A pizza shop owner is sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for threatening workers with deportation



Stavros Papantoniadis, owner of Stash’s Pizza, a Boston sanitary grade certificate after inspection by the Health Division of the Inspectional Services Department on Nov 2, 2016, in Boston. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, File)

BY STEVE LEBLANC
 October 28, 2024

BOSTON (AP) — The owner of two Boston-area pizza shops convicted of forced labor for using physical violence and threats of reprisal or deportation against employees living in the country illegally has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison.

Stavros Papantoniadis, 49, of Westwood — the owner of Stash’s Pizza, a Massachusetts pizzeria chain — was sentenced Friday in federal court to 102 months in prison, one year of supervised release and ordered to pay a $35,000 fine.

Papantoniadis forced or attempted to force six victims — five men and one woman — to work for him and comply with excessive workplace demands through violent physical abuse; threats of violence and serious harm; and repeated threats to report the victims to immigration authorities for deportation, according to prosecutors.

In June, a jury convicted Papantoniadis of three counts of forced labor and three counts of attempted forced labor. Papantoniadis has remained in custody since his arrest in March 2023.

A lawyer for Papantoniadis said he’s pursuing a new trial and an appeal.

“Although the judge saw fit to sentence him slightly beneath the guidelines, we are disappointed in the length of the sentence,” Carmine Lepore said in an email. “The sentencing guidelines applicable to this case are more appropriate for human traffickers and sexual servitude defendants.”

Acting United States Attorney Joshua Levy said Papantoniadis was driven by greed to prey on his workers.

“Labor trafficking exploits the vulnerable through fear and intimidation, all in pursuit of the almighty buck. That is what Stavros Papantoniadis did when he violated the rights of the people working in his restaurants,” Levy said.

“He deliberately hired foreign nationals who lacked authorization to work in the United States and then turned their lack of immigration status against them, threatening them with deportation and violence to keep them under his control,” he added.

Papantoniadis thinly staffed his pizza shops, and deliberately hired workers without immigration status to work behind the scenes, for 14 or more hours per day and as many as seven days per week, investigators said.

To control the undocumented workers, he made them believe that he would physically harm them or have them deported and monitored them with surveillance cameras. When Papantoniadis learned that one victim planned to quit, he choked him, causing that victim to flee the pizza shop.

When another worker tried to leave and drive away from one of Papantoniadis’ pizza shops, Papantoniadis chased the victim down Route 1 in Norwood, Massachusetts, and falsely reported the victim to the local police to pressure the victim to return to work at the pizza shop, prosecutors said.

Europe’s human rights watchdog urges Cyprus to let migrants stuck in UN buffer zone seek asylum


A refugee man stands in front of tent at a camp inside the U.N controlled buffer zone that divide the north part of the Turkish occupied area from the south Greek Cypriots at Aglantzia area in the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Aug, 9, 2024.

 (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)

BY MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS
 October 30, 2024

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A senior official with Europe’s top human rights watchdog has urged the government of ethnically divided Cyprus to allow passage to nearly three dozen asylum seekers out of a U.N.-controlled buffer zone where they have been stranded in tents for months.

Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a letter released on Wednesday that despite receiving food, water and other aid, some 35 people, including young children, continue to face “poor living conditions” that make it difficult for them to obtain items such as formula milk and diapers for babies.

The migrants, who come from countries including Syria, Iran, Sudan, Afghanistan and Cameroon are stuck in a buffer zone that separates the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north of the Eastern Mediterranean island nation and the Greek Cypriot south where the internationally recognized government is seated.

In a letter addressed to Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, O’Flaherty said the migrants’ prolonged stay in such conditions is likely to affect their mental and physical health, as illustrated by the suicide attempts of two women.

Cyprus breached right of 2 Syrian cousins to seek asylum, European court says

O’Flaherty said he acknowledged the “seriousness and complexity” of Cypriot authorities’ efforts to stem the flow of migrants crossing the buffer zone from north to south to seek asylum.

But he said this doesn’t mean Cypriot authorities can ignore their obligations under international law to offer migrants “effective access to asylum procedures and to adequate reception conditions.”

O’Flaherty’s letter comes a couple of months after the U.N. refugee agency had also urged the Cypriot government to let the migrants seek asylum.

Migrant crossings from the north to the south have dropped precipitously in recent months after Cypriot authorities enacted a series of stringent measures including the installation of cameras and special police patrols along sections of the 180-kilometer (120 mile) long buffer zone.

The Cyprus government ceded control of the buffer zone to U.N. peacekeepers after battle lines stabilized in the wake of a 1974 Turkish invasion that triggered by a coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece. Cypriot authorities have consistently said they would not permit the buffer zone to become a gateway for an illegal migration influx that put “severe strain” on the island’s asylum system.

Earlier this year, Cyprus suspended the processing of asylum applications from Syrian nationals after granting international protection to 14,000 Syrians in the last decade.

Christodoulides underscored the point to O’Flaherty in a reply letter, saying that Cypriot authorities are obligated to do their utmost to crack down on people-smuggling networks moving people from mainland Turkey to northern Cyprus and then to the south.

It’s understood that all the migrants have Turkish residency permits and arrived in the north aboard scheduled flights.

The Cypriot president said authorities will “make every effort” in accordance with international law “to prevent the normalization of irregular crossings” through the buffer zone.

Regarding the stranded asylum seekers, Christodoulides said the government is offering supplies and healthcare and assured O’Flaherty that “we will resolve this matter within the next few weeks,” without elaborating.

The Cypriot president also defended patrols that marine police vessels conduct in international waters to thwart boat loads of migrants reaching the island by sea. He said those patrols fully comply with international law and rejected allegations that marine police are engaging in seaborne “pushbacks” of migrant boats.

Earlier this month, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Cyprus violated the right of two Syrian nationals to seek asylum in the island nation after keeping them, and more than two dozen other people, aboard a boat at sea for two days before sending them back to Lebanon.

O’Flaherty asked Christodoulides to ensure that all Cypriot seaborne operations abide by the obligations flowing from the court ruling and to carry out independent probes into allegations of “unlawful summary returns and of ill-treatment” of migrants on land and at sea.

2 journalists killed in separate incidents in Mexico within 24 hours




Relative and friends of slain journalist Mauricio Solis stand next to his coffin during his wake in Uruapan, Mexico, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. 

(AP Photo/Armando Solis)

Loved ones and colleagues mourned Wednesday a murdered journalist whose Facebook news page covered the violent western Mexico state of Michoacan. Mauricio Solís of the online journal Minuto por Minuto was shot to death by gunmen late Tuesday, just moments after he conducted a sidewalk interview with the mayor of the city of Uruapan. State prosecutors said a second person was wounded in the shooting 

(AP/Armando Solís)

Relative and friends of slain journalist Mauricio Solis carry his coffin during his wake in Uruapan, Mexico, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Armando Solis)

 October 30, 2024


MEXICO CITY (AP) — The U.N. human rights office in Mexico said Wednesday journalists in Mexico need more protection, after gunmen killed a man whose Facebook news page covered the violent western Mexico state of Michoacan.

Then less than 24 hours later an entertainment reporter in the western city of Colima was killed inside a restaurant she owned.

Journalist Mauricio Solís of the news page Minuto por Minuto was shot to death late Tuesday just moments after he conducted a sidewalk interview with the mayor of the city of Uruapan (ooh-roo-WAH-pan). State prosecutors said a second person was wounded in the shooting.

Solís had just finished an interview on the street outside city hall with Mayor Carlos Manzo. Manzo told local media he had walked away and “two minutes later, I think, and just a matter of meters away, we heard gunshots, four or five gunshots.”

“We sought cover because we thought the attack was aimed at us,” Manzo said. “After a few minutes we found out that Mauricio was the one they attacked.”

Manzo said he could not rule out a connection between the interview and the killing.

The U.N. rights office said Solís was at least the fifth journalist killed in Mexico this year. It said he had previously reported security problems related to his work. His Facebook page reported on community events and the drug cartel violence that has wracked the city.

“His killing is a wake-up call to defend the right to information and freedom of expression in Mexico,” the office wrote.

An increasing number of the journalists killed in Mexico have been self-employed and reported for local Facebook and online news sites.

Uruapan is the nearest large city to Michoacan’s avocado-growing region, and it has been the scene of drug cartel extortions and turf battles between gangs. The cartels demand protection money from local avocado and lime orchards, cattle ranches and almost any other business.

Solís was reporting on a suspicious fire at a local market just before the shooting. Gangs have sometimes burned businesses that refuse to pay extortion demands.

Then on Wednesday afternoon, entertainment reporter Patricia Ramírez González was found with serious injuries inside her Colima restaurant and died at the scene, according to the Colima state prosecutor’s office.

Local media said Ramírez, who was better known as Paty Bunbury, published a blog on local entertainment and was a contributor to a Colima newspaper.

The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned both killings and called for transparent investigations.
___

The owners of a New Zealand volcano that erupted in 2019, killing 22 people, appeal their conviction

HOW DO YOU OWN A VOLCANO?!

 In photo provided by Michael Schade, tourists on a boat look at the eruption of the volcano on White Island, New Zealand, Dec. 9, 2019. (Michael Schade via AP, File)

FILE - Plumes of steam rise above White Island off the coast of Whakatane, New Zealand, on Dec. 11, 2019, following a volcanic eruption on Dec. 9. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)

BY CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-MCLAY
 October 29, 2024


WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The owners of an island volcano in New Zealand that erupted in 2019, killing 22 people, launched an appeal on Tuesday against their criminal conviction for violating safety laws, arguing that tour operators — rather than their company — were responsible for the safety of visitors to Whakaari, also known as White Island.

Whakaari Management, a company owned by brothers Andrew, Peter and James Buttle, was found guilty last October of a charge brought by New Zealand’s workplace safety regulator of failing to protect visitors to the island. It was ordered to pay millions of dollars in fines and restitutions to victims of the volcanic eruption, who were tourists from a cruise ship, and their local guides.

The company in March filed an appeal. On Tuesday, lawyer Rachael Reed told the High Court in Auckland that the trial judge had erred when he ruled the volcano’s owners were the managers or controllers of a workplace under the law — and were therefore responsible for mitigating health and safety risks to anyone present.

The company only granted access to the volcano, Reed said, and expected the tour operators to manage the safety of tourists there.

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“Just like any landowner, it had the ability to and did grant the right of access to the land through licenses. That is what it did,” she told the court, referencing the company. “It did not run the tours. It did not direct or supervise the tours.”

White Island, the tip of an undersea volcano also known by its Māori name Whakaari, was a popular tourist destination before the eruption. There were 47 tourists and tour guides — mostly from the U.S. and Australia — on the island when superheated steam blew, killing some people instantly and leaving others with agonizing burns.

The disaster drew attention to the natural hazards around which much of New Zealand’s adventure tourism industry operates and prompted tighter laws for tour companies after survivors of the eruption said they had not been told the active volcano was dangerous before their guided walk to the crater.

After a three-month trial last year, a judge found the company guilty of health and safety failings in the period before the eruption. In his ruling, Judge Evangelos Thomas said Whakaari Management had failed to undertake a risk assessment despite being aware of an eruption three years earlier.

Judge Thomas said the company should have sought expert advice about the dangers and either stopped the tours entirely or put controls in place. He dismissed a second charge against the company.

Charges were brought by New Zealand’s workplace safety regulator against 13 organizations and people, including the owners’ company. Some pleaded guilty, including three companies that operated helicopter tours, one that operated boat tours, a scenic flight operator and the New Zealand scientific agency GNS Science. Charges against others were dropped.

In the three-day appeal this week, Justice Simon Moore is expected to hear further submissions from lawyers for Whakaari Management before arguments from the regulator. Moore told the court that any error found by the trial judge must rise to the level of a miscarriage of justice for the appeal to be successful.

CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-McLAY
Graham-McLay is an Associated Press reporter covering regional and national stories about New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands by putting them in a global context. She is based in Wellington.

Argentina hit by massive transport strike

Yearly inflation stood at 209 percent in September.

By AFP
October 30, 2024

Canceled flights are highlighted in red during a massive transit strike in Argentina, aimed at protesting President Javier Milei's economic policies, at the at the Jorge Newbery Metropolitan Airport in Buenos Aires on October 30, 2024 -

 Copyright AFP MARCOS BRINDICCI

Planes, trains, trucks and taxis ground to a halt in Argentina on Wednesday in a major one-day strike over President Javier Milei’s austerity policies.

The unions called the protest over Milei’s plans to privatize national flag carrier Aerolineas Argentinas and to denounce spiraling poverty levels since he took office late last year.

Over a million passengers were affected by the industrial action, which saw over 1,800 trains canceled, according to Trenes Argentinos, the state-owned rail operator in Buenos Aires.

Aerolineas Argentinas said that 263 flights had been affected, impacting around 27,700 passengers.

Metro drivers in Buenos Aires and ferry operators also took part in the strike, which saw activists block roads in parts of the country and some public sector workers also walk off the job.

The main bus drivers’ union, which did not participate, said it would go on strike on Thursday.

“A significant section of the population is having a hard time,” Pablo Moyano, a leader of the CGT, Argentina’s main labor federation, told Radio 10.

He said the strike also aimed to defend the “sovereignty” of Argentina’s transport sector and prevent state companies from being sold to foreign investors “for a few bucks.”

Milei, who wielded a chainsaw on the campaign trail last year as a symbol of his plan to slash public spending, has cut energy and transport subsidies and thousands of public sector jobs.

His policies have produced Argentina’s first budget surplus in 15 years but have also been blamed for plunging the country into a deep recession and driving the proportion of Argentines living in poverty up 11 points in six months to 52.9 percent.

And while inflation has slowed in recent months, it remains stubbornly high.

Yearly inflation stood at 209 percent in September.

Report says crowd-sourced fact checks on X fail to address flood of US election misinformation


FILE - Workers install lighting on an “X” sign atop the company headquarters, formerly known as Twitter, in downtown San Francisco, July 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

BY BARBARA ORTUTAY
October 30, 2024

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — X’s crowd-sourced fact-checking program, called Community Notes, isn’t addressing the flood of U.S. election misinformation on Elon Musk’s social media platform, according to a report published Wednesday by a group that tracks online speech.

The nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate analyzed the Community Notes feature and found that accurate notes correcting false and misleading claims about the U.S. elections were not displayed on 209 out of a sample of 283 posts deemed misleading — or 74%.

Misleading posts that did not display Community Notes even when they were available included false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that voting systems are unreliable, CCDH said.

In the cases where Community Notes were displayed, the original misleading posts received 13 times more views than their accompanying notes, the group added.

Community Notes lets X users write fact checks on posts after the users are accepted as contributors to the program. The checks are then rated by other users based on their accuracy, sources, how easily they are to understand, and whether they use neutral language. The program was launched in 2021 by the previous leadership of the site — then known as Twitter — and was called Birdwatch. Musk renamed it Community Notes after he took over the site in 2022.

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Last year, X sued CCDH, blaming the group for the loss of “tens of millions of dollars” in advertising revenue after it documented an increase in hate speech on the site. The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge in March.

Keith Coleman, a vice president of product at X who oversees Community Notes, said in a statement that the program “maintains a high bar to make notes effective and maintain trust across perspectives, and thousands of election and politics related notes have cleared that bar in 2024. In the last month alone, hundreds of such notes have been shown on thousands of posts and have been seen tens of millions of times. It is because of their quality that notes are so effective.”

San Francisco-based X also pointed to external academic research that has shown Community Notes to be trustworthy and effective.

Imran Ahmed, the CEO of CCDH, however, said the group’s research “suggests that X’s Community Notes are little more than a Band Aid on a torrent of hate and disinformation that undermines our democracy and further polarizes our communities.”

Inspired by Harris, many Black sorority and fraternity members are helping downballot races

Linda Chapman of Waterbury, left, a member of the Zeta Phi Beta, talks with U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn. at a Souls to the Polls voting rally at Grace Baptist Church Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in Waterbury, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Alderman Sean Mosley, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, speaks at a Souls to the Polls voting rally at Grace Baptist Church on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in Waterbury, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Carolyn Highsmith, a member of Theta Epsilon Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority in New Haven, listens to speakers at a Souls to the Polls voting rally at Grace Baptist Church Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in Waterbury, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)


Linda Chapman of Waterbury, left, a member of the Zeta Phi Beta, talks with U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn. at a Souls to the Polls voting rally at Grace Baptist Church, Oct. 26, 2024, in Waterbury, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

BY SUSAN HAIGH
Updated 10:07 PM MDT, October 30, 2024Share


HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes isn’t a member of the historically Black sororities and fraternities known as the “Divine Nine.”

But throughout her hotly contested reelection campaign this year, Hayes, the first Black woman to represent Connecticut in Congress, has sometimes felt like she’s a fellow soror, the term used by Black Greek organizations for sorority sisters. On their own, members have shown up to call voters, organize fundraisers, knock on doors, cheer Hayes on at campaign events and even offer pro bono legal help.

“I had people from Massachusetts come in to volunteer,” said Hayes, a Democrat who is seeking a fourth term. “I’ve had people who had previously been considering going to a battleground state like Pennsylvania and are saying, ‘No, we’re going to stay right here and help out in this race in Connecticut.’”

Downballot candidates like Hayes — particularly Black women — have benefited from a surge in support this year from volunteers who happen to be members of Black Greek organizations, many energized by Kamala Harris’ presidential run. The vice president is a longtime member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, which was founded at her alma matter, Howard University, in 1908. Harris pledged AKA as a senior at Howard in 1986.

Collectively known as the National Pan-Hellenic Council, the nine historically Black sororities and fraternities are nonpartisan and barred from endorsing candidates because of their not-for-profit status. The organizations focus on voter registration drives, civic engagement and nonelectoral initiatives and are careful not to show favor to a particular candidate. But many of the groups’ members, as individuals, have been “extremely active” in federal and state races around the country this year, said Jaime R. Harrison, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

“I think that’s a part of the Kamala Harris effect,” Harrison said during a recent visit to Connecticut.

There were women affiliated with all the D9 sororities on a recent get-out-the-vote bus tour through New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland to support Black women on the ballot.

Along with other volunteers, they knocked on hundreds of doors, made thousands of calls and sent out hundreds of postcards, urging people to vote. The trip was organized by the Higher Heights for America PAC, a nearly 13-year-old organization that works to elect progressive Black women.

Members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. showed off their crimson and cream colors while stumping in Maryland for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks, a fellow Delta who is in a closely watched race against former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.

Volunteers who are D9 sorority members also campaigned for Democratic U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha who is running for the U.S. Senate. If both candidates were elected, it would mark the first time two Black women have served in the Senate simultaneously.

Latosha Johnson, a social worker from Hartford, recently participated in a get-out-the-vote phone banking session for Hayes along with other Black women who, like her, are members of Delta Sigma Theta. She said there’s a realization among many Black and brown voters that the stakes in the election are particularly high. And if Harris wins, she’ll need allies in Congress, Johnson said.

“If we don’t get her a Congress that’s going to be able to move things,” Johnson said, “that becomes hard.”

Hayes is in a rematch against former Republican George Logan, a former state senator who identifies as Afro-Latino but has not seen an outpouring of support from D9 members, according to his campaign.

Both Harris and former President Donald Trump are courting Black voters in the final days of the presidential race. Harris’ campaign has expressed concern about a lack of voting enthusiasm among Black men.

While Republicans have made some inroads with Black voters, two-thirds still identify as Democrats. About 2 in 10 identify as independents. About 1 in 10 identify as Republicans, according to a recent poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

Voter registration and nonpartisan get-out-the-vote efforts by the sororities and fraternities, coupled with the mobilization of individual members, could potentially have an impact on some of these races, said Darren Davis, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame.

“In local elections, in statewide elections, where the Black vote is more powerful and concentrated as opposed to in national elections, D9 organizations have this tremendous untapped ability to reach and to mobilize disaffected voters,” Davis said.

The D9 fraternal groups were founded on U.S. college campuses in the early 1900s when Black students faced racial prejudice and exclusion that prevented them from joining existing white sororities and fraternities. In a tradition that continues today, the organizations focused on mutual upliftment, educational and personal achievement, civic engagement and a lifelong commitment to community service.

Many of the fraternities and sororities served as training grounds for future civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.

Alpha Phi Alpha member Brandon McGee is a former Democratic state representative who now leads Connecticut’s Social Equity Council on cannabis. As the father of two daughters, he is excited about helping Harris and Hayes win.


“I want my babies to see me working for a female who looks like their mother. And even beyond looking like their mother, a female,” he said. “And I want my babies to know, ‘You can do the same thing.’”

SUSAN HAIGH
Haigh covers the Connecticut General Assembly, state government, politics, public policy matters and more for The Associated Press. She has worked for The AP since 2002.

US Abortion-rights groups outspend opponents by more than 6 to 1 in ballot measure campaigns


FILE - Abortion rights advocates hold a rally in support of the “Yes On 4" campaign in downtown Orlando, Fla., April 13, 2024. (Willie J. Allen Jr./Orlando Sentinel via AP, File)

BY GEOFF MULVIHILL
October 30, 2024

The groups promoting ballot measures to add amendments to the constitutions in nine states that would enshrine a right to abortion have raised more than $160 million.

That’s nearly six times what their opponents have brought in, The Associated Press found in an analysis of campaign finance data compiled by the watchdog group Open Secrets and state governments.

The campaign spending reports are a snapshot in time, especially this late in the campaigns, when contributions are rolling in for many.

The cash advantage is showing up in ad spending, where data from the media tracking firm AdImpact shows campaigns have spent more than three times as much as opponents in ads on TV, streaming services, radio and websites.

Abortion-rights supporters have prevailed on all seven ballot measures that have gone before voters since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, which ended a nationwide right to abortion and opened the door for the bans and restrictions that are now being enforced in most Republican-controlled states

Most of the money is going to Florida

Florida is the behemoth in this year’s abortion ballot-measure campaigns.

Proponents of the measure have raised more than $75 million and opponents $10 million. Combined, that’s nearly half the national total.

The state Republican Party is using additional funds, including from corporations across the country, to urge voters to reject the measure. Including that, supporters still lead in ad-buying: $60 million to $27 million.

The total spent as of Tuesday is about the same amount spent on the state’s U.S. Senate race.

The amendment would overturn a ban on most abortions after the first six weeks of pregnancy — when women often don’t know they’re pregnant — that was signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and took effect in May. DeSantis’ administration has taken steps to thwart the campaign for the amendment.

Florida’s ballot measure rules give opponents a boost: Passage requires approval from 60% of voters instead of a simple majority.

An influx of funding arrives in South Dakota

South Dakota is an outlier, with a significant funding advantage for anti-abortion groups.

According to an Associated Press analysis of state campaign disclosures, they’ve raised about $2 million compared with abortion-rights supporters’ $1 million.

There was a big change last week when the abortion-rights group Dakotans for Health reported that it had received $540,000 from Think Big America, a fund launched by Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzker, a Democrat. The fund’s director, Mike Ollen, said that’s helping ads get seen more widely in what could be a close race.

Before that, national abortion-rights groups, including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, had mostly ignored South Dakota because, they said, the ballot measure doesn’t go far enough. It would allow regulations of abortions after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy if they relate to the health of the woman.

“We find ourselves being caught between being way too extreme on the right end of the spectrum and not extreme enough on the left end of the spectrum,” said Rick Weiland, co-founder of Dakotans for Health. “We think we’re right in the middle.”

The anti-abortion campaign in South Dakota, like those elsewhere, is focused largely on portraying the amendment as too extreme. The Think Big money provided a new chance to do that.

“South Dakotans don’t want extreme Chicago, San Francisco, and New York views tainting our great state,” Life Defense Fund spokesperson Caroline Woods said in a statement.

One anti-abortion group reported a $25,000 contribution last week from South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem’s political action committee.


Funding is close to even in a state with competing ballot measures

Nebraska has competing ballot measures.

One would allow abortion until viability, considered to be somewhere after 20 weeks. The other would bar abortion in most cases after the first 12 weeks — echoing current state law, but also allowing for a stricter one.

The side pushing to keep restrictions is leading the fundraising race, with at least $9.8 million. One prominent family has supplied more than half of that. Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts has contributed more than $1 million, and his mother, Marlene Ricketts, has chipped in $4 million.

The campaign for more access has raised at least $6.4 million.

In some states, the opposition has been quiet

In most places, abortion-rights supporters have a big fundraising lead.

In Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana and Nevada, the opponents had each reported raising less than $2 million before Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the groups promoting the questions in those states have all collected at least $5 million.

The ballot questions have different circumstances.

Missouri’s amendment would open the door to blocking the state’s current ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Proponents of the measure have raised more than $30 million to opponents’ $1.5 million.

In Arizona, passing the abortion amendment would roll back a ban after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy and instead allow it until fetal viability, and later in some cases. The state’s Supreme Court ruled this year that an 1864 ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy could be enforced, but the Legislature promptly repealed it.

Colorado is one of the few states that already has no gestational limits on when during pregnancy abortion can be obtained. Montana allows abortion until viability.

Opponents of Nevada’s measure have not reported any spending. To take effect, the amendment needs to pass this year and again in 2026.

Fundraising has been low on both sides in Maryland, though Pritzker’s fund says it’s sending money there, and New York, where a ballot measure doesn’t mention abortion specifically but would bar discrimination based on “pregnancy outcomes and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”
Big contributions from national groups are one-sided

Liberal groups, including those that aren’t required to report who their donors are, are far more active in the campaigns than their anti-abortion counterparts.

The Fairness Project, which promotes progressive ballot measures, has pledged $30 million for this year’s abortion amendments. So far, $10 million in its contributions have shown up in campaign finance reports.

Several other abortion-rights groups have contributed $5 million or more. No single entity on the anti-abortion side has reported giving that much.

Groups that funded the majority of last year’s campaign against an Ohio abortion-rights amendment that voters approved are absent from this year’s list of big contributors.

The Concord Fund, part of a network of political groups centered around conservative legal activist Leonard Leo, didn’t show up in campaign finance reports until Wednesday, when a Missouri filing showed the group gave $1 million the day before to a group opposing the ballot measure there. Leo was a driving force in securing nominations of Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has not been active on abortion ballot measures this year, but it is pumping money into the presidential race in support of Republican Donald Trump.


“This is the most consequential fight for life before us,” SBA spokesperson Kelsey Pritchard said in a statement, noting that the group is aiming to spend $92 million in eight states in the presidential race.

Longtime music director at Michigan church fired for same-sex marriage

LGBTQ+ RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

Members of St. Francis Catholic Church in Traverse City, Mich., carry signs Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, to protest the firing of the parish music director. (Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle via AP)


Members of St. Francis Catholic Church in Traverse City, Mich., carry signs Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, to protest the firing of the parish music director. (Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle via AP)
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Members of St. Francis Catholic Church in Traverse City, Mich., carry signs Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, to protest the firing of the parish music director. (Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle via AP)

 October 30, 2024

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — The longtime music director at a northern Michigan church said he was fired just a few months before retirement after officials learned that he was in a same-sex marriage, a dismissal that has angered members and led to sidewalk protests by the choir.

“He’s extremely talented, he’s perfect on the piano, he has perfect pitch and because of him, I look forward to going to church every week,” said Bob Holden, a chorister at St. Francis Church in Traverse City.

“I’m divorced. Do I get thrown out next?” Holden told the Traverse City Record-Eagle.

Fred Szczepanski said he was fired on Oct. 18 by the Rev. Michael Lingaur for marrying his longtime partner in a same-sex ceremony in Nevada in 2020. The church confronted him after receiving a letter from an unnamed person.

Szczepanski had been music director for 34 years and planned to retire in January. His recorded voice greets people who call the parish office.

The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is a lifelong union between a man and a woman. It opposes gay marriage, though Pope Francis says priests can offer blessings to same-sex couples.

“We take employee privacy very seriously and are not able to disclose details about individual personnel matters,” the Diocese of Gaylord, which oversees St. Francis, said in a written statement.

On Sunday, protesters carried signs outside the church: “Love Not Hate,” “God Includes, Not Excludes,” and “Fired Not Retired.”


Choir members on Oct. 20 wore black, left their seats empty and refused to sing, the Record-Eagle reported.


“People are hurt, people are sad. In a time where there is so much controversy in the world, the church needs to be a place of peace, and instead it’s turmoil after turmoil,” church member Toni Stanfield said.

Second Japanese high court rules lack of same-sex marriage protections unconstitutional

LGBTQ+ RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS


A Tokyo High Court ruled that a lack of protections for same-sex marriage in Japan was unconstitutional, becoming the second high court to do so. 

File Photo by Jiji Press/EPA-EFE

Oct. 30 (UPI) -- The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday ruled that the government's refusal to recognize same-sex marriage was against the country's constitution, marking the second court to do so.

The court said the Japanese government's failure to protect same-sex marriage had "no rational basis" and has become a form of "legal discrimination based on sexual orientation."

The court cited Article 14 of the Constitution, which declares that everyone is equal under the law, and a paragraph of Article 24 stating that laws on marriage "shall be enacted from the standpoint of individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes."

Wednesday's ruling follows another by the Sapporo High Court in March, which backed a lower court's 2021 ruling that the lack of same-sex marriage protection violated Article 14.

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The Sapporo ruling also ruled the wording of the paragraph from article 24 could be interpreted to guarantee marriage for same-sex couples, countering the government's argument that the language excluded them.

"The degree of social acceptance for granting (same-sex couples) the same protection as heterosexuals has heightened considerably," Presiding Judge Sonoe Taniguchi said in her ruling, according to Kyodo News.


The plaintiffs took their case to the High Court after a Tokyo District Court in November rejected damages against the government while suggesting that the topic was one more suited to be resolved by the Japanese legislature.

The court, however, rejected the plaintiff's call for $6,500 in compensation from the government for not protecting same-sex marriage.

No court has approved financial compensation for plaintiffs in cases challenging the lack of same-sex marriage protection.

Taniguchi said in the ruling that the government could not be found liable to compensate plaintiffs as the Supreme Court has yet to rule on protections for same-sex marriage.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said during a press conference that introducing a same-sex marriage system "concerns the fundamentals of people's lives and is closely related to each parson's view of the family."