REST IN POWER

Pakistan’s iconic human rights defender I.A. Rehman dies
April 12, 2021

FILE - In this July 16, 2018 file photo, I.A. Rehman, center, an official from the Human Rights Commission addresses a news conference, in Islamabad, Pakistan. Rehman, an iconic Pakistani human rights defender and former editor, has died in the eastern city of Lahore after a brief illness his family said Monday, April 12, 2021. Rahman was 90. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — An iconic Pakistani human rights defender and journalist I.A. Rehman has died in the eastern city of Lahore after a brief illness, his family and friends said Monday. Rehman was 90. He spent his life defending human rights, opposing military dictators, fighting for the rule of law and democracy.

Rehman was also a strong voice for the country’s minorities, including Christians and Hindus.

He died of old age, high sugar, and blood pressure level, according to Harris Khalique, secretary-general at the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Rehman had been associated with the commission for a long time

Rehman worked as an editor for various newspapers before joining the commission. He regularly contributed articles for Pakistani newspapers.

Rehman was born in 1930 in Haryana in neighboring India before Pakistan got independence from British colonial rule in 1947. He was the author of three books an advocate of peace between Pakistan and India, the two South Asian nuclear rivals who have fought three wars since 1947.

Rehman campaigned for amendments to the country’s controversial blasphemy laws, which domestic and international rights groups say have often been used to intimidate religious minorities and to settle personal scores.

The reports of his death prompted an outpouring of grief on social media, with Cabinet ministers to the country’s opposition paying tributes to Rehman for his contribution to journalism and human rights. Among the mourners was Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who tweeted that the country had lost “a true icon.”

A longtime friend, human rights defender Afrasiab Khattak, tweeted that Rehman’s death marked “the end of an era.”

The U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Lahore also extended condolences to Rehman’s family and friends, calling him “a journalist and defender of human rights.”

Rehman, the statement said, “will inspire countless future generations.”

Rehman was expected to be buried in the city of Lahore later Monday.

India: Hindu festival turns to superspreader event as COVID infections soar

India is recording huge jumps in daily coronavirus infections while facing vaccine and hospital bed shortages. Loosely enforced restrictions are being blamed for fueling the soaring infection rate.



A festival on the Ganges river has reportedly led to thousands of COVID infections

India's coronavirus infection rates are rising exponentially, with the country registering over 200,000 new infections over the last 24 hours — twice as many as 10 days prior.

Experts say the harrowing trend can be traced back to two factors — extremely virulent mutations of the original virus, and the country's lax approach to restrictions on daily life to slow the spread of infection.

India is also struggling with vaccine shortages and has administered just 114 million jabs so far for a population of over 1 billion.

Now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in New Delhi has ordered the country's Serum Institute — a key global vaccine supplier — to stop exporting doses in order to vaccinate Indians first.

However, politicians are also wary of imposing nationwide lockdowns, cognizant of the devastating economic effect of the last lockdown in Spring 2020.

The state of Maharashtra and its capital, Mumbai, and the national capital, Delhi, are among a handful of regional governments that have imposed new restrictions.

Officials have so far refused to reimpose limits after they were almost entirely done away with at the beginning of 2021. As a result, crowds have flocked to sporting, political and religious events in huge numbers.

Hindu festival amid second wave

One event, the Kumbh Mela religious festival in the northern city of Haridwar, has already attracted nearly 5 million largely non-mask wearing Hindu pilgrims to the banks of the holy Ganges River this week.

Festival organizer Siddharth Chakrapani told AFP news agency "our faith is the biggest thing for us. It is because of that strong belief that so many people have come here to take a dip in Ganga. They believe that Maa (mother) Ganga will save them from this pandemic."

Officials in Haridwar said that on Monday and Tuesday alone they detected nearly 2,000 infections among festival goers.

LNJP Hospital's Suresh Kumar said new virus variants that evade testing were adding to the burden on India's healthcare system.

"People are not following the COVID guidelines. They are just careless," he told AFP.
Variants overload hospitals

The impact of India's vaccine shortage is being exacerbated by the effect of mutant coronavirus variants on younger people, who health officials say are showing up at hospitals in record numbers. Doctors say they are now seeing far more patients aged 45 and under.

"We are also seeing children under the ages of 12 and 15 being admitted with symptoms in the second wave. Last year, there were practically no children presenting symptoms," said Khusrav Bajan, a consultant at Mumbai's PD Hinduja National Hospital, told AFP

Doctors at the New Delhi-based All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) said that while patients infected with last year's strain could likely infect up to 4 of every 10 people they came into contact with, the new variant makes it possible to infect 9 of 10.

In the northern state of Punjab, a full 81% of those admitted to hospital have been found to be infected with the so-called UK variant.

"This virus is more infectious and more virulent," Dhiren Gupta, a senior physician at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi, told Reuters news agency.

Suresh Kumar, medical director at New Delhi's Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital (LNJP) — with 1,500 beds, one of India's largest COVID-only health institutions — told Reuters that the hospital is "overburdened" and at "full capacity.

RELIGION VS SCIENCE EVEN VEDIC SCIENCE
Huge gatherings at India’s Hindu festival as virus surges

By NEHA MEHROTRA and SHEIKH SAALIQ

April 12, 2021

Devotees take holy dips in the river Ganges during Shahi snan or a Royal bath at Kumbh mela, in Haridwar in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, Monday, April 12, 2021. As states across India are declaring some version of a lockdown to battle rising Covid cases as part of a nationwide second-wave, thousands of pilgrims are gathering on the banks of the river Ganga for the Hindu festival Kumbh Mela. The faithful believe that a dip in the waters of the Ganga will absolve them of their sins and deliver them from the cycle of birth and death. (AP Photo/Karma Sonam)

NEW DELHI (AP) — Tens of thousands of Hindu devotees gathered by the Ganges River for special prayers Monday, many of them flouting social distancing practices as the coronavirus spreads in India with record speed.

The Kumbh Mela, or pitcher festival, is one of the most sacred pilgrimages in Hinduism. The faithful congregate in the northern city of Haridwar and take a dip in the waters of the Ganges, which they believe will absolve them of their sins and deliver them from the cycle of birth and death.

The Kumbh Mela, which runs through April, comes during India’s worst surge in new infections since the pandemic began, with a seven-day rolling average of more than 130,000 new cases per day. Hospitals are becoming overwhelmed with patients, and experts worry the worst is yet to come.

Naga Sadhu or Naked Hindu holy men wait for the start of a procession towards the river Ganges for Shahi snan or a Royal bath during Kumbh mela, in Haridwar in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, Monday, April 12, 2021. 

Critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party say the festival has been allowed at a time when infections are skyrocketing because the government isn’t willing to anger Hindus, who are the party’s biggest supporters.

With the surge showing no sign of slowing, India’s confirmed infections since the pandemic began surpassed Brazil’s total on Monday to make it the second-worst hit country in the world.

The current surge has hit hardest in Western Maharashtra state, home to the financial capital Mumbai. The state has accounted for nearly half of the country’s new infections in the past two weeks.

Amid concerns the Kumbh Mela festival could turn into a superspreader event, Uttarakhand state’s chief minister, Tirath Singh Rawat, last week said “the faith in God will overcome the fear of the virus.”

Health experts had appealed for the festival to be canceled, but the government went ahead saying safety rules would be followed. There are concerns that pilgrims could get infected and then take the virus back to their cities and villages in other parts of the country.

Authorities in Haridwar said the length of the festival has been shortened from previous years, but it has been extremely difficult to implement social distancing measures. Coronavirus tests are mandatory for those entering the area.

“We are continuously appealing to people to follow COVID-19 appropriate behavior. But due to the huge crowd, it is practically not possible,” senior police officer Sanjay Gunjyal said.

Government critics have compared the government’s response to the festival to the response last year when Indian Muslims faced rising Islamophobia following accusations that an initial surge in infections was tied to a three-day meeting of an Islamic missionary group, the Tablighi Jamaat, in New Delhi.

A Naga Sadhu or Naked Hindu holy man smokes before taking a holy dips in the river Ganges Kumbh during Shahi snan or a Royal bath during mela, in Haridwar in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, Monday, April 12, 2021. 

Some leaders from Modi’s party and India’s freewheeling TV channels, which have long favored the government’s Hindu-nationalist policies, labeled Muslims as “jihadis” and “super spreaders” in March 2020 when the seven-day rolling average of coronavirus cases in the country was not even 200 per day. The blame triggered a wave of violence, business boycotts and hate speech toward Muslims.

India’s 200 million Muslims account for 14% of the population and are the largest minority group in the Hindu-majority nation.

The surge in India comes as the country’s vaccination drive appears to be struggling. Multiple Indian states have reported a shortage of doses even as the federal government has insisted that there’s enough in stock.

After a sluggish start, India is now vaccinating 3.6 million people on average daily, which is more than the United States. It has so far administered more than 103 million shots, the most in the world after the U.S. and China, but much lower than many countries per capita — still less than 6% of India’s population of nearly 1.4 billion people.

A woman talks to a Hindu holy man before the start of a procession for Shahi snan or a Royal bath during Kumbh mela, in Haridwar in the Indian state of Uttarakhand, Monday, April 12, 2021. 

Biden’s ambitious expansion of long-term care sparks debate

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

April 9, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is proposing a major expansion of the government’s role in long-term care, but questions are being raised over his using the low-income Medicaid program and piggybacking the whole idea on an infrastructure bill.

The White House infrastructure package includes $400 billion to accelerate a shift from institutional care to home and community services through the federal-state Medicaid program. The size of the financial commitment — about 17% of the $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal — leaves no doubt that Biden intends to put his mark on long-term care.

Biden is acting as the nation emerges from a pandemic that has taken a cruel toll on older people, particularly nursing home residents. Long-term care was always going to be a growing issue in an aging society like the United States. The pandemic has made it even more consequential.

“The most important thing that Biden did is to say that ‘Long-term care is a major priority in my administration,’” said Howard Gleckman, a retirement policy expert with the Urban Institute think tank. “At the 30,000-foot level, this is really important because the president says so.”

Below that, the White House has not spelled out much. A summary of Biden’s plan says the money would go to expand home and community-based services so more people could get care. A major goal would be to raise pay and benefits for workers, nearly all of whom are women, many from minority and immigrant communities. Wages now average around $12 an hour. The proposal would also permanently reauthorize a program within Medicaid that helps people move out of nursing homes and back into their communities.

But Medicaid remains a safety net program and that means middle-class people can face arduous challenges to qualify even if they have staggering expenses for long-term care. Because Biden is funneling his funding boost through Medicaid, that leaves out the middle class.

Biden “is the working-class guy, the middle-class guy ... he knows if we only focus on Medicaid, his core constituency is not going to be helped, unless they wipe out their assets,” said William Arnone, CEO of the nonpartisan National Academy of Social Insurance, which works on policy.

An alternative to Medicaid could resemble Social Security and Medicare, which have no income-based tests for benefits, Arnone added. But that would cost far more than Biden is proposing to spend. People often assume Medicare covers long-term care, but it does not.

Some Republicans have also questioned whether long-term care has any place in an infrastructure bill. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the White House plan a “liberal wish list” mislabeled as infrastructure. In rebuttal, Biden said infrastructure should include expanded services — not just roads and bridges — as part of what Americans need to “build a little better life, to be able to breathe a little bit.”

Medicaid spends about $200 billion a year on all long-term care needs, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Reflecting a growing sentiment that older adults should be able to remain in their homes, more than half the money goes to home and community-based care. The Biden bill would average out to an increase of $40 billion a year over 10 years.

About 4 million people receive home and community-based services, which are less expensive than nursing home care. But an estimated 800,000 are on waiting lists for such services. More than 1 million people live in nursing homes.

Policy consultant Brian Blase, a former Trump White House health care adviser, said a warning flag for Republicans is that Biden’s plan calls for upholding the right of care workers to unionize.

“It seems like it’s a boondoggle to create more union workers and through the unions funnel money back to the Democrats” via campaign contributions, said Blase.

That makes union officials bristle. “It’s just fundamentally unacceptable that federal dollars should go to pay for poverty-level jobs, and we have an opportunity to change that,” said Leslie Frane, a vice president of the Service Employees International Union, which represents many health care workers.

Stepping back, Republicans generally have no quarrel with prioritizing in-home services over nursing homes. “It is bipartisan to support people who would be eligible for Medicaid staying at home rather than going into institutions,” said Blase. However, loosening eligibility rules will lead to “runaway expenses,” he said.

The money in the infrastructure plan follows $12.7 billion for home and community services in Biden’s coronavirus relief law. Taking a leading role in Congress drafting the infrastructure sequel is Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.

“I’m going to do everything I can to help middle-class families,” Casey said. “What I’m trying to do is add dollars to Medicaid to serve more people. We got a foot in the door in the rescue bill with $12.7 billion, but obviously we’re going to need a lot more.”

Congressional officials said the approach that’s taking shape calls for increasing the federal contribution to states for home and community services while setting some basic national standards. Such standards could include the type and scope of services that states cover as well as a mechanism for raising pay for workers. They’re also looking at ideas such as creating state registries of qualified caregivers, which could be useful to middle-class people not eligible for Medicaid.

“There are certain issues related to long-term care that predate the pandemic and will be a challenge even after the pandemic,” Casey said. But the coronavirus “forces us to confront problems we’ve ignored too long in our long-term care system, and also to invest more in long-term care generally.”

Interior secretary steps into Utah public lands tug-of-war

By SOPHIA EPPOLITO

April 8, 2021


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U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland tours near ancient dwellings along the Butler Wash trail during a visit to Bears Ears National Monument Thursday, April 8, 2021, near Blanding, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — For decades, a public lands tug-of-war has played out over a vast expanse of southern Utah where red rocks reveal petroglyphs and cliff dwellings and distinctive twin buttes bulge from a grassy valley.

A string of U.S. officials has heard from those who advocate for broadening national monuments to protect the area’s many archaeological and cultural sites, considered sacred to surrounding tribes, and those who fiercely oppose what they see as federal overreach.

On Thursday, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland was the latest cabinet official to visit Bears Ears National Monument — and the first Indigenous one.

Haaland, a member of Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, met with tribes and elected officials at Bears Ears as she prepares to submit recommendations on whether to reverse President Donald Trump’s decision to downsize that site and Grand Staircase-Escalante, another Utah national monument.

“I know that decisions about public lands are incredibly impactful to the people who live nearby. But not just to us, not to just the folks who are here today, but people for generations to come,” Haaland told reporters during a news conference in the town of Blanding. “It’s our obligation to make sure that we protect lands for future generations so they can have the same experiences that the governor and I experienced today.”

Haaland listens during a news conference Thursday following her visit to Bears Ears National Monument. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

The visit underscores Haaland’s unique position as the first Native American to lead a department that has broad authority over tribal nations, as well as energy development and other uses for the country’s sprawling federal lands.

“She brings something that no other cabinet secretary has brought, which is that her Indigenous communities are coming with her in that room,” said Char Miller, a professor of environmental analysis at Pomona College.

Miller said the outcome of the negotiations will shed light on how the Biden administration plans to respond to other public lands disputes and will likely impact subsequent conversations with other states on natural resources.

Haaland faces competing interests: Tribes across the U.S. hailed her confirmation as a chance to have their voices heard and their land and rights protected, while Republican leaders have labeled her a “radical” who could, along with President Joe Biden, stunt oil and gas development and destroy thousands of jobs.

Pat Gonzales-Rogers, executive director of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, said he looked forward to Haaland seeking tribes’ input, which he called a “far cry” from her predecessors in the Trump administration.

He noted Haaland is familiar with the landscape — Bears Ears contains many sites of spiritual importance to New Mexico’s pueblos — but acknowledged she had a responsibility to hear from all sides.

“She is the interior secretary for all of us, and that also requires her to engage other groups.”

The coalition wants the monument restored to its original size, or even enlarged, but Gonzales-Rogers said he hoped Haaland’s visit would at least be a step toward a more certainty.

“All parties would like to see some permanence, and they don’t want it to vacillate between either administrations or political ideology,” he said.

Prominent Utah Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney and new Gov. Spencer Cox, have expressed concern with the review under Biden’s administration and demanded state leaders be involved. Haaland met with them, along with Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and U.S. Rep. Blake Moore during her visit.

Rep. Blake Moore, left, looks on as Sen. Mitt Romney speaks at a news conference Thursday in Blanding, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

The Utah delegation called on Biden to work with Congress and others toward a permanent legislative fix regarding the monuments’ borders and management, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

“Can we find the solutions? I think there is an opportunity for that, to provide the resources that are needed,” Cox told reporters Thursday. “But all of those things can only be done through legislation. It can’t be done through an executive order.”

Former President Barack Obama proclaimed Bears Ears a national monument in 2016. The site was the first to receive the designation at the specific request of tribes.

Its boundaries were downsized by 85% under the Trump administration, while Grand Staircase-Escalante was cut nearly in half. The reductions paved the way for potential coal mining, and oil and gas drilling on lands that were previously off-limits. Activity was limited because of market forces.

Since Trump downsized the monuments, more visitors have come to the sites and put natural and cultural resources at risk, said Phil Francis, chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.

“Every day that goes by leaves the irreplaceable resources at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase vulnerable to damage or destruction from looting, vandalism or other threats as a result of lack of protective management,” Francis said ahead of Haaland’s visit.

A section of ancient dwellings is seen during Thursday's tour along the Butler Wash trail at Bears Ears. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool)

Environmental, tribal, paleontological and outdoor recreation organizations are suing to restore the monuments’ original boundaries, arguing presidents don’t have legal authority to change monuments their predecessors created. On the flip side, Republicans have argued Democratic presidents misused the Antiquities Act signed by President Theodore Roosevelt to designate monuments beyond what’s necessary to protect archaeological and cultural resources.

Haaland will be a key player in deciding what comes next.

She has said she will follow Biden’s agenda, not her own, on oil and gas drilling, and told reporters at a briefing last week that her report to the president will reflect conversations with people who know and understand the area.

The administration has said the decision to review the monuments is part of an expansive plan to tackle climate change and reverse the Trump administration’s “harmful policies.”

But Mike Noel, a former state representative and vocal critic of expanding the monuments, said it would be a mistake for Biden’s administration to “go back and rub salt in the wounds” by reversing Trump’s action.

He said he fears that not allowing local and state officials to make these decisions will only further divide those involved.

“It’s never a good thing when decisions like this are made from Washington, D.C.,” Noel said. “I just think it’s being done wrong, and I hope that the new secretary recognizes that.”

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Eppolito is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Associated Press writers Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this story.

Honduran woman exits Utah church after 3 years in sanctuary

By SOPHIA EPPOLITO

4/15/2021

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Vicky Chavez poses for a photograph at the First Unitarian Church Thursday, April 15, 2021, in Salt Lake City. Chavez, a Honduran woman in the U.S. illegally who received sanctuary in a Salt Lake City church with her two young daughters for more than three years is now free to leave without risk of deportation. Chavez stepped outside First Unitarian Church for the first time in 1,168 days on Thursday as church congregants cheered. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — After over three years living in a Salt Lake City church to avoid being deported, Honduran immigrant Vicky Chavez stepped outside Thursday with tears in her eyes as church congregants and friends cheered, celebrating her newfound freedom.

Chavez and her two young daughters took sanctuary in First Unitarian Church in January 2018 after she said she fled an abusive boyfriend in Honduras and sought asylum in the United States but was denied.

Chavez entered the United States illegally in June 2014 and was ordered deported by a federal immigration judge in December 2016. After exhausting her appeals in January 2018, Chavez had a plane ticket home to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. She instead accepted an offer of sanctuary from the church.

Chavez said she received a notice from Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday that she had been granted a so-called a stay of removal, which limits her risk of being deported for a year.

“Vicky’s life is no longer on hold,” Rev. Tom Goldsmith, the church’s minister, told reporters. “She leaves this church with a full grasp of the English language, a couple of hundred friends and the confidence to pursue her dreams.”

Chavez thanked her community in the church for helping keep her and her daughters safe over the past 1,168 days and said she plans to remain in Utah.

“I have no words to thank them for giving me a safe home for over three years,” Chavez said. “Today I can say that I’m full of love and happy to have arrived here.”

Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson had tears in her eyes as she congratulated Chavez and called on citizens and elected leaders to have “more compassion” for members of their communities.

Chavez and her daughters were the first known immigrants to take sanctuary in Utah, according to local immigration advocates and the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

She and her daughters slept in a converted Sunday school room and spent most of their time in another room with a TV, an easel and games.

Skylar Anderson, Chavez’s attorney, said he was overjoyed for his client and her family but urged elected officials in Congress to prioritize changes for the nation’s immigration system and to make the process easier for those seeking asylum.

“There are millions of Vickys in this country — I’ve represented many of them,” Anderson said. “There aren’t enough churches to give sanctuary to all the Vickys of this country. This country needs to be that sanctuary.”

Alethea Smock, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had no comment Thursday about Chavez’ case.

In his first weeks in office, President Joe Biden signed several executive orders on immigration issues that undo his predecessor’s policies, though several Republican members of Congress are pushing legal challenges.

Others who have emerged from sanctuary since Biden took office include Jose Chicas, a 55-year-old El Salvador native, who left a church-owned house in Durham, North Carolina, on Jan. 22.

Alex Garcia, a father of five from Honduras, left a Mapplewood, Missouri church in February. Edith Espinal, a native of Mexico, left an Ohio church after more than three years.

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Eppolito is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Stone Mountain Park denies permit for Confederate event
April 13, 2021



FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2015, file photo, Confederate flag supporters climb Stone Mountain to protest what they believe is an attack on their Southern heritage during a rally at Stone Mountain Park in Stone Mountain, Ga. The Stone Mountain Memorial Association has denied a gathering permit from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who were looking to host their annual Confederate Memorial Day service at Stone Mountain Park outside Atlanta. The gathering was slated for Saturday, April 17, 2021, but a March 31 letter from memorial association CEO Bill Stephens denied the necessary permit, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. (AP Photo/John Amis, File)

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (AP) — The Stone Mountain Memorial Association has denied a gathering permit from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who were looking to host their annual Confederate Memorial Day service at Stone Mountain Park outside Atlanta.

The gathering was slated for Saturday but a March 31 letter from memorial association CEO Bill Stephens denied the necessary permit, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Stephens listed three reasons for the denial including safety concerns, specifically the pandemic and racial tensions.

“With the volatile nature of events of the immediate past and ongoing today, there is a clear and present danger to members of the (Sons of Confederate Veterans), potential counterprotesters, park employees and guests,” Stephens wrote.

Stephens also said Silver Dollar City, the group contracted to run the park’s attractions, would not allow the group to access the Memorial Plaza Lawn.

Stone Mountain Park has been a gathering spot for white supremacists and has centuries-old ties to the Ku Klux Klan. The park has the largest Confederate monument ever crafted, featuring sculptures of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson carved into the mountainside. The monument has special protection enshrined in Georgia law.

Martin O’Toole, a spokesman for the Georgia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said he understood the concern regarding COVID-19 but questioned the other safety issue.

“This is a memorial service that is part of the whole purpose for the park’s existence,” O’Toole said.

O’toole said the park has held the event for the Confederate Memorial Day at least 18 times without issue. Last year, it was canceled due to the pandemic.

Although the park has historically been a gathering spot for white supremacists, the adjoining city of Stone Mountain, a suburb of Atlanta has a majority-Black population today.

The park has previously closed its gates to white nationalists. In August, the park denied a permit sought by right-wing groups led by an Arkansas group called Confederate States III%, who had planned an event in response to a march by a Black militia group on July 4.

FILE - This June 23, 2015, file photo shows a carving depicting Confederate Civil War figures Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, in Stone Mountain, Ga. The Stone Mountain Memorial Association has denied a gathering permit from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who were looking to host their annual Confederate Memorial Day service at Stone Mountain Park outside Atlanta. The gathering was slated for Saturday, April 17, 2021, but a March 31 letter from memorial association CEO Bill Stephens denied the necessary permit, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

Ohio court hears arguments over ancient earthworks access

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS

April 13, 2021


FILE - This April 6, 2000 file photo shows a concrete walkway, foreground, that allows golfers access to the top of an ancient American Indian mound at Moundbuilders Country Club in Newark, Ohio. The Ohio Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Tuesday, April 13, 2021 in the debate over public access to the set of ancient ceremonial and burial earthworks. The case pits the state historical society against the country club where the earthworks are located. (Jeff Adkins/The Columbus Dispatch via AP, File)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A debate over public access to a set of ancient ceremonial and burial earthworks is before the Ohio Supreme Court in a case pitting the state historical society against a country club within whose grounds the earthworks are located.

At issue before the court are the 2,000-year-old Octagon Earthworks in Newark in central Ohio. The Ohio History Connection, which owns the earthworks, has proposed the site along with other ancient sites in Ohio for nomination to the UNESCO World Heritage List. The historical society, which is a nonprofit that contracts with the state, argues it must control access to the earthworks for that nomination to proceed.

American Indians constructed the site nearly 2,000 years ago. The layout of the earthworks, including eight long earthen walls, corresponds to lunar movements and aligns with points at which the moon rises and sets over the course of the 18.6-year lunar cycle.

The Ohio History Connection calls them “part cathedral, part cemetery and part astronomical observatory.”

The people who built the earthworks preceded later American Indians in Ohio sometimes by centuries, but numerous tribes, some with historical ties to Ohio, want the earthworks preserved as examples of indigenous peoples’ accomplishments. The National Congress of American Indians, the Inter-Tribal Council representing tribes living in Northeast Oklahoma and the Seneca Nation of New York State are among those endorsing the historical society’s application to the heritage list.

Designating the Ohio earthworks as World Heritage Sites “would protect the earthworks from further development and destruction and be places to honor indigenous achievement,” the National Congress of American Indians said in its letter of support.

Such a placement would be a first in Ohio and only the 25th nationally. Designation as a World Heritage site comes with with prestige and international recognition but no financial benefit.

UNESCO says it can help provide emergency assistance for sites in immediate danger and provide technical assistance and professional training to help safeguard designated places.

The organization describes its goals as encouraging “international cooperation in the conservation of our world’s cultural and natural heritage.”

Two other examples of pre-Columbian earthwork construction on the heritage list are Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Missouri and Monumental Earthworks of Poverty Point in Louisiana.

In 1892, voters in surrounding Licking County enacted a tax increase to preserve what was left of the earthworks. The area was developed as a golf course in 1911, and the state first leased the 134-acre property to Moundbuilders Country Club in the 1930s.

The historical society now wants to buy back the lease, convert the property to a park to improve public access to Octagon Earthworks and open a visitors center. The country club’s lease doesn’t expire until 2078.

A Licking County judge ruled in May 2019 that the historical society can reclaim the lease via eminent domain. That ruling was upheld last year by the Ohio Fifth District Court of Appeals.

The club is challenging the attempt to take the property, saying the Ohio History Connection did not make a good faith offer to purchase the property as required by state law. The country club says it has provided proper upkeep of the mound and allowed public access over the years.

A 2003 agreement between the historical society and the country club allows full, unfettered access to the site four days a year. The agreement also allows public access during daylight hours from November through March and Monday mornings the rest of the year, as long as the club hasn’t scheduled golf activities those days.

The historical society argues that public access to the site has actually been restricted since the 2003 agreement, with individuals and groups finding it increasingly difficult to schedule visits around golfers’ playing times and course maintenance, including pesticide and herbicide spraying.

Attorneys for the country club — referred to as MCC in court documents — argue the historical society’s true intent for acquiring the country club’s property is in hopes of securing the World Heritage listing, which is a highly competitive process with low success rates, country club attorneys said in a September 2020 court filing.

“Is it in the public’s best interest to risk losing all the benefits MCC provides for the chance that the property will be inscribed to the World Heritage list?” the attorneys argued.

They also contend the historical society has neglected another nearby ancient earthwork known as the Great Circle, despite operating it as a park for nearly 80 years.

The historical society argues its proposal in 2020 to buy out the lease for $1.66 million was a good faith offer based on an independent appraisal, and its primary goal is public access. The historical society denies the country club’s allegations that its plans for the site are contingent on a World Heritage list placement.

Creating a park at the Octagon Earthworks would “enable the History Connection and others to conduct research on the site on their own schedule, which would, in turn, allow the History Connection to better educate Ohioans (and the world) about the Earthworks and their historical importance,” Benjamin Flowers, the state Solicitor General, said in an October court filing.

The state Supreme Court held oral arguments Tuesday. A decision isn’t expected for weeks.

Shell To Put Energy Transition Plan To Shareholder Vote

By Charles Kennedy - Apr 15, 2021

Oil supermajor Shell will put its Energy Transition Strategy to a non-binding shareholder vote at its annual general meeting next month, the first time an energy firm will be seeking an advisory approval of its plan to go to net zero.

Shell has pledged to become a net-zero energy company by 2050, and said earlier this year that its oil production peaked in 2019 and was set for a continual decline over the next three decades.

“As we transform our business, it is more important than ever for shareholders to understand and support our approach,” Shell’s chief executive officer Ben van Beurden said in the preface of the company’s Energy Transition Strategy.


“We are asking our shareholders to vote for an energy transition strategy that is designed to bring our energy products, our services, and our investments in line with the goal of the Paris Agreement and the global drive to combat climate change,” van Beurden added.

According to Shell’s strategy, the target for carbon intensity reduction is

6-8 percent by 2023 for the short term, 20 percent by 2030, and 45 percent by 2035, until reaching carbon intensity reduction of 100 percent by 2050.

“The vote is purely advisory and will not be binding. Shell’s Board and Executive Committee remain responsible and accountable for setting and approving Shell’s energy transition strategy,” Shell said in a statement today.

The supermajor will also seek every year, beginning in 2022, an advisory vote from shareholders on its progress in achieving its energy transition strategy.

The Church of England Pensions Board, a shareholder in Shell, will likely support the energy strategy, Adam Matthews, chief responsible investment officer, told The Wall Street Journal.

Shell is also set to tie the bonuses for its top executive directors more closely to the group’s performance in reaching its net-zero goals, if shareholders approve the plan at the annual general meeting in May. The weighting of the progress in the energy transition performance measures in the long-term incentive plans (LTIP) for executive directors is set to grow to 15 percent from 10 percent.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

 CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

“New Sanctions On Manafort Deputy Suggest Deeper Role Of Russian Intel In 2016”

Posted on April 15, 2021 7:34 am by Rick Hasen

TPM:

The Biden administration slapped Konstantin Kilimnik, an assistant of Paul Manafort and alleged Russian spy, with sanctions on Thursday as it escalated economic measures against Moscow.

In announcing the move, the Treasury Department suggested that Kilimnik gave internal Trump campaign polling data to Russian intelligence during the 2016 election.

“During the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign, Kilimnik provided the Russian Intelligence Services with sensitive information on polling and campaign strategy,” the release reads.

That goes significantly further than any previous assessment of the fate of internal Trump campaign polling data that Paul Manafort notoriously shared with Kilimnik during the 2016 campaign. A report from the Senate Intelligence Committee released in August 2020 declined to draw a conclusion on what Kilimnik ultimately did with the polling data, but said that its own investigation was operating with limited information…