Union chief who supported Walsh gets new post, and hefty raise

The firefighter who nurtured Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s close relationship with the politically powerful firefighters’ union has quietly assumed a new Fire Department post — with a hefty pay raise. 

CORRUPT WHITE MALE UNION SUPPORTS JOE BIDEN 

© Yoon S. Byun for The Boston Globe Boston Mayor Martin Walsh received a baseball bat from Fire Fighters Union Local 718 president Richard Paris in 2014. The bat had the words "Martin Joseph Walsh, Mayor of Boston, January 6, 2014, Fire Fighters Local 718" inscribed on it.

Richard Paris, the former head of Local 718 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, was named the Fire Department’s director of OSHA compliance last spring. The position pays $171,082 a year, more than other, more high-profile city posts, including Walsh’s chief of staff. And it far exceeds the $108,374 Paris was paid in 2018 as an advance technician for the Fire Department.

Paris received an $88,959 salary in 2013, the year before Walsh was elected with large support from the firefighters’ union. He has been in the new role since April.

The timing of his latest raise could allow Paris, 61, to work for at least three years at the new pay rate before he steps down at the mandatory retirement age for firefighters, age 65. Doing so would allow Paris, under pension rules, to collect 80 percent of the higher pay scale, a significant boost of income heading into retirement.

Paris did not respond to a request for comment on the new position. In February 2019, he said in an interview that he was stepping down as union president for personal reasons, after negotiating his second labor contract with the administration. At that time, he denied department-wide speculation that he was in line for a political appointment at fire headquarters.

Pam Wilmot, head of the government watchdog Common Cause Massachusetts, said there are many factors to be examined when a public employee is awarded a hefty pay raise and new job assignment: Is the appointment justified? Is the pay in line with other similar jobs? And is the person qualified? She was speaking in general and not about Paris, but said such facts matter.

“When people double their salaries in the last three years of their career, it raises flags, but just because there’s smoke doesn’t mean there’s fire,” she said.

But the correlation between Paris’s resignation from the union and the pay boost raises questions of political favoritism, after several harmonious years between firefighters and the administration.

In an interview, Walsh called Paris’s appointment appropriate because of his experience.

“He’s qualified, he’s capable, he’s been a firefighter for 30-plus years,” the mayor said.

Commissioner Joseph Finn, who joined with Paris in supporting Walsh’s election campaign in 2013, also called Paris a fitting candidate for the job, which he said is required by new state law that gives the state Department of Labor Standards more power to enforce federal Occupational Safety, Health, and Administration rules for public sector workplaces.

Paris’s duties involve drawing up department protocol to ensure the department meets new state and federal workplace standards.

“There was a lot of anxiety from the chiefs association and professional firefighters about what this means for us going forward,” said Finn, who appointed Paris to the new post, in an interview.

Last year, Finn said, “no one on the Boston Fire Department had the qualifications to do this.” Since then, he said, Paris has undergone nearly 400 hours of workplace safety training.

When asked why Paris was appointed, he responded, ”Because of his skills.”

“He has the credibility in the firehouses, when he goes out to correct something,” Finn said. “There’s a respect factor, and people know he’s committed to safety, health, and wellness. It felt like a natural fit.”

The job is governed by the Local 718 firefighters’ contract, but it is an appointed position. Finn said the $171,082 salary is comparable to a similar position that is listed in the contract, assistant superintendent of maintenance, though that post is currently open.

The union, a political force with more than 1,500 employees, endorsed the mayor in 2013 and members campaigned on his behalf. Firefighters individually and through their international chapter donated tens of thousands of dollars to Walsh’s campaign.

Months into his new administration, the mayor reached his first agreement for a contract with the union: It was the first firefighters’ contract the city reached since 2001 without going to arbitration, after years of strained relations between the union and Walsh’s predecessor, the late Thomas M. Menino.

Four years later, in 2018, the administration again reached an agreement with the union for a contract that lasts through June 2021; 75 percent of the membership supported it. Paris resigned from the union two months later.

Lately, however, factions in the union have quietly grumbled about their contract and new policies the administration has been implementing, such as more diversity training and wellness programs. In early February, the union sued the administration in state Superior Court, seeking to halt the administration’s new policy of transferring firefighters to light-duty status while their injury claims can be reviewed. A state judge is reviewing the request.

Walsh denied that Paris received a political appointment. He acknowledged that Paris was a supporter but said they were at different ends of the negotiating table and ultimately agreed on a fair contract for both taxpayers and firefighters.

“We fought, we argued, we compromised, and we got two contracts done,” he said.

Paris, the mayor added, "earned the job for doing what he’s done . . . as a firefighter for the City of Boston.”



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Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

Official Trailer | Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool | American Masters | PBS
Duration: 02:27 

Official website: https://to.pbs.org/2R7jHGy | #MilesDavisPBS The definition of “cool” can be summed up by the name Miles Davis. The quintessential “Renaissance Man” known for his restless artistic aesthetic, is widely regarded as one of the most innovative, influential and highly respected figures in music. Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool premieres Tuesday, February 25th at 9/8c. The full episode will be available to stream online and on the PBS Video app the following day. 

Subscribe to the American Masters channel for more clips: http://bit.ly/1JmUCu5 Enjoy full episodes of your favorite American Masters films: http://www.pbs.org/americanmasters 

FOLLOW AMERICAN MASTERS: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/americanmasters Twitter: https://twitter.com/PBSAmerMasters #AmericanMastersPBS Instagram: https://instagram.com/pbsamericanmasters #AmericanMastersPBS 

FOLLOW PBS: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pbs/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ PBSInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ PBS Shop: http://www.shop.pbs.org/ He changed the course of music five or six times, remains a fashion and cultural icon, and his globally recognized artwork continues to resonate with multiple generations. He was an extraordinary artist who sacrificed everything for his music – the man with a sound so beautiful it could break your heart. In Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson delves deep into the world of a beloved musical giant.

Officials have voted unanimously to rename 'Dixie' highway after Harriet Tubman

By Alisha Ebrahimji, CNN

© MPI/Archive Photos/Getty Images American abolitionist leader Harriet Tubman escaped slavery and led many other slaves to safety using the Underground Railroad.

A highway in Florida won't be keeping its name much longer after a county voted to change the name of a handful of "Dixie" highways to "Harriet Tubman Highway."

Miami-Dade County commissioners unanimously approved plans Wednesday to rename portions of The Dixie Highway, which runs 5,786 miles through 10 states from Michigan to Miami, according to CNN affiliate WPLG.

"The time is always right to do what is right," said Miami-Dade District 9 Commissioner Dennis Moss, quoting Martin Luther King, Jr.

Moss led the effort to rename the highway after Tubman, a famous African American abolitionist.

Depending on your perspective, the word Dixie takes on a different meaning for different people. Most commonly, it's associated with the old South and Confederate states. Dixie was considered the land south of the Mason-Dixon line, where slavery was was legal.

Injustice hiding in plain sight

Moss started looking into the name change after reading a letter from a man named Modesto Abety, former CEO of the Children's Trust in Miami-Dade County.

Abety's granddaugther asked him why "Dixie" was still on the name of the roadways considering its association with slavery, Moss told CNN.

"I moved forward with legislation and of course I did it because Dixie is associated with the southern Confederate states," he said.

Moss said the injustice has been hiding in plain sight for years, but he's grateful and proud his colleagues understand the importance of this name change and what the term Dixie has stood for in the past.

The decision to rename Dixie Highway after Tubman came as a suggestion from Abety's granddaughter.

"She was the antithesis of slavery," Moss said. "I thought that suggestion was a good suggestion."

It's important to Moss to set a precedent by not only removing the Dixie name from roadways that Miami-Dade County controls, but to urge the state of Florida to remove it from roadways in which it has jurisdiction.

A stepping stone on the path to change

While the name change was approved by Miami-Dade County commissioners, it's up to each state to act on other parts of the highway. State lawmakers will need to go through their own approval process for the parts each state owns.

The support hasn't been entirely unanimous, but to Moss' surprise, he said there's been little opposition.

It's unclear just how much the renaming process will cost the county, but Moss said he and his colleagues are prepared to do whatever it takes to see that they are changed once and for all.

"If this was an Adolf Hitler Highway, or if this was in our community, a Fidel Castro Highway, [the money] wouldn't even be a consideration as it relates to changing the signs," Moss said. "So let's not allow that to be an impediment and let's do what's right."

Not enough guards, too many inmates: Mississippi prisons a perilous place to work


Joseph Neff and Alysia Santo, The Marshall Project 

PARCHMAN, Miss. – The attack on Jennifer White came as she started a morning shift at the most dangerous unit at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, the sprawling Delta prison farm here.

© Barbara Gauntt/Clarion Ledger, Barbara Gauntt Jennifer White left her career as a correctional supervisor at Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman in 2016 after a second serious attack by an inmate.

Just two officers had been guarding dorms housing more than 250 men. A prisoner charged them at shift’s end, beating them badly. White arrived in time to blast him with pepper spray. He knocked her to the floor.


White, now 50, says the next few seconds have replayed thousands of times in her mind: the man on top of her, smashing her in the jaw, his eyes full of rage. The popping feeling in her knee. It took nine long minutes for help to get there, according to an incident report.

After the 2016 attack, White left Parchman and holed up in her house, away from family, friends and church. Using a wheelchair while she recovered from her knee injury, she grew so haunted by suicidal and homicidal thoughts that she checked herself into a mental hospital.

“I don’t trust anyone anymore,” she says. “Everybody is a threat to me.”

Violence against and among people incarcerated in Mississippi has become a national scandal. Since Christmas, at least 18 prisoners have died, prompting the U.S. Department of Justice this month to say it will investigate conditions at four of the state’s six large prisons.

But violence against guards is also a scourge of the Mississippi system, an investigation by The Marshall Project found. Our analysis of state records and hundreds of pages of court documents, along with interviews with more than 30 prison employees, revealed a profoundly dangerous environment for everyone behind bars.

Prisoners have attacked guards more than 340 times a year, on average, since 2016, according to our analysis; there were an average of 1,300 guards on the job each year. They were beaten, stabbed with makeshift knives, sexually assaulted, and often “dashed” – prison slang for being doused with urine, feces or hot water – according to state records and interviews. The state acknowledged that about 115 of these assaults each year caused serious injuries.

More: Mississippi prison crisis: 18th inmate dies since Dec. 29, second in 24 hours

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Inmates, officers and experts agree about the principal cause of the violence: Mississippi prisons are so short staffed that nobody there is safe.

As more staff leave, the threat to the remaining officers grows, making it harder to hire and keep workers. Guards say many colleagues don’t show up for work every day, so it’s common for a single officer to try to control 200 people in cells or dorms.
Too many vacancies

Half of all correctional-officer jobs in Mississippi’s state-run prisons are empty. A Marshall Project survey of all 50 state corrections systems nationwide found only Alabama had a higher vacancy rate, at 58%. At least 12 states reported vacancies over 20%.

Violence has erupted in understaffed prisons in Alabama, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and New Mexico in recent years. In North Carolina, five prison workers were killed in 2017; a federal report said understaffing – 1 in 4 positions were unfilled – opened the door to mayhem.

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More: 'Ticking time bomb': Violence surges amid guard shortage, lockdown at Mississippi prison

More: What happened when this prison couldn't hire enough guards? It put gangs in charge

Corrections officials across the country agree that the lack of guards is one of their biggest problems. Yet lawmakers in many states have had little appetite for confining fewer people or raising officers’ salaries – especially in Mississippi, where starting pay for guards is $25,650. Officers at privately run prisons in the state start at $23,400.

Other states, especially those with corrections-officer unions, pay more – as much as $56,680 in Massachusetts. Nationwide, prison guards and jailers made an average $49,300 in 2018, according to federal data. In Mississippi, that number was far lower: $30,840.

“You have legislators down there acting like they're shocked that something happened at their prison,” says Bryan Stirling, the corrections director in South Carolina, who pushed through pay raises there. “They're just sticking their heads in the sand and hoping the problem goes away.”

Mississippi corrections officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.© Sarah Warnock, Clarion Ledger Leslie Jones was twice attacked by prisoners when he was an officer at Wilkinson County Correctional Facility in Woodville, MS.

Corrections officers have the reputation, sometimes deserved, for excessive violence and indifference to the humanity of the people they watch. But many guards say they are trying to do their best in a low paying, low status job in a dangerous workplace. And they understand that sometimes people in prison attack them out of desperation.

Leslie Jones, a thick-set and blunt-spoken former corrections officer, says he fought with prisoners several times a week during his three years at the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility on the border with Louisiana. It’s one of three Mississippi prisons operated by a private company, Management & Training Corporation.

Jones says he couldn’t get angry with a man who knocked him out and busted his lips and eyebrows in 2017.

“His life was in jeopardy,” Jones says, noting that the prisoner wanted out of his unit because gangs had threatened his life. “The quickest way to get off a zone is attacking an officer.”

Jones saves his anger for MTC, which he says runs a prison that puts everyone in danger. He says that at its worst, Wilkinson had only seven guards when it should have had 28 on a shift. The physical conditions are terrible, Jones says, and inmates face few consequences for assaulting officers.

“Your life ain’t worth two ramen noodle packs, and the thing is, MTC could stop it,” Jones says. He left Wilkinson in 2018.

A spokesman for Utah-based MTC did not respond to Jones’s allegations or to questions about attacks at the prison.

But in a statement, Issa Arnita says the company is working to improve safety at its facilities: “Our brave correctional professionals work in an environment that has inherent risk, and we do everything we can to minimize those risks.”© Kathleen Flynn for the Marshall Project The Wilkinson County Correctional Facility in Woodville, Mississippi.

Monthly reports to the state show guards at Wilkinson had the highest rate of assaults and injuries among the state’s large prisons in the 36 months ending in mid-2019. A lawyer for the state described the reports as internal working documents that were not “verified and/or reconciled for accuracy.”

A functional prison needs guards to walk the floor, supervise people in the units, break up fights, and help when a fellow officer is in danger. Without enough staff, incarcerated men and women can’t take showers, visit with their families, get medical care, or exercise, among other things. At Wilkinson, the men missed about 70% of scheduled medical visits in 2018, according to an internal audit. The audit also said video surveillance showed men locked in cells when staff reported them bathing or exercising.

Arnita says MTC has retrained staff and set new procedures to ensure inmates make their medical appointments.© Juan Bernabeu for The Marshall Project Juan Bernabeu for The Marshall Project
Gangs in charge

In the vacuum left by staff shortages, gangs have taken control of several Mississippi prisons. Some officers work with gangs, providing contraband and preferential treatment, which contributes to the violence, according to staff interviews and court filings. A smuggled cellphone can bring in as much as a week’s pay for a guard, according to many officers we interviewed.

Prisoners can’t escape the violence, but corrections officers do – by leaving their jobs. Turnover is high, and the total number of guards at the state’s six large prisons has fallen by a third since 2016, from 1,616 to 1,060 last year. The biggest losses occurred at publicly run prisons. As the staff shrank, the number of attacks also fell. Over the same period, the population in the large prisons grew by 4% to more than 13,000.

As officers quit, those remaining must guard more and more people on their own. The worst problem has been at Southern Mississippi Correctional Institution, in Leakesville near the Alabama border, the site of the first killing in the recent spate of violence. It had only one officer for every 20 prisoners in 2019, up from 1 for every 12 in 2016, state records show.

When there isn’t enough staff, prison managers often resort to “lockdowns,” keeping people in cells or dorms almost 24 hours a day, sometimes for months at a time. The constant caging creates a pressure cooker that leads to violence.

Adding to the problem: The electronic door locking systems at Parchman and Wilkinson failed in the mid-2010s, several staffers say, allowing prisoners to open their cell doors and go on the attack.© Kathleen Flynn for the Marshall Project Sgt Bryan Gaston recently left his job at Wilkinson County Correctional Facility in Woodville, Mississippi, due to what he and numerous others describe as abhorrent conditions. Several years ago he was recruited to the facility. He said the previous 18 years in corrections he had waste thrown on him just once. Since arriving at Wilkerson, he has had it thrown on him numerous times. He also said that reports of the incidents were never made, and there were no repercussions for such behavior. He said he has had infection set in on one of his eyes following a “dashing”, which is a term used in the prison for when the inmates throw excrement. Once, an inmate attempted to stab him, hitting his utility belt. On the second swing hit him in the knuckle, and he still bears the scar.
Prisoners on the attack

That’s what happened to Colton Smith. When he first started working at Wilkinson in 2014, he was enthusiastic. The job paid $9.50 an hour, more than many others in the area, and he could work overtime. Smith had seen his father make a successful living as a prison officer, and he planned to follow in his footsteps. He recalls telling the warden, “I’m gunning for your job,” on his first day of work.

A few months in, Smith dozed off during an overnight shift in the long-term solitary unit, he says. A prisoner popped open one of the malfunctioning cell locks, blasted Smith with the officer’s own pepper spray and stabbed him twice with a prison-made knife.

The attacks kept coming, Smith says. Another man doused him with boiling water. A third slipped out of his handcuffs and used them like brass knuckles to beat Smith unconscious. After a fourth prisoner sliced him 10 times with a shank, Smith says he began reliving the attacks in his dreams. He went on medication for anxiety and depression.© Kathleen Flynn for the Marshall Project Sgt Bryan Gaston's wife shows a photo of a boil on his eyelid that appeared after a prisoner threw feces and urine in Gaston's face while he worked at Wilkinson County Correctional Facility in Woodville, Mississippi.

Stress like Smith’s is endemic among guards. Research papers and government studies have found that correctional officers suffer high rates of PTSD, depression, divorce and alcoholism.

In interviews, Smith grew teary as he described growing sullen and irritable while neglecting his wife and son. “The anger and hate embeds itself in you,” he says. “I almost lost my family.”

Smith quit in 2018, even though he had worked his way up to sergeant, a job that paid $13 an hour. He now works for $8 an hour as a housekeeper at a hospital and attends nursing school. MTC did not respond to questions about Smith’s attacks.

Prison officials went back to using traditional locks, which caused its own set of problems. At Wilkinson, a prisoner seized keys from a female officer working solo in long-term solitary, the prison’s most dangerous unit. He unlocked three friends; they opened the cell of Jerome Harris and stabbed him in the head, chest and back, according to an MTC incident report. Harris lost his left eye and almost all vision in his right in the 2018 attack, according to a lawsuit that MTC settled.© Juan Bernabeu for The Marshall Project Juan Bernabeu for The Marshall Project
Loss of a livelihood

Dashing is designed to humiliate more than hurt.

Bryan Gaston is 6 foot 9 and 300 pounds, a Navy veteran with 16 years of correctional experience in Oklahoma and Colorado. He says that before coming to Wilkinson prison in 2017, only one prisoner threw liquid at him.

At Wilkinson? “Countless,” he says.

“The nastiest feeling you could ever feel in your entire life is to have another person's human waste dripping off of you,” he says. The dashings left him with a recurring infection that’s blurred his vision in one eye. A lifelong hunter, Gaston can barely pass marksmanship tests he used to ace. He says his doctor ordered twice yearly tests for hepatitis and HIV. He now works at a prison in a nearby state.

Of 33 Mississippi prison employees The Marshall Project interviewed, all but seven say they had been dashed.

In this environment, even guards who say they want to do their job well and care for the people inside ended up disillusioned at best, depressed and suicidal at worst.

That’s what happened to White, the former Parchman lieutenant, who sought out mental health care. Today, she advocates counseling for staff and prisoners alike: “They aren’t getting that type of help to straighten their mind out.”

She says she has forgiven her attacker and prays daily that God will also soften the heart of the man she once wanted to murder. But she also feels a profound sense of loss.

“He took away my life,” she says. “He took it all.”

This investigation was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, the USA Today Network, the Clarion Ledger, Mississippi Today and the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. The Marshall Project is a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system; sign up for their newsletters, or follow them on Facebook or Twitter.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Not enough guards, too many inmates: Mississippi prisons a perilous place to work

New Arizona Game and Fish commissioner criticized for Safari Club International membership


Helena Wegner, The Republic | azcentral.com


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The newest member of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission is stirring concerns from two wildlife advocacy organizations because of his affiliation with the world’s largest trophy-hunting organization. 

© Arizona Land and Water Trust Pronghorn on Babacomari Ranch in southeast Arizona.

Todd Geiler received approval from the Senate on Tuesday to join the Arizona Game and Fish Commission.

But the Humane Society of the United States and the Sierra Club Grand Canyon Chapter say they have some concerns with Geiler's ties to Safari Club International.

Safari International is a nonprofit organization that advocates for hunters. This includes providing opportunities to hunt big game trophies around the world. The organization views their work as promoting wildlife conservation efforts because the money raised from the hunting experience goes toward conserving the species.

Geiler is a member of Safari Club International, an affiliation that was listed on Gov. Doug Ducey's press release announcing his nomination.

Kellye Pinkleton, the Arizona senior state director of the Humane Society of the United States, said her organization takes issue with trophy hunting — when an animal is killed for body parts, bragging rights or trophy hanging.

The Humane Society’s mission is to end cruel practices toward animals, including trophy hunting.

“It is troubling that he has ties to largest trophy hunting organization that often just serves the wealthy,” Pinkleton said. “Safari Club celebrates senseless killing, buying and selling of dead animals for bragging rights.”

Pinkleton said she doesn't oppose Geiler's confirmation to the commission, but she would like to see more representation of conservationists and biologists.

"We believe the commission should reflect all Arizonans and not just those with close ties to a trophy-hunting organization like SCI," she said in an email.

Sandy Bahr, the director for Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter, disapproved of Geiler's confirmation and disputed Safari International's characterization as a conservation organization.

“They (commission members) shouldn’t be advocating for things like wildlife killing contests,” Bahr said.
Geiler: Pronghorn recovery program prompted membership

Although some members of Safari Club join because of trophy hunting, Geiler said he did so because of the organization’s involvement in Sonoran Pronghorn recovery. One of SCI’s headquarters is in Tucson.

“I am proud of my memberships in numerous conservation groups that have worked to enhance, restore and perpetuate wildlife across our state whose members are the backbone of funding conservation in Arizona and the nation without using a dime of state general fund tax dollars,” he said in an email.

Geiler said no photos will surface of him next to a hunted endangered animal.

Eric S. Sparks, a current game and fish commissioner, served as a legal committee vice chairman for the Safari Club International from 1999 to 2009. No other commissioners listed an affiliation to the club on the commission's website.

Ducey nominated Geiler in January from a list of candidates provided by the Arizona Game and Fish Commission Appointment Recommendation Board.

“The governor is pro-animal and pro-hunting. We think Game and Fish does an excellent job managing our wildlife, protecting public safety, and promoting recreation,” Ducey spokesman Patrick Ptak wrote in a text message. “The Commission is an important part of that success and we are proud of the job they are doing. We stand by our appointments.”

Geiler is an avid hunter and leader in his community who comes from a family involved in farming, ranching and eye care. He maintains a optometrist practice in Prescott that was started by his grandfather in 1946.

As a boy, Geiler learned how to hunt from his great grandfather, grandfather and father. Geiler and his wife mentor teenagers and women interested in learning about firearms and hunting.
Lack of diversity on the commission?

Bahr from the Sierra Club opposed Geiler's nomination to at the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee hearing on Feb. 12.

Despite commissioners having knowledge of wildlife, she said there are no women, people of color or wildlife biologists serving on the game and fish commission.

The Arizona Game and Fish Commission Appointment Recommendation Board perpetuates the lack of diversity by choosing nominees with similar backgrounds, she said.

State Sen. Andrea Dalessandro, D-Green Valley, said she has issues with candidates sent from the recommendation board to the committee. She voted against Geiler's nomination.

Sen. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe, shared the same concern.

“The people that have been put in front of us are lacking in diversity, so the whole system is broken,” Mendez said.

Pinkleton said current commissioners do not accurately represent Arizonans because most of them are hunters or anglers.

Because the department manages wildlife, Pinkleton said someone with a scientific or wildlife biologist background would better serve the commission and Arizonans.

The current commission is made up of five men from different Arizona counties. According to the department's website, no more than three members can be from the same political party.

Including Geiler, the commission has three Republicans, one Democrat and one independent.

At the committee hearing, Bahr also said she opposed Geiler's nomination because of his attitude toward predators and his opposition toward restrictions on the use of lead ammunition in the Kaibab National Forest and other areas.

Geiler filed a declaration in 2012 opposing "any and all proposed prohibitions and/or restrictions on the use of lead ammunition" in Kaibab and other hunting areas in Arizona.

When asked about that In an interview, Geiler said he supports the department's encouragement for hunters to use non lead ammunition like copper bullets.

Contact the reporter at helena.wegner@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on The Republic | azcentral.com: New Arizona Game and Fish commissioner criticized for Safari Club International membership

THE MEN GET PAID MORE TO LOSE!
US Soccer says unequal pay for women is fair because 'men are bigger, stronger, faster,' as USWNT sues for $67 million
Meredith Cash

© David Vincent/AP
Initial filings from the US Women's National Team's gender discrimination lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation suggest that the two parties are further apart than ever.
The USWNT players are seeking $67 million in back pay, which their lawyers argue is commensurate with the amount they would have been compensated had they been given the rate "set forth in the USMNT CBA."

The USSF, meanwhile, alleges that the USWNT players have no grounds for a discrimination lawsuit because men are "bigger, stronger, faster."
Since the federation claims the USMNT and USWNT players "perform such different jobs," it is requesting the case be dismissed in its entirety.

Trial is set for May 5, three months before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics begin.

It's looking more and more like the US Women's National Team's gender discrimination lawsuit will play out in court, as initial court filings suggest that the two parties are further apart than ever.

According to documents filed by the players' attorneys Thursday night, the USWNT players are seeking $67 million in back pay from the US Soccer Federation based on purported violations of Title VII and the Equal Pay Act. Their lawyers argue that the amount - split between the 38 EPA class members and 72 Title VII class members - is commensurate with the amount they would have been compensated had they been given the rate in the men's collective bargaining agreement with US Soccer.

© VI-Images / Getty Images

The team is asking for a summary judgment, which would require the judge, R. Gary Klausner, to forgo a trial and make a ruling.

The USSF, meanwhile, wants Klausner to dismiss the case entirely because the men's and women's players "perform such different jobs" that there's no basis for a direct comparison between the two and thus no grounds for a discrimination lawsuit.

US Soccer contends that men's and women's soccer are separate entities because "men are bigger, stronger, faster."

The federation's lawyers also argue for the case's dismissal because the women wanted a different compensation structure from the men and because USWNT players were, in actuality, paid more than the USMNT players were.

Should the judge reject both the USWNT players' motion for summary judgment and the USSF motion for dismissal, the lawsuit will likely move to trial. Though both parties requested a trial date after the 2020 Olympics, Klausner set the date for May 5, mere months before the games begin in Tokyo.

Read more:
US Men's National Team players broke their silence on equal pay and gender discrimination, calling for the women's team to earn 'triple' the men's pay

The USWNT has an embarrassment of riches, and it could be a problem heading into the 2020 Olympics

The United States Women's National Team used pages from their equal pay lawsuit as confetti during World Cup victory parade

26 celebrities who are calling for the USWNT to earn equal pay

A mile-wide toxic waste site sits on the ocean floor near Stellwagen Ban

About 19 miles east of Boston Harbor, beside a national marine sanctuary that’s home to one of the world’s richest fishing grounds, lies one of the nation’s largest offshore dumping sites of radioactive waste. 

© David N. Wiley/Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary Video taken of the Foul Area industrial waste site near Stellwagen Bank showed a barrel with a large hole in it on the ocean floor. The federal government is using sediment dredged from Boston Harbor to cap a dump site that contains an estimated 80,000 barrels of waste, some of them with highly toxic materials.

In less than 300 feet of water, thousands of barrels litter the seafloor, a mile-wide toxic junkyard that fishermen call “The Foul Area.”

It’s called that because many have tangled — or fouled — their gear in the barrel field, at times even pulling up containers filled with toxic chemicals. Government reports and congressional testimony over the years have suggested the dumping ground may include plutonium and other highly dangerous materials discarded after the completion of the Manhattan Project during World War II.

Now, the federal government is trying to bury the barrels at least three feet deep with roughly 10 million tons of sediment dredged from a $340 million project to widen shipping channels in Boston Harbor. Capping the toxic material — which includes unexploded munitions — was seen as a safer way of minimizing risks, rather than trying to bring the rusting barrels to the surface.

It’s also cheaper. Federal officials say there’s effectively no additional cost to the overall dredging project, as the sediment from the harbor would have had to be taken elsewhere anyway.

“I’ve been watching concerns about this waste site for decades, and this is a really creative solution to a longstanding environmental problem,” said Ken Moraff, water division director for the Environmental Protection Agency in New England, which has been working on the capping project with the Army Corps of Engineers since 2018.

But others have raised significant doubts about the project and the impact on the adjacent Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, which was founded in 1992 to protect an 842-square-mile underwater plateau that is home to an estimated 130 species, from abundant lobsters to endangered North Atlantic right whales. At its closest point, the dumping ground is less than a quarter mile from Stellwagen.

David Wiley, the sanctuary’s research coordinator, led a seminal study of the area in the early 1990s. His report, which found that the federal government kept few records of what was dumped there, estimated that there could be as many as 80,000 barrels of toxic waste, most from hospitals, universities, and companies throughout the region. At least 4,000 of them were thought to contain radioactive waste, from the same sources.

With many of those barrels corroding in the salt water over decades — the federally sanctioned dumping occurred from around 1946 until it was banned in 1977 — Wiley worries about the potential consequences of dropping massive amounts of clay, gravel, rock, and sand on top of them.

“I am concerned about leakage,” Wiley said. “They could leak from the initial pressure placed upon them, as they are being covered."

His surveys of the dumping grounds, which included sending down a submersible to record video of the area, found that about half of the identifiable barrels remained intact. The other half had clear signs of openings, some of them from rifle shots fired at them to ensure they sank while being dumped overboard.

Wiley said he isn’t reassured by promises from the Army Corps and the Environmental Protection Agency that the area is being monitored for leaks, and will continue to be. Because no one knows exactly what’s down there, he said, there’s little reason to believe that any testing would be comprehensive.

“I’d call that monitoring plan problematic,” he said. “There are so many things that could be escaping that might not be tested for.”

Charles McCreery, a oceanographer who retired from the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, has spent years studying the “Foul Area” dump and similar sites around the country, which he said include toxic compounds such as pesticides, PCBs, and DDT. The dump in Massachusetts Bay has the distinction of being in shallower waters and closer to shore than any other such site, he said.

If dropping millions of tons of rock-filled sediment punctures the barrels or moves the other toxic material, it could contaminate many of the crustaceans and other bottom-feeding creatures that inhabit the area, some of which people eat, he said.

“This is a human health and environmental concern,” McCreery said. “The chemicals sequester into the fat of marine organisms and contaminate the food chain.”

There are also concerns about the sediment dredged from Boston Harbor, which until the 1990s was widely considered the nation’s dirtiest harbor, with mounds of raw sewage and a vast range of pollutants submerged in the seafloor.

Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association, knows of fishermen who became sick after pulling up barrels in their nets.

When she learned that the harbor sediment would be deposited in the area, she called it “a disaster.”

“All that debris could shift in a storm and affect Stellwagen,” she said. “We want clean water and clean fish. This is infuriating and should stop right now.”

Federal officials overseeing the dredging project insisted that the concerns are largely unwarranted.

“The material from Boston Harbor has been evaluated and is suitable for ocean disposal,” said Dave Deegan, a spokesman for the EPA in Boston.

Sediment that has been identified as contaminated won’t be used in the project but rather stored in specially built areas beneath the harbor floor, he said. The dredged material being used to cap the barrel field is mainly Boston blue clay, which the EPA has determined to be safe.

The agency’s monitoring of the area for contamination will “ensure that conditions are appropriate for ocean life in that area," Deegan added.

Steven Wolf, who is managing the capping project for the Army Corps of Engineers, said the sediment is being dumped over the barrel field from split-hull scows that use sophisticated positioning technology to pinpoint where it lands.

The Army Corps is trying to avoid dropping the sediment directly on the barrels, he said. Instead, it is being released in large piles along the perimeter of the field, with the goal that the sediment will gently shift over the barrels.

“It’s going well,” he said, adding that the project should be finished next year.

Wolf also dismissed concerns that any leaked radioactive or other toxic chemicals would pose more of a harm to marine life as a result of the project.

“The critters that dig and burrow only go down a few inches, and this will seal or sequester the waste from the water column,” he said. “Ultimately, this is a way to put these containers out of contact with people — for many, many lifetimes.”

For those who have spent years fighting to clean up Boston Harbor and protect Massachusetts Bay, the potential benefits of the project outweigh the potential harms.

Capping the barrels, they said, is better than just leaving them there to decompose and foul fishing gear.

“I’m fairly convinced that what we’re going to have is a capping, not a crushing of the barrels,” said Bruce Berman, a spokesman for Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, an environmental advocacy group. “Thankfully, we’re past the cowboy days of ocean dumping, and this has been a transparent process.”

Peter Shelley, who spent years waging legal battles to clean up Boston Harbor at the Conservation Law Foundation, said he thought the project would “likely reduce risks.”

“The alternative of cleaning the site up would be really difficult ... to do without spreading the waste everywhere,” he said.

1916: 'The Americanese Wall, As Congressman Burnett Would Build It'
“The Americanese Wall, As Congressman Burnett Would Build It” satirizes the 1917 immigration act imposed by Congressman John Lawson Burnett by drawing literacy tests as a wall. Evans drew the wall with pens sticking out of it, while Uncle Sam looks on.

"UNCLE SAM: YOU'RE WELCOME IN --- IF YOU CAN CLIMB IT"

[Pictured: “The Americanese Wall, As Congressman Burnett Would Build It” by Raymond O. Evans for Puck Magazine.]

1912: 'Next From Cradle to the Mill'

“Next From Cradle to the Mill” is a brutal portrayal of child labor early in the 20th century. A monsterous figure with “Necessity” written on it takes a child by the hand menacingly. In the background, a man’s head is down on a desk, while two children walk toward a factory that says “Machinery Operated by Children.” AND IT ALSO SAYS "MEN NEED NOT APPLY"

The cartoon brings to mind the public hearing of Camilla Teoli, who worked as a child at a wool factory and experienced a disfiguring accident.

[Pictured: “Next! From Cradle to the Mill” by Art Young for Puck Magazine dated April 1912.]

1920: 'The Accuser'
“The Accuser” shows a woman reprimanding the U.S. Senate for killing what’s lying on the ground: “ The treaty of peace.” This referred to the Treaty of Versailles, which brought to an end to the war between the Allied Powers and Germany.
[Pictured: “The Accuser” by Rollin Kirby for New York World dated March 20, 1920.]




1920: 'Go Away!'
In “Go Away!” Rollin Kirby drew Congress from behind doors gesturing to Armenia with a sign that says “With malice towards all, with charity towards none.” This cartoon represents America’s non-recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

[Pictured: “Go Away!” by Rollin Kirby for New York World dated June 12, 1920.]



1921: 'The Only Way to Handle It'
This cartoon shows America’s reluctance at the time to take in refugees. “The Only Way to Handle It” portrays Uncle Sam using a funnel to let in refugees, with an influx from the top.


[Pictured: “The Only Way to Handle It” by Hallahan for Providence Evening Bulletin dated May 7, 1921.]




FOR THE REST GO HERE
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/political-cartoons-from-the-past-100-years/ss-BB105R3u

Author who sparked 'American Dirt' scandal is escorted away from Long Beach teaching jobBy Daniel Hernandez, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Myriam Gurba, the novelist and Long Beach high school teacher who sparked a row in U.S. publishing over the bestselling novel “American Dirt,” has been placed on administrative leave and was escorted from her school on Friday. 

© Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/TNS Myriam Gurba speaks during a panel discussing "American Dirt," and Latinx visibility in the U.S. publishing industry at Antioch University in Culver City, Calif., on February 6, 2020.

Gurba broke word of her removal from Long Beach Polytechnic High School via Twitter, a platform she’s used to intensifying effect since last month after disclosing that a magazine rejected her scathingly negative review of Jeanine Cummins’ “American Dirt.” Gurba and other readers have derided the thriller-romance story set in Mexico for what they have deemed stereotypical or harmful depictions of Mexican life.

But in recent days, Gurba has turned her attention to brewing allegations of abuse or battery on the part of another Long Beach Poly teacher, Libby Huff. She also has raised unconfirmed allegations against a separate teacher at another school.

Gurba said earlier this week that her school administration had begun ostracizing her for speaking out in support of the students who alleged abuse at the hands of Huff. That teacher is on leave from the district; Long Beach police are also investigating the allegations against her.

On Twitter, Gurba railed this week against the district, her school and Huff.

A counselor at Long Beach Poly walked into Gurba’s classroom Friday to tell her she had to leave school grounds. “They said that my social media was disruptive to the school,” Gurba said in an interview.

The teacher and author of the novel “Mean” said she was placed on administrative leave without being given any more explanation. A district official confirmed the decision.

“Our school district placed Poly High School teacher Myriam Gurba on paid administrative leave today,” said Chris Eftychiou, spokesperson for the Long Beach Unified School District, in an emailed response to questions. “The school district is not at liberty to provide further details because of confidentiality rules affecting personnel matters.”

In a Twitter post, Gurba criticized the school and her district for not “protecting” her and students. “Women and children (are) treated as problems by LBUSD,” Gurba wrote. She also tweeted: “I would rather have my dignity than a job.”

Gurba said she is a teacher of AP psychology. On Friday afternoon she told the Los Angeles Times she was in touch with a lawyer but not clear on what action she would take, if any. She added that she has contacted her union about a response to the district’s actions.

During the controversy over “American Dirt,” under growing pressure from Gurba and other critics, Cummins and her publisher, Macmillan Books, apologized for the novel’s publicity rollout and canceled a planned promotional tour. The debate also led to a simmering and often emotional discussion about cultural appropriation and the mechanics of a books industry that many claim sidelines or erases U.S. Latino voices.

“American Dirt,” meanwhile, has continued to sell well. It currently sits at third place on the Amazon bestseller list.

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(Times staff writer Dorany Pineda contributed to this report.)

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©2020 Los Angeles Times