Lawmakers call on Biden to revoke medals awarded for Wounded Knee Massacre, when hundreds of Lakota people were killed by the US army

Kelsey Vlamis

Thu, November 4, 2021,

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on September 28, 2021. Patrick Semansky-Pool/Getty Images

• A group of lawmakers is asking Biden to revoke Medals of Honor given to soldiers from Wounded Knee.

• Hundreds of unarmed Lakota people were killed during the Wounded Knee Massacre in December 1890.

• The effort, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, includes 16 Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent.

A group of lawmakers has asked President Joe Biden to revoke Medals of Honor that were awarded for the Wounded Knee Massacre, when US army solders killed hundreds of Lakota people, including unarmed women and children, in 1890.

Led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the lawmakers sent Biden a letter Tuesday, asserting his executive authority grants him the power to have the medals revoked, The New York Times reported. It was signed by 16 Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent.

"For the families and descendants of those massacred, the revocation of these 20 Medals of Honor would have a profound and lasting impact - as has the federal government's ongoing choice to allow these wrongly bestowed honors to stand," the letter said, according to The Times.

The Medal of Honor is the highest and most prestigious decoration American soldiers can receive, and is awarded for acts of valor.

The Wounded Knee Massacre occurred on December 29, 1890, when US forces surrounded a group of Lakota people near Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The Lakota surrendered and were being disarmed by the soldiers when a shot was fired.

In the massacre that followed, hundreds of unarmed Lakota people were killed, with nearly half being women and children. Historical estimates put the Lakota death toll between 150 to 300, or even higher. It marked one of the deadliest days for Native people against US forces, and was one of the last armed confrontations between the US and the Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains.

In 2019, Warren first introduced a bill to the Senate that would revoke the medals from 20 soldiers who participated in the massacre, The Times reported. The letter urging Biden to act was sent as the bill has stalled.

In February, the South Dakota Senate unanimously supported a resolution calling on the US Congress to launch an investigation into the Medals of Honor awarded to soldiers who participated at Wounded Knee.

"It's not going to change the stain of what happened there," state Sen. Troy Heinert, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, said at the time, the Associated Press reported. "This will give us a chance to start a new history - that will recognize what we did that day was wrong."

NOW THIS SHOULD WORRY DEMS

Spending $153, Edward Durr ousts NJ Senate leader Sweeney
By MIKE CATALINI

FILE — Senate President Steve Sweeney winks at someone before the start of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's budget address in Trenton, N.J., Feb. 25, 2020. Sweeney, New Jersey's longtime state Senate president, has lost reelection, falling to a Republican newcomer who spent less than $200 on the race and leaving his party reeling. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

COST CHANGES FROM ABOVE

Spending $2,300, GOP newcomer Ed Durr beats top NJ lawmaker

AND IT SHOULD STILL WORRY DEMS

By MIKE CATALINI

Edward Durr speaks to near his home in Swedesboro, N.J. on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. New Jersey's longtime state Senate president, Democrat Steve Sweeney lost reelection, falling to Durr, a Republican newcomer who spent little money and underscoring Democratic woes in the Biden era. 

(Ellie Rushing/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)


TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s longtime state Senate president, Democrat Steve Sweeney lost reelection, falling to a Republican newcomer who spent little money and underscoring Democratic woes in the Biden era.

Edward Durr, a furniture company truck driver and first-time officeholder, defeated Sweeney in New Jersey’s 3rd Legislative District, according to results tallied Thursday.

Sweeney’s defeat was unexpected, and has cast the fate of state government into uncertainty.

“It is stunning and shocking and I cannot figure it out,” said Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg said in an interview.

His loss unfolded in a politically competitive suburban Philadelphia district whose counties split their votes between Democrats and Republicans in the presidential elections in 2016 and again in 2020.

It also coincided with boosted GOP turnout even in an off-year election that saw Republicans make gains across the state. Durr’s victory Thursday netted about 3% more votes than Sweeney did in 2017 in unofficial returns.

Sweeney’s attention was also focused on tight Senate races elsewhere in the state.

“I don’t really think it was Steve Sweeney,” said incoming Republican Senate Leader Steve Oroho. “I think it had to do with the message coming from people who were just annoyed at all the executive orders and all the mandates and being sick and tired of being told what they can and can’t do.”

The loss says more about the headwinds Democrats are facing after losing the governor’s race in Virginia and winning a narrow victory in New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s race against Republican Jack Ciattarelli, experts said.

“This was a protest vote against the Biden administration and Murphy,” said Montclair State University political science professor Brigid Harrison. “Steve was in many ways just how people voiced their dissatisfaction and anger with the larger political structure.”

Sweeney said in a statement Thursday he was waiting for more votes to come in before acknowledging the loss.

“While I am currently trailing in the race, we want to make sure every vote is counted. Our voters deserve that, and we will wait for the final results,” he said.

Sweeney has served as Senate president since 2010 and was responsible for shepherding Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s progressive agenda through the Legislature, including a phased-in $15 an hour minimum wage, paid sick leave and recreational marijuana legalization.

He is also known for his high-profile reversal on opposition to gay marriage. Sweeney said in 2011 that he made the “biggest mistake of my legislative career” when he voted against marriage equality.

Though Sweeney was a fellow Democrat, he fought Murphy at the start of his administration over raising income taxes on the wealthy and worked closely with Republican Chris Christie during his eight-year term in office ending in 2018.

A deal he worked out with Christie to overhaul public worker pension put Sweeney at odds with public sector unions, who would go on to become key supporters of Murphy.

Sweeney’s loss was cheered by progressive Democrats from southern New Jersey, who saw him as a product of transactional, machine politics.

“Today is glorious,” said Sue Altman, director of New Jersey Working Families, in a tweet. Altman is a longtime critic of Sweeney’s and saw him as focused on trying to maintain control of the Democratic party, particularly in southern New Jersey.

His allies say he was open-minded and eventually delivered for the left.

“I think he was a remarkable senator and Senate president, and as I have often reminded my progressive friends that we never could have gotten all those bills on Gov. Murphy’s desk for him to sign without the cooperation of the Senate president,” Weinberg said.

Sweeney had faced electoral opposition before. In 2017, his feud with the state’s biggest teacher’s union over retirement benefits among other issues led to a battle in which the New Jersey Education Association spent millions to try to defeat Sweeney. The union’s effort failed.

But this year, Durr defeated him, spending $2,300, according to an Election Law Enforcement Commission document filed online on Thursday. Earlier reports had shown he had spent just $153.31 on his campaign.

Messages seeking comment have been left with Durr.

Durr describes himself as a 2nd Amendment rights advocate and fiscally conservative, who wants to lower taxes. In an interview with NJ.com, he described how unlikely he viewed his victory to be. He has previously run unsuccessfully for state Assembly in 2017 and 2019, but this is his first elected position.

“I joked with people and I said, ‘I’m going to shock the world, I’m going to beat this man,’” Durr said Wednesday afternoon. “I was saying it, but really kind of joking. Because what chance did a person like me really stand against this man? He’s literally the second-most powerful person in the state of New Jersey.”

Sweeney is an ironworker by trade who has served as an executive with the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers. He is also a key ally and friend of Democratic power broker, George Norcross, who’s widely considered to be one of the most powerful unelected people in the state.

It’s unclear who will become the next Senate president. If Democrats maintain control of the chamber, as incomplete results show they could do, then Democratic senators will meet to choose their next leader.

The 3rd Legislative District covers parts of Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties.

Coming into Election Day, Democrats had controlled the state Assembly with 52 seats to Republicans’ 28. In the state Senate, Democrats had 25 seats to the Republicans’ 15.

——

This article has been corrected to show that Durr is not a first-time candidate. He ran unsuccessfully for state Assembly in 2017 and 2019.

A N.J. Truck Driver Notches 'Stunning' Election Win After Spending $153 on His Campaign

Virginia Chamlee
Thu, November 4, 2021

Edward Durr

In one of the more remarkable upsets of Tuesday's elections, a New Jersey truck driver who spent less than $200 on his campaign unseated a longtime state Senate president.

While early vote tabulations led many outlets to report that Democrat Steve Sweeney had won reelection in New Jersey's 3rd Legislative District, continued counts showed that a political newcomer — Edward Durr, the Republican nominee — was actually leading by 4 points, or a little more than 2,000 votes.

The Associated Press called the race on Thursday.

Durr, with two prior unsuccessful campaigns to his name, had bested a longtime political power player — buoyed, it seems, by Republican enthusiasm and backlash to Democrats.

Speaking to NJ.com, Durr said he watched the results with his grandchildren while eating pizza in his living room.

"We kept saying: 'What if? What if? What if?' " Durr, who had reportedly run

for a city council seat and a General Assembly seat before this, told the outlet. "It got a little more real each hour."

RELATED: History in the Making and Hints About 2022: What to Watch for This Election Day

Sweeney, 62, is the longest-serving Senate president in New Jersey history and, as Politico notes, "the second most powerful official in New Jersey government," with a long history of shaping major legislation on raising the minimum wage, paid leave and others.

He was also reportedly mulling a future run for governor — a campaign that would have been launched once he served a seventh term in the state Senate.

"It is stunning and shocking and I cannot figure it out," the state Senate Majority Leader told the AP.

Sweeney has not publicly commented.

A lifelong New Jersey resident, the 62-year-old Durr describes himself as "Christian, Blue Collar, Father of 3, Grandfather to 6" on his Twitter bio. His campaign website says he has worked as a truck driver for 25 years and entered the race because he wanted to see "government return to the hands of the people."

Durr did not respond to emails or phone calls made by PEOPLE on Thursday, but he attributed his success to a local backlash against COVID-19 restrictions when speaking to Fox News Primetime Wednesday.

"I didn't beat him [Sweeney]. We beat him," Durr said on Fox. "The state of New Jersey, the people of New Jersey beat him. They listened to what I had to say and I listened to what they had to say, and it's a repudiation of Gov. Murphy [who] locked us down and ignored the people's voice and senator Sweeney chose to do nothing for those 18 months."

A fan of former President Donald Trump, Durr admitted he lacks experience in policy-making — but told Fox News he plans to learn as he goes.

"That's the key factor. I don't know what I don't know, but I will learn what I need to know," he told Fox. "And I'm going to guarantee one thing. I will be the voice and people will hear me because if there is one thing people will learn about me, I got a big mouth and I don't shut up when I want to be heard. I'm going to be heard."

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Durr's campaign success, however, was his bare-bones campaign.

RELATED: A City Hall Cleaner Becomes Mayor in Surprise Victory: 'She Was Flabbergasted'

Durr says he spent just $153 — and at least half of that, he estimates, was spent on Dunkin' Donuts.

His campaign video, he told Fox, was shot on an iPhone by one of his friend's nephews.

Durr said in an August interview he was inspired to run for the state Senate seat in 2021 after being denied a concealed carry permit.

"I guess what motivated me more than anything was I went for my concealed carry. I was told flat-out by the local sheriff, 'Don't even bother.' And that kind of angered me," Durr said then. "I'm a truck driver .... I've never been arrested and I couldn't get a concealed carry? That really angered me, so I looked into what can you do to get into politics."

Speaking to NJ.com this week, Durr said he was as surprised as anyone with the apparent results.

"I joked with people and I said, 'I'm going to shock the world, I'm going to beat this man,' " he said. "I was saying it, but really kind of joking. Because what chance did a person like me really stand against this man? He's literally the second-most powerful person in the state of New Jersey."

WACO CHRISTIANS SACRIFICE SCAPEGOAT

Cultists Claim Pastor Demanded Sacrificial Beheading of Woman Because ‘She’s a Goat’

Clinton Pickering
Thu, November 4, 2021

Clinton Pickering

MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA—The late cult leader Kevin Smith had instructed one of his followers, 37-year-old Andre Ruddock, to decapitate a female church member after ordering Ruddock to slash her throat, according to an unnamed witness to the “human sacrifice” killings that took place in the Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Church in Montego Bay, Jamaica on Oct. 17.

Jamaica’s Director of the Office of Public Prosecutions (DPP) detailed the macabre eyewitness accounts from survivors in a statement released Wednesday night. The shocking accounts throw light on the bizarre world Smith had created within the confines of his church—and the hellish nightmare he led his flock through that Sunday, which left three people dead.

AND SO THE CONSPIRACY THEORIES BEGIN
Smith died last Monday in a car accident alongside a police officer who was escorting him to Kingston to face murder charges. The DPP’s statement identified the church members who died as a result of the Oct. 17 ordeal as Tanika Gardener, Michael Brown, and Kevaughn Palmer—all followers of the disgraced pastor.

According to a person who was identified only as “Witness A” in the DPP report, Smith had walked into the church that day yelling that he was “God in the flesh, come in the ark before it closes,” before instructing more than 100 followers at the church to start throwing away certain items in the property, including wipes, tissues, and soaps.

“While disposing of the items a bottle of wine broke,” read the DPP statement. “Approximately 20 minutes later, Dr. Smith told the now deceased Kevaughn Palmer that whoever was in front of the wine, he [Palmer] should cut that person's throat so that they could enter into the kingdom. Dr. Smith instructed the now deceased Kevaughn Palmer to cut the throat of Witness A and other persons.”

Witness A said he then walked away from Smith, who then handed Palmer a knife and told him to slash the throat of another follower, identified in the statement as “Witness B.”

Leader of Cult That Sacrificed Humans Dies in Cop Car Crash

“The now deceased Kevaughn Palmer chased Witness B and [another] person and stabbed them in their backs,” the statement read. “At this juncture, the other members of the church lay down on the ground and covered themselves. Dr. Smith then began to destroy the glass on the altar, the window, and other items.” In the midst of the chaos, Smith allegedly handed knives to other followers, telling them that they were “Arch Angels” and encouraging them to slash their fellow members.

One of the most horrific anecdotes included in the statement is the killing of church member Michael Brown, who “was suffering from a health issue which resulted in tubes being attached to his body.” According to the DPP report, Smith told Brown: “You have to die, but you will rise again because I am the resurrection and the light,” before “pulling the tubes from Mr. Brown who then bled to death.”

At some point, female church member Tanika Gardener arrived at the church and was allegedly subjected to a series of questions by Smith, including, “Do you believe I can raise you from the dead?” to which Gardener answered “Yes.” At that point, Smith asked Witness A to cut Gardener’s throat. When Witness A refused, he asked another follower, Andre Ruddock, to slash Gardener. According to the statement, Ruddock obliged.

“When the accused Andre Ruddock got to where Ms. Gardener was located, she knelt down before him. At this point, the accused Andre Ruddock used a knife to cut Ms. Gardener's throat. It is said that the deceased Tanika Gardener did not make a sound or scream, but Witness B heard a gurgling sound,” reads the statement. “Witness B indicates that Dr. Smith told the accused Andre Ruddock to cut Ms. Gardener's head right off, she is a goat, she has to die, she is a sacrifice. The accused did not cut off Ms. Gardener's head.”

When police stormed the church in response to a phone call, they were greeted with gunfire from inside the building and exchanged fire. According to the DPP, church member Kevaughn Palmer “advanced towards the police officers, armed with a machete.” Palmer was shot and killed in the altercation, and police eventually entered the building and found the bodies of the deceased members.

The DPP report also sheds light on other requests Smith had allegedly made to his followers prior to the killings, including asking them to address him as “Daddy,” demanding they get his permission to go on vacation, and warning them against taking the COVID vaccine, calling it the “mark of the beast.”

Kevin Smith has been posthumously charged with murder in connection with the incident. Andre Ruddock, who reportedly acted as Smith’s personal bodyguard, remains in police custody, and is also facing murder charges.

Migrants pelt Mexico's National Guard with rocks, 5 injured


Migrants leave Ulapa, Chiapas state, late Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021. The migrant caravan heading north in southern Mexico has so far been allowed to walk unimpeded, a change from the Mexican government's reaction to other attempted mass migrations. 

(AP Photo/Isabel Mateos)

EDGAR H. CLEMENTE
Thu, November 4, 2021]

TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — A group of migrants trying to walk across southern Mexico pelted officers of Mexico’s National Guard with a hail of rocks Thursday, injuring five guard officers.

The guards were tailing the march and had apparently tried to detain some of the mainly Central American migrants, when a group of 100 to 150 males started throwing rocks at two truckloads of guard officers equipped with plastic shields and helmets.

The Guard said in a statement that four male officers and one female officer suffered “considerable” injuries, and were hospitalized. It said that “at no time did the officers respond to the attack.”

So heavy was the rain of rocks that at least two guard officers tumbled from the trucks onto the highway below near the town of Pijijiapan, in the southern state of Chiapas.

Video footage showed one of the guardsmen unconscious, with some migrants trying to help him while another threw a punch at him.

Migrants injured after clashes with National Guard troops in southern Mexico

Migrants rest as they take part in a caravan heading to Mexico City, in Pijijiapan

National Guard officers have been wary of confronting migrants since a shooting incident Sunday left one migrant dead.

Confrontations between law enforcement and migrants had been relatively rare in Mexico, but National Guard officers opened fire on a pickup truck carrying migrants Sunday when the vehicle tried to avoid an immigration checkpoint; the Guard said it had tried to ram a patrol vehicle.

A Cuban migrant was killed and four other migrants were wounded.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador later said the shooting was unjustified, and that the pickup — apparently driven by a suspected migrant trafficker — had simply tried to run past the checkpoint, not ram the Guard vehicle. The guard officers involved are now subject to a federal criminal investigation.

Apparently, the migrants in the truck were not part of some 4,000 mainly Central Americans who are seeking to reach Mexico City on foot. The shooting occurred about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from where the migrant march was at the time.

An estimated 4,000 migrants set out from the city of Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border, on foot on Oct. 23. They have made slow progress trudging along highways amid the brutal heat of the region, advancing only about 95 miles (150 kilometers) in almost two weeks.

The Mexican government has been attempting to discourage the march, saying the poor conditions are putting the migrants’ lives at risk. The National Immigration Institute said six cases of the tropical fever dengue had been detected among members of the migrant march.

Much larger caravans crossed Mexico in 2018 and 2019, but those migrants never tried to walk the whole distance. They usually caught rides aboard passing trucks.

But Mexico has told truckers not to pick up migrants, saying they could face charges of migrant trafficking. The migrants are also afraid of becoming separated from the group, for fear they will be rounded up and deported.

A National Guard officer was killed by suspected immigrant traffickers in September.

And a dozen members of an elite police force in the northern border state of Tamaulipas are on trial for allegedly killing 14 Guatemalan migrants and five other people, whose bodies were found shot and burned near the U.S. border in late January.

Frustration has been growing for months among the thousands of migrants waiting in Tapachula near the Guatemala border. Mexico’s strategy had been to contain migrants in the south, far from the U.S. border, while allowing them to apply for asylum in Mexico.

But Mexico’s asylum system has been overwhelmed and the slow process led many to decide it was not worth waiting.

Migrants injured after clashes with National Guard troops in southern Mexico

Migrants injured after clashes with National Guard troops in southern Mexico

Migrants rest as they take part in a caravan heading to Mexico City, in Pijijiapan

Thu, November 4, 2021

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Dozens of migrants traveling north to Mexico City clashed with the National Guard in the southern state of Chiapas on Thursday, near to where a Cuban national was killed on Sunday by the militarized police force.

The group of mostly Central American women and children resumed their journey on Monday in the Pijijiapan municipality of Chiapas, after fatigue and illnesses among some members prompted a two day break.

Migrants injured after clashes with National Guard troops in southern Mexico

Migrants rest as they take part in a caravan heading to Mexico City, in Pijijiapan

"There are two injured migrants, they were badly beaten. The officers tried to surround them with their shields," Luis Garcia, who helped organize the migrant caravan, told Reuters over the phone.

"Everything was chaotic. It's not right that the authorities keep acting this way. Despite all the repression we're not going to stop," Garcia said, adding that authorities had escorted away migrants in at least four buses.

The National Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

National Guard troops, who donned helmets and riot shields, confronted migrants, according to images on social media. Other videos shared with Reuters showed several migrants being detained by National Migration Institute agents.

Migrants injured after clashes with National Guard troops in southern Mexico

Agents of the National Institute of Migration (INM) and members of the National Guard follow a migrant caravan in Pijijiapan

The National Migration Institute also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The clashes occurred near to where a Cuban migrant was shot https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexicos-national-guard-kills-cuban-migrant-wounds-four-others-caravan-advances-2021-11-02 dead by the National Guard while four others were wounded by National Guard officers early on Sunday in an area where a caravan of migrants was heading towards the U.S. border.

About 3,000 people set off on foot last month from the Mexican city of Tapachula on the Guatemalan border. Many have rejected visas https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/migrant-caravan-advances-slowly-southern-mexico-some-reject-visas-2021-10-30 offered by Mexico, saying they distrust the authorities.

St. Louis County prosecutor: Evidence Strickland was wrongly convicted ‘overwhelming’


Kevin Strickland
American man convicted of triple homicide


Luke Nozicka
Wed, November 3, 2021

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell agrees with Jackson County prosecutors and other officials that the evidence Kevin Strickland was wrongly convicted “is overwhelming.”

In a statement to The Star, Bell said while his office generally does not comment on pending litigation, Strickland’s case “is different.”

Bell is the latest to join a list of officials, including Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, federal prosecutors in western Missouri and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, who believe Strickland was wrongly convicted more than 40 years ago.

Prosecutors across the state are keeping tabs on the Strickland case — it is the first playing out under a new law that gives local prosecutors the ability to file motions seeking to free prisoners they have deemed innocent. Strickland’s evidentiary hearing, during which Baker’s office will argue he is innocent before Judge James Welsh, is set to start at 10 a.m. Monday.

In St. Louis County, Bell said his office’s unit that examines innocence claims is reviewing applications from prisoners contending they were wrongly convicted, some decades ago. He said his office would not hesitate to use the new law in the “appropriate case,” noting he supported the exoneration last year of Lawrence Callanan, who was wrongly convicted of murder in 1996.

“These tragic cases should remind all prosecuting attorneys, local, state and federal, that our mandate is to serve justice, not to deliver or defend prosecutions regardless of justice,” Bell said.

In May, Strickland received rare support from Jackson County prosecutors who said he is “factually innocent” in a 1978 triple murder and called for his immediate release. Baker filed a motion seeking to exonerate Strickland, 62, when the new law went into effect in August. Weeks later, Edward “Chip” Robertson, a former Missouri Supreme Court justice, joined Baker’s efforts.

After more than two months of legal sparring, Baker’s office and Strickland’s lawyers will face off in court Monday with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which contends Strickland is guilty and received a fair trial in 1979.

Post-conviction attorneys interviewed by The Star said they fear the attorney general’s tactics in Strickland’s case — such as filing motions that caused delays — will dissuade other prosecutors, especially those with fewer employees, from utilizing the new law.

The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office has not calculated the hours it has worked on Strickland’s case. But spokesman Mike Mansur said prosecutors have likely invested more hours into reviewing Strickland’s innocence claim and then trying to exonerate him than their predecessors spent “during the original trial.”

In an investigation published in 2020, The Star reported that, for decades, two men who pleaded guilty in the killings swore Strickland, then 18, was not with them and two other accomplices during the Kansas City murders. A third, uncharged suspect also said Strickland is innocent. The only eyewitness to the shooting later tried to recant her identification of Strickland and wanted him freed.

Ahead of Monday’s hearing, groups plan to gather at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Jackson County courthouse to call for Strickland’s release. The rally was put together, in part, by the National Organization of Exonerees, a group of exonerees based in Michigan.

If prosecutors prevail and Strickland is exonerated, his imprisonment will mark the longest known wrongful conviction in Missouri.

Tigray, other groups form alliance against Ethiopian leader

Ethiopia Tigray CrisisA man stands outside a mobile phone accessory shop in the Piazza old town area of the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. Urgent new efforts to calm Ethiopia's escalating war are unfolding Thursday as a U.S. special envoy visits and the president of neighboring Kenya calls for an immediate cease-fire while the country marks a year of conflict. ]

AP Photo

CARA ANNA
Thu, November 4, 2021

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia’s Tigray forces are joining with other armed and opposition groups in an alliance against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to seek a political transition after a year of devastating war, organizers say.

The signing in Washington on Friday includes the Tigray forces that have been fighting Ethiopian and allied forces, as well as the Oromo Liberation Army now fighting alongside the Tigray forces and seven other groups from around the country.

The alliance is forming as U.S. special envoy Jeffrey Feltman is in Ethiopia’s capital meeting with senior government officials amid calls for an immediate cease-fire and talks to end the war that has killed thousands of people since November 2020. The U.S. said he met with the deputy prime minister and defense and finance ministers on Thursday.

The new United Front of Ethiopian Federalist Forces seeks to “establish a transitional arrangement in Ethiopia” so the prime minister can go as soon as possible, organizer Yohanees Abraha, who is with the Tigray group, told The Associated Press late Thursday. “The next step will be, of course, to start meeting and communicating with countries, diplomats and international actors in Ethiopia and abroad.”

He said the new alliance is both political and military. It has had no communication with Ethiopia’s government, he added.

People play with a ball in the Piazza old town area of the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. Urgent new efforts to calm Ethiopia's escalating war are unfolding Thursday as a U.S. special envoy visits and the president of neighboring Kenya calls for an immediate cease-fire while the country marks a year of conflict. (AP Photo)

A spokesman for the Oromo Liberation Army, Odaa Tarbii, confirmed the new alliance. When asked whether it meant to force Abiy out, he replied that it depended on Ethiopia's government and events over the coming weeks. “Of course we prefer if there's a peaceful and orderly transition with Abiy being removed,” he said.

“The goal is to be as inclusive as possible. We know this transition requires all stakeholders,” he added. But as for members of the prime minister's Prosperity Party, “there would have to be a process. Many members would have to go through investigation, possibly be prosecuted” for crimes related to the war.

The spokeswoman for the prime minister, Billene Seyoum, addressed the new alliance Thursday evening when she tweeted that “any outliers that rejected the democratic processes Ethiopia embarked upon cannot be for democratization,” pointing out Abiy’s opening-up of political space after taking office in 2018. His reforms included welcoming some opposition groups home from exile.

The spokeswoman said she had no further comment Friday, and had no information on whether the prime minister would be meeting with the U.S. special envoy.

The OLA spokesman in reply to her tweet noted that some of the people who returned to Ethiopia were later put in prison or under house arrest. “A lot of goodwill was lost over the last three years,” he said.

Other groups signing on Friday include the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front, Agaw Democratic Movement, Benishangul People’s Liberation Movement, Gambella Peoples Liberation Army, Global Kimant People Right and Justice Movement/ Kimant Democratic Party, Sidama National Liberation Front and Somali State Resistance, according to organizers.

Nine Ethiopian factions to form alliance against government

Bloc includes Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which has been fighting Abiy Ahmed’s forces for a year

Tigray forces in northern Ethiopia. Photograph: AP


Reuters
Fri 5 Nov 2021 

Nine anti-government factions in Ethiopia are to form an alliance on Friday, as pressure mounts on the country’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, with rebel forces advancing toward the capital.

The new alliance, called the United Front of Ethiopian Federalist and Confederalist Forces, includes the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which has been fighting Abiy’s government for a year in a war that has killed thousands of people and forced more than 2 million more from their homes.

Two of the groups, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) and the Agaw Democratic Movement (ADM), confirmed the announcement was genuine.

Several of the groups have armed fighters although it was not clear whether they all do.
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Abiy’s spokesperson, Billene Seyoum, asked about the new anti-government alliance, referred to a comment she posted on Twitter in which she defended Abiy’s rule since he took office in 2018 after a wave of anti-government protests. His party was re-elected in June.

“The opening up of the political space three years ago provided ample opportunity for contenders to settle their differences at the ballot box in June 2021,” Seyoum said in the post.

She did not refer directly to the new alliance.

Spokespeople for the government and the foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the alliance.

African and western nations are calling for an immediate ceasefire in Ethiopia after Tigrayan forces from the north said they made advances towards the capital this week.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said in a tweet late on Thursday: “The conflict in Ethiopia must come to an end. Peace negotiations should begin immediately without preconditions in pursuit of a ceasefire.”

The spokespeople for the Ethiopian government and the TPLF did not respond to requests for comment on Blinken’s ceasefire call.

US senators on Thursday introduced a new sanctions bill on parties to the conflict in Ethiopia.

“This is a regional crisis that requires a coordinated and intensive international response,” said Senator Jim Risch, a Republican from Idaho.

The announcement of the new alliance comes during a two-day visit to Addis Ababa by US special envoy to the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman.

On Thursday, he met the African Union Commission chairperson, Moussa Faki, as well as the Ethiopian defence minister, finance minister and deputy prime minister, according to the State Department.

It was not clear whether the US envoy would meet Abiy.

The TPLF spokesperson, Getachew Reda, did not respond to comment requests on Friday.

The groups will hold a signing ceremony on Friday in Washington, they said in the announcement.

The front is being formed “to reverse the harmful effects of the Abiy Ahmed rule on the peoples of Ethiopia and beyond,” the groups said. It is also being formed “in recognition of the great need to collaborate and join forces towards a safe transition in the country.”

UK government makes U-turn on corruption rule change as lawmaker quits


FILE PHOTO: Owen Paterson leaves Winfield House during U.S.

 President Donald Trump's state visit in London,

Andrew MacAskill and Michael Holden
Thu, November 4, 2021,

LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government made an embarrassing U-turn on Thursday on plans to overhaul the system for combating parliamentary corruption, with the lawmaker whose case had provoked the row quitting his job.

Faced with unhappiness in his party and headlines accusing the prime minister and his Conservative administration of "sleaze", the government said it would think again about proposals it had pushed through parliament only the day before.

Backed by Johnson, Conservative lawmakers narrowly voted to halt a proposed 30-day suspension from parliament of Owen Paterson, a former minister, who had been found guilty by parliament's standards watchdog of repeatedly lobbying for two firms, which paid him nearly three times his annual salary.

Instead, they pushed through a proposal to delay the suspension and set up a new committee to review his case and the wider system of investigating lawmakers.

But with growing outrage from opposition politicians and some within its own party, the government backtracked, and said there would be another vote on the proposed suspension. Paterson then announced he was quitting "the cruel world of politics".

"The last two years have been an indescribable nightmare for my family and me," Paterson, whose wife took her own life last year, said in a statement. "I maintain that I am totally innocent of what I have been accused of."

Johnson said he was "very sad" that Paterson was stepping down as a lawmaker, adding it "must have been a very difficult decision but I can understand why...he has decided to put his family first".

Before the government's volte-face, a number of Conservative politicians had criticised their party's handling of the row, which commentators said reflected badly on the prime minister.

"This is one of the most unedifying episodes I have seen in my 16 years as a Member of Parliament," said Mark Harper, a Conservative lawmaker who rebelled against his party to oppose the plans.

Another Conservative politician, Peter Bone, said his office had been vandalised because he voted in favour of the changes.

'DAMAGING MOMENT'

Earlier, Jonathan Evans, chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life and a former head of Britain's MI5 domestic spy service, said blocking the suspension of a lawmaker was "deeply at odds" with the traditions of British democracy.

The vote was "a very serious and damaging moment for parliament," Evans said in speech in London.

Johnson has faced other accusations of wrongdoing recently, including plans to have party donors secretly contribute to a luxury renovation of his Downing Street flat, and the government handing out large contracts for protective medical equipment to those with links to those in power.

The opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer accused the government of corruption and said Johnson was "leading his troops through the sewer".

"Boris Johnson must now apologise to the entire country for this grubby attempt to cover up for the misdemeanour of his friend," Starmer said. "This isn't the first time he's done this but it must be the last."

Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University in London, said allegations of corruption could be deeply damaging, citing the sleaze rows that dogged the last days of John Major's Conservative government in the mid-1990s.

However, Bale said the Conservatives had maintained their lead over the opposition in recent polls despite criticism of the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and a rise in the cost of living.

"What's happened this week won't do it any favours," he said. "But at the moment, I wouldn't bet too much money on us having reached some kind of tipping point."

(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill, Michael Holden, Kylie MacLellan and Alistair Smout; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Giles Elgood)

ALMO END FEMICIDE 

Hundreds join violence against women protest in Mexico

Thu, November 4, 2021

Protesters held up crosses with names of the victims

Hundreds of people holding up crosses bearing the names of murdered women have marched in Mexico City to draw attention to rising cases of femicide.

The "Day of Dead Women" protest was held the day after Mexico's traditional Day of the Dead celebrations.

Femicide, or the intentional murder of women because of their gender, is increasingly a cause for concern.

At least 975 women were killed in Mexico in 2020, and 762 deaths happened from January to September this year.

Human rights group Amnesty International says investigations of the cases are often flawed because evidence is lost and a gender perspective is not applied correctly, making it "easier for these crimes to go unpunished".

Chanting "We are your voice," demonstrators used megaphones to read out the names of murdered women. They also carried photographs and banners with images of some of the victims.

A photo is pictured on a cross as relatives and friends of victims of femicide hold a march in Mexico City

Relatives and friends of victims of femicide hold a march in Mexico City

"Each cross is a case, a pain," Consuelo Martínez, mother of Victoria Pamela, who was killed by her partner, told Efe news agency. "We really want the authorities to act... We seek justice and truth for each of the dead [woman]."

The march was highly emotional, with some of the mothers crying and hugging one another.

"We're here for the same fight: our murdered daughters," said Nayeli Aquino, mother of Naela Daniela, who was killed in 2019 and whose case remains unsolved.

Cintia Ramírez, whose niece Dulce Lilián was murdered by her husband in 2019, said the protesters wanted the authorities to do more to bring the perpetrators to justice.

"The main demand is to urge the government to listen to us, to arrest people who are at large and for justice to be done. They aren't going to bring our dead back but at least they can give us some peace and tranquillity," she said.

Relatives and friends of victims of femicide hold a march in Mexico City

Earlier, Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said the government had opened 73 offices around the country to help female victims of violence.

Emergency calls related to violence against women in Mexico rose more than 30% last year, as Covid-19 lockdowns kept families stuck at home, according to Reuters news agency.

SEALS
‘Very chunky’ shark is seen off the East Coast and experts are doing a double take



Mark Price
Thu, November 4, 2021, 10:34 AM·2 min read

Great white sharks have been known to weigh 6,600 pounds, so a “fat” shark might be tough to define.

Still, a group of researchers hinted that might be the case with a shark photo shared Nov. 3 on Facebook.

It shows a great white shark with a tummy that is .... well, bloated, to put it politely.

“There are some sharks that make our data team stop and take a double-take,” the Massachusetts-based Atlantic White Shark Conservancy conservancy wrote.

“One of our data team members was analyzing GoPro footage, they came across this very chunky, male, white shark.”

You know it has to be bad when shark experts are the ones pointing fingers.

The team apparently pondered the image and concluded the shark “recently ate due to the size of its stomach.“

Sharks aren’t known to chew their food. It’s more like ripping and swallowing, so it could be assumed the meal involved something big — like a dead whale.

The post has gotten hundreds of reactions in the past day, including some people who wondered if it was a female and she was pregnant.

“Why you gotta fat-shame him,” Brad Karger asked.

“He’s not fat he’s just big ... cartilaged?” Tom Duquette Jr. said.

“Sharks gotta eat,” Maria Spina wrote.

The location where the photo was taken wasn’t revealed, and the researchers did not give a size estimate on the predator. The photo was taken in partnership with the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.

This is the season when great white sharks are known to travel from the North Atlantic in warmer waters off southern Florida and the Gulf of Mexico.

OCEARCH, which tags and tracks white sharks, has discovered some will travel from Canada as far away as the mouth of the Mississippi. The nonprofit has been searching for the spot where they mate and believes it may be off North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

There are some sharks that make our data team stop and take a double-take. One of our data team members was analyzing GoPro footage, they came across this very chunky, male, white shark. Our data team can assume that the shark recently ate due to the size of its stomach.

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 Surfing teen gets upstaged when shark bursts from wave off SC and starts spinning 

BY MARK PRICE AUGUST 09, 2021

 A Tennessee teen practicing his surfing technique got upstaged by a shark last week, when the rambunctious predator burst from the ocean a few feet away and began a series of Olympic-style spins. It happened Friday off North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, according to the teen’s mother, Kaci Allen. She identified the surfer as her 15-year-old son, Ethan, whom she calls “E.” Her video shows Ethan’s surf board crossed over the shark a split second before it jumped from the water. “I didn’t even realize we’d captured the shark jumping up right after he pulled his feet up on the board!” Kaci Allen posted on Facebook.

Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/south-carolina/article253364768.html#storylink=cpy

'Beyond unacceptable': Bernie Sanders slams Democrats' $1.75 trillion spending package after analysis said it would cut taxes for the rich

Tom Porter

Wed, November 3, 2021

Sens. Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown at a news conference on Capitol Hill in 2014. Win McNamee/Getty Images

• Sen. Bernie Sanders described a new proposal for Democrats' spending bill as "beyond unacceptable."

• An analysis found a repeal of a cap on certain tax deductions would greatly benefit the wealthiest.

• The $1.75 trillion bill has been mired in the Senate amid disputes among Democrats.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Tuesday said it would be "beyond unacceptable" for Democrats to add a provision to their massive social-spending bill that one analysis found could end up delivering a huge tax cut to the wealthiest Americans.

Insider and other outlets reported on Tuesday that the new provision was being touted for the stalled $1.75 trillion plan.

The new addition would repeal the $10,000 cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes, a move that has long been championed by some Democratic lawmakers, who believe the Trump-era law unfairly affected people in high-tax blue states like New Jersey and California.

It had a particular impact on people with properties in more than one state, who were unable to deduct large state tax obligations from their federal tax bill.

But an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projected that a repeal of the cap could end up costing the federal government far more than any proposed higher taxes on the wealthy and would result in a $30 billion net direct tax cut for the wealthiest 5% of Americans.

"That is beyond unacceptable. I will not support more tax breaks for billionaires," Sanders tweeted Tuesday, linking to a CNN report on the analysis.

"Democrats campaigned and won on an agenda that demands that the very wealthy finally pay their fair share, not one that gives them more tax breaks," Sanders said in a statement. "I am open to a compromise approach which protects the middle class in high-tax states."

"I will not support more tax breaks for billionaires," he added.

Democrats' large bill, which is focused on social programs and climate initiatives, has been mired for weeks in Congress amid disputes between among Democrats over its scale and how it should be funded. The Democrats have a razor-thin majority in the Senate that means the objections of a single lawmaker to any measure must be accommodated to pass the bill.

Sanders has signaled he is open to revising but not repealing the SALT code.

"There are middle-class families in states where property taxes are very high that are paying a whole lot in state and local taxes. And I think we have to support them," Sanders said during an interview with MSNBC in June.