Evacuated villagers tell how Spain's forest fire forced them to leave animals

Story by By Guillermo Martinez • 

A wildfire burns parts of rural areas in Monte Pino© Thomson Reuters

BARRACAS, Spain (Reuters) - Spain's first major wildfire of the year scorched more than 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres) of forest and forced 1,700 villagers to leave their homes in the Valencia and Aragon regions.


A helicopter drops water on a wildfire in Los Calpes© Thomson Reuters

Residents recounted fleeing their houses and leaving animals behind.

"Bad, how am I supposed to feel? Your town is burning, your life is burning, Our animals were there and no one can tell us anything," Antonio Zarzoso, 24, who had to leave the village of Puebla de Arenoso, told Reuters.

Spain's first major wildfire of the year burns  View on Watch  Duration 0:47

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More than 500 firefighters supported by 20 planes and helicopters were working to bring the blaze under control near the village of Villanueva de Viver, emergency services said on Saturday, forcing 1,500 to leave their homes.

The blaze also spread to the Teruel area of the Aragon region, where 200 people had to be evacuated, authorities said on Saturday.

However, they managed to stop the fire spreading to other areas.

"The surrounding forest has been reached by fire and we don't know how exactly the area looks," Montse Boronat, from Los Calpes, told Reuters.

Ximo Puig, president of the Valencia region, told reporters the blaze was made more "voracious" by summer-like temperatures of about 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit).

Las Provincias, a regional newspaper, reported police believe that the blaze may have been started by a spark from a machine used to gather brushwood.

A Spanish Civil Guard spokeswoman said that an investigation was underway into the cause of the fire.

An unusually dry winter across parts of southern Europe has raised concern that there could be a repeat of last year's devastating wildfires.

The weather will be drier and hotter than usual this spring along Spain's northeastern Mediterranean coast, increasing the risk of fires, meteorological agency AEMET said last week.

Last year, some 785,000 hectares were destroyed in Europe, more than double the annual average for the past 16 years, based on European Commission (EC) statistics.

In Spain, 493 fires destroyed a record 307,000 hectares of land, according to the Commission's European Forest Fire Information System.

(Reporting by Graham Keeley, Guillermo Martinez, Miguel Gutierrez, Editing by Jason Neely and Frances Kerry)

Opinion: As GOP governors obscure Black history, let’s finally tell the truth about Marcus Garvey

Opinion by Justin Hansford • Thursday

Earlier this month, President Joe Biden called out the GOP for “trying to hide the truth” about Black history. While politicians like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin have described their efforts to reform education as bans on teaching critical race theory, in reality, these bans have been invoked to prohibit teaching elements of American history, especially Black history.


Justin Hansford - Courtesy Justin Hansford

Shaq Al-Hijaz - Courtesy Shaq Al-Hijaz

The suppression of stories integral to the American narrative not only robs us of important historical lessons, but also warps our vision of ourselves and our future — and makes all of our lives less rich.

With some of this country’s most powerful political figures trying to obscure the story of Black history, now is a good time to tell the true stories of Black leaders in America — particularly ones like Marcus Garvey, who was the subject of injustice and distortion. Known superficially as a “Back to Africa” advocate (as in, repatriating Black people to the African continent), Garvey actually founded what might well have been the largest human rights campaign in the history of the African Diaspora. At its zenith, Garvey’s organization boasted a membership of at least 6 million people with chapters registered in more than 40 nations. It provided inspiration for the life’s work of many important Black leaders, including Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

The Jamaican-born Garvey energized millions by calling for an end to colonialism in Africa, for economic justice for the entire African Diaspora and for cultural and political recognition and independence 100 years ago — a time when such declarations were just about unheard of.

As part of his push to provide economic opportunity and autonomy for Black people, Garvey started the Black-owned and -operated Black Star Line shipping company, stylized after the White Star Line, which owned the Titanic. Garvey’s ships, in theory, could have helped transport Black people back to Africa, facilitated trade throughout the diaspora and instilled pride while providing a vision of economic empowerment.

Instead, Garvey’s movement splintered in the summer of 1923, when a federal judge in the southern district of New York convicted him of mail fraud for sending out advertisements for the purchase of stock in the Black Star Line, even though the shipping company was failing economically. The government not only accused Garvey of seeking to sell stock for too high of a price, but it insinuated that Garvey’s entire career was nothing more than a Ponzi scheme designed to make a quick buck.

To the contrary, historians have for decades believed that Garvey was framed for political reasons. Indeed, as one of us has documented, the entire legal process dripped with injustice and animosity toward Garvey. For example, both the trial judge and an appellate judge were conspicuously friendly with Garvey’s political opponents.

In fact, even the initial charges can be traced directly to espionage and efforts to infiltrate the Black Star Line by J. Edgar Hoover, who hired some of the first-ever Black Bureau of Investigation agents in order to stop any “Black Moses” figures like Garvey from succeeding. Hoover wrote about his search to find a charge that would allow the government to deport Garvey, settling on mail fraud when other grounds for charges were unsuccessful.

After thousands of Garvey’s followers (the supposed victims of the fraud) petitioned for his release, his sentence was commuted in 1927. Ultimately, after Garvey’s political vision had been silenced, advocates for racial justice in the United States and abroad began to focus less on economic justice and more on civil and political rights for most of the 20th century. Today, the widening wealth gap and other indicators of inequality suggest that this shift in focus was costly.

Now Democratic Rep. Yvette D. Clarke of New York, first vice-chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia are trying to set the historical record straight, recognizing the weight of evidence supporting Garvey’s innocence and identifying him as a champion for the liberation of people of African descent.

“The world deserves to know the truth about Marcus Mosiah Garvey and the truth about Black history,” Clarke declared in introducing the resolution to exonerate the civil rights leader. Johnson added that “it’s time to right this fundamental wrong” given the “utter lack of merit to the charges on which he was originally convicted, combined with his profound legacy and contributions to Black history in our country.”

To be sure, Garvey’s record involves some controversial decisions. This includes meeting with the KKK, asserting correctly that, during the 1920s, they had a strong voice in the US government. But this cannot stand in the way of learning about Garvey’s true history and exonerating him. This is more than simply an exercise in historical truth telling and providing justice for his family, although both are immensely important.

Garvey’s legacy is also relevant today because we see the same tactics — espionage and politically motivated charges — being deployed against Black leaders attempting to organize against the status quo. For example, Black Lives Matter protesters were designated as Black Identity Extremists by the FBI, and informants were inserted into their movement spaces in 2020 after the George Floyd uprisings.

As a society, we have failed to learn from Garvey’s story. That’s largely because mainstream narratives rarely teach about his legacy, and when they do, they usually fail to correct the historical inaccuracies promulgated by his wrongful conviction. By failing to learn the lessons from Garvey’s case, and by underestimating the harm of politically motivated infiltration and prosecution, we open the door to continuing these policies and practices. And this will result in shame for years to come.

Posthumous vindication for Garvey would begin the process of acknowledging that political sabotage from the government is antidemocratic and inherently wrong. And at a time when a battle is being waged against teachers and schools that dare discuss the African American experience, including threatening the banning of AP African American Studies in Florida, exonerating Garvey would be an important response. It would be a clear sign of resistance to revisionist history and the urge to promote versions of the past that fail to look critically at our path to the present.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

Jewish teens set Women of the Wall prayer books on fire - report

Story by By ZVIKA KLEIN • 7h ago

Jerusalem District Police arrested two Jewish teenagers on the suspicion of setting fire to the prayer books of the Women of the Wall (WoW) movement last Thursday, Walla! reported on Sunday.

Members of the Women of the Wall, Conservative and Reform Movement hold Rosh Hodesh prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem Old City, March 4, 2022.© (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

The prayer books were most probably left at the plaza since earlier that day WoW held their monthly prayer service for Rosh Chodesh, the first day of the month according to the Hebrew calendar.

The two were brought in for questioning, at the end of which they were released under restrictive conditions, as per the report

Repeating incidents of attacks on Women of the Wall

WoW responded that "seven years ago, extremists tore a Women of the Wall prayer book, four years ago more of our prayer books were burned and a year and a half ago 39 of our prayer books were stolen and torn in the Western Wall plaza as we were spat upon, pushed, and cursed at."

WoW added that "three days ago, after a festive Rosh Chodesh prayer, celebrating the month of freedom and liberty, one of our prayer books was burned again.


Members of ''Women of the Wall'' pray with a Torah scroll during a monthly prayer near the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City July 24, 2017 (credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)© Provided by The Jerusalem PostMembers of ''Women of the Wall'' pray with a Torah scroll during a monthly prayer near the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City July 24, 2017 (credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)

"We are shocked and outraged by the inaction of Western Wall security, which does not even try to stop the violence against us. We call on decision-makers to wake up before it is too late. We strongly encourage the police to investigate and prosecute the inciters and the perpetrators of these ongoing hate crimes," WoW said.

https://womenofthewall.org.il

Women of the Wall - the Modern-Day Western Wall Liberators ... 

Since 1988, Women of the Wall has fought for women's right to pray collectively and aloud with Torah scrolls, tallitot and tefilin at the Western Wall in ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_of_the_Wall

Women of the Wall - Wikipedia 

Women of the Wall is a multi-denominational group, including Reform, Conservative and modern- orthodox members. Since 1988, the group has faced a legal battle ...

In Macron's France, streets and fields seethe with protest





- A riot police officer aims during clashes as part of a demonstration in Paris, on March 7, 2023. French President Emmanuel Macron has ignited a firestorm of anger with unpopular pension reforms that he rammed through parliament. Young people, some of them first-time demonstrators, are joining protests against him. Violence is also picking up. 

(AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, File)


JOHN LEICESTER
Mon, March 27, 2023

PARIS (AP) — A big day has come for French high school student Elisa Fares. At age 17, she is taking part in her first protest.

In a country that taught the world about people power with its revolution of 1789 — and a country again seething with anger against its leaders — graduating from bystander to demonstrator is a generations-old rite of passage. Fares looks both excited and nervous as she prepares to march down Paris streets where people for centuries have similarly defied authority and declared: “Non!”

Two friends, neither older than 18 but already protest veterans whose parents took them to demonstrations when they were little, are showing Fares the ropes. They’ve readied eyedrops and gas masks in case police fire tear gas — as they have done repeatedly in recent weeks.

“The French are known for fighting and we'll fight," says one of the friends, Coline Marionneau, also 17. “My mother goes to a lot of demonstrations ... She says if you have things to say, you should protest.”

For French President Emmanuel Macron, the look of determination on their young faces only heralds deepening crisis. His government has ignited a firestorm of anger with unpopular pension reforms that he railroaded through parliament and which, most notably, push the legal retirement age from 62 to 64.

Furious not just with the prospect of working for longer but also with the way Macron imposed it, his opponents have switched to full-on disobedience mode. They're regularly striking and demonstrating and threatening to make his second and final term as president even more difficult than his first. It, too, was rocked by months of protests — often violent — by so-called yellow vest campaigners against social injustice.

Fares, the first-time protester, said her mother had been against her taking to the streets but has now given her blessing.

“She said that if I wanted to fight, she wouldn’t stop me,” the teen says.

Critics accuse Macron of effectively ruling by decree, likening him to France’s kings of old. Their reign finished badly: In the French Revolution, King Louis XVI ended up on the guillotine. There’s no danger of that happening to Macron. But hobbled in parliament and contested on the streets piled high with reeking garbage uncollected by striking workers, he’s being given a tough lesson, again, about French people power. Freshly scrawled slogans in Paris reference 1789.

So drastically has Macron lost the initiative that he was forced to indefinitely postpone a planned state visit this week by King Charles III. Germany, not France, will now get the honor of being the first overseas ally to host Charles as monarch.

The France leg of Charles' tour would have coincided with a new round of strikes and demonstrations planned for Tuesday that are again likely to mobilize many hundreds of thousands of protesters. Macron said the royal visit likely would have become their target, which risked creating a “detestable situation.”

Encouraged by that victory, the protest movement is plowing on and picking up new recruits, including some so young that it will be many decades before they'll be directly impacted by the pushed-back retirement age. Their involvement is a worrisome development for Macron, because it suggests that protests are evolving, broadening from workplace and retirement concerns to a more generalized malaise with the president and his governance.

Violence is picking up, too. Police and environmental activists fought pitched battles over the weekend in rural western France, resulting in dozens of injuries. Officers fired more than 4,000 nonlethal dispersion grenades in fending off hundreds of protesters who rained down rocks, powerful fireworks and gasoline bombs on police lines.

“Anger and resentment,” says former President François Hollande, Macron's predecessor, “are at a level that I have rarely seen.”

For Fares, whose first demonstration was a peaceful protest in Paris this weekend, the final straw was Macron’s decision to not let legislators vote on his retirement reform, because he wasn’t sure of winning a majority for it. Instead, he ordered his prime minister to skirt parliament by using a special constitutional power to ram the bill through.

It was the 11th time that Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne had to resort to the so-called Article 49.3 power in just 10 months — a telling sign of Macron’s fragility since he lost his parliamentary majority in an election last June.

“It’s an attack on democracy,” Fares said. “It annoyed me too much.”

Her friend Luna Dessommes, 18, added hopefully: “We have to use the movement to politicize more and more young people.”

At age 76, veteran protester Gilbert Leblanc has been through it all before. He was a yellow vest; by his count, he took part in more than 220 of their protests in Macron's first term, rallying to the cry that the former banker was too pro-business and "the president of the rich."

Long before that, Leblanc cut his teeth in seminal civil unrest that reshaped France in May 1968. He says that when he tells awe-struck young protesters that he was a “soixante-huitard” — a '68 veteran — they “want to take selfies with me.”

This winter, he has kept his heating off, instead saving the money for train fares to the capital, so he can protest every weekend, he said.

“My grandfather who fought in World War I, got the war medal. He would rise from his grave if he saw me sitting at home, in my sofa, not doing anything,” Leblanc said.

“Everything we've obtained has been with our tears and blood.”

Fresh clashes rock France as protests shift to water dispute

Story by AFP • Saturday

French police again clashed with protesters Saturday as campaigners in the southwest sought to stop the construction of giant water storage facilities, the latest flashpoint as social tensions erupt nationwide.


Macron has remained defiant in the face of the protests© Emmanuel DUNAND

The violent scenes at Sainte-Soline came after days of unrest over President Emmanuel Macron's pensions reform, which forced the cancellation of a visit by King Charles III of the UK.

The protest movement against the pension reform has turned into the biggest domestic crisis of Macron's second mandate, with police and protesters clashing daily in Paris and other cities over the past week.



Protesters in France set police vans on fire© Camille CASSOU

At Sainte-Soline, several protesters and members of security forces were injured in Saturday's confrontations at the banned protest. Campaigners there are trying to stop the construction of giant water "basins" to irrigate crops, which they say will distort access to water amid drought conditions.



Several protesters and members of security forces were injured in the clashes around Sainte-Soline© Pascal LACHENAUD

A long procession of activists set off late morning for the site, numbering at least 6,000 people according to local authorities -- around 30,000 according to the organisers.

"While the country is rising up to defend pensions, we will simultaneously stand up to defend water," said the organisers.



In a tweet supporting the work of the emergency services, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne denounced violence at Sainte-Soline© Thibaud MORITZ

Once they arrived at the construction site, which was defended by the police and gendarmes, clashes quickly broke out between the more radical activists and the security forces, AFP correspondents said.



The clashes over the water reservoir construction have added to tensions in an increasingly challenging situation for the government© Thibaud MORITZ

The authorities had mobilised more than 3,000 police officers and paramilitary gendarmes to guard the site.

Protesters threw various projectiles, including improvised explosives, while police responded with tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets.

- 'Completely inexcusable' -

According to the latest figures from the prosecutor's office, seven demonstrators were injured, including three who had to be taken to hospital. In addition, 28 gendarmes were injured, two of them badly enough that they had to be hospitalised.


Protesters threw various projectiles, including improvised explosives, while police responded with tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets© Thibaud MORITZ

Two journalists were also injured.

The alliance of activist groups behind the protests said 200 of their number had been injured, and one of them was fighting for their life, information not confirmed by the authorities.

In a tweet supporting the work of the emergency services there, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne denounced "the intolerable wave of violence" at Sainte-Soline.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin also condemned the violence, blaming elements from the "ultra-left and the extreme left".

Eleven people were detained after police seized cold weapons, including petanque balls and meat knives, as well as explosives.

While not directly related to the anti-pensions reform campaign, the clashes over the water reservoir construction have added to tensions in an increasingly challenging situation for the government.

The government is bracing for another difficult day on Tuesday when unions are due to hold another round of strikes and protests. That would have fallen on the second full day of Charles's visit.

The recent scenes in France have sparked astonishment abroad. "Chaos reigns in France," said the Times of London above a picture of rubbish piling up.

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In France, Macron has faced accusations from the left that he removed a luxury watch in the middle of a television interview Wednesday, fearing images of the timepiece could further damage his reputation.

- 'I will not give up' -

Uproar over legislation to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 was inflamed when Macron exercised a controversial executive power to push the plan through parliament without a vote last week.

The streets of the capital are strewn with rubbish because of a strike by waste collectors.

But there has also been controversy over the tactics used by the French security forces to disperse the protests.

On Friday, the Council of Europe warned that sporadic violence in protests "cannot justify excessive use of force".

Macron has refused to offer concessions, saying in a televised interview Wednesday that the changes needed to "come into force by the end of the year".

The Le Monde daily said Macron's "inflexibility" was now worrying even "his own troops" among the ruling party.

In another sign of the febrile atmosphere, the leader of Macron's faction in parliament, Aurore Berge, posted on Twitter a handwritten letter she received threatening her four-month-old baby with physical violence, prompting expressions of solidarity across the political spectrum.

It remains unclear how the government will defuse the crisis, four years after the "Yellow Vest" demonstrations rocked the country.

Borne is under particular pressure.

But she told a conference on Saturday: "I will not give up on building compromises...

"I am here to find agreements and carry out the transformations necessary for our country and for the French," she said.

bur-jj/fb

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Ex-Morgan Stanley adviser arrested after allegedly defrauding NBA players out of millions


Chris Cwik
Sat, March 25, 2023

Former Morgan Stanley adviser Darryl Cohen was arrested Thursday after allegedly defrauding NBA players out of millions.

Cohen is accused of transferring roughly $13 million from his NBA clients into his personal accounts. Cohen was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud. If found guilty, Cohen could face up to 20 years in prison for each charge.

Cohen was also charged with one count of investment adviser fraud, which can result in a maximum of five years in prison, per the United States Department of Justice.

Cohen allegedly conspired with Brian Gilder, an independent financial planner, to allegedly defraud multiple athletes. Charles Briscoe, a former sports agent, and another man, Calvin Darden Jr., were also allegedly involved. All four men received one charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud. Briscoe was also charged with one count of aggravated identity theft.

Milwaukee Bucks' Jrue Holiday is among the athletes involved in a lawsuit against former Morgan Stanley adviser Darryl Cohen. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)

The athletes are not named by the Department of Justice. Milwaukee Bucks point guard Jrue Holiday and former NBA players Chandler Parsons and Courtney Lee are reportedly all part of a lawsuit against Cohen. In that lawsuit, Holiday and his wife, former soccer player Lauren Holiday, accused Cohen of giving $7.7 million of their money to "dubious individuals," per the New York Times.

The Department of Justice alleged Cohen used some of the funds acquired from players to renovate his house, which included allegedly building an athletic training facility on his property and getting work done on his pool.

Dogs rescued from China meat farms get new homes in US after arriving at JFK Airport


Ellen Moynihan and Leonard Greene, 

New York Daily News
Sat, March 25, 2023 

NEW YORK -- Forty-four good boys and girls arrived at Kennedy Airport on Thursday on the last leg of a rescue journey from China.

After a grueling 19-hour flight with a refueling stop in Anchorage, Alaska, the pups were cleared by a vet and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on what was National Puppy Day, a day to raise awareness about pet adoptions and the plight of puppies.

The Malamutes, Labradors and Pomeranians were taken out of their crates to eat, go outside and even listen to music scientifically engineered to appeal to dogs.

“I started playing all the music as everyone got settled in and there was a good amount of silence once it started.” said Kiera Mejia of The Ark, the Animal Reception Center at JFK.

Then, one by one, the dogs emerged to be greeted, in some cases by their new owners.

“We’ve been waiting a long time,” said Mark Goldstein, 59, who drove from Brambleton, Va., that morning to take home Blossom the miniature poodle.

“She was in a bus or a truck on the way to the slaughterhouse,” said Goldstein, who works in healthcare. “She is going to be the most loved and spoiled little dog.”

The adoptions came courtesy of No Dogs Left Behind, an animal rights group that rescues dogs from slaughterhouses, dog traffickers and dog meat trucks in East Asia. Founder Jeffrey Beri, a New York native, has gone all over the world with his crew of volunteers, pulling pooches out of danger in places like China.

Beri says the dogs are bred for food, but sometimes stolen from their owners, with their leashes cut in backyards.

“Today is a very emotional day,” he said. “These are covert missions that are taking place. We are getting closer every day to ending the dog meat trade. We have activists and volunteers from all over. We have an underground army.”

They also have the cutest pups this side of the Westminster Dog Show. Just ask Amy Carrico, 48, of Syracuse, who was waiting for Rudy, a 2-year-old poodle.

Carrico already has three other poodles from China that were rescued by Beri’s group.

“They need it and we can, so we do,” Carrico said, explaining her motivation to help. “I work three days a week. My husband works from home. So he will get lots of attention.”

Thirteen of the tail waggers caught connecting flights to Los Angeles, Miami, Utah and Texas, and a few without foster or permanent homes were headed to a sanctuary No Dogs Left Behind recently opened in Canton, N.Y.

The lucky dogs were targeted for rescue by Beri and No Dogs Left Behind, with the adoptees signing up to take them home over the summer. The organization has also done rescue work in Ukraine since it came under invasion.

“I really wanted to foster and I applied to like five places,” said Ann-Marie Roach, 31, of Jersey City, who was adopting a dog related to a pooch she had already gotten from the rescue group.

“For us it was really just the mission and the horrifying aspect of the meat trade, and that it’s still happening in this day and age.”

Is the David porn? Come see, Italians tell Florida parents


 German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi speak during a press conference in front of Michelangelo's "David statue" after their bilateral summit in Florence, Italy, on Jan. 23, 2015. The head of Florence’s Galleria del’Accademia on Sunday March 26, 2023 invited the parents and students of a Florida charter school to visit and see Michelangelo’s “David,” after the school principal was forced to resign following parental complaints that an image of the nude Renaissance masterpiece was shown to a sixth-grade art class.

 (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, File) 

NICOLE WINFIELD and TERRY SPENCER
Sun, March 26, 2023 

ROME (AP) — The Florence museum housing Michelangelo’s Renaissance masterpiece the David on Sunday invited parents and students from a Florida charter school to visit after complaints about a lesson featuring the statue forced the principal to resign.

Florence Mayor Dario Nardella also tweeted an invitation for the principal to visit so he can personally honor her. Confusing art with pornography was “ridiculous,” Nardella said.

The board of the Tallahassee Classical School pressured Principal Hope Carrasquilla to resign last week after an image of the David was shown to a sixth-grade art class. The school has a policy requiring parents to be notified in advance about “controversial” topics being taught.

The incredulous Italian response highlighted how the U.S. culture wars are often perceived in Europe, where despite a rise in right-wing sentiment and governance, the Renaissance and its masterpieces, even its naked ones, are generally free of controversy. Sunday's front page of the Italian daily publication Corriere della Sera featured a cartoon by its leading satirist depicting David with his genitals covered by an image of Uncle Sam and the word “Shame.”

Carrasquilla believes the board targeted her after three parents complained about a lesson including a photo of the David, a 5-meter tall (17 foot) nude marble sculpture dating from 1504. The work, reflecting the height of the Italian Renaissance, depicts the Biblical David going to fight Goliath armed only with his faith in God.

Carrasquilla has said two parents complained because they weren’t notified in advance that a nude would be shown, while a third called the iconic statue pornographic.

Carrasquilla said in a phone interview Sunday that she is “very honored” by the invitations to Italy and she may accept.

“I am totally, like, wow,” Carasquilla said. “I've been to Florence before and have seen the David up close and in person, but I would love to go and be a guest of the mayor.”

Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Galleria dell'Accademia, where the David resides, expressed astonishment at the controversy.

"To think that David could be pornographic means truly not understanding the contents of the Bible, not understanding Western culture and not understanding Renaissance art,” Hollberg said in a telephone interview.

She invited the principal, school board, parents and student body to view the “purity” of the statue.

Tallahassee Classical is a charter school. While it is taxpayer-funded and tuition-free, it operates almost entirely independently of the local school district and is sought out by parents seeking an alternative to the public school curriculum.

About 400 students from kindergarten through 12th grade attend the three-year-old institution, which is now on its third principal. It follows a curriculum designed by Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan frequently consulted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on educational issues.

Barney Bishop, chairman of Tallahassee Classical's school board, has told reporters that while the photo of the statue played a part in Carrasquilla’s ouster, it wasn’t the only factor. He has declined to elaborate, while defending the decision.

"Parents are entitled to know anytime their child is being taught a controversial topic and picture,” Bishop said in an interview with Slate online magazine.

Several parents and teachers plan to protest Carrasquilla's exit at Monday night's school board meeting, but Carrasquilla said she isn't sure she would take the job back even if it were offered.

“There's been such controversy and such upheaval,” she said. “I would really have to consider, ‘Is this truly what is best?’”

Marla Stone, head of humanities studies at the American Academy in Rome, said the Florida incident was another episode in escalating U.S. culture wars and questioned how the statue could be considered so controversial as to warrant a prior warning.

“What we have here is a moral crusade against the body, sexuality, and gender expression and an ignorance of history,” Stone said in an email. “The incident is about fear, fear of beauty, of difference, and of the possibilities embedded in art.”

Michelangelo Buonarroti sculpted the David between 1501-1504 after being commissioned by the Cathedral of Florence. The statue is the showpiece of the Accademia, and helps draw 1.7 million visitors each year to the museum.

"It is incredibly sought-after by Americans who want to do selfies and enjoy the beauty of this statue,” Director Hollberg said.

The museum, like many in Europe, is free for student groups. There was no indication that any trip would be subsidized by the city or museum. ___

Spencer reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

AOC said the story of Rosa Parks is 'too woke' for the GOP after mention of her race was removed from teaching materials

Story by kvlamis@insider.com (Kelsey Vlamis) • Thursday

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) speaks at a press conference urging the inclusion of the Civilian Climate Corps., a climate jobs program, in the budget reconciliation bill, outside of the U.S. Capitol on July 20, 2021 in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images© Provided by Business Insider
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized the GOP-backed Parents Bill of Rights Act on Thursday.
She said the bill could lead to banning books similar to legislation on the state level.
Her comments came after a publisher in Florida removed mention of Parks's race from draft teaching materials.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the story of civil rights icon Rosa Parks was "too woke" for the Republican party during an impassioned speech from the House floor on Thursday.

The New York Democrat was speaking out against the Parents Bill of Rights Act, which House Republicans are expected to pass on Friday. The education oversight bill seeks to give parents more of a say in education, and would require public schools to make materials like curriculum and library books available online, as well as the school budget.

"But before they claim that this is not about banning books and not about harming the LGBT community, let's just look at the impacts of similar Republican legislation that has already passed on the state level. Look at these books that have already been banned due to Republican measures," Ocasio-Cortez said before holding up several books.

"'The Life of Rosa Parks' — this apparently is too woke by the Republican Party," she said, referencing a book by Kathleen Connors.

The book, which tells the story of Parks, a Black woman who refused to give up her seat to a white person, was among 176 titles banned in Florida's Duval County, according to the nonprofit PEN America. The Duval County Public Schools district at the time said the books on the list had not been banned but were under review.

In another incident, a textbook publisher used in Florida schools removed references to Parks's race in a draft lesson plan in an effort to comply with the state's Stop WOKE Act, legislation pushed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that limits instruction related to race and gender in schools. The Florida Department of Education later said the publisher was wrong to remove mention of Parks's race.

100-Year-Old Grandmother Slams Florida's Book Bans in Powerful Speech

Christopher Wiggins
Sun, March 26, 2023 

Grace Linn

At a Florida school board meeting, a 100-year-old woman spoke passionately, invoking her late husband, who died fighting the Nazis during World War II, against book bans. Her speech captured hearts and minds after the video of the encounter went viral online.

On Tuesday, hundreds of parents and grandparents filled the Martin County School Board meeting to demand the return of at least 80 titles to the public schools’ libraries. As a result of a complaint filed by parent Julie Marshall, the books were removed from school media centers due to their sexual content or perceived racist themes.

Schools’ responses to book challenges depend on state and local policies. For example, once a challenge has been filed, media specialists must remove books until the challenge has been resolved. In addition, state law mandates that media specialists ensure that library books are age-appropriate and free of pornography.

Introducing herself to the Martin County School Board, the centenarian who once taught senior citizens computer skills at the local high school made her point quickly.

“I am Grace Linn,” she said. “I am a hundred years young. I’m here to protest our school’s district book-banning policy. My husband, Robert Nicoll, was killed in action in World War II at a very young age. He was only 26, defending our democracy, Constitution, and freedoms.”

Eight days before the Normandy invasion, the unit that her husband commanded was bombed and strafed by Nazi planes, the Daily Beast reports. She was seven months pregnant when he was first declared missing in action. Three days after their daughter, Nicci, was born, she received a telegram saying he had died. Linn later received a picture that her husband had brought with him to Europe, but his remains could not be found.

“One of the freedoms that the Nazis crushed was the freedom to read the books they banned,” she said. “They stopped the free press and banned and burned books. The freedom to read, which is protected by the First Amendment, is our essential right and duty of our democracy. Even so, it is continually under attack by both the public and private groups who think they hold the truth.”

Seeing a handmade quilt being unfurled behind her, Linn explained its significance.

“In response to the book banning throughout our country and Martin County last year—during the time I was 99—I have created this quilt,” she said. “To remind all of us that these few of so many more books that are banned or targeted need to be proudly displayed and protected and read if you choose to.”

Linn did not mince words when it came to why she was there.

“Banning books and burning books are the same. Both are done for the same reason—fear of knowledge. Fear is not freedom. Fear is not liberty. Fear is control. My husband died as a father of freedom,” she said.

“I am a mother of liberty. Banned books need to be proudly displayed and protected from school boards like this. Thank you very much,” she concluded.

PEN America found that between 2021-2022 there were 565 books banned in Florida schools. Many of these books have LGBTQ+ themes or subjects and have been cracked down on due to the state's notorious "dont' say gay" law.

Watch Grace Linn’s incredible speech below.

Martin County School Board - Regular School Board Meeting www.youtube.com

Parent thanks Utah for book banning law that makes it 'so much easier' to challenge the 'sex-ridden' Bible

Kenneth Niemeyer
Sun, March 26, 2023 


A Utah parent asked that the Bible be removed from a high school because of its "sex-ridden" nature.

The state lawmaker who sponsored the bill said the request was a "mockery" of the law.

Laws banning certain kinds of books have plagued multiple states in recent years.

A Utah parent said that a book ban law passed in the state made it "much easier" to request that the Bible be removed from schools for its "sex-ridden" content.

According to a complaint filed against Davis High School in December 2022, recently obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune, the unnamed parent thanked the state legislature for making it "way more efficient" to request book bans.

"Now we can all ban books and you don't even need to read them or be accurate about it," the complaint says, with just a hint of sarcasm. "Heck, you don't even need to see the book!"

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, signed H.B. 374 — also called the Sensitive Materials in Schools Act — into law in March 2022. The bill bans books with "pornographic or indecent" material from schools and school libraries. Critics of the bill say it has been used to disproportionately target books written by people of color and books with LGBTQ themes.

Book bans have plagued US schools in recent years across multiple states, including Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas and Florida. In September 2022, the Oklahoma education secretary threatened to revoke the teaching license of a teacher who gave her students a link to the Brooklyn Library's banned books database.

Utah Parents United — a conservative parents group that pushes for book bans in schools — has requested that some books be removed from Davis High School, which is about 20 miles north of Salk Lake City, according to the complaint.

"I noticed there's a gap, though," the parent said in the complaint. "Utah Parents United left off one of the most sex-ridden books around: The Bible. Incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide."

The parent said that the legislature would "no doubt find" that the Bible violates the state's new law because it has "'no serious values for minors because it's pornographic by our new definition."

"Get this PORN out of our schools! If the books that have been banned so far are any indication for way lesser offenses, this should be a slam dunk," the parent wrote in the complaint.

State Rep. Ken Ivory, a Republican who sponsored the bill, told The Tribune that the request to ban the Bible from Davis High School was "antics that drain school resources." Ivory did not immediately return Insider's request for comment on Sunday.

"For people to minimize that, and to make a mockery of it, is very sad," Ivory said, according to the paper.

The Davis School District and Utah Parents United did not immediately return Insider's request for comment on Sunday. Utah Parents United told The Tribune in a statement that "we believe in following the law."

"That's all we're asking schools to do," the group said, according to the paper.

Read the original article on Insider