May 10, 2022

Hochul directs $35 million to abortion providers: 'Don't mess with the State of New York'

Gov. Hochul said Tuesday that she was sending $35 million into a new fund for abortion providers, stepping up efforts to guarantee abortion access as New York girds for the expected end of federal reproductive rights.

Describing the new fund as a “nation-leading response,” the governor promised the state will “do whatever it takes to protect and defend the rights of not just New York women, but women all across this nation.”

“New York will be there,” Hochul, who is isolating in Albany with a COVID diagnosis, said in a virtual news conference. “Don’t mess with the State of New York.”

The state’s first female governor said the fund would be established through the Health Department and would represent the largest allocation of its kind in the U.S.

Hochul’s office said the Health Department would direct $25 million in emergency funds to abortion providers, while another $10 million would be funneled through Division of Criminal Justice Services grants to bolster security at abortion clinics.

In 2019, almost 1-in-10 abortions in New York involved out-of-staters, according to a count by the federal government. The state could face a surge in health care refugees if the Supreme Court follows through on plans to overturn the national right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade.


https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-elections-government/ny-gov-hochul-35-million-abortion-providers-20220510-746spr7lfffhtpbkdu3yuh5qs4-story.html#nt=pf-triple%20chain~triple-recommender~recommender~automated~nycpolitics-recommender~746SPR7LFFFHTPBKDU3YUH5QS4~1~5~1~3~art%20yes

May 10, 2022

Air Force investigating racist text to airman saying he needed 'white complexion' for assignment

Leaders at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona are investigating an incident where an airman allegedly told another airman that he was not being considered for a position because “the Air Force is looking for somebody of white complexion,” according to a text exchange shared on the popular Facebook page Air Force amn/snco/nco.

“We won’t be sending your name up for [redacted] at the squadron,” a White technical sergeant allegedly texted a Black senior airman at the 56th Equipment Maintenance Squadron on Wednesday. When the senior airman asked for a specific reason why, the technical sergeant said, “We personally do not feel as if you are a good choice for the squadron. You currently have a shaving waiver which isn’t a professional image, and I think the air force is looking for somebody of white complexion and with the image that the air force needs.”

“We can talk tomorrow to further discuss,” the text concluded.

While the Air Force prohibits male members from growing beards, waivers are issued to airmen who, for medical or religious reasons, are not able to shave in line with regulations. For example, Air Force doctors can allow airmen to grow well-kept beards if they suffer from painful razor bumps, a skin condition that affects many Black men. However, many airmen with shaving waivers have reported being prejudiced against despite their legitimate condition or religious beliefs.

In response, the senior airman said that “this is the third job that has been held over my head due to my looks, and that’s something based on personal preference.

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-shaving-waiver-racism/

May 10, 2022

US immigration agency operates vast surveillance dragnet, study finds

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has built a vast digital surveillance system that gives it access to the personal details of almost every person in America, a two-year investigation by Georgetown University law center has found.

Researchers from the Center on Privacy & Technology on Tuesday released one of the most comprehensive reviews of Ice activities, concluding that the federal organisation has strayed well beyond its duties as an immigration body to become what is in effect a domestic surveillance agency.

Operating largely in secret and with minimal public oversight, Ice has amassed a formidable armory of digital capabilities that allows its agents to “pull detailed dossiers on nearly anyone, seemingly at any time”.

The vast mountain of data to which Ice now has access includes:

Driver’s license data for three of every four adults living in the US.
Data drawn from the utility records of 75% of adults, covering more than 218 million unique utility consumers in all 50 states.
Information on the movements of drivers in cities that contain 75% of the US population.
Facial recognition technology drawn from the driver’s license photos of at least a third of all adults.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/10/us-immigration-agency-ice-domestic-surveillance-study
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ICE is a criminal enterprise, operating not only outside its boundaries, but outside the LAW. It should be disbanded.

May 10, 2022

Putin's Puppets Admit Their Army Is a Total Embarrassment

In his speech preceding the Victory Day celebrations across Russia on Sunday, President Vladimir Putin continued to promote the idea that his troops in Ukraine are fighting “to liberate their native land from the Nazi filth with confidence that, as in 1945, victory will be ours.” His portrayal of Ukrainians as Nazis rings so hollow that propagandists on state television have been struggling to justify the so-called “special military operation.” The description itself was meant to portray a nearly painless blitzkrieg, akin to the annexation of Crimea. Instead, it has turned into an ongoing bloody massacre and a slew of crippling sanctions.

Russia was so unprepared for this turn of events, both militarily and economically, that even the most pro-Kremlin propagandists have been forced to acknowledge the grim reality of a pariah state fighting a war of aggression.

During Friday’s broadcast of state TV show The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, military analyst Konstantin Sivkov argued that Russia’s “current economic market system is unfit to meet the needs of our Armed Forces and of the entire country under these conditions.” Instead, he pushed for what he described as “military socialism,” a set of wartime rules and regulations that would move all strategic resources–including land and factories–under the direct control of the government to better fund the war.

During the same show, host Vladimir Solovyov griped that Russia couldn’t compete with Ukraine’s seemingly endless supply of Turkish-made Bayraktar drones, which have been wreaking havoc on Russia’s troops and equipment. “They tell us from the frontlines: ‘Give us drones!’ People are crowdfunding crazy amounts of money. They bought up everything that was available in stores. Why can’t that junk be mass-produced in Russia?,” Solovyov fumed.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-state-television-admits-vladimir-putins-army-has-been-totally-embarrassing-in-ukraine-war?ref=home
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And why did I initially read the header as "Putin's MUPPETS?"

May 10, 2022

I'm just SO TIRED

I'm tired of sitting here watching everything I worked for, marched for, campaigned for, voted for, be slowly and methodically taken away. Some of it by elected officials, some of it by activist--yes, activist--judges, some of it by right-wing thugs who scream at me or sneer at me in the grocery store if I wear a mask, or at my voting place when I politely say "No thank you" when they try to shove a RepubliKKKan campaign leaflet or pre-marked "sample ballot" into my hands. I'm tired of being angry every day when I look at the news, even at DU, and see instances of one more Black or brown or young life being needlessly taken away by some cop on some ridiculous pretext. I'm tired of being told that my granddaughters will have fewer rights than I did if I don't DO something--as if I haven't spent the last 50+ years DOING SOMETHING already! I'm tired of hearing that "immigrants are ruining this country"---from people whose immigrant grandparents BUILT the damn country. I'm tired of watching my country go down the drain and feeling like I'm only one ancient voice screaming. I'm tired of living in this deterioration and knowing there's nowhere else I can go because I'm so old now that no other country will take me. I"m just...so..very..tired. Living in a constant state of despair and anger is exhausting.

May 9, 2022

'A tragedy': Closure of 150-year-old college underscores toll of ransomware attacks

Lincoln College is scheduled to close its doors Friday, becoming the first U.S. institution of higher learning to shut down in part due to a ransomware attack.

A goodbye note posted to the school’s website said that it survived both World Wars, the Spanish flu and the Great Depression, but was unable to handle the combination of the Covid pandemic and a severe ransomware attack in December that took months to remedy.

“Lincoln College was a victim of a cyberattack in December 2021 that thwarted admissions activities and hindered access to all institutional data, creating an unclear picture of Fall 2022 enrollment projections,” the school wrote in its announcement. “All systems required for recruitment, retention, and fundraising efforts were inoperable. Fortunately, no personal identifying information was exposed. Once fully restored in March 2022, the projections displayed significant enrollment shortfalls, requiring a transformational donation or partnership to sustain Lincoln College beyond the current semester.”

The Illinois school, which is named after President Abraham Lincoln and broke ground on his birthday in 1865, is one of only a handful of rural American colleges that qualify as predominantly Black institutions by the Department of Education.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/ransomware-attack-covid-combine-shutter-illinois-college-rcna24905

May 9, 2022

Paranoid dictator': Russian journalists fill pro-Kremlin site with anti-war articles

Two Russian journalists working for a popular pro-Kremlin website filled it with anti-war articles on Monday morning in a rare act of dissent as the country celebrated the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.

The articles on Lenta.ru called President Vladimir Putin a “pitiful paranoid dictator” and accused him of waging “the bloodiest war of the 21st century”.

“We had to do it today. We wanted to remind everyone what our grandfathers really fought for on this beautiful Victory Day – for peace,” said 30-year-old Egor Polyakov, one of the two journalists.

During his annual speech in front of 11,000 soldiers in the Kremlin on Monday morning, Putin sought to justify his invasion of Ukraine, tying the current fighting to the Soviet victory in the second world war.

“This is not what Victory Day is about,” Polyakov told the Guardian in an interview. “Ordinary people are dying, peaceful women and children are dying in Ukraine. Given the rhetoric that we have seen, this isn’t going to stop. We couldn’t accept this any longer. This was the only right thing we could do.”

Polyakov, who works as a business reporter at Lenta, said he and his colleague Alexandra Miroshnikova published more than 40 articles critical of the Kremlin and its actions in Ukraine. The articles have since been taken down, but can be accessed through a web archive tool.

Lenta, one of the largest sites in the country with more than 200 million monthly visitors, has been part of the relentless propaganda machine used to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Lenta is owned by Rambler, a media group that was bought in 2020 by Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, which is state-owned and under US and UK sanctions.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/09/russian-journalists-pro-kremlin-site-lenta-anti-war-articles

May 9, 2022

Things Just Went to Hell at Pharma Bro Ex's Newsroom

A digital-media startup founded by an enemy of WeWork villain Adam Neumann and led by the journalist who fell in love with “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli seems to be in some trouble.

Workers at The Business of Business have mysteriously stopped receiving their paychecks. Employees, and some executives, appear unsure how the publication seems to have run out of funds—or whether it can survive for much longer.

For the moment, staffers have been told to stop doing their jobs because their managers aren’t sure if they’ll be paid. Joel Lindenfeld, who as of last week was a creative content producer at The Business of Business, told The Daily Beast he hasn’t received a paycheck for more than a month.

Adding fuel to speculation about the missed paychecks, The Business of Business abruptly placed co-founder Justin Zhen on leave last week, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

Zhen did not respond to requests for comment, nor did his two co-founders, Marta Lopata and Gregory Ugwi. A message to the company’s media relations email went unanswered, while the press team’s listed phone number simply went to Zhen’s cell phone. He did not pick up or respond to a voicemail.

Zhen is best known as one of the earliest antagonists of WeWork and its founder Adam Neumann. In 2016 he posted a blog on behalf of his tech startup, Thinknum, which claimed—using data harvested from WeWork’s internal social network and other sources—that the co-working business faced major problems belying its mammoth valuation.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/things-just-went-to-hell-at-the-business-of-business-pharma-bro-martin-shkrelis-exs-newsroom?ref=home

May 9, 2022

Star Cop Killed a Black Man. Then Came Another Tragic Twist.

On Monday, Jan. 17—Martin Luther King Jr. Day—34-year-old Orenzso Bovell was murdered in his car by an unknown assailant.

The young Brooklynite died in his sister’s arms after he was shot on the corner of Quincy Street and Patchen Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, his mother, Lorna Wright-Bovell, told The Daily Beast.

While detectives at the local 81st NYPD precinct have not yet identified a suspect in the case, Wright-Bovell received rather different, jolting news on Wednesday: that the investigators on the case are currently being overseen by the police chief who killed her eldest son in 2008.

Nearly 14 years before Orenzso’s death, Ortanzso Bovell, a 25-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by then-Lieutenant John Chell of the NYPD.

Now-Deputy Chief Chell was never criminally charged for the killing—which he maintained was an accident—and has continued his ascent in the New York City Police Department. That has led him all the way to a perch as commanding officer for Brooklyn North detectives, essentially the indirect boss of the investigators on Orenzso’s case.

Only two weeks before Orenzso’s murder, Chell appeared besides NYC Mayor Eric Adams as part of the administration’s first big show of a nascent war against gun violence, specifically to announce a 17-person gang takedown in Brooklyn.

But ever since her elder son’s death in 2008, Wright-Bovell and others have questioned Chell’s continued rise. Most notably, in 2017, Wright-Bovell won $1.5 million from the city in a high-profile civil trial where a jury found Chell intentionally shot the gun that killed Ortanzso.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/john-chell-nypd-chief-who-killed-ortanzso-bovell-helps-oversee-cops-probing-murder-of-his-brother-orenzso?ref=home

May 8, 2022

I'm a neonatologist. How lawmakers misunderstand a baby's viability.

By Dr. Rachel Fleishman, attending neonatologist at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia

The word “viable” means capable of living. Capable sounds definitive. But as a neonatologist dedicated to caring for premature babies born near the limit of viability, I can assure you it is not.

Under the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, the concept of viability has served as the dividing line as to when abortion restrictions can be imposed on pregnant women. But the leaked draft of a pending Supreme Court decision suggests Roe will soon be struck down. That means determining viability, and how science has advanced the possibility of viability since Roe, could become a central consideration as legislatures across the country weigh new laws governing abortion access.

I worry about lawmakers who may not understand infant intensive care, and who have not supported parents stressed by extreme preterm births. I worry they won’t recognize the nuances inherent in deciphering viability, and how much survival at the limits of viability relies on access to highly specialized medical care, and how it can vary dramatically from case to case. I worry laws will be out of step with what neonatal care can accomplish, since it does not guarantee neonatal survival and comes with potential life-long complications if these children do survive. I worry that parents’ autonomy to decide whether to have their periviable baby undergo painful intensive care that has a very low likelihood of resulting in survival — and an even smaller likelihood of disability-free survival — is at stake as well.

I witness inherent ambiguity when I cradle babies born at 22, 23 and 24 weeks of gestation in my arms. These babies are periviable, meaning nearly capable of living. Because living outside the womb five months earlier than intended is exceptional, improbable, miraculous. I implore political leaders to familiarize themselves with the risks and question marks in neonatal care, as well as the resources required — as it is invasive, expensive and inconsistently available.

While most women deliver healthy babies, maternal health crises resulted in 7,300 periviable babies born in 2020. For a periviable baby to survive entails preparation, planning, coordination and expertise. Preparation begins with identifying the crises that beget periviable births and making sure these crises are managed at hospitals with experience and expertise in this area. Sometimes a crisis announces itself in a gush of fluid or a gaping cervix or a cluster of contractions so early and extreme they do not stop. Sometimes a crisis hides, as in an illness or injury gripping a pregnant body with insidious instability, forcing obstetricans to weigh the risks of their patient remaining pregnant with the risks of preterm delivery.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/roe-opponents-babies-born-limits-viability-rcna27557
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This article should be read OUT LOUD to every anti-abortion senator and congresscritter and Supreme Court justice tomorrow if not sooner.