North Korea fired railway-borne missiles in third test this year
Agence France-Presse
January 15, 2022 |

This picture taken on Jan. 14, 2022 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 15 shows a firing drill of railway-borne missile regiment is held in North Pyongan Province.
STR / KCNA via KNS / AFP

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired two railway-borne tactical guided missiles, state media reported Saturday, the country's third weapons test this month despite a volley of new United States sanctions.

South Korea's military said it had detected the launch of two short-range ballistic missiles Friday afternoon, just hours after Pyongyang accused the United States of "provocation" over fresh sanctions.

The tests were held to "check and judge the proficiency in the action procedures of the railway-borne regiment," Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency said.

North Korea test fired missiles from a train for the first time in September 2021.

Friday's launch "demonstrated high manoeuvrability and rate of hits," KCNA said.

"Issues were discussed to set up proper railway-borne missile operating system across the country," the report added.

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Friday's launches flew a distance of 430 kilometres (270 miles) at an altitude of 36 kilometres.

It was Pyongyang's third weapons test this month, following what it called two successful tests of hypersonic missiles on January 5 and January 11.

In response, the United States imposed new sanctions on Pyongyang this week, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying North Korea was likely "trying to get attention" with the string of missile launches.

Dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang remains stalled, and impoverished North Korea is also under a rigid self-imposed coronavirus blockade that has hammered its economy.

At a key meeting of North Korea's ruling party last month, leader Kim Jong Un vowed to continue building up the country's defence capabilities.

In response to the newly imposed sanctions, Pyongyang accused Washington of "intentionally escalating" the situation, saying it had a "legitimate right" to self-defence, a foreign ministry spokesman told state media.

Ecuador expands sea life protections around Galapagos



Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso shows the decree for the expansion of the Galapagos marine reserve (AFP/Rodrigo BUENDIA)

Fri, January 14, 2022,

Ecuador created a massive new marine reserve Friday north of its Galapagos islands, forming a Pacific corridor up to Costa Rica's Cocos Island National Park to preserve species of migratory fauna, such as sharks.

President Guillermo Lasso, on board a scientific vessel from the Galapagos National Park (PNG) anchored in the bay of Puerto Ayora off Santa Cruz Island, signed the decree creating the new reserve called "Hermandad" (Brotherhood).

To mark the opening of the marine reserve, he then cut a ribbon made out of materials collected during coastal cleanups conducted in the Galapagos.

The new reserve is incorporated into the 138,000 square kilometers (50,200 square miles) of reserve that have existed since March 1998.

So the archipelago that inspired English naturalist Charles Darwin has now expanded to an impressive 198,000 square kilometers of protected marine area.

The Galapagos marine reserve, in which industrial fishing is prohibited, is the second-largest in the world. More than 2,900 marine species have been reported within the archipelago, which is a Natural World Heritage Site.

Authorities are planning for protected areas in adjacent Colombia and Panama to join later, creating an international marine biosphere reserve.

The leaders of those two countries also signed the decree along with Lasso.

Lasso announced the expansion of the Galapagos marine reserve, which has unique flora and fauna and fragile ecosystems, in November in Glasgow, on the occasion of the COP 26 climate summit.

The project was in exchange for a reduction in Ecuador's international debt.

- A 'clear message' -

The creation of the "Brotherhood" reserve is a "clear message for the world," said Lasso Friday, describing it as a "new relationship with the Earth, a new understanding of what constitutes progress for humanity."

Colombian President Ivan Duque and former US president Bill Clinton attended the event, together with government officials from Costa Rica and Panama.

Duque said that eventually adding Colombia's Malpelo islands and Panama's Coiba islands to the vast marine reserve will allow for the migration of species such as sea turtles, whales, sharks and manta rays.

This new reserve "will guarantee the survival of 40 percent of the world's marine species," Duque said.

"We may be a small territory... but the planet is also ours," said Lasso.

"The seas are great regulators of the global climate," he said, adding that "taking care of them is not naive idealism, it is a vital necessity."

Located in the Pacific some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) off the coast of Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands are a protected wildlife area and home to unique species of flora and fauna.

The archipelago was made famous by British geologist and naturalist Charles Darwin's observations on evolution there.

sp-pld/jh/to

Tongans flee tsunami following powerful volcanic eruption


Issued on: 15/01/2022 - 

Map locating the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, which erupted January 14, sending large waves crashing ashore in Tonga AFP


Nuku'alofa (Tonga) (AFP) – Frightened Tongans fled to higher ground Saturday after a massive volcanic eruption -- heard in neighbouring countries -- triggered the area's second tsunami in as many days.

"A 1.2 metre tsunami wave has been observed at Nukualofa," Australia's Bureau of Meteorology tweeted. The maximum tsunami wave recorded following Friday's explosion was 30 centimetres.

The latest eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano came just a few hours after Friday's tsunami warning was lifted.

Mere Taufa said she was in her house getting ready for dinner when the volcano erupted.

"It was massive, the ground shook, our house was shaking. It came in waves. My younger brother thought bombs were exploding nearby," Taufa told the Stuff news website.

She said water filled their home minutes later and she saw the wall of a neighbouring house collapse.

"We just knew straight away it was a tsunami. Just water gushing into our home.

"You could just hear screams everywhere, people screaming for safety, for everyone to get to higher ground."

Tonga's King Tupou VI was reported to have been evacuated from the Royal Palace in Nuku'alofa and taken by a police convoy to a villa well away from the coastline.

The initial eruption lasted at least eight minutes and sent plumes of gas, ash and smoke several kilometres into the air. Residents in coastal areas were urged to head for higher ground.

The eruption was so intense it was heard as "loud thunder sounds" in Fiji more than 800 kilometres (500 miles) away, officials in Suva said.

There, officials warned residents to cover water collection tanks in case of acidic ash fall.

Victorina Kioa of the Tonga Public Service Commission said Friday that people should "keep away from areas of warning which are low-lying coastal areas, reefs and beaches".

The head of Tonga Geological Services Taaniela Kula urged people to stay indoors, wear a mask if they were outside and cover rainwater reservoirs and rainwater harvesting systems.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a "tsunami advisory" for American Samoa, saying there was a threat of "sea level fluctuations and strong ocean currents that could be a hazard along beaches".

Similar warnings were issued by authorities in New Zealand and Fiji.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano sits on an uninhabited island about 65 kilometres (40 miles) north of the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa.

© 2022 AFP

Tsunami hits Tonga after volcanic eruption

A tsunami has flooded Tonga's capital after a large eruption from an undersea volcano. Other Pacific islands have issued advisories and have cautioned residents to seek higher ground.


Tongans were urged to get to higher ground after a massive volcanic eruption triggered a tsunami


The Pacific island of Tonga experienced a large volcanic eruption Saturday followed by a tsunami that flooded parts of the capital, Nuku'alofa.

The surge wave reached a height of 2.7 feet (83 centimeters) in Nuku'alofa, according to the US-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. There is no information yet on property damage or casualties.




Images posted on social media from Tonga showed the tsunami breach the shoreline, and move into the town.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said tsunami waves measuring 2 feet in height were observed by sea-level gauges in Pago Pago, the capital of the US territory of American Samoa, around 940 kilometers (580 miles) from Tonga.

Officials there initially issued a tsunami warning and told residents to "immediately" evacuate to higher ground. The warning was lifted shortly thereafter.

Fiji also issued a tsunami warning, telling residents to avoid shorelines "due to strong currents and dangerous waves."

New Zealand, more than 2,000 kilometers away from the site of the eruption, has also issued a tsunami advisory.

New Zealand's National Emergency Management Agency said parts of the country could expect "strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore."
Undersea volcano erupts

The eruption Saturday was the latest in a series from the undersea Hunga Tonga, Hunga Ha'apai volcano. Saturday's eruption is the second in only two days.

A previous eruption on Friday sent plumes of ash and smoke into the air, with smoke clouds extending up to 20 kilometers (12 miles) into the atmosphere.


The volcano had some intermittent activity through December last year. On Friday, people were advised by officials to stay home and protect drinking water and resources.

rm/wmr (AP, Reuters)

Volcano erupts in Pacific, West Coast under tsunami advisory

By NICK PERRY

1 of 3

In this satellite image taken by Himawari-8, a Japanese weather satellite, and released by the agency, shows an undersea volcano eruption at the Pacific nation of Tonga Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022. An undersea volcano erupted in spectacular fashion near the Pacific nation of Tonga on Saturday, sending large waves crashing across the shore and people rushing to higher ground. 

(Japan Meteorology Agency via AP)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — An undersea volcano erupted in spectacular fashion near the Pacific nation of Tonga on Saturday, sending large tsunami waves crashing across the shore and people rushing to higher ground. A tsunami advisory was in effect for Hawaii, Alaska and the U.S. Pacific coast.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or the extent of the damage as communications with the small island nation remained cut off hours after the eruption.

In Hawaii, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reported waves slamming ashore from half a meter (a foot) in Nawiliwili, Kauai, to 80 centimeters (2.7 feet) in Hanalei. “We are relieved that there is no reported damage and only minor flooding throughout the islands,” the center said, describing the situation in Hawaii.

On Tonga, video posted to social media showed large waves washing ashore in coastal areas, swirling around homes and buildings.

New Zealand’s military said it was monitoring the situation and remained on standby, ready to assist if asked.

Satellite images showed a huge eruption, a plume of ash, steam and gas rising like a mushroom above the blue Pacific waters.

The Tonga Meteorological Services said a tsunami warning was declared for all of the archipelago, and data from the Pacific tsunami center showed waves of 80 centimeters (2.7 feet) had been detected.

In Hawaii, Alaska and along the U.S. Pacific coast, residents were asked to move away from the coastline to higher ground and pay attention to specific instructions from their local emergency management officials, said Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator for the National Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska.

“We don’t issue an advisory for this length of coastline as we’ve done — I’m not sure when the last time was — but it really isn’t an everyday experience,” he said. “I hope that elevates the importance and severity for our citizens.”

He said the waves already slamming ashore in Hawaii were just under the criteria for a more serious tsunami warning, with measurements at 80 centimeters (2.7 feet) in Hanalei and Maui. Waves of about 91 centimeters (3 feet) or above would trigger a warning. Snider said they’re currently expecting waves of 30 centimeters (1 foot) to 61 centimeters (2 feet) along the Pacific coast.

Snider said residents in these areas should expect waves and strong and unusual currents for many hours and there could be some low areas that are inundated, such as marinas and harbors.

“The important thing here is the first wave may not be the largest. We could see this play out for several hours,” he added. “It looks like everything will stay below the warning level but it’s difficult to predict because this is a volcanic eruption and we’re set up to measure earthquake or seismic-driven sea waves.”

Residents of American Samoa were alerted of the tsunami warning by local broadcasters as well as church bells that rang territory-wide. An outdoor siren warning system was out of service. Those living along the shoreline quickly moved to higher ground.

As night fell, there were no reports of any damage and the Hawaii-based tsunami center canceled the alert.

Authorities in the nearby island nations of Fiji and Samoa also issued warnings, telling people to avoid the shoreline due to strong currents and dangerous waves. The Japan Meteorological Agency said there may be a slight swelling of the water along the Japanese coasts, but it was not expected to cause any damage.

The Islands Business news site reported that a convoy of police and military troops evacuated Tonga’s King Tupou VI from his palace near the shore. He was among the many residents who headed for higher ground.

The explosion of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano was the latest in a series of spectacular eruptions.

A Twitter user identified as Dr. Faka’iloatonga Taumoefolau posted video showing waves crashing ashore.

“Can literally hear the volcano eruption, sounds pretty violent,” he wrote, adding in a later post: “Raining ash and tiny pebbles, darkness blanketing the sky.”

Earlier, the Matangi Tonga news site reported that scientists observed massive explosions, thunder and lightning near the volcano after it started erupting early Friday. Satellite images showed a 5-kilometer (3 mile) -wide plume rising into the air to about 20 kilometers (12 miles).

More than 2,300 kilometers (1,400 miles) away in New Zealand, officials were warning of storm surges from the eruption.

The National Emergency Management Agency said some parts of New Zealand could expect “strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore following a large volcanic eruption.”

The volcano is located about 64 kilometers (40 miles) north of the capital, Nuku’alofa. Back in late 2014 and early 2015, a series of eruptions in the area created a small new island and disrupted international air travel to the Pacific archipelago for several days.

Tonga is home to about 105,000 people.

___

Associated Press writers Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Fili Sagapolutele in Pago Pago, American Samoa, contributed to this report.

Christiane Taubira joins France's presidential race in bid to rally divided left

 France's well-liked former justice minister Christiane Taubira on Saturday launched her bid to unify the floundering French left and challenge President Emmanuel Macron in April presidential elections, but she faces a slew of competing candidates reluctant to cede the limelight.

France's Taubira hopes to rally divided left against Macron

Issued on: 15/01/2022 

Paris (AFP) – France's well-liked former justice minister Christiane Taubira on Saturday launched her bid to unify the floundering French left and challenge President Emmanuel Macron at April presidential elections, but faces a slew of competing candidates reluctant to cede the limelight.

"I'm committing myself here before you because I share your aspiration for another kind of government," the former minister under Socialist President Francois Hollande (2012-17) told supporters in Lyon at the official launch of her campaign.

Taubira blasted "top-down power and absence of social dialogue" under Macron, promising to fight for higher wages, better conditions for school pupils and students, the health service and environmental protection.

The 69-year-old, born in the French South American territory of Guyana where she served as an MP, is admired on the left after fighting for a law recognising the slave trade as a crime against humanity, and for piloting same sex marriage onto the statute books in 2013 as justice minister.

"We will do all of this together, because that's what we're capable of," she told a cheering crowd brandishing signs reading "With Taubira".

But she risks becoming just one among six candidates scrambling for votes among the roughly 30 percent of the electorate that leans left.

They range from firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon -- the best-rated in polls compiled by the JDD weekly at close to 10 percent -- to Greens candidate Yannick Jadot and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo at 6.5 and 3.5 percent.

A January poll credited Taubira with around 4.5 percent support.

On the right, three challengers -- conservative Valerie Pecresse, traditional far-right leader Marine Le Pen and insurgent TV pundit Eric Zemmour -- have some prospect of taking on incumbent Macron in the election's second round.

Although yet to declare his candidacy, the president himself enjoys the highest first-round poll ratings at around one in four voters.

Taubira's backers argue that she has the power to stoke "ardour" among left-wingers, who have been the biggest losers from the collapse of the traditional left-right political divide since Macron's shock 2017 presidential win.

The former minister "wants to be the antidote to the weariness among left voters, who can't stand any more fragmentation," said Christian Paul, a Taubira supporter and mayor of the small town of Lormes in central France.

One tool Taubira has bet on is a so-called "People's Primary" that will crown the favoured left-wing candidate of around 120,000 registered voters.

But while she has pledged to respect the result, the other candidates have refused to sign up to the process.

burs-cf/tgb/ach

© 2022 AFP

Look: Birdwatchers flock for glimpse of rare snowy owl in US capital

Some may recognise the bird as kin to “Hedwig,” the snowy owl companion to Harry Potter in the cult book and movie series



AP

By AFP
Published: Sat 15 Jan 2022

The white dome of the US Capitol shines through the night, illuminating a small group huddled down the hill, bundled tightly against the winter cold and carrying long-lens cameras and binoculars.

The motley crew are not there to photograph Washington’s famous monuments - they have their sights set on a rare creature that flew in from the Arctic: a snowy owl.

“There he is!” shouts one of the birdwatchers.

The crowd shifts positions to get a better angle.

“It’s amazing,” says an enthused Meleia Rose, 41. “I’ve been a birder a long time and this is my first time every seeing a snowy owl.”

Birdwatching, or birding as it is also known, is a popular pastime in the United States, with hobbyists typically hiking through forests or camping in rural areas to spot different species of birds.

So the majestic owl’s appearance a week ago in the city, much further south than its usual habitat, has proven a magnet.

“You can see the Capitol,” said Rose, wrapped in a big winter coat and accompanied by her partner. “It’s arresting to have the contrast, the wildness with the city - but especially DC where it’s so ... monumental and iconic.

The couple, who hired a baby-sitter for the special occasion, got a good look at the rare bird, allowing them to mark “snowy owl” off their “life list” - a catalogue of every bird they’ve seen.

Like others staring up at the young female owl, identified by its grey and white plumage, Rosa was alerted to its arrival by eBird, a network used by birdwatchers to signal particularly interesting finds, which logged 200 million observations last year by 290,000 enthusiasts worldwide.


Users had pinpointed the snowy owl near Union Station, a bustling transportation hub just down the road from the Capitol, where a line of taxis curls around a grassy park, criss-crossed with walkways and spotted with tents set up by the homeless.

At the centre of the park, on top of a marble fountain, a pair of yellow eyes peer out, searching for an evening snack - most likely one of the capital’s countless rats.

One recent visitor was none other than Jacques Pitteloud, Switzerland’s ambassador to the United States and a passionate birdwatcher.

“The snowy owl has been on my list a long time,” Pitteloud told AFP, “but it’s truly extraordinary to see it in the middle of Washington DC.”

“She was truly the superstar of Union Station!”

With broad white wings, these “birds of snow and ice” are “like a creature from another world,” explained Kevin McGowan, a professor with Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology.

Snowy owls live a good part of the year near the Arctic Circle, but most migrate south for the winter - usually stopping near the US border with Canada.

Its visit so far south to Washington is “like having a polar bear coming by your neighbourhood,” said McGowan.

“Snowy owls are such a charismatic bird,” noted Scott Weidensaul, the co-leader of Project SNOWstorm, a group that researches and tracks snowy owls.

“And particularly for birdwatchers in the Washington DC area where it is an unusual event to see one down there. You know, that’s a big deal.”

In a black down jacket, Edward Eder is setting up his camera for a second night in a row. It’s equipped with an ultra long lens for him to see the bird up close.

“A lot of people have taken up or become more enthusiastic birders during the pandemic,” explains the 71-year-old retiree, attributing the trend in part to the ability to easily social distance.


With their parents pointing the way, a small group of children attempt to catch a glimpse of the bird - which some may even recognise as kin to “Hedwig,” the snowy owl companion to Harry Potter in the cult book and movie series.

Walmart hit with proposed class action over female drivers' uniforms

Alexis Keenan

·Reporter

Thu, January 13, 2022

Walmart’s (WMT) female truck drivers must either go to work wearing company-provided men’s pants, or pay to buy and launder their own uniform-compliant garments, according to a new lawsuit filed in federal court in Alabama.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission gave Alabama driver Diana Webb approval to file the proposed class action claiming sex discrimination against similarly situated female Walmart drivers, after the agency said it would not proceed further with its investigation.

“I believe Walmart is discriminating against female truck drivers, and possibly other female employees who are required to wear uniforms,” Webb wrote in her Oct. 5 complaint to the EEOC. 

“Walmart is providing and cleaning uniform bottoms for the men, while the women are expected to either wear men’s bottoms, or purchase and clean women’s bottoms on their own.”

Charge of Discrimination document filed by Walmart driver Diana Webb on Oct. 5, 2021.

Webb has worked for Walmart as a driver since July 20, 2020, the lawsuit states.

According to the complaint, drivers on the job who fail to wear clothing authorized by the company’s uniform policy can be fired right away. Walmart does provide its drivers with an entire uniform that includes pants and shirts, the suit states; however, the lawsuit says male pants are the only type of bottoms offered to drivers, regardless of their gender.

“For female drivers, it is impossible to wear the men’s pants provided by Walmart specifically made to fit only male employees due to anatomical differences between the sexes,” the complaint states. “Female drivers are therefore required to either suffer discomfort, or purchase and launder their own pants, out of their own pocket, with no option for reimbursement, in order to fulfill Walmart’s employment requirements."

Webb also alleges that she requested that Walmart reimburse her for her out-of-pocket expenses to purchase multiple pairs of female pants and shorts to wear for work. Supervisors, she alleges, denied the request. Walmart will not launder any pants worn by female drivers that the company didn't provide, Webb adds, and therefore females, and not males, must incur the expense of washing their own uniform pants.

Walmart is being accused of discriminating against female truck drivers. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)

In response to the lawsuit, Walmart's senior director of media relations, Randy Hargrove, issued a statement to Yahoo Finance. 

"Walmart is committed to providing our private fleet drivers with various clothing options to meet our guidelines. No associate, male or female, is required to wear company provided pants," the statement said. "Months before the lawsuit was filed, Ms. Webb was fitted for company provided pants which she now has. We continue to review our clothing offerings for male and female drivers. We take these allegations seriously and will respond in court as appropriate."

Webb’s claim says in treating male and female employees differently, Walmart is violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits gender-based discrimination. In addition, the claim alleges that the company is unjustly enriching itself by sidestepping the expenses shouldered by its female drivers.

As compensation, Webb is asking the court to disgorge Walmart of expenses it saved by allegedly discriminating against female drivers, to compensate drivers for their expenditures on purchasing and laundering their own uniform-compliant pants, and to award punitive damages.

Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow Alexis on Twitter @alexiskweed.

Whole Foods Stands Firm on Prohibiting Employees from Wearing Black Lives Matter Clothing and Masks

Angelina Velasquez
Thu, January 13, 2022,

Whole Foods Market is not budging on its Black Lives Matter mask and apparel ban; instead the grocery chain is hitting back with the Constitution.

In December 2021, the National Labor Relations Board filed a formal complaint against the Amazon subsidiary’s dress code policy that prohibits employees from wearing attire with messaging, “slogan, logo or advertising” unrelated to the retailer.

Black Lives Matter protest. (Stock photo, Pexels.com)

Whole Foods believes the complaint is the NLRB’s attempt at the “General Counsel [seeking] to compel employer speech by WFM in violation of the WFM’s rights under the First Amendment…By singling out the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’ the General Counsel is impermissibly favoring, and requiring that WFM favor, certain expressions of political speech over others in its retail grocery stores.”

The retailer responded by filing a response listing out numerous rebuttals and denials to allegations made against it. Those included denying that employees from several stores across states were sent home, disciplined or fired for refusing to remove BLM face masks and shirts dating back to 2020.

It further argued that “employees do not have protected right under Section 7 of the Act to display the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’ or ‘BLM’ in the workplace. WFM maintains a neutral dress code that is lawful under extant Board law.”

A spokesperson for the grocer released the following statement:

“Our dress code policy is designed to ensure we are giving Team Members a workplace and customers a shopping experience focused entirely on excellent service and high-quality food. We do not believe we should compromise that experience by introducing any messages on uniforms, regardless of the content, that shift the focus away from our mission.”

Whole Foods says that not allowing apparel, such as BLM paraphernalia, is a direct response to the social climate in which the movement was birthed. The company stated employees wearing BLM apparel was “an exercise in political and/or social justice speech through which the alleged discriminates and Charging Parties sought to support societal changes outside the workplace.”

With no immediate resolution in sight, the issue is expected to head to trial in March.

NLRB is not alone in its mission. Whole Foods employees attempted to launch a nationwide class complaint against the retailer for its stance on BLM apparel.

Twenty-seven employees were listed as plaintiffs, each claiming to have experienced some level of discrimination or discrimination for wearing BLM apparel, or claiming to have witnessed supervisors allow other politically charged apparel to be worn. The retailer said the latter of the claims was especially unfounded.

The judge ultimately ruled in favor of the grocer, saying that it did not violate Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. “At worst, they were selectively enforcing a dress code to suppress certain speech in the workplace,” she wrote. “However unappealing that might be, it is not conduct made unlawful by Title VII.”

Real-Life Baltimore Police Corruption Report Reads Like Storyline for A Sixth Season of The Wire

Keith Reed
Fri, January 14, 2022

The Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force was as rotten a squad as any detail in American policing. The public is just learning exactly how bad it was.

If there had been a sixth season of The Wire–and God, we wish there was–it would have been about the Baltimore Police Department’s historically corrupt Gun Trace Task Force. Showrunners wouldn’t need to look far for source material, because a new report about the squad and how it came to be its own criminal enterprise reads like the best of creator David Simon’s scripts.

It has everything: Drug dealing cops who could’ve picked up where the infamous Stanfield and Barksdale crews left off, plainclothes detectives who took off stash houses with the effectiveness of Omar Little in his prime (RIP Michael K. Williams), plus beatings, shootings and enough institutional rot to thread a backstory about the steady decline of post-post-industrial urban America.

Just imagine this scene set in The Pit after D’Angleo Barksdale’s death in prison, or in one of the West Side rowhouses that once served as a Marlo Stanfield stash:

From the Baltimore Sun

One convicted officer who spoke to the investigative team, Victor Rivera, joined the force in 1994 and said he learned early from others how to get “down and dirty” — beating suspects who ran from them in order to teach them a lesson.

In 1997, during the execution of a residential search and seizure warrant, Rivera and a senior officer found cash, according to Rivera’s account. They exchanged a glance and a shrug. The supervisor, identified as William Knoerlein, allegedly took the money and shared a couple hundred dollars with Rivera after they left the scene, a practice that Rivera said continued for years.

“I’ve got dirt on you, you’ve got dirt on me,” Knoerlein allegedly told Rivera, who was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison last year for lying about stealing cocaine in 2009.

Riveting television, right? Come to think of it, that last part also has echoes of Denzel Washington’s psychopathic Alonzo Harris in Training Day.

Gov. Abbott’s border crackdown Operation Lone Star violates U.S. Constitution, Travis County judge says


Tony Plohetski and Katie Hall, 

Austin American-Statesman
Fri, January 14, 2022, 

Gov. Greg Abbott’s border enforcement effort violates the U.S. Constitution, a Travis County state district judge on Thursday ruled, threatening Operation Lone Star's future and opening the gates to a flood of court challenges.

Travis County state District Judge Jan Soifer's ruling came in a legal challenge to the detention of a man from Ecuador who is seeking asylum. His lawyers say he is among thousands of migrants arrested as part of Abbott’s effort to combat illegal border crossings.

Soifer's ruling "sets a clear pathway for everybody arrested under Operation Lone Star to challenge their arrests," said Kristin Etter, a special project director at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which represents about 800 defendants arrested as part of the operation. Etter also testified during the hearing.

"We are in the process of evaluating strategies moving forward, and that is one of them," she said.

The man at the center of Thursday's hearing — Jesus Alberto Guzman Curipoma, an engineer with no criminal history — was arrested Sept. 17 at a railroad switching yard on a misdemeanor criminal trespassing charge in Kinney County, along the Texas-Mexico border about 200 miles south of Austin. He has since been released on bond and remains in Texas.

Guzman Curipoma's attorney contended that Abbott’s operation violates the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which stipulates that federal laws supersede state laws and that states cannot “obstruct or discriminate” with enforcement of immigration federal laws.

Series of challenges filed in Travis County over Operation Lone Star misdemeanor charges

The hearing was the latest in a series of challenges filed in Travis County over Operation Lone Star misdemeanor charges, though it was the first to have a hearing in the Austin area.

Criminal defense attorneys previously filed petitions in Travis County challenging the detention of their clients at the border, but after Soifer set hearings, authorities released the defendants from jail. Building on that success in Travis County, the attorneys then challenged the constitutionality of Abbott's Operation Lone Star.

As a result, the Travis County district attorney's office represented the state in the case and sided with defense attorneys at Thursday's hearing. A lawyer for Kinney County also appeared at the hearing, disagreeing that Travis County had any authority in the matter.

Soifer's solution was to allow both Travis and Kinney counties to participate in the hearing, though she said she was skeptical that Kinney County had the authority to weigh in.

Austin private attorney David Schulman was contracted to be an acting county attorney for Kinney County on several recent cases in Travis County. During Thursday's hearing, Schulman said he received a text from the Texas attorney general's office saying they wanted the hearing to be halted, but he said he couldn't verify its authenticity.

Schulman contended that no evidence exists that Guzman Curipoma's charge was connected to Operation Lone Star, even though Guzman Curipoma was arrested by Texas Department of Public Safety troopers. Schulman also argued that the attorney general's office should be involved in this case because Operational Lone Star was the topic of the hearing.

Abbott’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

More: Supreme Court wrestles with indefinite detention for immigrants awaiting deportation

Gov. Greg Abbott unveiled Operation Lone Star in March, saying he was deploying thousands of Department of Public Safety officers and Texas National Guard troops to the border.

Operation Lone Star launched in 2021

Abbott unveiled Operation Lone Star in March, saying he was deploying thousands of DPS officers and Texas National Guard troops to the southern border amid a sharp increase in migrants crossing from Mexico illegally or to seek asylum.

"We will surge the resources and law enforcement personnel needed to confront this crisis,” Abbott said at the time, blaming the Biden administration for policies that invited illegal immigration and roiled the border in a growing humanitarian crisis.

A central focus of Operation Lone Star was the arrest and detention of border crossers, and Abbott's office last year committed almost $75 million to the effort, including $22.3 million allocated in December toward efforts to prosecute state crimes committed along the border.

Abbott called Operation Lone Star a state investment in security that the federal government refused to make, but opponents — including Democrats and immigration advocates — criticized the effort for militarizing the border and interfering with immigration enforcement, a federal responsibility.

Defense attorneys spent the majority of Thursday's hearing building a case through testimony that those charged through Operation Lone Star are not afforded the rights they should be under the U.S. Constitution.

Defense attorney appointments are "delayed and very slow because there are not enough attorneys to take those cases," testified Kathryn Dyer, a University of Texas law professor who has represented people charged under Operation Lone Star.

Dyer spoke of Kinney County judges and justices of the peace pressuring defendants to waive their right to an attorney via documents that were only in English, as well as defendants sitting in jail while their hearings went unscheduled.

She was unable to reach prosecutors by phone or email to communicate about her clients' cases and engage in negotiation, she said. Dyer finally was able to move the cases forward once she drove to the border.

"It was nothing like anything I have experienced as a criminal defense lawyer," she said.

Many of the defendants remain behind bars.

Statesman reporter Chuck Lindell contributed to this article.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Greg Abbott’s border crackdown violates Constitution, judge says

Republicans ignore that King was concerned about more than the content of one’s character | Opinion


Leonard Pitts Jr.
Fri, January 14, 2022

Dear white conservatives:

When you’re right, you’re right. And you are definitely right about that quote from Martin Luther King.

When he stood at the temple of Lincoln in 1963 and declared his dream “that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” he surely spoke a word for the ages. Your fondness for that word has not gone unnoticed.


How could it? You invoke that line all the time — all ... the ... time — to show that King, had he not been murdered by a white supremacist in 1968, would have stood in solidarity with your social and political agenda.

Most recently, you’ve used it in opposing the teaching of critical race theory. You use it so much that a body might think you couldn’t name another King quote if the survival of the human species depended on it.

Well, did you know Martin Luther King said other things? It’s true! In a spirit of public service and in celebration of his birthday, here are a few of them. You’ll be happy to know that they support your right-wing agenda exactly as much as your favorite quote does.

For instance, use this one to show that King would have shared your love of capitalism:

“Something is wrong with capitalism. Maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism. We must develop programs that will drive the nation to the realization of the need for a guaranteed annual income.”

And like you, he surely would’ve condemned reparations and affirmative action:

“A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for him, in order to equip him to compete on a just and equal basis.”

Certainly he didn’t believe there was any such thing as white privilege:

“Whites, it must frankly be said, are not putting in a ... mass effort to reeducate themselves out of their racial ignorance. It is an aspect of their sense of superiority that the white people of America believe they have so little to learn.”

And he likely would have opposed ending the filibuster:

“I think the tragedy is that we have a Congress with a Senate that has a minority of misguided senators who will use the filibuster to keep the majority of people from even voting.”

Surely King would have sided with the makers over the takers:

“This country has socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor.”

And he would’ve shared your contempt for Black Lives Matter:

“I had seen police brutality with my own eyes and watched Negroes receive the most tragic injustice in the court. All of these things had done something to my growing personality.”

Try this quote to prove that King, like you, thought there was no such thing as systemic racism:

“For the good of America, it is necessary to refute the idea that the dominant ideology in our country even today is freedom and equality while racism is just an occasional departure from the norm on the part of a few bigoted extremists.”

And if all that seems a lot to remember, well, it’s summed up in something he said on the last night of his life. He was a tired and frustrated man by then after 13 years of marches, speeches and death threats, struggling with a nation that refused to venerate its own lofty ideals. And he told an audience in Memphis:

“All we say to America is: Be true to what you said on paper.”

How Americans are tarnishing Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy for their self interest | Hill

LeBron Hill, Nashville Tennessean
Thu, January 13, 2022, 8:08 PM·3 min read

When I was in the first grade, attending Jack T. Farrar Elementary School in Tullahoma, my music teacher, Mrs. Majors, would take the lesson time in January to tell the class the story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.

She would start her narration with setting the scene and told us that, at the time, MLK felt compelled to go to Memphis to continue his push for racial justice. Her voice would then change into a deep, sinister cadence when she started describing James Earl Ray's evil intentions to kill King.

Mrs. Majors, a white teacher, told that story every year and I would listen to it each year like it was the first time I'd heard it.


I grew up thinking of Dr. King as a hero, just like Clark Kent and Peter Parker, who put their own ideals and desires aside for the common good.

Years later, I toured Dr. King's birth home in Atlanta and felt like I was getting to see the origin story of a superhero.

I remembered Dr. King as a superhero.

America has forgotten MLK's message and created its own

Americans all have the right to remember Dr. King the way they want to, but in the last couple of years, I've noticed that his quotes, writings and speeches have been construed to fit a political or social agenda, most of the time opposite of what Dr. King fought and stood for.

Robin Steenman presents at 'Let's Talk Wit & Wisdom," and event put on by the Williamson County chapter of Moms for Liberty. Steenman is chair of the newly formed chapter

A recent example is Green Bay Packers' Quarterback Aaron Rodgers misusing Dr. King's quotes to push COVID-19 misinformation.

"I would add this to the mix as an aside, but the great MLK said you have a moral obligation to object to unjust rules and rules that make no sense," Rodgers said last November.

And it's not just his quotes that are being misused.

Bernice King, the youngest daughter of the civil rights icon, took to Twitter on Jan. 5 to express her frustration with the nonprofit political group Moms for Liberty's sponsored American Dream Conference Friday and Saturday in Franklin, using her father's image in a digital invitation.

Last November, the Williamson County chapter of Moms for Liberty submitted a complaint against several books being used in a curriculum they believed violated Tennessee's new anti-critical race theory law , including a one about Dr. King, "Martin Luther King Jr. and the "March on Washington" by Frances E. Ruffin. The Tennessee Department of Education refused to investigate the complaint.

Bernice King is constantly forced to defend the work of her father. If we truly care about King's work, she wouldn't have to do so.
MLK's spirit has become politically focused

Quite frankly, we're all at fault for taking an MLK quote and posting it to our social media platforms in hopes of getting our point across. But what I find most appalling is the sheer lack of acknowledgment of what he went through.

Bernice King speaks during the release of Lee Sentell's Civil Rights Trail book in June.

During the 1960s civil rights era, Dr. King was considered a communist in many circles. Dr. King was labeled the "most dangerous" Black man in America in a 17,000-page FBI file.

I am so disgusted by the appropriation of Dr. King that I have considered ignoring the federal holiday in honor of his birthday.

If you do celebrate Martin Luther King Day on Monday, remember that in America, we have a habit of taking our heroes and martyrs and sanitizing them in our current climate without remembering what they really stood for.

If we don't stop this inauthentic and disingenuous use of Dr. King's legacy, we will tarnish the work of a man who marched in hostile streets, endured immoral arrest and jail time, and ultimately died for fighting for the civil rights of all Americans.

LeBron Hill is an opinion columnist for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee and the curator of the Black Tennessee Voices newsletter. Feel free to contact him at LHill@gannett.com or 615-829-2384. Find him on Twitter at @hill_bron or Instagram at @antioniohill12.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Martin Luther King Jr. Day: How Americans are tarnishing MLK's legacy

Dr. King Aided Progress in Sports, Too

By Brad Pye Jr., Written for the Jan. 16 1975 edition of the Los Angeles Sentinel Newspaper

Published January 13, 2022

Muhammad Ali and Dr. Martin Luther King (File Photo)

Yesterday the world of sports and the rest of the world should have taken time off and saluted that man from Atlanta.

That man they called Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

If he had lived that man from Atlanta would have been 46 year old yesterday.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived, worked, and died for all of us.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. helped bring about progress in sports and all other walks of life.

Somewhere up there Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. must have been smiling Tuesday night when he looked on the Phoenix area in the Valley of the Sun and saw two black men—K.C. Jones of the winning East All-Stars and Al Attles of the West All-Stars coaching both teams.

Naturally, this was a first like so many of the firsts Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. brought about in his much too short life on this planet.

It must have brought an equal amount of joy to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s heart earlier this season when former Grambling State University star Matt Reed helped quarterback the Birmingham Americans to the WFL title in the city where he and Mrs. Rosa Parks et al started the successful bus boycott.

A boycott that brought the walls of segregation and discrimination tumbling down.

There is a lot of progress in sports today that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. helped bring about because of his successful and relentless campaign to help all Americans share in that elusive American dream.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. … had a dream … a dream that blacks would someday be judged not by the color of their skin but by the contents of their character.

I’m sure Dr. Martin Luther King would agree the world of sports has come as close to making this a reality as any other area of American life.

The world will long remember that another man from Atlanta via Alabama, Hank Aaron. Broke Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record in 1974.

And that Frank Robinson became the first black major league manager in history.

And that the St. Louis Cardinals’ Lou Brock broke Maury Willis’ all-time stolen bases record with 118.

Others will remember that Muhammad Ali upset George Foreman and the world to regain the world’s heavyweight championship.

But most of all the world should remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. because he tried to help us all … and he was truly a prince of peace during our lifetime.