UPDATE

Colorado inmate is first American to test positive for bird flu

April 29 (UPI) -- Health officials in Colorado said an inmate at a state correction facility working with poultry has contracted a highly contagious strain of influenza known as bird flu, becoming the first person in the United States to contract the virus.

The 40-year-old man incarcerated at a Delta County facility tested positive for H5N1 flu earlier this week with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirming the result on Wednesday

The patient is the only confirmed human case in the United States, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said Thursday in a statement announcing the infection.

The man is "largely asymptomatic," reporting only fatigue, and is receiving an antiviral drug known as tamiflu while isolating, it said.

"We want to reassure Coloradans that the risk to them is low," said Dr. Rachel Herlihy of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The person was exposed to the virus via infected poultry at a commercial farm in Montrose County, which is located near the state's western border with Utah. He was working with the animals as part of a pre-release employment program, the state officials said.

The affected flock were subsequently euthanized, it said.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 33 million domestic birds in 29 states have contracted the virus.

In January, a person in Britain who kept a large flock of ducks tested positive for the bird flu but was asymptomatic.

Art collection from late Samsung chairman draws crowds to new exhibition in Seoul



Visitors view the painting "Bull" by Lee Jung-seob at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI

SEOUL, April 29 (UPI) -- One year after the enormous art collection of late Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee was donated to South Korean museums, a new exhibition is sparking public interest in the masterpieces once owned by the country's richest tycoon.

The exhibit, called "A Collector's Invitation," opened Thursday at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul. It features 355 selections from the more than 23,000 works bequeathed by Lee's heirs after his death, ranging from a 6th-century gilt bronze sculpture to groundbreaking 20th-century works by Korean artists.

Highlights include the iconic Clearing after Rain on Mount Inwang, an 18th-century ink and wash painting by Jeong Seon and paintings by modern Korean masters Kim Whanki, Lee Jung-seop and Park Soo-keun.

A series of public exhibitions of Lee Kun-hee's collection have driven public interest in Korean art, curators say. Photo by Thomas Maresca/UP

Also on display is The Water-Lily Pond by famed French Impressionist Claude Monet, a standout from Lee's extensive collection of Western art that also includes pieces by Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali.

The exhibit is meant to "ruminate on the philosophy of Lee Kun-hee as reflected in his act of collecting cultural heritage and objects of art across time and genre and donating them," Min Byoung-chan, director general of the National Museum of Korea, said in a statement.

The Samsung chairman, who oversaw the company's rise from a maker of cheap electronics to a global powerhouse, died in 2020 at age 78.

There was heavy speculation after his death about the future of his collection, which was estimated to be worth roughly $1.7 billion. Lee's heirs decided to bequeath the entire trove to two Seoul museums as well as a smaller number of works to five regional galleries.

Photo by Thomas Maresca/UPI

RELATED Samsung heirs receive big dividends

The "donation of the century," as the National Museum of Korea calls it, spans the prehistoric period to the 21st century and includes books, furniture, metalcrafts and calligraphic works alongside sculpture and paintings.

The family also announced at the time that it would have to pay the largest inheritance tax in South Korean history on Lee's estate -- about $10.8 billion.

The collection, which first went on display at a pair of exhibitions last July, has sparked a boom in interest in Korean art among the public, National Museum of Korea curator Lee Jae-ho told UPI at a press preview of the exhibition this week.

RELATED Samsung head Lee Jae-yong released from prison on parole


"People didn't know as much about the collection in the past," Lee said. "Thanks to this bequest, there's been an expanded opportunity for Korean audiences to experience the work. It's driving interest in Korean art and culture in general."

Tickets for the exhibition are already sold out until June, the National Museum said.

"A Collector's Invitation" will run until August 28 and will then move to the Gwangju National Museum, where it is scheduled to open on October 4.

When four planets align, Venus and Jupiter 'collide'

No, Venus and Jupiter are not about to collide for real. But it will look like that on April 30. The two brightest planets are aligned with Mars and Saturn.



Four planets — Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — will almost perfectly align as seen from Earth in the northern hemisphere

Planets and stars often align, but April 2022 has been a rare treat, with four of our closest neighbors in the solar system — Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — aligning almost perfectly and visible to the eye without a telescope.

And there's one more highlight still to come: On the mornings of April 30 and May 1, Venus and Jupiter will appear to collide when they come together in what's known as an ultraclose conjunction.

Venus and Jupiter — the two brightest planets in the sky — will in fact be far apart. But, depending on where you are, Venus will look like it is either covering or nudging Jupiter.

It won't be as close as the grand conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in December 2020, but NASA's sky watchers say it will still be "really impressive and make for thrilling sights in the morning sky."

Mars and Saturn had a similar close conjunction earlier in April.

What exactly is a conjunction?

A conjunction happens when two planets, a planet and the Moon, or a planet and a star appear close together from the ground.

Planetary conjunctions happen often in our solar system because the planets have similar — although not the same — ecliptic orbits around the Sun.

But the constellations vary. It all depends on how fast or slow the planets orbit the sun in relation to one another.

Venus-Jupiter conjunctions are common, occurring about once a year.

Even if they are routine — and NASA says conjunctions have "no profound astronomical significance" — they are a pretty sight.

Can I see the conjunction from anywhere in the world?

The short answer is yes. But it is all about perspective. If you are in the northern hemisphere, the four planets appear as a diagonal line across the night sky. In the southern hemisphere, they appear as more of a vertical line.

Venus is the second planet from the sun, so its orbit is closer to the sun than the Earth's. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun, so its orbit is much farther away. That means "the proximity is an illusion, occurring only because Earth, Venus and Jupiter happen to be approximately aligned," explains NASA.

Take that grand conjunction of 2020, for example: Jupiter and Saturn appeared to be very close, but they were still about 800 million kilometers (497 million miles) apart.

What's so special about this 4-planet parade?

Given that four-planet conjunctions can occur about once a year, you may say it's nothing special at all. But this event is unique because it's effectively two planetary conjunctions happening at roughly the same time, creating a much larger, four-planet constellation.

Some people call it a small planet parade. That is not a scientific term, but it does neatly describe what happens when more than two planets appear to align in the same part of the night sky.

Larger conjunctions and alignments are far less common. Five planets align roughly every 19 years and some say all eight planets align every 170 years. But that depends on your definitions — specifically, how perfectly the planets align.

Some experts say the last time the eight planets were in perfect alignment was 1,000 years ago. But others say it never happens because the planets each orbit on slightly different planes. They say you only ever see perfect alignments in movies or on illustrated maps of the solar system on postcards.

THE GREAT CONJUNCTION OF JUPITER AND SATURN
Christmas rendezvous
On December 21, just a few days before Christmas, the two biggest planets in our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, are meeting in a great conjunction. The two planets are so close together in the night sky that – cloud cover permitting – they should be visible to the naked eye as almost a single bright dot.
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Edited by: Clare Roth

Germany: Climate activists protest against coal mine expansion

As the energy debate rages on in Germany, thousands of demonstrators gathered in the northwestern village of Lützerath to protest against the expansion of a coal mine.

The demonstrators in Lützerath called for the expansion of the Garzweiler opencast lignite mine to be halted

Thousands of demonstrators gathered on Saturday in the northwest German village of Lützerath to protest against the planned expansion of a nearby coal mine.

The village has long been doomed to disappear to allow the gigantic Garzweiler open-pit lignite mine to expand further.

The protest was organized by environmental organizations such as BUND, Greenpeace and Fridays for Future, as well as by local groups. Organizers said around 3,500 people demonstrated peacefully at Lützerath.

About a hundred activists decided to protest directly at the edge of the mine, which regional police said can be "extremely dangerous." 

Energy debate in Germany

Germany is planning to abandon coal by 2030 as part of the transition away from fossil fuels and toward cleaner energy sources.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, however, the energy debate has intensified in the country, which is heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies, especially gas.

Garzweiler mine near Lützerath is one of the largest open-pit lignite mines in the world.

To ensure sufficient electricity production while reducing dependence on Russian imports, the German government gave itself the option of "suspending" the closure of certain coal-fired power stations. The goal of phasing out coal by 2030 remains in place.

New rallying point for environmentalists

The largely abandoned village of Lützerath has become a new rallying point for the German environmental movement. Activists live there in tents, huts, and treehouses in a bid to prevent the mine's expansion. 

Only one local farmer refused relocation, but the operator of the Garzweiler mine, the RWE group, in March won a case to expand the mine.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who founded the Fridays for Future movement, visited Lützerath last September.

The coal from this area will be "necessary from 2024" to supply power stations, while other mines in the region are closing, according to the RWE group.

dh/nm (AFP, dpa)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Deutsche Bank under pressure after money laundering raids

Germany's biggest bank was raided on suspicion of filing money laundering reports too late. The probe reportedly concerns a transaction involving the family of Syrian leader Bashar Assad.


Deutsche Bank's headquarters saw fresh raids over allegations the bank waited years to flag a suspicious transaction

Deutsche Bank is facing increasing scrutiny following fresh raids at the bank's offices in the financial hub of Frankfurt.

Although employees are required by law to flag suspicious transactions,the German financial giant has gained a reputation for neglecting to flag suspicious transfers or potential money laundering attempts.
What do we know about the raids?

The raids were carried out on Friday, with officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and Germany's financial watchdog BaFin taking part.

The Frankfurt prosecutor's office did not release details about the background of the probe "due to ongoing investigative measures."

Deutsche Bank said in a statement that the raids were linked to "suspicious activity reports" that had been flagged by the bank itself. The bank added that it was cooperating with the investigation.

German financial newspaper Handelsblatt reported that the latest case involved a transaction linked to the family of Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

The transaction was carried out several years ago and involved Assad's uncle, Rifaat Assad. Although he did not have an account with Deutsche Bank, the bank still processed and distributed money to the Assad family in its role as a correspondence bank.

Bank employees are legally obligated to immediately report suspicions of money laundering — particularly transactions that could be linked to criminal or terrorist financing

In this case, however, the bank only reported the transaction last year, Handelsblatt reported.

Has this happened before?

Authorities raided Deutsche Bank's offices in December 2018 and September 2019 with scores of officers. Those investigations were carried out in connection with money laundering suspicions flagged in the Panama Papers leak.

Deutsche Bank later wound up paying millions in fines over allegations it failed to flag potential money laundering transactions, although no charges were brought against the bank.

Friday's operation, however, involved "far fewer" officers than the prior raids, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported.

The bank has also faced scrutiny abroad, especially fore its role in handling foreign transactions for the Estonian branch of Danske Bank — which was at the center of a €200 billion ($212 billion) money laundering scheme that ran from 2007 – 2015.

In 2019, Deutsche Bank separately agreed to pay a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fine of $16 million to resolve separate allegations of corrupt dealings in Russia and China.

News of the latest money laundering raids caused Deutsche Bank's stocks to fall on Friday, dropping 3% to €9.34 ($9.85) per share.

rs/jcg (dpa, AFP, AP)

Germany: Feminists and squatters kick off early May Day protests in Berlin

Thousands of people marched through the German capital to protest against violence against women ahead of May Day. The crowd dispersed following clashes with the police.

Hundreds more people showed up to the feminist march than had been expected

Following a couple of years of limited actions due to the coronavirus pandemic, Berliners took to the streets on Saturday to launch this year's May Day protests and festivities.

A feminist demonstration marched under the slogan of "Take back the night" protesting violence against women. German news agency DPA estimated that around 2,500 people were taking part in the march, accompanied by a heavy police presence.

Hundreds of protesters also took part in various other activities around the city on Saturday, including protests against rising rent, and the planned opening of a new police station in the neighborhood of Kreuzberg.

Earlier on Saturday morning, a group of housing activists occupied a vacant hostel in the center of the capital before police evicted them.

"While thousands of people live in crappy mass accommodation, are pitted against each other and have no safe home, 80 rooms have stood here empty for years," the Hotels to Housing group wrote on Twitter.

Protesters 'take back the night'

Berlin has a long history of May Day marches and protests, and large demonstrations are expected for Sunday, May 1 — a day traditionally celebrated by the left for its historical significance to the workers' movement.

A large number of Berlin residents have shown support for a movement to appropriate accommodation from large property owners

A "revolutionary May Day demo" is planned for Sunday evening with police warning of potential violence at an "autonomous," or anarchist, protest in the capital.

But Saturday's main event was the feminist march through Berlin. While this kicked off peacefully, arrests were also reported. Protesters reportedly chanted "No God, no state, no patriarchy."

A reporter for the Berlin Tagesspiegel newspaper wrote on Twitter that the first clashes occurred as police tried to forcefully remove individuals from the protest.

The protest then spontaneously dissolved, leaving the police surprised, according to reports. This came after reports of repeated clashes between protesters and the police.

Berlin prepared for outbreaks of violence

Berlin Interior Minister Iris Spranger told the public broadcaster RBB that some 6,000 police officers were being deployed for the weekend.

Officers have also been brought in from other German states, although protests are also expected in other major German cities.

She said that the police would "intervene massively if it came to clashes."

"Of course, we know that it could come to violence, and it most probably will," she told the radio station.

Police are expecting clashes with protesters on Sunday

Edited by: Sean Sinico

Look! A polar bear meanders way down south in Canada


Sunday, 01 May 2022 

In this image courtesy of Sophie Bonneville, a polar bear roams a field in Madeline-Centre, Quebec, Canada April 30, 2022. — Sophic Bonneville/AFP pic


MONTREAL, May 1 — A polar bear was spotted Saturday in the Quebec region of Canada, prompting wildlife officials to warn residents of a small town stunned by this very rare appearance.

The bear — whose species has become a symbol of the dangers of global warming — was seen in the morning hours in Madeleine-Centre in the Gaspesia region, a peninsula along the south bank of the Saint Lawrence River, witnesses said.

As of Saturday afternoon, officials were still trying to find the animal.

“The dog was barking and I heard my partner yell, ‘There’s a bear, there’s a bear!’” said Sophie Bonneville, who lives in the town of 2,000 people located 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of Montreal.

Quebec provincial police put out a tweet warning people about the bear sighting and urging them to stay indoors.

Bonneville said nobody in town had ever seen a polar bear so far south, not even wildlife officials.

“People thought it was a joke,” she told AFP.

“How could a bear cross the ice pack, swim and make it here? Even people on the north bank have not seen such a thing,” she said.

Police patrolled the region, where hiking is popular.

“We went door to door to tell people to stay indoors,” Quebec provincial police spokesman Stephane Tremblay told AFP. He said he had never seen a polar bear in this area, either.

“With climate change, anything is possible,” said Bonneville, who managed to snap a couple of photos of the bear before it wandered off into a wooded area.

“What is worrisome is, why did it come here? Was it global warming? Or was it just a mistake of nature?” she mused.

In Canada, polar bears — the planet’s largest land carnivores — are listed as a “vulnerable” species.

A 2020 study published in Nature Climate Change said climate change could lead to their extinction as global warming causes the gradual melting of the Arctic ice pack. — AFP

Hamas warns of synagogue attacks in case of new al-Aqsa raid

Palestinians shout slogans at the compound that houses al-Aqsa Mosque, known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, following clashes with Israeli security forces in Jerusalem’s Old City on April 15, 2022. (Reuters)

AFP
Published: 30 April ,2022

The Palestinian movement Hamas warned Saturday of attacks on synagogues if Israeli forces carry out another raid on the flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque in annexed east Jerusalem.

“Whoever takes the decision to repeat this scene [of a deployment inside the mosque] will be taking the decision to destroy thousands of synagogues across the world,” Yahya Sinwar, Hamas chief in the Gaza Strip, said in a speech.

Israeli police have over the past two weeks clashed repeatedly with Palestinian protesters at the al-Aqsa mosque compound, with footage showing them firing tear gas inside the mosque, sparking condemnation from across the Muslim world.

“You should be ready for a great battle if the [Israeli] occupation does not stop attacking al-Aqsa mosque,” said Sinwar.

He said Hamas would fire off hundreds of rockets at Israel in case of an act of “aggression” on al-Aqsa at the end of May, when Israel marks its capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Violence in east Jerusalem has raised fears of another armed conflict similar to an 11-day war last year between Israel and Hamas, triggered in part by similar unrest at al-Aqsa.

The latest al-Aqsa violence brought to nearly 300 the number of Palestinians wounded in clashes at the site.

The al-Aqsa compound is the holiest place in Judaism, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, and the third-holiest in Islam.

Palestinian Muslims have been angered by an uptick in Jewish visits to the compound, where by long-standing convention Jews may visit but are not allowed to pray.

Christian Smalls, The Unlikely Union Leader Who Took On Amazon


By Juliette MICHEL
04/30/22 

In his colorful jacket emblazoned with the slogan "Eat the rich," Christian Smalls is accosted from all sides as he walks by the bus stop where he spent countless hours trying to convince Amazon employees to form a union.

The president of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), which caused a stir in early April by becoming the e-commerce giant's first union in the United States, walks the sidewalk he knows so well in a New York industrial area.

He will soon learn if, after the win at the JFK8 warehouse, he has convinced employees of the sorting center located across the street, LDJ5, to unionize. The vote took place from April 25 to 29, and the counting will begin on Monday.

"There are good vibes," he says.

A week before the result, seasoned trade unionists want to take their picture with him, journalists assail him with questions, and members of his team ask him about the organization.

The president of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) Christian Smalls at a rally in New York in April 2022 Photo: AFP / Kena Betancur

He has just shared the podium with two stars of the American left, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and is preparing to lead a new rally.

Smalls, 33, unemployed, worked in the JFK8 warehouse until March 2020. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, and faced with a still little-understood and devastating virus, he protested against the lack of protection and called for a walkout.

The protest did not draw crowds but it did gain attention, at least at Amazon. Smalls was fired two days later, officially for quarantine violations.

Christian Smalls, seen here at an event in New York in March 2022, does not look like a typical labor union leader 

Photo: AFP / Ed JONES

According to an internal memo that leaked to the press shortly afterwards, a senior Amazon official said that Smalls was "not smart, or articulate," and that he should be made "the face of the entire union/organizing movement"

"I demonstrated that," Smalls told AFP two years later.

In the meantime, he protested outside several residences of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to defend the rights of essential workers during the pandemic.

He also went in the spring of 2021 to support activists trying to form a union at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama.

It was after that trip that he and his small team decided to try their luck in New York, on their own terms and without support from a traditional labor organization.

Christian Smalls (C) celebrates after workers voted to form a union at the Amazon sorting warehouse in New York on April 1, 2022 

Photo: AFP / Andrea RENAULT

Smalls became a mainstay at the bus stop, where he waited for shifts to change so he could chat with employees. Others -- his friend Derrick Palmer and a few employees persuaded of the need to fight, as well as a handful of activists who deliberately got hired at Amazon to join the struggle -- worked the break rooms.

They listened, tirelessly explaining what a union is, bringing in food, distributing a little cannabis. To reach the night shifts, they sometimes lit bonfires.

Experts on labor movements said they had little chance of success.

The team had almost no money at the outset: before the first vote, they raised $120,000 through internet fundraising and T-shirt sales, while Amazon spent $4.3 million to counter their campaign.

With the help of a pro bono lawyer, they officially filed their request for the organization of a vote after obtaining the signatures of 30 percent of the employees, when the traditional unions often expect to have at least 50 percent.

Their leader was a complete unknown.

With his rapper-inspired style, the African-American activist "doesn't look or dress like a typical union leader," said Justine Medina, a member of ALU.

But, she said, he is "brilliant, he knows how to inspire, to put people at the role they are good at, how to rally."

All the media attention "does not get to his head," she added, calling him "down to earth."

He did celebrate the union's victory on April 1, though. Smalls came bounding out of the building where the counting took place, dressed all in red from baseball cap to sneakers, before cracking open the bubbly and thanking Jeff Bezos for going into space while they were campaigning back on Earth.

ALU arrived at just the right moment. After the pandemic brought harsh working conditions for essential workers, and in the midst of inflation, employees are ready to ask for more.

And in a tight labor market, they know the ball is in their court. Starbucks, Apple, Alphabet are also facing unionization plans.

Smalls hopes that ALU "the spark for a whole movement at Amazon."

‘All support to Dr. Baker’: Why PSU, local community continue to rally over professor facing termination


Josh Moyer
Fri, April 29, 2022

More than 75 Penn State students, faculty and community members staged a rally outside Old Main on Thursday afternoon in support of Oliver Baker, an assistant professor facing termination despite a court clearing him of all charges stemming from a scuffle with an anti-vaxx student.

Nearly a dozen organizations, ranging from the State College chapter of the NAACP to both student-based and faculty-based groups, have advocated for Baker’s return to the classroom. Three on-campus rallies have been held so far this calendar year. And members of Penn State’s faculty senate continue to ask questions — Why try to terminate him? Why has this gone on since August? — that the administration says it largely cannot answer because it’s a personnel matter.

The Chronicle of Higher Education shined a national spotlight on the case last month with a 6,000-word story. But little has changed since Baker was placed on paid administrative leave after the August 2021 incident — and anger and frustration among Baker’s supporters continue to mount.

“Every faculty member at Penn State at every campus should be alarmed, should be profoundly disturbed, by this case because it is every bit as outrageous as it looks,” said Michael Bérubé, a former chair of the faculty senate and a current member of several faculty-based organizations.

Questions about termination process

The controversy all stems from a faculty-organized pro-vaccine rally on the University Park campus Aug. 27. According to a criminal complaint, Baker was accused of trying to take the sign of a counter-protester — whom organizers characterized as “being physically aggressive toward peaceful attendees” — before pulling him to the ground and injuring him during the ensuing scuffle.

Two misdemeanor charges of simple assault and disorderly conduct were dropped in October after Baker’s lawyer described the counter-protester as having “antagonistic, menacing and aggressive behavior.” In November, Centre County District Judge Steven Lachman found Baker not guilty on his lone remaining charge, a summary count of harassment. But Penn State still opted to begin the preliminary termination proceedings, a move that rankled students and faculty alike.

“I am completely dumbfounded that this has dragged out for eight months,” said Rebecca Tarlau, an associate professor of education and a member of Coalition for a Just University. “We thought that the administration was waiting for the district attorney and local court to make the decision. But then Baker was exonerated on all charges several months ago. Why has the AC70 termination process not proceeded in a timely and transparent manner? Why are we heading into summer and there still has not been a hearing?”

Said the emcee of the event, a younger man who wore a dark face mask and did not reveal his identity: “Students, faculty and community members are united in their defense of Dr. Baker, their outrage over the administration’s corrupted mishandling of the AC70 dismissal procedure against this innocent professor and their commitment to have Dr. Baker immediately returned to his full university position.”

According to the university’s AC70 dismissal procedure, the Standing Joint Committee on Tenure — a jury of sorts — is supposed to convene within 60 days after the appropriate dean has referred the matter to the committee. The Chronicle of Higher Ed reported the College of the Liberal Arts dean told Baker on Jan. 10 that such a letter would be sent if Baker did not resign by Jan. 18. Baker refused.

Although the proceedings are largely veiled in secrecy — and the committee only provides a recommendation to the university president, who makes the final determination — it does not appear as if the committee has yet met.
Allegations and disruptions

The student group Students Against Sexist Violence (SASV), which primarily organized Thursday’s rally, saw several members burst into Tuesday’s faculty senate meeting, where they began loudly talking over speakers and demanding answers about the AC70 termination process. The hybrid meeting cut off audio so online listeners couldn’t hear what was going on, after the faculty chair began playing music on her phone in front of the microphone to drown out the group’s speech.

SASV passed around flyers explaining the issue — and some faculty senate members angrily asked one official at the meeting whether the allegation about the delayed process was true and, if it was, why that was the case.

Provost and executive vice president Nick Jones acknowledged that a member on the five-person committee had recused themselves. But he also alluded to language in the termination process that says a meeting shall occur within 60 days “if reasonably possible.”

“As you know, in our processes, things don’t always go according to script,” Jones said Tuesday. “And when that happens, we have to be flexible so that we can fairly represent the interests of all parties.”

Shortly after the outburst, university President Eric Barron released an open letter titled, “The importance of informed, respectful discourse.” Barron was not present at Tuesday’s faculty senate meeting and did not accept SASV’s invitation to speak at Thursday’s rally.

Students and faculty at the rally alleged that the university’s treatment of Baker came in retaliation for him advocating for a vaccine mandate, which the university had long opposed before the fall semester. Another speaker wondered aloud if the university was simply trying to run out the clock, making a decision over the summer when many of Baker’s supporters would not be on campus.

“We students will never know what happens during this AC70 process,” said one SASV organizer, who obscured her face with a gray neck gaiter and blue Dickies hat. “But we do know that if Dr. Baker can be fired based on disproven allegations while advocating for employee rights, then it seems that the retort of ‘shared governance’ is an illusion used to provide legal cover for retaliation against professors critical of administrative policy.”

Two oversized yellow banners, with large red text, were unfurled and held on both sides of the speakers’ podium that read, “Barron Listen To The People Don’t Fire Dr. Baker.” Before the rally, a large red banner was staked in the ground that read, “All support to Dr. Baker,” while scattered attendees held white placards with sayings such as, “No justice, no peace” and “Organize! Fight back!”
Groups, organizations band together

Thursday’s rally was contrasted by dozens of Penn State seniors posing for graduation photos near Old Main, so that students holding the large banners often had to side-step to allow women in white dresses and men in dress shirts to slide through.

“That’s what it should be about today, right?” asked Michelle Rodino-Colocino, president of the local chapter of the American Association of University Professors. “It should be about taking pictures and your graduation. ... I’m sad we have to meet like this; on the other hand, it’s really good to meet like this — the fact we have nine organizations representing students, representing faculty and representing community members.

“We are asking the administration to do the right thing.”

Last month’s rally featured a surprise march through downtown State College and culminated with entering Old Main. This time, the rally took a more subdued approach — although at least a half-dozen university police officers were stationed around Old Main. Two officers stood near the crowd, with assistant vice president for student affairs Danny Shaha situated behind the dozens in attendance.

The most tense moment of the rally came when a student speaker spotted Shaha and asked, from the podium, what he was doing there. “I’m just watching,” Shaha quipped, smiling. The student speaker later shouted, “We don’t appreciate you insulting our intelligence.”

Danny Shaha, assistant vice president of student rights & responsibilities at Penn State, reacts being booed Thursday during during a rally to protest the termination process for professor Oliver Baker.

SASV — whose members often shield their identities with sunglasses and face masks — primarily organized Thursday’s event, but eight other organizations also co-sponsored the 90-minute rally that featured more than 10 speakers. Those other groups included Alleghenies Abolition, American Association of University Professors (local chapter), Central Pennsylvania United, Centre County Democratic Socialists of America, Coalition for a Just University, Liberal Arts Collective at Penn State, NAACP (local chapter) and Schreyer Gender Equity Coalition.

Jennifer Black, of the local NAACP chapter, was one of the first to speak and helped set the tone Thursday.

“As the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, we know what it feels like to face persecution from powerful institutional forces,” she said. “We know what the guises of injustice look like. We know the tactics and tricks of the system. Let it be known today, and make no mistake about it: The State College chapter of NAACP knows which side we are on and where we stand. We stand with you, Dr. Baker.”

At the end of the rally, held on a sunny but chilly day on the last week before finals, the emcee shouted, “One last time: All support to Dr. Baker!” And, before dispersing, the crowd yelled back once more.

“All support to Dr. Baker!”