the prison through janitorial, laundry, cleaning work or profit generating labor in Correctional Industries.

Meanwhile, they are subject to arbitrary violence meted out by guards whose unionized status obscure and protect their violent roles. Our incarcerated loved ones are forced to work to maintain the institution that subjugates them. To add salt to injury, the pittance of wages they receive are garnished by the Department of Corrections.

There is no rest for the weary. There is no rest in the stress of the assembly line in factories across the world rushing to release the newest Apple gadgets. Neither is there rest in the stress of the clock that times how quickly one picks items for same-day deliveries in Amazon warehouses. In desperation, sometimes rest is found only in a premature death.

In On my Deathbed, Xu Lizhi, the Foxconn worker in Shenzhen, China who took his own life in 2014 following a series of worker suicides at the same factory plant, laments the longing to rest:

On My Deathbed

I want to take another look at the ocean, behold the vastness of tears from half a lifetime

I want to climb another mountain, try to call back the soul that Ive lost

I want to touch the sky, feel that blueness so light

But I cant do any of this, so Im leaving this world

Everyone whos heard of me

Shouldnt be surprised at my leaving

Even less should you sigh or grieve

I was fine when I came, and fine when I left.

A joyful militancy, adrienne marie brown reminds us, makes room for vulnerability, connection, and love, even and especially in the midst of struggle and resistance. Trust, the fabric of relationships, is tested in moments of upheaval. It is the weaving of conflict resolution strategies, a healing journey of our intergenerational traumas living in the belly of the beast, that can strengthen our ability to withstand the pressures of counterinsurgency tactics. Tactics that manufacture interpersonal and movement conflicts, finessed by the state at worst or by a culture of individualism at best.

Spaciousness to learn ourselves and each other, to explore our emotional and spiritual depth, to cultivate our resilience, is something worth fighting for. The best fighters have waged love as ammunition for the protracted struggles we are engaged in. True revolutionaries are guided by feelings of love, said Che Guevara, before he lost his life to CIA-backed forces. As movements go through their ebb and flow and string our emotions along with tumultuous cycles, as the politricks from the status quo aim to further divide and conquer, the need for space, leisure, connection becomes even more important and harder to achieve.

The struggle for breath and spaciousness is inextricable from the class struggle, the kind that Lucy Parsons and generations of workers have fought and died for.

It is, historically, the class contempt of official Labor History, whitewashed in academia, seeking a place in the imperialist, white supremacist status quo, torn away from the real struggles and sufferings of the working class as a whole, regardless of employment status, nationality, gender, or race, that has erased or minimized the contributions of everyday workers to our collective human history.

It is on the shoulders and the legacies of unnamed, forgotten, silenced workers whose daily resistance creates the conditions for a different world, that we continue the fight to pursue freedom dreams, here and across the globe. All power to the international working class.

Happy May Day!

Feature image by Susan Fried.

Like Loading...

More:

OPINION: Reclaiming the History of May Day - southseattleemerald.com

Federal Sydney MP and Australia Labor Party's Tanya Plibersek has accused Capricornia MP Michelle Landry of "cheering on" Australian Government cuts that affect women, calling her a "phony".

Ms Plibersek, the Shadow Minister for Education and Shadow Minister for Women, along with Keppel MP Brittany Lauga, met with Central Queensland women's group Enough is Enough on Saturday at Kershaw Gardens to hear their concerns and talk about issues that affected them.

Ms Plibersek said the women in the group had a "gutful" of the Australian Government cutting the supports and services they needed, as well as wages and work conditions.

"They are very disappointed with Michelle Landry who is happy to talk a big game up here but is just a pussycat when she is in Canberra," she said.

"She doesn't just allow these cuts to happen, she cheers them on.

"This isn't personal, she is not a bad person, she supports bad policies when she is in Canberra.

"Policies that hurt like the penalty rate cuts, and policies that have delivered historic low wages growth like the cuts to emergency accommodation, cuts to legal services, the abolition of the Family Court, cuts to health and education.

"All these things have really hurt ordinary women and they are tired of being represented by someone who doesn't stand up for them. They want a fighter, not a phony."

Ms Landry said it was "ironic" Ms Plibersek should come into Central Queensland "spreading untruths" about the Family Court issue the week she opened a brand new $2.3 million Federal Circuit Court in Rockhampton.

"This new state of the art facility along with the Rockhampton based Circuit Court judge, who has been here for over three years now, will keep families safe while saving them the extra stress and expense associated with travelling to Brisbane to have their family issues settled," she said.

Federal Member for Capricornia Michelle Landry. Picture: Gary Ramage

"The Family Court reforms do not abolish the Family Court, this is a Labor lie.

"It creates a single new structure of two divisions, one being the Family Court of Australia and the other being the Federal Circuit Court which deals with 90 per cent of parenting applications.

"Division 1 of the Family Court cannot be abolished and cannot fall beneath 25 judges.

"One single point of entry to the system means families will no longer be bounced around between different courts, an issue that contributed to lengthy delays

"As far as the work I do for the electorate of Capricornia and the work I do in Canberra on behalf of the people of Central Queensland, I will stand on my record.

"Next time the Member for Sydney comes to my electorate I would urge her to take a little extra time to drive around and see the roads, the infrastructure and the prosperity here in Capricornia which has created many jobs.

"There is always more work to be done and the people of Capricornia can be assured that while the opposition snipe from the sidelines I am getting on with the job."

Ms Plibersek said issues brought up by women in Central Queensland included domestic and family violence, sexual harassment, and sexual assault.

"They want to see better supports for women who experienced sexual harassment at work, so the perpetrators are held to account," she said.

"Too many women lose their jobs if they are the victim of sexual harassment.

"There was also a number of people who raised sexual assault.

"We know that too many women who experience sexual assault don't go to the police and don't go through the court processes because they are too traumatic.

"We need to make sure our legal system better responds to the needs of victims of sexual assault.

READ: Lauga to march alongside students against domestic violence

READ: 'It's gone far too far': Landry takes on misogynist trolls

READ: Outrage over Capricornia MP's reaction to latest sex scandal

"We also talked about the fact that there is not nearly enough emergency accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence.

"Too many get turned away and many have to leave Rockhampton if they are the victim of domestic violence because they can't find an affordable place to stay with their children.

"There were calls for legal changes, greater supports, and culture change."

She said the Australian Labor Party had policies that would make a difference, including cheaper childcare, better wages growth, an eventual superannuation growth of 12 per cent and 10 days paid domestic violence leave.

"We will have more policies between now and the next election," she said.

Ms Lauga said it was the first meeting since the first Enough is Enough rally in early April.

She said it was great to continue conversations about issues that included equality of life for women in Central Queensland, domestic and family violence, sexual harassment, and sexual assault.

Co-ordinator of Enough is Enough, Ashleigh Saunders, said the women of the group appreciated having Ms Plibersek in Rockhampton to hear their concerns.

"It's not often that regional Queensland women get together like this and have our voices heard about important issues affecting us," Ms Saunders said.

The Yeppoon woman said the group continued to grow every day.

"We are close to 500 members now," she said.

"Every single day there is more and more people joining our Facebook group and more and more people getting involved in the issues that are affecting Central Queensland.

"We have been talking to Tanya today about those issues that mainly affect women in Central Queensland, and we will be looking at taking those further to our Federal Member."

Here is the original post:

Landry accused of 'cheering on' cuts that affect women - Morning Bulletin

IVE PREVIOUSLY WRITTEN on Post-Trump Latinx literature as a nascent body of literature that critiques Trump and the ideology he represents, a counter-archive to the white supremacy that dominates the news. I want to consider how Adam Silveras Infinity Cycle represents a fascinating entry into this burgeoning genre of literature whose legacy will extend well past Trumps presidency. The books that so far make up this distinct series are Infinity Son (2020) and Infinity Reaper (2021). A politically engaged series, Silveras Infinity Cycle incorporates aspects of the Black Lives Matter movement and features a Trumpian villain, Senator Iron, who sows hatred and discord toward powered people, called celestials, and runs for president on this platform. As I demonstrate in my discussion of the Infinity Cycle, the novels focus on themes of police reform versus abolition and offer a thoughtful examination of what it means to engage in policing over community forms of care.

Central to the Infinity Cycles depiction of policing and what it means to be a powered person is the divide between celestials, people who are born with powers, and specters, people who acquire their powers from alchemists who transform the powers of magical creatures like phoenixes and basilisks. Although the celestial vigilante group, the Spell Walkers, are generally viewed positively, just before the series begins an event called the Blackout occurs, in which it appears that the Spell Walkers killed 613 people, including Senator Irons son, Eduardo. As the Spell Walkers extrajudicial acts make clear, the divide between good celestials and bad specters quickly becomes less clear even as specters continue to be viewed negatively because taking powers from magical creatures results in the creatures death.

Yet, even the lines dividing specters and celestials becomes murky. The brothers at the center of the series, Emil and Brighton Rey, hope to manifest their grandmothers powers of sight. While these powers ultimately do not manifest, during an altercation with one of the alchemist Luna Marnettes gang of specters called the Blood Casters, Emil learns that he has powers, only his powers are those of a gray sun phoenix, a power thats only possible if Emil is a specter. Eventually, Emil learns that he is the reincarnation of the Spell Walker founder, Bautista de Len, who was himself a reincarnation of the first alchemist to turn into a specter, Keon Mximo, thus illuminating alternate ways that specters can come into their powers. In learning his history, Emil also learns that he is not in fact Brightons brother; rather, their father found Emil a couple blocks away from where Luna killed Bautista. Emil and Brighton link up with the remaining Spell Walkers and work to stop Lunas plan of taking Reapers Blood, a combination of hydra, phoenix, and ghost blood. Indeed, Luna has been killing ghosts and using their blood to give specters the ability to phase. By the end of Infinity Son, Emil, Brighton, and the Spell Walkers have been unable to stop Luna from concocting her potion, but in the fight that ensues to prevent her from drinking it, Brighton consumes the Reapers Blood instead.

While the beginning of Infinity Reaper is focused on whether or not the Reapers Blood will kill Brighton (it doesnt), the larger concern of the novel is how to ethically be a powered person, which Emil takes to mean not having powers at all. He spends the majority of the novel following in the footsteps of Bautista and Sera Crdova (Bautistas partner) to create a power-binding potion. This aspect of the novel feeds into the issue of what defunding the police looks like as the series tries to imagine what justice looks like in a world where people have vastly different powers and ways to access power. The Infinity Cycle seems to tend toward a reformist stance, at least until we get to the end of Infinity Reaper. At the end of the first chapter of Infinity Son, Emil reflects on the Spell Walkers,

I dont always agree with their violent, vigilante methods, but the Spell Walkers seem to be the only handful of heroes brave enough to admit that specters need to be stopped before they drive creatures to extinction and ruin the world. I hope every last specter gets locked up. Stealing blood from creatures to hook yourself up with powers, just because you werent born a celestial, is a heartbreaking crime.

Infinity Reaper promotes a more reformist stance through the presidential candidate Congresswoman Sunstar and her vice presidential candidate Senator Shine Lu, both of whom seem to be generally modeled on the Squad (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib), though not necessarily their specific political positions. Sunstar and Lu want to abolish the Enforcer Program, the current police force tasked with dealing with celestials. Largely made up of non-celestials using celestial-powered weapons like wands and gem-grenades, the problems with the Enforcers are akin to the real-world police and their constant targeting of people of color, especially Black people. To replace the Enforcer Program, Sunstar and Lu want to bring together all the celestial vigilante groups under what Sunstar has called the Luminary Union. Condoning the vigilante groups leads to the larger issue of who watches the watchmen.

As Alan Moore controversially argued,

I would also remark that save for a smattering of non-white characters (and non-white creators) these books and these iconic characters are still very much white supremacist dreams of the master race. [] In fact, I think that a good argument can be made forD. W. GriffithsBirth of a Nation as the first American superhero movie, and the point of origin for all those capes and masks.

Although the text is ambivalent about its position on the police, the stance on prisons is quite clear, particularly when Emil and friends decide to break Emils former love interest, Ness (who is actually Senator Irons son Eduardo), out of prison. Once in the prison, Ness is no sooner placed in his jail cell than Barrett Bishop, the prison architect who is also Senator Irons vice presidential candidate, decides to unlock all the cells and pit the celestials and specters against him by promising them time on the roof, closer to the sky, which amplifies their powers. During the mayhem of this scene, Brighton uses his powers against one of the worst Blood Casters, Stanton. Brighton wins the fight by ripping out Stantons heart, which causes him to think, Saviors defend lives. Reapers take them. Emil is horrified by Brightons actions and describes them as follows,

My brothers face is lit up by the sapphire and silver flames burning our enemys heart. Brightons smile may as well be a promise to his powers that hell never bind them. Hes not throwing out human vibes. Its like the phoenix, hydra, and ghost essences are fully converting him into someone something else.

While its difficult to foresee how the Infinity Cycle will end, I am drawn to the moment in Infinity Son in which Emil considers how to tell his mother hes a specter. He aligns this moment with his coming out, which wasnt a coming out at all since his parents knew all along he was gay and accepted him, [b]ut the word specter doesnt feel good in my heart, and building the nerve to tell Ma I somehow am one is far scarier. Will she ever talk to me again? Kick me out? [] I hope I dont lose her love. Emils shame stems from his status as a specter, not a powered person in general. Yet, Im still curious as to this parallel between Emils queerness and his status as a specter. Ive thought about this in relation to Emils desire to see specters locked up and his search for the power-binding potion that Bautista and Sera created just before their deaths. Both novels ask us to sympathize with Emil, but this moment gives me pause about the power-binding potion and whether powers should be stifled at all. The Spell Walkers, despite their status as a vigilante group, offer an alternative to both power-binding and the extrajudicial form of justice they deploy through their network of havens, which offer refuge and care to celestials who arent Spell Walkers. This aspect of their work resembles a mutual aid network based on systems of care rather than vengeance that people like Brighton mistake for justice. Such a system suggests that eradicating powers isnt the solution; rather, creating a more just society based on collectivities and coalitions to address the real power imbalances of unequal pay and access to social services offers a viable way forward for the postSenator Iron (and post-Trump) future the series imagines. Ultimately, Silvera offers a vision of a world that has its problems, but one where people of color have agency and power and work toward a collective future rather than relying on individual transformation.

Renee Hudson is an assistant professor of English at Chapman University, where she specializes in Latinx and Multiethnic American literature.

Link:

Conversion Narratives, and Beyond, Part II: Adam Silvera's Infinity Cycle and the Superhero Quandary - lareviewofbooks

ROME Last week, a well-known center at one of Romes pontifical universities aimed at protecting children from clerical sexual abuse, and beyond, was upgraded to an institute of anthropology, giving the Churchs most respected academic outfit devoted to child protection room to grow.

As of Sept. 1, the Center for Child Protection at the Gregorian University in Rome will become the Institute of Anthropology, Interdisciplinary Studies on Human Dignity and Care. According to German Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, the possibility of making it an Institute on Safeguarding was discussed, but theres no such discipline in the academic world thus far.

The change, which goes deeper than a new name, was ratified April 15 by the Vaticans Congregation for Catholic Education. The Institute will take over the work of the CCP, continuing to carry out pioneering research and formation in the field of child protection as a faculty within the Gregorian, with its own academic staff, with the ability to award degrees and doctorates.

Zollner, one of the most respected experts in the field, is both a psychologist and theologian. He spoke with Crux at length April 29, in an office at the Gregorian. With him was Mexican Father Daniel del Portillo, founder of Mexicos center for child protection, hosted by the local pontifical university.

The two men discussed the Churchs poor response to protection of children during the pandemic, and the false dichotomy of evangelization efforts vs. child protection. What follows are excerpts of that conversation, and, unless otherwise indicated, the respondent is Zollner.

Crux: Why the upgrade to an Institute of Anthropology?

Zollner: Because an institute can have and develop its own faculty membership, which for a center is not possible within the structure of our university. If you want to have more teaching personnel and researchers you need to be an institute.

Why an anthropology institute, and not one that refers to protecting minors?

We considered the possibility of creating an institute of Safeguarding, but the considerations and deliberations showed that, as of yet, theres no academic discipline called Safeguarding. Whereas anthropology is as broad a discipline as you can imagine, which offers the possibility to have experts from different disciplines working under one academic heading with regard to the specific goals of this Institute, which are expressed in the subtitle: human dignity and care of vulnerable people.

Are you afraid that the next administration, either of the Gregorian or the Institute, will exploit that ambiguity and move away from safeguarding?

To the contrary, over the last three to four years, this was our evolving reasoning which the university leadership also shared: the situation has changed over the last four years with #MeToo, with [former cardinal Theodore] McCarrick, the reports on religious sisters and seminarians as victims of abuse, with the growing awareness of abuse of power and spiritual abuse.

The whole consideration that we have of the double crises (!) abuse itself and its cover up by Church authorities and others we were confronted with the fact that this is something connected to many areas in life and in the Church. Therefore, we need different instruments and approaches to really tackle it because its not a phenomenon you can deal with, for example, only using psychology and psychiatry. Yes, these will have its importance, but it will also be necessary to ask about the institutional side, the organizational aspects, the juridical facts. For the Church context we need also to take into account the spiritual wounds that are inflicted in victims of abuse, and those spiritualities and theologies that have brought about an institutional and theological response that was in favor of the perpetrators and not of the victims.

Whats the role of Father Daniel del Portillo?

Daniel has worked for many years in this field, he holds two doctorates. He established the CEPROME, and from its beginning we were in collaboration. His presence here has to do first of all with the first diploma course in Spanish that we ran this semester students coming mostly from Latin America -, and of course, Spanish is still the most important language for the Catholic. This is obviously, an important reason for him to be here.

Why not do this in Latin America?

Del Portillo: We recognize that the largest population for the Catholic Church is in Latin America, and the Church in the region has to offer a response to the population. We do it from here and not from Latin America because, with humility, we recognize that the people who can be consulted in different approaches to find that response can be found in the same place, Rome. From here we can coordinate different actions, teachers, experts, involving students to work on this issue.

This isnt your first move, since the center originally relocated from Germany to Rome.

Zollner:It was at a lakeside in Finland on the 29th of August 2013, so 19 months after the establishment of the center. I was giving a retreat there. Early morning I woke up with a beautiful sunshine and it occurred very clearly to me that we had to move to Rome because if we were to continue that work, which was at the time still to be determined by Church authorities and our donors, it had to be at a place where everything is the Catholic Church is coming together.

In Rome you have the Holy See and its dicasteries and bishops coming through here all the time, you have many congregations and religious orders with their headquarters. The CCP was established in Munich as a center of the institute of psychology of the Pontifical Gregorian University, but we saw that we needed also the physical closeness with the rest of the university here in Rome. When I asked Cardinal [Reinhard] Marx the following morning, with no preparation, if we could move to Rome he said, that not only we could move to Rome, but we had to. Hed given lots of money and logistical support, as the CCP was in offices that belonged to the archdiocese.

Honestly, I cant imagine what would have happened had we stayed in Munich.

Have things really changed, or is all cosmetics, and the Church still faces the same struggles and challenges, with the same flaws?

What I meant is that people now talk about issues like child sexual abuse that have been around for a long time but were not mentioned or talked about, were not really in the media. The same thing with MeToo or religious sisters, why did we not realize this before? Why did the abuse crisis explode in Germany only in 2010, while one could follow occasional news about abuse at least since 2002, after The Boston Globe Spotlight revelations? Yes, it didnt come to the tipping point in Germany until January 2010.

I ask journalists asked sometimes: Why didnt you report about abuse before, why didnt you do interviews with victims 12 years ago? It seems that societies have to come to a certain awareness or sensitivity to really be able to address these issues. And this is the reason why, still now, I guess that 75 percent of countries in the world are not at that tipping point. Yes, we talk now especially within the Catholic Church about abuse in many countries, but has it gotten to the stage of a general preoccupation, interest and work about it? No.

The pandemic has shown that once people have to care for their lives, food and health, they forget about everything else. And even in those countries where there is no immediate need to fight for ones life and food day after day sexual violence is a reality and a topic people despise and reject to talk about.

Even though we know that with the pandemic, its gotten worse

On top of it, yes, this is the case according to all what we know from research: violence and abuse at home and sexual exploitation online have increased dramatically.

Pope Francis and Father Daniel Portillo of CEPROME, the Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Formation for the Protection of Minors from the Pontifical University of Mexico. In a video he sent to CEPROME in 2020, with the priest standing next to him, Francis urged Latin Americans to work on abuse prevention even though you will be threatened, because there are those who are threatened. More than one will tell you that they are capable of hiring a hit man to clean up the field. (Credit: Screen capture.)

What will it take for people in the pews, in dioceses, and in the Vatican, to do something constantly, not only when a story breaks?

Del Portillo: I believe that the pandemic has put a stop or a pause to the issue of prevention in different environments, and I say this particularly because of the actions that we as a Church should have taken in this past year, from the Vatican and also from each episcopal conference. The pandemic to some extent put a pause, perhaps even more severe, to this work of prevention, in such a way that people have been left with the impression that actions were going to be taken and then nothing was done.

I believe that this should redouble our efforts to see concretely what we have to do, because the pandemic itself offers resources to be able to deal with issues such as intrafamily abuse. We have to see how through the screen, from the digital world, we can offer our help as a Church. But I think the Church has been too discreet in the pandemic.

I have met bishops who tell me that today the Church has concentrated on prevention and not on evangelization, as if trying to choose. I think that when we evangelize, we prevent and when we prevent, we evangelize. They are not two alternatives to choose between, because one is part of the other. But let me insist, we have to realize that there are actions that should have been taken and were not taken.

I believe that we have stopped the prevention process, and it will be even more difficult for us to resume when we want to do so. The justification for inaction is the pandemic, and the pretext is very easy to explain why everything has stopped. But I dont know what kind of pandemic we are referring to, whether it is Covid or the one that is coming.

Zollner: We are convinced that working for a safer Church, listening to victims and protecting young people is evangelization and is part of the mission of the Church. But for many, bishops and lay people, this is not obvious, they dont see it that way. I struggle with the question: why is this so? It seems obvious to me that if you dont defend the minors and the vulnerable ones, we dont follow what Jesus lived and said. Because he identifies with the little ones, the exploited ones, the wounded ones.

Honestly, I believe that a good number of people in leadership are aware that they have, for many years, in different capacities and responsibilities, failed that part of the Gospel, and theyre struggling to accept that failure, admit that sin. And even if it wasnt a sin or a crime, it was certainly inconsistent with the Gospel. Repenting on this, admitting it and confessing to it, seems to be pretty demanding, personally and institutionally. Apart from that questions around how we deal with our official doctrine on sexuality and how we live it up automatically arise when one sees the sexual misconduct of clergy. And Im not talking only about homosexuality: how we present the official doctrine on sexuality and how we ourselves live it and how its dealt with in the pastoral field is often very different from the official doctrine. I believe its a call to admit honestly that often we are not living up to an idea that we preach, that we arent as perfect as we project ourselves and people imagine how we are.

In the general public, when people see the misbehaviors and crimes connected to abuse or its cover up, it makes a huge difference when the perpetrator who is a priest as compared to a sports trainer, a public-school teacher or a choir director, and even parents. People are so angry and disappointed because they didnt expect a priest to behave like that or a bishop to cover up abuse. Who in the world should be expected to most protect the most vulnerable ones, if not a priest?

Dont people at this point take for granted that priests misbehave?

When it comes to enrolment in Catholic schools or youth ministry, numbers are not down as much as you would expect. People still trust when they have a good relationship with the parish priest or the school leaders. In countries where you have the Church as a leader in safeguarding and prevention people trust those they personally know. The biggest setback is not that a priest fails or misbehaves that could be understood and forgiven. The real problem is when we dont own our failures, deny them and move on as if nothing had happened.

We need to talk of this image of a perfect, pure society of saints which seems to somehow be in the back of the mind of many people in the Church. This has never been the full truth and it will never be the reality of the Church in this world. As Teresa of Avila says in the Interior Castle: even if you reach the seventh mansion, the deepest point of unity with Christ, you still you can fall and fail.

As long as we are on this earth we are never perfect in all not even saints and our ideals as we painfully learn in these years. But we have the Lords promise that when we confess a sin, we will be forgiven. I dont understand why we have such a hard time owning up to what we have done wrongly, even if it wasnt the current bishop or provincial but his predecessor.

What needs to happen?

Last week I was with the heads of the French bishops conference. I can say that this meeting confirmed my impression of the encounter in Lourdes when I was invited by them three years ago: they have an approach that you dont see in many other bishops conferences. From my point of view, it seems that they are really trying to listen to and to engage with victims on a regular basis and their understanding of the depth of the spiritual wound is much deeper. They dont seem to have that anxiety or fear of being confronted with devastating news that are about to be published.

The independent commission that they have presented will come up with numbers higher than what we have seen in other countries thus far. And this will present a devastating reality for the victims first, and also for the disappointed faithful. But the bishops seem to be willing to own this reality, and from there understand what their responsibility is in moving forward. Of course, you can always point the finger towards other institutions, but the French bishops seem to know this is not the way.

The Catholic Church can lead in this reform

Exactly, if we are honest and committed to safeguarding.

People who know Francis better than I do, seem to believe that he can change the Vatican by inspiring a change of heart in those who work in the Vatican or who are part of the leadership. But this expectation has led to many known faces still retaining their positions. Can the Church reform itself when it comes to sexual abuse when there are so many faces with a looming cloud of doubt over them?

As we see in the discussions in Germany at the moment, people have to own their personal responsibility. We have seen now that one of the bishops in the U.S. who was accused of not following Church procedure, was asked to step down following the procedures of Vos estis lux mundi [You are the light of the world].

These are encouraging steps that dont depend only on a change of heart, which I have always favored, because law in itself is too little. You need both: change of law and change of mentality. This pope, at least with Come una madre amorevole [As a loving Mother], with Vos estis, the abolition of the pontifical secret on these cases, has made lasting changes. The introduction of vulnerable adults into Church law means that as a CCP we couldnt continue work only in child protection anymore. We need to include also the dignity and care for e.g. a seminarian who is exploited by the Rector or a 35-year-old laywoman who goes to a priest for spiritual direction because shes fighting with her husband.

Follow Ins San Martn on Twitter:@inesanma

Follow this link:

Anti-abuse center gets upgrade, sensing both progress and frustration - Crux Now

IF any of the exceedingly hard-pressed staff at Glasgow Airport had time to read the Glasgow Herald on the morning of the airports opening, they would have been cheered.

The papers leading article on Monday, May 2, 1966, argued that the decision to build the airport was the right one. It could even be, in its way, as crucial a decision as many that had found a permanent place in civic history from the dredging of the Clyde to the introduction (and eventually abolition) of the trams, the leader continued.

It demonstrated there there was still a place for the kind of civic enterprise which made made Glasgow renowned in the previous century as one of Europes most progressive cities.

Secondly, it demonstrated the growing dependence of Glasgow, and of Scotland, on air communications. The more air services we have, and the more competitive these services are with each other and with British Railways, the less we are likely to feel like a remote province of Europe, or to be treated as one. It was a fair point.

Upbeat projections were already being made for the airport, which at that time was owned by Glasgow Corporation. In its first year, it was expected to handle 1.2 million passengers and, if that trend continued, some two million by 1970.

Revenues were forecast to rise from 600,000 in 1966/67 to 750,000 in 1970. Landing fees paid by airlines were expected to show a healthy increase. There were great expectations about the airports freight-handling capacity, especially if Britain joined the Common Market. And there was talk of building a 100-bedroom hotel at the airport.

Royal opening

IN fact, when the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh arrived on June 27 for the royal opening of the airport, its director Ronald Read hinted to the duke that expansion might be on the horizon. Already?, the Duke replied, with a laugh.

By that time, 120,000 passengers had arrived at the airport in order to catch a flight. Some 40,000 people had each paid a shilling to get into the sightseers enclosure, and at least another 150,000 had looked around the building. The car-park is three-quarters full most of the time, and the restaurants are packed at both lunchtime and in the evening, the Evening Times reported. Mr Read said that cargo had gone mad, with between 1,200 and 1,500 tons having been carried in the first four weeks.

At that time, 11 regular airlines and six charter services operated from the airport. There were 13 return flights to London every weekday. The airport had been designed to handle medium and short-haul traffic, and there was talk of direct continental flights.

It was also hoped that transatlantic flights could land at Glasgow in the future: the main runway, all 6,720ft of it, could be extended to 10,000ft in order to accommodate those planes.

Transatlantic flights began in June 1967, by which time the airport was already handling 654 different aircraft types, 1.5 million passengers, and in excess of 34,000 aircraft movements.

In September 1972, the airport welcomed the first visit of a wide-bodied jet, a Lockheed Tri-Star, followed the next month by a Laker DC-10.

BAA buyout

A KEY moment in the airports history arrived on Monday, January 7, 1975, when the British Airports Authority (BAA) signed a deal, effective from April 1, to take over ownership of the facility from Glasgow Corporation. Under the deal, BAA paid off a capital debt of more than 6.5 million and undertook to carry out a 10m development programme over the next decade.

The deal also included a 1m goodwill payment to the corporation with reports saying this sum could go towards a new cultural complex for the city, at the junction of Buchanan Street and Sauchiehall Street.

BAA chief executive officer Norman Payne said plans were in hand to extend the domestic arrivals area, with other improvements to follow as demand arose. A new Glasgow-London shuttle service was launched the weekend after the deal was signed.

Other landmarks in the history have included the start, in June 1976, of a 2m extension of the passenger terminal; a visit by Concorde in October 1981; the visit, in June 1983, of a Nasa Boeing 747 with the Space Shuttle Enterprise on top of it; and, in March 1989, the launch of the biggest development of the airport yet a three-year, 55m expansion of the terminal.

In July 2006, BAA was taken over for 10.1 billion by a consortium led by Ferrovial. Later, it became known as Heathrow Airport Holdings.

New heights

THE airport enjoyed steady growth for several years, culminating in a record year in 2017 of 9.9 million passengers a 5.8% per cent increase on the previous year. Before the advent of the Covid-induced shutdown, the airport was handing around nine million passengers, the main reasons for the drop being Ryanairs decision to close its base in 2018, and the collapses of Thomas Cook and then Flybe.

A spokesman said the airport had remained open during the pandemic to support critical functions, ranging from the air ambulance service that is based there, to military, freight and PPE delivery flights. Other functions include Highlands and Islands routes and critical domestic flights for key workers, and repatriating passengers.

During the pandemic, he added, the airport has gone from hundreds of flights per day to a handful, though the picture is slightly more optimistic now that UK travel restrictions have lifted, which has resulted in an increase in domestic flights.

The economic turbulence of the last year, however, has meant that one-third of the 6,000 jobs at the 100-plus companies that work across the airport have been lost.

In addition to international international commercial air transport and general aviation, the airport has catered for two flying clubs and the Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde Air Squadron, the latter still there.

The airport is today owned by AGS Airports Ltd, which is jointly held by Ferrovial and AGS Ventures Airports.

The anonymous author of that enthusiastic Herald article of 55 years ago would have been encouraged by what the airport has achieved in the decades since.

Continue reading here:

Wings over Scotland: The steady growth of Glasgow Airport since the mid-sixties - HeraldScotland

Conversations about mental health have sprung up within the Rochester community, inspired by cruel incidences such as the murder of Daniel Prude. Similarly, the UR community has been significantly impacted by recent events surrounding mental health.

There are many resources for UR students, both remote and on-campus, although most have been entirely online due to the pandemic. Resources that support students who are struggling include the University Counseling Center (UCC), the UR CARE Network, UR Connected, the Health Promotion Office, and many more. Because of the critical nature of the pandemic and social justice issues that have occurred throughout the year, students have felt it important to review mental health advocacy for the Spring 2021 semester, and how it will continue for the upcoming in-person Fall 2021 semester.

UR Connected coach and first-year Karenrose Kamala shared her thoughts on how the surrounding community impacts the institutions approach to mental health: UR tends to forget that theyre part of the Rochester community as a whole, and theres definitely a responsibility to play their part, especially when peoples health is on the line. As for improvements, I think UR just needs to be more cognizant of their impact, and they also need to more actively listen to students.

CARE Network Associate Director Kaitlin Legg told the Campus Times in an interview that as a part of their service, the CARE Network works with students to better understand what resources work for the [students] situation. If a student doesnt feel comfortable with an institutional resource, UCC or the CARE Network can direct them towards off-campus resources.

Senior Antoinette Nguyen, a core leader of the UR Abolition Coalition (URAC), agreed that students may feel uncomfortable with institutional resources because they are made by people of higher power, which makes students worry: Is that really a safe space?

Likewise, it can be a challenge to analyze how students have grown through mental health programs without direct feedback.

Associate Director for University Health Promotion Amy McDonald recognized the difficulty of evaluating the success of these programs. Despite the challenge, she says that UHS creates measurable objectives ahead of time, and then has an evaluation afterwards and is able to track if we met those objectives.

According to Nguyen, race also plays a role in making mental health advocacy on campus more difficult. Mental health is a very white concept in everybodys head, she said. Some are allowed to have mental health problems, and some are not, because of all these other structures that exist.

Especially as an Asian person, my family has so many taboos around therapy and mental health resources. Theyre refugees, so theyre like, Theres bigger problems, and I think thats a very pervasive thought in a lot of communities of color and ethnically non-white communities. So deconstructing that is something that I want to dedicate my life to, Nguyen continued.

There are diverse on-campus spaces for students of color, first-generation/low-income students, LGBTQ+ students, and students with disabilities. These spaces include the Kearns Center, the Womanist Club, and the Black Student Union, but Nguyen wishes that those spaces had more funding from the University.

Similarly, Kamala said that its the student coaches that makes UR Connected more approachable. Sometimes you just need someone who can kind of relate more closely. I know a lot of the feedback we get, people mention that talking to coaches can feel like talking to a friend.

Still, students like Nguyen have concerns for how the University is supporting student mental health advocates.

We are creating space. We are carving out space to heal for specific racialized events, which I think is really good, Nguyen said. I just wish that the University gave more support, instead of always having it all on the students.

More here:

A review of the spring semester's mental health advocacy - Campus Times

The checkered flag is poised to start waving as state lawmakers enter the final month of the legislative session with a host of major policy and budget issues still unresolved, from repeal of the death penalty to raising taxes on the mining industry, wholesale changes to the K-12 funding formula and many other big-ticket items.

Tuesdays meeting of the Economic Forum the panel of five economists who forecast expected state tax revenue is generally viewed as the green light for a host of budgetary issues and major bills to move to the finish line before the clock strikes midnight on sine die, May 31.

Most indicators are that the improving economy, coupled with rising COVID vaccination rates, will boost state tax revenues above what the Forum forecasted in December about $8.5 billion over the next two fiscal years, or about $500 million less than the last two-year budget cycle.

Legislators have nonetheless proceeded based on the less-rosy budgetary picture, making tough cuts to education and health care programs that at times drew heated debate. While a recovering economy is expected to help alleviate some of those previously identified cuts, lawmakers say theyre still waiting on the bigger piece of the puzzle U.S. Treasury guidance on how the state can spend the roughly $2.9 billion allocated through the recently passed federal American Recovery Act.

But without guidance soon, legislators say it's almost a guarantee that a summer special session will be needed to make a decision on how to dole out the one-time federal windfall.

Every day from this day forward, we're running out of time, Senate Finance Committee Chair Chris Brooks said. (If) that happens at a certain point ... the only way we can do it is to close the budget, and then fill it back in at a later date, just because we'll run out of time.

Gov. Steve Sisolaks Chief of Staff Michelle White echoed those comments, saying that the governors office didnt want to recommend allocating general fund dollars to needs that may later be met by an influx of federal funds even on topics that might attract bipartisan support, such as funding a replacement unemployment insurance system, a broad expansion of preschool and more. Beyond the flexible $2.9 billion, other pots of federal funding with more specific earmarks are also expected.

The governor wants to make sure that that's a process that can go through the appropriate budgetary process, and with the Legislature having full input, she said. We hope that's the case.

Outside of the budget, legislators are beginning their typical ritual of rolling out ambitious bills in the waning days of the session, including a state-based public health insurance option, fixes to the oft-criticized unemployment insurance system, and a major transmission and electric vehicle omnibus bill. Theyre also making progress on behind-the-scenes negotiations, including on a much-publicized effort to raise mining taxes and implementing a wholesale change to the decades-old K-12 funding formula.

But hopes in early May can often turn to tears by June, with many landmines and potential pitfalls awaiting lawmakers and major pending legislation. Heres a look at the state of play for some of the biggest proposals on tap for the last month of the session.

Mining taxes

The question of a potential mining tax hike has simmered in the background through the first three months of session. Theres been little public movement from lawmakers, but three proposed constitutional amendments raising the industrys constitutional rate cap are playing the role of Chekovs gun.

Though progressive advocates are clamoring for lawmakers to move forward on AJR1 striking what they call the mining industrys sweetheart deal in the Constitution and imposing a 7.75 percent tax on the gross proceeds of mining companies discussions are ongoing about a potential deal that would lead to lawmakers dropping the proposed amendments in favor of a more immediate tax change.

Democratic legislators appear wary of sending a mining tax resolution to the 2022 midterm ballot and stirring up rural angst at a time when Gov. Steve Sisolak and other high-profile Democrats are up for re-election. The mining industry may also be wary of a ballot measure voters in 2014 narrowly defeated a ballot question removing the language in the Constitution capping mining taxation, but that victory for the industry came during a midterm election that favored Republicans and had particularly low turnout (though many expect the 2022 midterms to be difficult for Democrats as well, given that the party controlling the White House historically does poorly in midterm elections).

I said even last special session that if we can find common ground and some compromise that would avoid us having an expensive exercise on the ballot, that we will certainly be open to that, and we still are, Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson (D-Las Vegas) said on Monday.

Negotiations are still fluid meaning things could easily collapse between now and the end of session. But lawmakers, including Senate Finance Chair Chris Brooks (D-Las Vegas), say that some sort of immediate mining tax increase may be the best and only option to raise revenue this session.

I would prefer to see a collaborative approach between the industry and the Legislature to come up with a change in the current [taxation] structure that they have, he said. That would be a sustainable way to put money into our budgets in the short term, and not many years from now. I'm supportive of that approach.

But any struck deal will lead to a math problem lawmakers need at least a handful of Republican votes in the Assembly and Senate to clear the needed two-thirds threshold for a tax increase.

One of Republicans most prominent concerns when the proposed constitutional amendments emerged over the summer was that the mining industry was surprised by them; this time around, the industry is at the table for discussions. Republican leaders in both chambers have not completely closed the door on a tax increase, but said they want more input in the process and would want any revenue hike be narrowly tailored and go to specific programs or functions amenable to both parties.

I think that all tax bills should have been discussed from the get-go, Senate Minority Leader James Settelmeyer (R-Minden) said in an interview. I don't think it's proper to bring anything with 30 days left and say, Oh, here you go. We made the deal, and now we want you to vote for it. Why not have a discussion with us?

State-based public option

One of the most heavily lobbied issues over the last month of the session will be the effort to implement a state public health insurance option requiring insurers that bid to provide coverage to the states Medicaid population to also apply to offer a state-backed public option plan.

SB420 was introduced in the Senate on Wednesday and sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) and has already been scheduled for a hearing Tuesday.

The legislation dubbed CannizzaroCare comes from public option efforts in past sessions, including a 2017 effort to allow Nevadans to buy into the states Medicaid program, (which the Legislature approved but that was vetoed by Gov. Brian Sandoval), and a 2019 study lawmakers approved to look into the possibility of allowing Nevadans to buy into the states Public Employee Benefits Program (PEBP) health plan.

The legislation is backed by a cadre of public health groups (including health districts in Washoe and Clark counties) and progressive organizations, but has attracted an organized opposition effort from doctors, hospitals and health insurance panning the legislation as an unaffordable new government-controlled health insurance system.

Death with dignity

The latest in a long line of efforts to legalize a process allowing terminally ill patients to self-administer life-ending medication prescribed by a physician hasnt made much movement since it was referred without recommendation out of committee by the first committee deadline in early April.

The bill, AB351, was referred to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee shortly after, where its sat ever since. But bill sponsor Edgar Flores (D-Las Vegas) said he was confident about the bills chances adding that he expected it to come up for a hearing and likely vote at some point once the budget committee finishes processing more straightforward agency bills.

Eventually we'll have an opportunity to have a hearing there, and then hopefully get it to the floor, he said. And I'm confident that that's where it's at now. Obviously, things may change, but I think that's where we're at now.

Flores said he had also spoken with the states Department of Health and Human Services, and believed the agency would take its fiscal note (estimated cost to implement) off the bill.

The concept has divided lawmakers, and not always along strict party lines. Assembly Minority Leader Robin Titus (R-Wellington) said she had struggled with the bill; her libertarian side supported giving patients those rights, but thought that many of the concepts including limiting a coroners investigation and timelines in the bill were improper.

I have real issues with those things, apart from my struggle with does a person have a right to decide how they end their life, she said.

Death penalty

Members of the Assembly recently voted along party lines to abolish the death penalty, pushing the proposal as far as its ever been in Nevada after fits and starts in recent sessions. But the bill hasnt been touched in the Senate, where both the committee chair responsible for processing it and the Senate majority leader are prosecutors whose boss Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson has been vocal in favor of keeping capital punishment.

Gov. Steve Sisolak has at times expressed unqualified opposition to the death penalty, and on other occasions said he would support it for extreme cases, such as the Oct. 1 mass shooting.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Melanie Scheible has said that the bill could move forward if the sponsor can come with an amendment that is acceptable to the governor, but bill presenter Assemblyman Steve Yeager while acknowledging he wants to make progress says hes not sure whether he and abolition supporters would accept a watered down version of the bill.

Others, including leaders of the Nevada State Democratic Party, say the onus is on senators to at least give the bill the courtesy of a hearing. In a video not widely circulated before this week, Scheible affirmed unequivocally at the Battle Born Progress Progressive Summit in January that she supported the quest to end the death penalty.

DETR bill

Republicans have latched on to one of the most prominent failings of the executive branch massive backlogs in an inundated unemployment claims system as one of their top priorities this session. Lawmakers of both parties often mention the emails they have received from claimants desperate for stalled benefits.

Senate Republicans have met with claimants in the glitchy Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and hinted for weeks that they would introduce legislation to address issues identified in a lawsuit brought by PUA claimants, such as the lack of communication between a regular unemployment and PUA computer system. They also have been publicly critical that the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation loan policy bill, SB75, makes technical changes to the regular unemployment program but does not speak to some of claimants marquee complaints.

Though Republicans bill, SB419, dropped last week, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chris Brooks described it as a stunt and likely dead on arrival because it proposes spending $40 million from the strained general fund on a multi-year modernization project.

Brooks said the ambitious project should wait until the latest round of federal funding comes through. Democrats have listed a modernization project as a top priority in a framework on how to spend the money, and say they expect the federal guidance will allow such a use.

White said Democrats are in agreement with recommendations made by a governor-appointed unemployment strike force led by former Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley.

We have to make sure that anything that we've identified last year that could be better, that we're making all efforts to change now that funding will be available, pending eligibility, White said.

DETR officials have said it could take up to a year to design a request for proposals laying out exactly what the state wants out of the IT overhaul. In the meantime, the governors budget proposes a modest $1 million over the biennium for contractors to help resolve close to 2,000 technical issues of various sizes within the benefits system.

Education

Release of the long-awaited report from the statutorily-created Commission on School Funding last week laid bare what many lawmakers and public education advocates have long suspected moving Nevada to the national average in per-pupil school funding will cost more than $2 billion over a decade and hundreds of million of dollars in additional revenue every year.

The report recommended that lawmakers implement major changes to the current sales and property tax systems, but those general proposals have largely fallen flat. On property tax changes, Brooks said he absolutely agrees changes are needed but I don't think now's the time to do it as the state continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Frierson in a previous statement panned the sales tax as regressive but signaled support for restructuring the mining tax and bringing in revenue from short-term rental companies such as Airbnb.

"With regards to other revenue structures, many take time and robust stakeholder outreach and that has not been something we have had during this session," Frierson said.

Still, lawmakers are moving forward with plans to accelerate a shift to the new Pupil-Centered Funding Formula, an update to the dated past funding formula initially approved by legislators in 2019. Many of those budget details, including promises to implement various hold harmless protections to avoid massive overnight funding losses for rural school districts, are still in the works.

Some Republicans have expressed openness to increase funding for education if it has direct ties to student outcomes and is allocated in a transparent manner; they fear that it could otherwise be swept up into collective bargaining agreements. They also have bristled at the shift toward the new funding formula, which has reshuffled the deck on some of their partys most significant legislative accomplishments a series of categorical programs targeted toward specific student groups with special needs that flourished under unified Republican control of the governors office and Legislature in 2015.

Settelmeyer cautioned that Republicans would only be likely to support tax increases directly tied to targeted education spending (the so-called categoricals, which include programs such as Read by Grade 3, and Zoom and Victory schools). He said the odds of starting a discussion on a bipartisan way of how to get there didnt bode well at this late stage in the session.

That's nothing new. Education has always wanted more money, he said. Republicans have shown consistently, if it goes to a purpose, we'll have a discussion. You want it to just go to the same system? I think we tend to be a little bit less likely to agree.

Cannabis

A bill to authorize cannabis consumption lounges seeks to resolve a longstanding conundrum in the state that using cannabis is legal, but consuming it anywhere outside a private home is illegal. It stands at odds with an assumption that drove much investment in the Nevada marijuana industry that tourist consumption would make the Silver States cannabis industry punch above its weight.

The measure, AB341, is described even by the director of the Cannabis Compliance Board as the most promising vehicle for diversifying an industry with upper ranks that skew white and male. Social equity elements of the bill would give a competitive advantage to lounge operators who have been adversely affected by the War on Drugs, bringing new players into an industry characterized by extremely high barriers to entry and fierce competition for a limited number of licenses.

A similar consumption lounge concept failed late in the 2019 session, but that was before the Cannabis Compliance Board had formally assumed regulatory oversight of the industry. Proponents are optimistic that with a focused regulatory body in place, the state is now ready to take a step toward lounges.

The bill has been parked in the Ways and Means Committee because of the estimated $3 million the Cannabis Compliance Board would have to spend to support the projected 30 new positions needed to regulate scores of consumption lounges. Marijuana regulation is generally self-supported by licensing fees, although the board has not yet estimated how much revenue the lounges would bring in to balance out the ledger.

I'm hopeful it's gonna move, said Assemblyman Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas), the bills sponsor, adding that it would likely be one of the last things finished in the session. I just think it's gonna sit there for a while, because we have to close sort of everything else before we can really have a discussion about what might be available to satisfy that fiscal note.

Another potential wrench in the wheels is that the bill requires a two-thirds majority vote, which means its possible Republican-raised concerns about people driving after consuming marijuana could sideline the bill.

Asked about the possible reemergence of a policy allowing coveted dispensary licenses for applicants who did not win them in a contentious 2018 licensing round, Gilles said the governors office is not committing to any policies on that front, citing many moving parts, including ongoing litigation.

I will be happy to engage in any conversations with folks if there's a proposal that's worth ... being worked through the Legislature that's going to resolve everybody's issues and everybody's concerns, he said. I don't know that that's possible.

Energy policy

One of the biggest remaining policy-focused bills yet to drop is Sen. Chris Brooks forthcoming major energy policy bill, which is expected to be introduced sometime this week.

Brooks has described the provisions of the bill in past interviews it will require a $100 million investment by NV Energy to facilitate greatly expanded electric vehicle charging infrastructure, while doubling down on transmission infrastructure aimed at finishing NV Energys proposed Greenlink transmission project, which utility regulators partially approved in March.

On Friday, Brooks said that those portions and others previously described including adoption of tenant solar, allowing utility-scale battery storage projects to access renewable energy tax abatement programs, and moving the state to a larger wholesale electric market would all be included in the legislation.

Brooks reiterated that there were no surprises in the forthcoming bill, and he said the goal was to start the state on major transmission projects as soon as possible saying that while the Public Utilities Commission made the right choice in the most recent transmission case, lawmakers needed to sign off on any major policy push toward greater transmission infrastructure.

Its not the PUCs job to encourage economic development in the state of Nevada, it's the PUCs job to keep the lights on, he said. And so the argument that we need transmission, so that we can become a regional hub for transmission in the West, and so that we can attract economic activity to our state, is not necessarily the regulator's job... it's the policymakers and legislators jobs and the governor's job to give that message.

Housing and rental assistance

Gov. Steve Sisolak has said that the state extension of the eviction moratorium, which runs through May at the state level but is backed up by a federal moratorium that lasts through June, will be the final one. But lawmakers are working on a bill that creates a glide path from the eviction ban into normalcy, and ushers out the hundreds of millions of dollars the state has received in rental assistance but has struggled to get out to people quickly.

As we're coming up to the end of the moratorium, we need to figure out a way to even further ... perfect the way in which we get those dollars into the hands of landlords, said Scott Gilles of the governors office.

Gilles said the governors office doesnt think they can get around a federal government restriction that prevents payments directly to a landlord with no tenant involvement but the legislation aims to ensure that a tenant who wants to engage and take advantage of the rental assistance dollars will ultimately have that opportunity.

Assemblyman Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) said discussions include how we can slow the eviction process enough so that the monies that are there get used and whether there are other pots of less-restricted money that could help tenants who dont qualify under newer, stricter federal rules setting income limits or landlords who are having trouble securing the required tenant cooperation.

Its still unclear whether the bill would have provisions that prevent landlords from immediately evicting a tenant after receiving overdue back rent through the assistance program.

We're looking at whatever options are there to keep people in their homes and if there's some enticement for a landlord to be paid these dollars or ... have some sort of agreement going forward through the mediation program, Gilles said. Obviously that's the intended result.

State worker collective bargaining

Another potential hurdle in the rush to finish the session will come in the novel process of approving collective bargaining agreements for state workers the first-ever undertaking since lawmakers expanded bargaining rights to state employees in 2019.

In theory, the bargaining units (representing a swath of state workers) are supposed to come to a tentative agreement with the states Department of Administration, go for approval to the states Board of Examiners (composed of the governor and other statewide elected officials), and is then transmitted to the Legislature as a budget amendment, prior to the end of session.

However, a spokeswoman for the Department of Administration said Friday that only one agreement (with the Nevada State Law Enforcement Officers Association) out of the seven recognized bargaining units is ready to go before the Board of Examiners.

The agency said it does not currently have a timeline for bringing forward agreements with bargaining units represented by AFSCME (which represents four) and is still negotiating tentative agreements with two other units the Battle Born Fire Fighters Association and Nevada Police Union.

The 2019 legislation authorizing state workers to collectively bargain also contains provisions giving the governor the final say on wages or other monetary compensation despite any approved collective bargaining agreement.

White said that the main focus right now was timing, and getting budget amendments over to lawmakers with enough time to spare before the end of session.

Anyone could look at it right now with 30 days left and say that's a tight timeline, and it is a tight timeline but, we feel confident in our partnership throughout this process to negotiate in good faith and get everything done that we can possibly get done in these negotiations and agreements, she said.

Right to Return

A bill presented by Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) that guarantees hospitality workers the right to return to the job they lost during the pandemic has not advanced since it had a public hearing in early April. But the measure, SB386, has a waiver that exempts it from legislative deadlines, and parties have been negotiating to address stark disagreements between union and business interests.

Our whole goal is making sure people can get back on the job and so it's something we're monitoring. I think there are some real, real challenges that people are trying to work through. And that's kind of the last update I've had on it, White said on Saturday. So I think we'll see. I think it's something that folks want to find a resolution on.

See the original post:

There's one month left in the session. Here's where the Legislature is on taxes, the death penalty and more. - The Nevada Independent

Cronyism and outsourcing have defined the governments response to the pandemic, from the VIP lane for personal protective equipment (PPE) suppliers with connections to the Tory party to the privatised track and trace system so flawed it was described by Sage as only being of marginal impact. But less attention has been paid to what the longer-term impact of these decisions might be. Far from being an aberration, the governments pandemic response reflects its commitment to embedding private interests at the heart of the state and stealthily chipping away at our most valued national institution.

As Sir David King, a former chief scientific adviser, and the special representative for climate change under Boris Johnson when he was foreign secretary, recently told the Guardian, the government is slipping through plans to effectively privatise the NHS by stealth in the name of a pandemic. This story of privatisation is not one of wholesale transfer, such as the sell-off of British Gas or Royal Mail, but rather of a gradual hollowing out, a process that has been further accelerated by the pandemic and will continue under the Johnson government. In 2010, for example, the NHS spent 4.1bn on private sector contracts; by 2019, this had more than doubled to 9.2bn.

Already, the governments pandemic response is shaping the future structures of the NHS, public procurement and public scrutiny. Look at PPE procurement, which has functioned recently as a giant slush fund for Tory donors. Matt Hancocks pub landlord, Alex Bourne, and a former adviser to Priti Patel, Samir Jassal, are just two beneficiaries of what the charity Transparency International has called systemic biases in the award of PPE contracts favouring those with political connections to the party of government. The charity says these red flags require more, not less, scrutiny. But less scrutiny is precisely what the government has been engineering.

Ministers are still refusing to publish the full list of companies that were placed in the VIP lane after being endorsed by politicians or senior civil servants. The register of ministers financial interests, which should be published every six months, was last updated nine months ago. Basic avenues of accountability and transparency are consistently being closed down or obstructed; journalists have found freedom of information (FoI) requests delayed or blocked by the clearing house unit set up in the Cabinet Office to screen requests, while leaked emails show the Cabinet Office is collating lists of journalists with details about their work, and intervening when sensitive subjects are inquired about. (The unit has been condemned as Orwellian by the former Conservative cabinet minister David Davis.)

Meanwhile, the role of overseeing the ministerial code was left vacant for five months after Sir Alex Allan resigned when Johnson opted not to sack Patel for breaching the code last November. His replacement, Christopher Geidt, will still not be able to initiate investigations into impropriety without the prime ministers approval.

These instances reflect a dilution of oversight that bodes ill for the future. Scaling back scrutiny and accountability are vital ways of providing cover for further NHS privatisation, a policy ministers know to be politically unpopular. Another way of doing this is through the creation of new bodies, spearheaded by figures who are compliant with and sensitive to this governments agenda. Hancock has already replaced Public Health England (PHE) with the National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP), which will continue to sit outside the NHS (the consulting firm McKinsey was paid 560,000 for five weeks work drawing up plans for the new body). The NIHP will be led by Dido Harding, who sits in the House of Lords as a Tory peer, an appointment that Lord Falconer termed a corruption of our constitution.

The creation of the NIHP was sold as bringing together expertise. But politically the government has used the cover of a pandemic to subsume public health experts under track and trace management. Vital areas of public health are now being handed over to an appointee who thought the most appropriate way of dealing with the pandemic was to outsource contracts to private sector providers such as Serco, Sitel and Deloitte, rather than harness the capacity of local public health teams. Understandably, the creation of the NIHP and abolition of PHE has upset dedicated public professionals across the health service.

Another policy decision that may strengthen the cronyist approach adopted during the pandemic is the health and social care white paper, which was published in February this year and spun as a set of policies that would unravel Andrew Lansleys 2012 Health and Social Care Act. The white paper sets out how integrated care systems (ICS) will be rolled out, combining NHS trusts with GP services as commissioners from a single budget pot. These ICS bodies will no longer be required to put contracts out to tender, but can instead award them directly creating opportunities for contracts to be awarded to politically connected firms.

The campaigning thinktank We Own It is concerned that these plans would embed the role of the private sector within the health service, but with less transparency and accountability over contracts. Indeed, GP services are an area where the private sector is taking an increasing interest, with US health giants such as Centene Corporation buying up GP services through its UK arm Operose Health. Campaigners are worried these ICS bodies will be unaccountable and profit-making, and that private providers could sit on their commissioning boards (its not yet clear whether ICS board meetings will be public and subject to FoI requests).

Its not just GP services that are an area of concern. In August last year, the government announced a four-year plan to spent 10bn of taxpayers money on private hospitals in order to clear NHS waiting lists. This has been justified as an emergency measure to deal with a backlog, but the question remains why this money was used to fund private providers rather than NHS capacity. The health campaigner John Lister says the institutionalised use of private hospitals will likely leave the NHS weakened and could lead to long-term expansion of the private sector for elective care.

This points to the crux of the issue. Though ministers have sought to justify their decisions with reference to the exceptional circumstances of Covid-19, many of these decisions instead seem part of a longer-term plan to embed political appointees and private providers at the heart of the state. Rather than selling off the NHS outright a decision politicians know would be unpopular they are instead doing this through the backdoor, by stealth. Its up to everyone who cares about the future of the NHS to make some noise about it.

Link:

The NHS is being privatised by stealth under the cover of a pandemic - The Guardian

The Portland Police Department said it has been in contact withthe FBI overa menacing video that includeda masked individual with an altered voice issuing a threat against the city's mayorTed Wheeler.

The Oregonian reported that the two-minute video appeared on Twitter earlier this week and the individual claims to be part of the citys anti-fascist community.

"Blood is already on your hands, Ted," the person said. "The next time, it may just be your own."

The paper reported that the video emerged shortly after Wheeler signaled that he would take a tougher stance against thosewho want todestroyparts of the city in the name of protest.He vowed to "unmask" those who take up arson or vandalism and said it was time to "hurt them a little bit," according to the New York Times.

He asked the public to come forward with any information on members of the anarchist group.

"The city is beginning to recover, but self-described anarchists who engage in regular criminal destruction dont want things to open up, to recover," Wheeler said. "They want to prevent us from doing the work of making a better Portland for everyone. They want to burn, they want to bash."

The Oregonian reported that the individual in the video vowed that the unrest would continue in the city until Wheeler steps down.

GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"We are not just challenging the idea of having Ted as a mayor. We are challenging the idea of having mayors at all. We want abolition. Abolition is absolute," the individual in the video said, according to the Post Millennial.

Fox News' Thomas Barrabi contributed to this report

Read more from the original source:

Portland cops, FBI investigate video of masked anarchist who issued threat to Wheeler: report - Fox News