‘Women of Pakistan lost an ally today,’ says journalist Maria Memon after Maleeka Bokhari quits PTI

1 hour ago

I now want to give time to my profession and family: Maleeka Bokhari

After announcing her resignation from the PTI, Maleeka Bokhari says she now wants to give time to her profession and family.

Addressing a press conference, she said, “As a lawyer, I want to play an important role in Pakistan. And as a mother and daughter — because my mother is a cancer survivor — I now want to give time to my profession and family.”

33 minutes ago

Maleeka Bokhari condemns attacks on military installations on May 9

Former parliamentary secretary for law Maleeka Bokhari has condemned the attack on military installations on May 9.

“May 9 was a very difficult and painful day for every Pakistani,” she said at a press conference.

While condemning the incidents, she also mentioned that “I am a mother, I have a 13-year-old son”.

1 hour ago

Maleeka Bokhari resigns from PTI, ‘disassociates’ herself from party

Former MNA Maleeka Bokhari has resigned from the PTI and announced that she is “disassociating” herself from the party.

She added that she was no pressured to quit the party. “It is very difficult to be behind bars in the heat of May.”

DAWN

South Africa under more scrutiny over Russian ship as ruling ANC says it would ‘welcome’ Putin

By Gerald Imray

AP

yesterday

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, speaks to South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, right, during a plenary session at the Russia-Africa summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia on Oct. 24, 2019. The U.S. ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, has accused South Africa of providing weapons to Russia saying the U.S. government was certain that weapons were loaded onto a cargo ship that docked secretly at a naval base near the city of Cape Town for three days in December. 

(Sergei Chirikov/Pool Photo via AP, File)

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The South African government was under more pressure Wednesday for declining to release cargo documents relating to the visit by a Russian ship that the United States alleges collected a consignment of weapons for Moscow.

Separately, a top official in South Africa’s ruling party added to the scrutiny of the country’s relationship with Russia by saying the party would “welcome” a visit by President Vladimir Putin, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

The comments by African National Congress Secretary General Fikile Mbalula regarding Putin were made in an interview with the BBC and in the context of the Russian leader attending a summit of the BRICS economic bloc in South Africa in August. The bloc is made up of Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa.

“If it was according to the ANC, we would want President Putin to be here, even tomorrow, to come to our country,” Mbalula said in the interview, excerpts of which were posted on the ANC’s social media channels on Tuesday. “We will welcome him to come here as part and parcel of BRICS.”

As a signatory to the International Criminal Court treaty, South Africa is obliged to arrest Putin if he enters the country. The South African government has indicated it will not carry out the arrest warrant if Putin does travel for the summit, although it hasn’t said that explicitly.

“Do you think that a head of state can just be arrested anywhere?” Mbalula, a former Cabinet minister who is now the ANC’s top administrative official, said in the BBC interview.

He told the BBC interviewer there was hypocrisy on the part of the West related to the arrest warrant for Putin because, he said, Britain and other Western nations committed crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan and no heads of state were arrested.

Mbalula last month referred to the United States as one of the countries “messing up the world.”

There has been increasing anti-U.S. and anti-West rhetoric in the ANC and sometimes in parts of South Africa’s government since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, despite South Africa maintaining it has a neutral stance on the war.

The trend is troubling for the U.S. and other Western partners of South Africa because of its status as an influential democracy in the developing world, and Africa’s most developed economy.

The Russian vessel, Lady R, is docked at the Simon's Town Naval Base near Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022. The U.S. ambassador to South Africa has accused the country of providing weapons to Russia. Ambassador Reuben Brigety said the U.S. government was certain that weapons were loaded onto a cargo ship that docked secretly at a naval base near the city of Cape Town for three days in December. (AP Photo)

South Africa has a historical relationship with Russia connected to the old Soviet Union’s military and political support for the ANC when it was a liberation movement fighting to end the racist apartheid regime that oppressed the country’s Black majority. The West appears concerned that the ANC’s old ideological ties to Russia are now pulling South Africa into Moscow’s political orbit amid burgeoning global tensions. There are also growing economic ties between Africa, a continent of 1.3 billion people, and China.

The concerns were laid bare by the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa earlier this month when he accused it of providing weapons to Russia via a cargo ship that docked at a naval base near the city of Cape Town in December. Ambassador Reuben Brigety said “I would bet my life” that weapons were loaded onto the Russian-flagged Lady R, which is under U.S. sanctions for alleged ties to a company that has transported arms for the Russian government.

The South African government has denied it made any arms transaction with Russia, although it hasn’t categorically ruled out the possibility that another entity did so secretly. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered an inquiry.

On Wednesday, South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, challenged the government to come clean if it had nothing to hide and release a cargo manifest for the Lady R’s visit to the Simon’s Town naval base.

A DA lawmaker also asked Defense Minister Thandi Modise to release the documents during a debate in Parliament on Tuesday. Modise refused to do so while also using an expletive to repeat the government’s denial that any weapons were loaded onto the ship.

Modise has said that the Russian ship was visiting to deliver an ammunition shipment to South Africa that was ordered in 2018 but delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Modise’s refusal to make public the cargo manifest was supported by fellow ANC lawmakers, who said the documents were “classified.” Modise said they would be handed over to the inquiry into the incident.

___

More AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

NOT REALLY PRO LIFE

Louisiana lawmakers reject bill to abolish death penalty

Sara Cline

 In this Sept. 18, 2009, file photo, Warden of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Burl Cain, discusses the gurney used for lethal injections to Ruth Graham, far right and others as they visit the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La. For the fifth time in six years, Louisiana lawmakers have blocked attempts Wednesday, May 24, 2023 to abolish the state’s death penalty. (AP Photo/Judi Bottoni, File)

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — For the fifth time in six years, Louisiana lawmakers have blocked attempts to abolish the state’s death penalty.

Despite a new push by Democratic Gov. John Bel and testimony of proponents from all walks of life — exonerated death row inmates, religious leaders, a judge, family members of murder victims and other members of the public — a GOP-controlled legislative committee voted 11-4 Wednesday against a bill to repeal the state’s longstanding death penalty.

Louisiana has held 28 executions since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. The last lethal injection was in January 2010, when the state executed Gerald Bordelon, a convicted sex offender who confessed to strangling his 12-year-old stepdaughter and waived an appeal.

Sixty people sit on Louisiana’s death row, with no execution dates set, according to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections.

Death penalty opponents argue that it should be eliminated due to the cost of executions, racial disparities and religious beliefs. Critics also note that Louisiana has had frequent exonerations. Between 2010 and 2020, 22 inmates sentenced to death had those sentences reduced or were exonerated, according to the corrections department.

Among those exonerated is Shareef Cousin, who was convicted of murder in New Orleans in 1996 at 16 years old. He became one of the youngest people in the nation condemned to death row at the time. Cousin served several years on death row at Angola, Louisiana’s notorious state penitentiary. His conviction was later reversed after the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled prosecutors mishandled Cousin’s case.

“Ask yourselves, if any one of your children was put in a position where they were accused of something they did not commit, what would your position be?” Cousin told the legislative committee.

Ross Foote, a retired district judge, said he fears that there may have been cases in which an innocent person has wrongfully been sentenced to death and executed.

“You can have miscarriages of justice and the finality of the execution makes me shudder,” he told lawmakers.

Abolishing the death penalty in Louisiana was a newfound priority this legislative session for Edwards, who is unable to run for reelection this year due to term limits.

Edwards recently said that the penalty is “inconsistent with Louisiana’s pro-life values, as it quite literally promotes a culture of death,” referring to the fact that the state has a near-total abortion ban.

Those against the bill advocated for justice for the families of victims who believe it is the appropriate punishment for certain crimes. Critics of the stalled executions described prosecutors frustrated by lengthy legal battles that surround the pursuit of a successful death sentence.

Twenty-seven states have the death penalty, and 18 inmates were executed last year across the country, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center.

PRO LIFE GOVERNORS

2 former Alabama governors from opposite sides of the political aisle express doubts over executions

ByAssociated Pressyesterday

 Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman speaks to the media in Atlanta, Aug. 10, 2017. Siegelman, a Democrat and former Gov. Robert Bentley, a Republican, who oversaw executions while in office, wrote in a Tuesday, May 23, 2023, opinion piece that they are now troubled by the state's death penalty system and would commute the sentences of inmates sentenced by judicial override or divided juries. 

(AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley speaks to the media during a news conference, in Hoover, Ala., Sept. 19, 2016. Bentley, a Republican, and fellow former Gov. Don Siegelman, a Democrat, who oversaw executions while in office, wrote in a Tuesday, May 23, 2023, opinion piece that they are now troubled by the state's death penalty system and would commute the sentences of inmates sentenced by judicial override or divided juries.

 (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Two former Alabama governors, from opposite sides of the political aisle, wrote in an opinion piece that they are now troubled by the state’s death penalty system and would commute the sentences of inmates sentenced by judicial override or divided juries.

Former Gov. Don Siegelman, a Democrat, and former Gov. Robert Bentley, a Republican, who both oversaw executions while in office, penned the Tuesday opinion piece for The Washington Post. The governors said that have both come “to see the flaws in our nation’s justice system and to view the state’s death penalty laws in particular as legally and morally troubling.”

“We missed our chance to confront the death penalty and have lived to regret it, but it is not too late for today’s elected officials to do the morally right thing,” the governor’s wrote.

Bentley and Siegelman each let eight executions go forward while they were in office, according to a list maintained by the Alabama Department of Corrections.

The governors said they are particularly concerned that a large number of the state’s death row population was sentenced to death by either divided juries or over a jury’s recommendation.

Alabama in 2017 became the last state to end the practice of allowing judges to override a jury’s sentence in a capital case and send a person to death row when a jury recommended life imprisonment — a practice that critics argued interjected election-year pressure into sentencing decisions. But the change was not retroactive and did not impact inmates already sentenced to death by judicial override.

“As governors, we had the power to commute the sentences of all those on Alabama’s death row to life in prison. We no longer have that constitutional power, but we feel that careful consideration calls for commuting the sentences of the 146 prisoners who were sentenced by non-unanimous juries or judicial override, and that an independent review unit should be established to examine all capital murder convictions,” the two governors wrote.

Only four states out of the 27 that allow the death penalty do not require a unanimous jury to sentence an inmate to death. Alabama allows a death sentence with 10-2 decision in favor of execution. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last month signed legislation ending that state’s unanimous jury requirement and allowing death sentences when at least eight jurors are in favor. Missouri and Indiana let a judge decide when there is a divided jury.

The governors cited statistics from the Death Penalty Information Center that one person on death row has been exonerated for every 8.3 executions. Applying that exoneration rate to the 167 people on Alabama’s death row, Siegelman said would suggest as many as 20 inmates could have been wrongfully convicted.

“We all should agree that if the state is going to be in the business of killing people, that we should make sure that we have the right person,” Siegelman told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Tuesday night.

Siegelman said after reviewing cases that he is now personally haunted by one of the eight executions that happened during his time as governor.

Freddie Wright was put to death in Alabama’s electric chair in 2000 after being convicted of killing a couple during a robbery. Siegelman declined to stop the execution, saying at the time that the “death penalty is appropriate in this case.” Twenty-three years later Siegelman said that he now believes Wright “was wrongfully charged, prosecuted and convicted for a murder he most likely did not commit.”

Siegelman said that he “never felt comfortable with the death penalty” but that his views have evolved over the years, at least partly sparked by his own criminal conviction.

The last Democratic governor in a state now dominated by Republicans, Siegelman was convicted of federal bribery and obstruction of justice charges largely related to his appointment of a campaign donor to a state board. Siegelman, who has maintained his innocence, said he came to see the system as flawed.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

DEA’s failure to punish distributor blamed in opioid crisis raises revolving door questions

ByJim Mustianand

Joshua Goodman

AP

today

An automatic system drops pharmaceutical orders on a conveyor belt to be placed into boxes at Morris and Dickson Co., in Shreveport, Wednesday, July 13, 2016. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allowed one of the nation’s largest wholesale drug distributors to keep shipping opioid painkillers for nearly four years after a judge recommended in 2018 it lose its license for its “cavalier disregard” of thousands of suspicious orders fueling the opioid crisis.

 (Henrietta Wildsmith/The Shreveport Times via AP)

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allowed one of the nation’s largest wholesale drug distributors to keep shipping highly addictive painkillers for nearly four years after a judge recommended it be stripped of its license for its “cavalier disregard” of thousands of suspicious orders fueling the opioid crisis.

The DEA did not respond to repeated questions from The Associated Press about its handling of the case against Morris & Dickson Co. or the involvement of a high-profile consultant the company had hired to stave off punishment and who is now DEA Administrator Anne Milgram’s top deputy.

But the delay has raised concerns about how the revolving door between government and industry may be impacting the DEA’s mission to police drug companies blamed for tens of thousands of American overdose deaths.

“If the DEA had issued its order in a timely manner, one could then credibly believe that its second-in-command was not involved despite an obvious conflict of interest,” said Craig Holman, an ethics expert at the watchdog group Public Citizen in Washington. “The mere fact that its action has been delayed four years just raises red flags. It casts the entire process under grave suspicion.”

Last week, after the AP reached out to the DEA for comment, the agency broke its silence on the issue and abruptly notified Morris & Dickson that it has decided to revoke its registration to distribute controlled substances, according to two people familiar with the development who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the exchange. However, no final order has yet been published. The company has described revocation as a “virtual death sentence” and is almost certain to challenge the decision in federal court.

Louis Milione, who was named DEA’s principal deputy administrator in 2021, did not respond to requests for comment. He retired from the DEA in 2017 after a storied 21-year career that included two years leading the division that controls the sale of highly addictive narcotics. Like dozens of colleagues in the DEA’s powerful-but-little-known Office of Diversion Control, he quickly went to work as a consultant for some of the same companies he had been tasked with regulating, including Morris & Dickson.

Milione was brought in by Morris & Dickson as part of a $3 million contract to save its registration to supply painkillers after the DEA accused the company in 2018 of failing to flag thousands of suspicious, high-volume orders.

Testifying in 2019 before federal Administrative Law Judge Charles W. Dorman, Milione argued that Morris & Dickson “spared no expense” to overhaul its compliance systems, cancel suspicious orders and send daily emails to the DEA spelling out its actions.

But those efforts were too little, too late, the judge wrote in a 159-page recommendation which has not been previously reported and was recently obtained by the AP. Anything less than the most severe punishment, he said, “would communicate to DEA registrants that despite their transgressions, no matter how egregious, they will get a mere slap on the wrist and a second chance so long as they acknowledge their sins and vow to sin no more.”

“Acceptance of responsibility and evidence of remediation are not get-out-of-jail-free cards that erase the harm caused by years of cavalier disregard,” Dorman wrote. “Allowing the respondent to keep its registration would tell distributors that it is acceptable to take a relaxed approach to DEA regulations until they are caught, at which point they only need to throw millions of dollars at the problem to make the DEA go away.”

Pharmaceutical orders fall into boxes as workers make sure the orders are complete at Morris and Dickson Co., in Shreveport, July 13, 2016. 

(Henrietta Wildsmith/The Shreveport Times via AP)

Shreveport, Louisiana-based Morris & Dickson, the nation’s fourth-largest wholesale drug distributor with $4 billion a year in revenue and nearly 600 employees, has said losing its license would effectively shut it down and have a “catastrophic” effect on patients in 29 states.

In a statement to AP, the company said it has invested millions of dollars in compliance systems, executives and advisors. “If DEA attempts to revoke our license for previous actions, the company will vigorously appeal and seek a stay in federal court,” it said. “We are confident we will achieve an outcome that safeguards the supply chain for all of our healthcare partners and the communities they serve.”

Neither Milgram nor two DEA administrators who preceded her have taken any enforcement action since Dorman’s 2019 recommendation, allowing Morris & Dickson to continue operating even as it pursued a potential settlement. Former DEA officials told AP a nearly four-year wait in such a case is highly unusual, noting it rarely takes the agency more than two years to issue a final order.

Milgram’s management of DEA since the Biden nominee came into office nearly two years ago has been called into question on another front. AP reported last month that a federal watchdog is investigating whether the agency improperly awarded millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to hire Milgram’s past associates.

As for Milione, federal ethics rules bar government employees from taking part in decisions that could benefit companies where they previously worked. DEA spokesperson Christina Pryor declined to comment, but a person familiar with Milione’s work said he recused himself from issues related to Morris & Dickson after returning to the DEA in 2021. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about DEA officials’ recusals.

Milione, a lawyer and former bit Hollywood actor, impressed fellow DEA agents for his risk taking and toughness. Among his achievements was running the overseas sting that in 2008 nabbed Russia’s notorious arms trafficker Viktor Bout, aka “The Merchant of Death.”

In this image from video provided by C-SPAN, Louis Milione, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s principal deputy administrator, speaks during a hearing held by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health in Washington on Dec. 2, 2021.

But after taking over as the head of Diversion Control in 2015, he ended his predecessor’s refusal to meet with drug manufacturers and distributors and opened the DEA’s doors to the industry it was charged with regulating.

Among those Milione met with on at least two occasions was Paul Dickson Sr. — then-president of Morris & Dickson. That included a 2016 visit to the Louisiana headquarters with DEA investigators to discuss the company’s compliance program.

John Gray, the head of the Healthcare Distributors Alliance, a lobbying group that includes Morris & Dickson, recounted in a 2015 email how Milione, under orders from then-incoming DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg, wanted to “reset” relations with the drug industry. And Milione even delivered the keynote speech at the group’s annual meeting.

“Overall, he was engaging, exceedingly pleasant and seemed genuinely concerned that we had lost touch with each other,” Gray wrote. “It is a very different tone and approach than we have all seen in the past 8-10 years.”

Morris & Dickson had been punished for its mishandling of addictive drugs before. In 2019, before Dorman issued his recommendation, the company agreed to pay $22 million in civil penalties to resolve federal prosecutors’ claims that it violated the Controlled Substances Act by failing to report suspicious orders of hydrocodone and oxycodone. The company also agreed to multimillion-dollar upgrades of its compliance program to ensure it reports suspicious orders moving forward.

The case drew far less attention than the enforcement actions DEA took in recent years against Morris & Dickson’s larger competitors, a trio of pharmaceutical distributors who have agreed to pay the federal government more than $1 billion in fines and penalties for similar violations. Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen and McKesson also agreed to pay $21 billion over 18 years to resolve claims as part of a nationwide settlement.

Among the more than 12,000 suspicious orders that Dorman said Morris & Dickson should have reported to the DEA were 51 unusually large orders of opioids made by Wilkinson Family Pharmacy in suburban New Orleans.

Accompanied by local law enforcement, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents raid Wilkinson Family Pharmacy in Chalmette, La.

 (Sophia Germer/The Advocate via AP)

Wilkinson purchased more than 4.5 million pills of oxycodone and hydrocodone from Morris & Dickson between 2014 and 2017, and federal prosecutors say during that time owner Keith Wilkinson laundered more than $345,000 from illegal sales made with forged prescriptions or written by “pill mill” doctors.

In one month, as many as 42% of all prescriptions filled by Wilkinson were for painkillers and 38% of those were paid for in cash. The DEA considers a pharmacy’s sales of controlled substances suspicious whenever they surpass 15% or cash transactions exceed 9%.

Yet Morris & Dickson never suspended any shipments to the pharmacy. Over three years, it filed just three suspicious order reports to the DEA – none of which resulted in shipments being suspended.

“Anybody with half a brain could’ve seen something wasn’t right,” said Dan Schneider, a retired pharmacist near New Orleans whose fight to hold drug companies accountable for the opioid epidemic was featured in a Netflix documentary series. “They were way out of line.”

_____

Goodman reported from Miami. Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org.

Takeaways of AP report on DEA probe of drug distributor accused of fueling opioid epidemic


Jim Mustian

JimMustianJMustian@ap.org

Joshua Goodman

APJoshGoodmanjgoodman@ap.org

 

AP

yesterday

In this image from video provided by C-SPAN, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram speaks during a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science in Washington on May 10, 2023. At center left behind Milgram is Louis Milione. After temporarily leaving the DEA in 2017, like dozens of colleagues in the agency's powerful-but-little-known Office of Diversion Control, Milione immediately went to work as a consultant for some of the same companies he had been tasked with regulating, including Morris & Dickson. He was named deputy administrator in 2021. On another front, a federal watchdog is investigating whether Milgram improperly awarded millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to hire her past associates. (C-SPAN via AP)

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allowed one of the nation’s largest wholesale drug distributors to keep shipping addictive painkillers for nearly four years despite a judge’s recommendation to strip its license for turning a blind eye to thousands of suspicious opioid orders.

The case has drawn attention to the involvement of a high-profile consultant the company had hired to stave off punishment and who is now DEA Administrator Anne Milgram’s top deputy.

Here are the key takeaways from AP’s investigation.

WHAT’S AT STAKE?

A federal administrative law judge in August 2019 found that Morris & Dickson failed to flag thousands of suspicious, high-volume orders from pharmacies and recommended that it lose its license.

Failure to follow DEA rules by Morris & Dickson and other major distributors has been blamed for leading to more than 700,000 American overdose deaths in the past two decades..

The company said it overhauled its compliance system, canceled suspicious orders and sent daily emails to the DEA spelling out its actions. But Judge Charles W. Dorman said it was too little, too late, and issued a ruling to deter similar actions by other companies.

“Acceptance of responsibility and evidence of remediation are not get-out-of-jail-free cards that erase the harm caused by years of cavalier disregard,” Dorman wrote in a 159-page ruling obtained by The Associated Press.

But since Dorman’s 2019 recommendation, neither Milgram nor two DEA administrators who preceded her have taken any enforcement action. Former DEA officials told the AP that a nearly four-year delay is highly unusual, and that most such cases are resolved in half the time.

WHO IS MORRIS & DICKSON?

Shreveport, Louisiana-based Morris & Dickson is the U.S.′ fourth-largest drug distributor, with annual sales of more than $4 billion. But it trails a trio of pharmaceutical distributors known as the Big Three, all of whom agreed to pay the federal government more than $1 billion in fines and penalties for similar violations.

Morris & Dickson officials have repeatedly said in court filings that the loss of its license would be a “virtual death sentence.”

Among the more than 12,000 suspicious orders that Dorman said Morris & Dickson should have reported to the DEA were several placed by the Wilkinson Family Pharmacy in suburban New Orleans.

In one month, March 2014, 42% of all prescriptions filled by Wilkinson were for controlled substances such as painkillers and 38% of those were paid for in cash.

“Anybody with half a brain could’ve seen something wasn’t right,” said Dan Schneider, a retired pharmacist whose fight to hold drug companies accountable for the opioid crisis was featured in a Netflix documentary series.

WHO IS LOUIS MILIONE?

Louis Milione was named DEA’s principal deputy administrator in 2021. He had previously retired from the agency in 2017 after a storied 21-year career that included two years leading the division that controls the sale of highly addictive narcotics. Among his earlier achievements was running the overseas sting that in 2008 nabbed Russia’s notorious arms trafficker Viktor Bout.

Morris & Dickson brought Milione as part of a $3 million contract after the DEA accused the company in 2018 of failing to flag thousands of suspicious, high-volume orders.

Testifying in 2019 before federal Administrative Law Judge Charles W. Dorman, Milione argued that Morris & Dickson deserved to keep its license because it “spared no expense” to overhaul its compliance systems.

WHAT DOES DEA SAY?

The DEA did not respond to repeated questions about its handling of the Morris & Dickson case or Milione’s involvement.

But a person familiar with Milione’s work said he recused himself from issues related to Morris & Dickson after returning to the DEA in 2021. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about DEA officials’ recusals.

‘Mother Nature has no mercy’: Man gets stuck waist-deep in Alaska mud flats, drowns as tide comes in

ByMark Thiessen

AP

yesterday

A channel flows through the mud flats along the Seward Highway and Turnagain Arm in Alaska on Oct. 25, 2014. Authorities said, a 20-year-old man from Illinois who was walking Sunday evening, May 21, 2023, on tidal mud flats with friends in an Alaska estuary, got stuck up to his waist in the quicksand-like silt and drowned as the tide came in before frantic rescuers could extract him. 

(Bob Hallinen/Anchorage Daily News via AP)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A man who was walking on tidal mud flats with friends in an Alaska estuary got stuck up to his waist in the quicksand-like silt and drowned as the tide came in before frantic rescuers could extract him, authorities said.

Zachary Porter, 20, of Lake Bluff, Illinois, was submerged Sunday evening as the tide came in, and his body was recovered Monday morning, Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Austin McDaniel told The Associated Press. A member of Porter’s group called 911 when they couldn’t get him out, but it was too late, authorities said.

The accident was the latest tragedy at Turnagain Arm, a 48-mile-long (77-kilometer-long) estuary carved out long ago by glaciers that travels southeast from the Anchorage area and parallels a major highway. At low tide, the estuary is known for its dangerous mud flats made of silt created by glacier-pulverized rocks. At least three other people have gotten stuck and drowned there over the years. Many more have been rescued, including someone who was fishing there last month.

“It’s big, it’s amazing, it’s beautiful, and it’s overwhelming,” Kristy Peterson, the administrator and lead EMT for the Hope-Sunrise Volunteer Fire Department, said of Alaska. “But you have to remember that it’s Mother Nature, and she has no mercy for humanity.”

Peterson, who responded to the call, spoke with others in Porter’s party but didn’t talk to him during the desperate rescue attempt.

“When we respond, we respond with the utmost of good intentions and as mothers and fathers and uncles and brothers,” she said. “We respond with as much passion and vigor as we can.”

The volunteer members of the department will gather later in the week for a debriefing, she said.

“I have been in contact with all my members, and they’re all heartbroken,” Peterson said. “This is a hard situation.”

The accident occurred near the community of Hope, a quaint community of about 80 people. It lies across Turnagain Arm just 22 miles — but a 90-minute drive — from Anchorage.

The estuary travels southeast from the Anchorage area and parallels the Seward Highway, the only highway that goes south and delivers tourists from Anchorage to the sportsman’s paradise of the Kenai Peninsula.

At low tide, Turnagain Arm is known for its mud flats that “can suck you down,” Peterson said. “It looks like it’s solid, but it’s not.”

When the tide comes back in, the silt gets wet from the bottom, loosens up and can create a vacuum if a person walks on it.

Signs are posted warning people of hazardous waters and mud flats.

“I’ve really got to warn people against playing the mud,” Peterson said. “It’s dangerous.”

Some people attempt to walk across Turnagain Arm or walk the 9 miles (14 kilometers) from Anchorage to Fire Island during low tide, sometimes prompting rescue efforts.

There have been other deaths on the mud flats. In 1988, newlyweds Adeana and Jay Dickison were gold dredging on the eastern end of the arm when her ATV got stuck in the mud, the Anchorage Daily News reported. She then became stuck when trying to push it out and drowned with the incoming tide.

In 1978, an unnamed Air Force sergeant attempting to cross Turnagain Arm was swept away with the leading edge of the tide. His body was never found, the Anchorage newspaper reported. In 2013, Army Capt. Joseph Eros died while trying to cross from Fire Island back to Anchorage.

Earlier this month, a man was rescued from the mud flats after one leg became stuck, and he sank to his waist while fishing in Turnagain Arm.

Peterson said they got the rescue call after Porter was in serious trouble, and it takes time to mobilize. Another department — about an hour’s drive away — also responded.

Peterson urged people to call 911 as soon as possible.

“If you think that there’s an issue, if you think that there even might be an issue, call,” she said. “Because we can get resources moving, and we would rather turn around and go home then it be a disaster.”

TINA TURNER 1939-2023

Tina Turner Buddhist Scene from the move "What's love got to do with it"

Apr 17, 2012

Nichiren Buddhist chant the phase Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. This Japanese oriented Buddhist religion is a foreign culture in America. The act of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is strange. Unlike the practice in other Buddhist sect of meditation in Nichiren Buddhism the primary practice is Chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo and reciting the Lotus Sutra. We posted this movie scene as a "Cultural Pathway." We at the Proud Black Buddhist website emphasize the idea of "Cultural Pathways" as a mechanism to introduce Buddhism in America. Even more specific there must be "Cultural Pathways" to introduce Buddhism to the African American community. This website is like a Black radio station. We are cultural not racist. We explain Nichiren Buddhism in a cultural context. Individuals can view this movie scene and gain the courage to try Buddhism. African Americans need to view other African Americans so they will not feel not so left out. Chanting is a cultural shock. Most Black people are not going to listen to a Japanese leader. African Americas are articulate. There was Dr. Martin Luther King and we have a Black President Barack Obama Jr. Those of you who are interested in January we organized a Buddhist Sect called the "Proud Black Buddhist World Association. We include Black Buddhist history and culture in our practice. Learn more at: http://www.proudblackbuddhist.org/

Tina Turner - Nam Myoho Renge Kyo 

(2HR Buddhist Mantra) 

 

Tina Turner - Lotus Sutra / Purity of Mind 

(2HR Meditation)

 

 TINA Turner Blog - YouTube The meaning of the Lotus Sutra is 'I devote my life to the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra'. It is the royal sutra of Nichiren Buddhism in Japan (1253). Coming from India to China and then to Japan, the prayer was translated from the Sanskrit word ‘Saddharma-pundarikasutra » first into classical Chinese as ‘Miao-fa Lien-hua Ching’ and then into an ancient form of Japanese as ‘Myoho Renge Kyo’. The word 'Nam' derives from the Sanskrit ‘names’ and means ‘devotion’. It is placed before the name of all deities when worshipping them. ‘Myo’ is the name given to the mystic nature of life and ‘Ho’ to its manifestation. ‘Renge’ means lotus flower. The beautiful and undefiled Lotus blooms in a muddy swamp with all the obstacles against it. It symbolizes the emergence of our Buddha nature from the everyday problems and desires of ordinary life. ‘Renge’ stands also for the simultaneity of cause and effect, because the lotus puts forth its flower and seedpod at the same time. ‘Kyo’ literally means sutra, the voice, and the teaching of the Buddha. It also means sound rhythm or vibration and therefore it might be interpreted to indicate the practice of chanting. Since everything in the universe is connected through sound waves, ‘Kyo » refers to the life activity of universal phenomena and indicates that everything is a manifestation of the Mystic Law. ‘Myoho-Renge-Kyo’ is the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra. An explanation can help you understand, but the Sutra can only be fully appreciated through chanting it. TINA: ‘However you must do it, to truly understand. When you say ‘Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo’ it will slowly remove all of the bad decisions you have ever made. The more you repeat the words the more you make your life clearer. The more you chant it the closer you get to your true nature. Your true nature is the right way of thinking and the right way of acting. The longer you go on this path, the more you avoid making wrong decisions. The Lotus Sutra helps me in my daily life. It is indeed mystical! And my life has proven this!’

  

Tina Turner - Sarvesham Svastir Bhavatu (Peace Mantra) 

4MIN

Beyond: Spiritual Message By Tina Turner BUDDHIST, CHRISTIAN PRAYERS 

7 MIN

 

Tina Turner - Queen Of Mantras - FanCut (2020) 20MIN

 

Tina Turner dies at age 83 | full coverage 

CBS NEWS  24MIN

Tina Turner, the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll" best known for her hits including "Proud Mary" and "What's Love Got to Do with It," has died, her spokesperson said Wednesday. She was 83.

Simply the best: Rock queen Tina Turner dies at 83

 24/05/2023 - 

Tina Turner, seen here in 1995, was hailed as a singular presence who blazed a trail over decades in the music business © Jacques DEMARTHON / AFP

Los Angeles (AFP) – Tina Turner, the trailblazing Black rocker whose powerful voice and imposing stage presence thrilled global audiences for decades, died Wednesday at the age of 83.

Tributes poured in from around the world, with some of music's biggest names lamenting the loss of a singular and instantly recognizable performer, whose popularity spanned generations.

Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger -- who, legend has it, learned his dance moves from the diva, said the world had lost "an enormously talented performer and singer."

"She was inspiring, warm, funny and generous. She helped me so much when I was young and I will never forget her."

Bandmate Ronnie Wood called Turner "the Queen Of Rock And Soul and a dear friend."

Fans lined up to pay tribute at the wrought iron gates of her huge compound in Kusnacht, on Switzerland's Lake Zurich, many bearing candles and flowers.

Chateau Algonquin had been the home Turner shared with her German husband Erwin Bach for almost three decades, including when she took Swiss citizenship in 2013, and relinquished her US passport.

"The world has lost an icon," Swiss President Alain Berset said.

Back in the United States, President Joe Biden paid a pointed tribute to a "once-in-a-generation talent that changed American music forever."

"Tina's personal strength was remarkable," Biden wrote. "Overcoming adversity, and even abuse, she built a career for the ages and a life and legacy that were entirely hers, " he added, calling Turner "simply the best."

Turner's Britain-based publicist Bernard Doherty said her death came after a long illness, and had robbed the world of "a music legend and a role model."

He gave no details of the illness.

'The Best'

A career that would go on to net eight Grammy Awards began in the 1960s in a partnership with husband Ike Turner.

The pair recorded a number of hits together throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and while he was credited as being the brains behind the operation, she was always clearly the more talented.

After their troubled and violent marriage collapsed -- she fled in 1976 mid-tour -- Tina Turner forged a wildly successful solo career.

The following decades gifted the world instantly recognizable hits like "What's Love Got to Do With It?", "Private Dancer" and the anthemic "The Best".

A fan places flowers on Tina Turner's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

 © Patrick T. Fallon / AFP

Her "We Don't Need Another Hero" featured on the soundtrack to "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome," the 1985 post-apocalyptic thriller starring Mel Gibson.

A decade later she oozed her way through "Goldeneye," joining the select ranks of artists who have sung on the James Bond franchise.

Reaction to Turner's death came from across the worlds of music, entertainment and sport.

Fellow singer Gloria Gaynor took to Instagram to hail Turner's mold-breaking career, and how she "paved the way for so many women in rock music, black and white."

"She did with great dignity and success what very few would even have dared to do in her time and in that genre of music.

"She will be sorely missed."

Mariah Carey called Turner the embodiment of a legendary superstar. She was "an incredible performer, musician and trailblazer.

"To me, she will always be a survivor and an inspiration to women everywhere," she wrote.

Angela Bassett, who played the singer in the 1993 biopic "What's Love Got to Do With It" opposite Laurence Fishburne as Ike, paid emotional tribute to "a woman who owned her pain and trauma and used it as a means to help change the world."

"Tina Turner showed others who lived in fear what a beautiful future filled with love, compassion and freedom should look like," Bassett said.

Basketball legend Magic Johnson posted a picture with the songstress -- "one of my favorite artists of all time."

"I've seen her many many times and hands down, she gave one of the best live shows I've ever seen," he tweeted.

Actor Forest Whitaker praised Turner's "voice, her dancing, and her spirit."

But he also hailed her ability to bounce back, in a nod to the difficulty of escaping her troubled marriage to Ike.

"As we honor her, let's also reflect on her resilience, and think about all the greatness that can follow our darkest days."

Tina Turner: the raw power of rock and roll

Issued on: 24/05/2023 -

Tina Turner electrified audiences with her explosive stage presence 

© ED OUDENAARDEN / ANP/AFP/File

Washington (AFP) – Tina Turner, the growling songstress whose explosive presence left an indelible mark on 20th-century rock, electrified fans with five decades of hit records -- first with husband Ike Turner, then as a wildly successful solo act.

The Black eight-time Grammy winner, who has died at the age of 83, lit up the stage from the 1960s, and won a new generation of fans in a stunning comeback after escaping her violent marriage -- making her popular music's ultimate survivor.

Abandoned by her parents, she emerged from Tennessee's cotton fields to become the impassioned "Queen of Rock and Roll" who, according to music lore, taught Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger how to dance.

After snowballing into a global phenomenon, the singer of "Nutbush City Limits" and "The Best" lived her final years in Switzerland with husband Erwin Bach, a former record label executive who was her romantic partner for three decades before they tied the knot in 2013.

Her early career, originally as a soul and R&B siren, was a roller coaster for Turner, who admitted attempting suicide at the height of Ike's physical and emotional abuse.

Tina fled Ike in 1976, dashing across a highway to escape during a concert tour. Her divorce was finalized in 1978, and she was left with nothing but her stage name.

Tina Turner -- seen in Paris in 1987 at the height of her solo fame -- always dreamed of being a rock star, a dream fulfilled after she left her husband Ike 

© Bertrand GUAY / AFP/File

But the rock star dream still gnawed at her.

"How can I fill stadiums?" Turner wondered, in comments played during her 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction.

"I wanted it. I wanted to do what Jagger and all the other guys at the time was doing."

Those dreams were fulfilled, and then some, when she struck crossover gold with her 1984 album "Private Dancer," whose Grammy-winning smash single "What's Love Got to Do With It" propelled her to superstardom at age 44.

Four years later, she set the record for largest paying attendance of a performance by a solo artist when her Rio concert crowd topped 180,000.

As a Black woman who embraced rock over 1950s doo-wop and 1960s Motown, Turner was a double outsider. But she wrote -- and then rewrote -- the rule book for women in the genre.

"A Black woman owning the stage all by herself: that's the dream right there," singer and rapper Lizzo said of Turner.

Singer Tina Turner (R) performs with Beyonce (L) at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on February 10, 2008 -- Beyonce called Turner 'fearless' © ROBYN BECK / AFP/File

Turner sold more than 100 million records worldwide, according to Billboard, and paved the way for bold performers like Janet Jackson, Madonna and Beyonce.

"I never in my life saw a woman so powerful, so fearless, so fabulous," Beyonce told Turner from the Kennedy Center stage in a 2005 Tina tribute. "And those legs!"

'Pain in your heart'

Anna Mae Bullock was born on November 26, 1939, in Brownsville, Tennessee.

Tina Turner was born in the southern US state of Tennessee, in a family of modest means © Jim WATSON / AFP/File

She and her sister grew up in a family of modest means but conditions worsened when they were abandoned by their father, and then their mother.

When the grandmother who helped raise them died, Anna Mae moved in with relatives in St. Louis, Missouri at age 16.

There she met Ike Turner, a guitarist and bandleader eight years her senior who had already tasted fame, having written and recorded what was arguably the first rock and roll record, "Rocket 88," in 1951.

She convinced Ike to let her sing with him.

When he scored a 1960 hit with her lead vocals on "A Fool in Love," he gave her the stage name Tina Turner, and the pair performed as the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. By 1962, they were married.

From early on, Tina was the fiery, dominant presence, stealing the limelight with a blend of thick, textured vocals, haunting howls and mesmerizing dance moves.

The Turner oeuvre reflected their personal tensions: it included "I Idolize You," "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," and their most famous number, a 1970 cover of "Proud Mary," in which Tina purrs about starting the song "nice and easy," but finishing it "nice and rough."

Even as she exuded raw sexual power as a performer, her singing was tinged with a palpable vulnerability.

US singer Tina Turner -- seen here performing in 1996 in Paris -- orchestrated one of music's greatest comebacks after leaving her abusive husband Ike 

© DANIEL MORDZINSKI / AFP/File

"You sing with those emotions because you've had pain in your heart," Turner told Rolling Stone magazine in 1986.

After leaving Ike, she toiled in Las Vegas shows, released modestly selling solo records and toured heavily in Europe.

But with the success of 1984's "Private Dancer," her metamorphosis from manipulated co-star to resurrected rock goddess was complete.

The next year, she was onstage at Live Aid in Philadelphia for a memorable encounter with Jagger, who ripped off Turner's black leather miniskirt mid-performance, revealing her in fishnet stockings and a leotard.

Turner grinned and ran fingers through her lion's mane of hair.

"I know, it's only rock and roll but I like it!" she belted out.

She starred opposite Mel Gibson in a Hollywood blockbuster, "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome;" co-wrote a best-selling autobiography, "I, Tina;" and was the subject of a feature film, "What's Love Got To Do With It" starring Angela Bassett.

'A way out'

In the revealing 2021 HBO documentary "Tina," an uncomfortable reality emerges: her past trauma had become a focus for interviewers, with the star repeatedly asked to recount her life's worst moments.

Singer Tina Turner spent her later years with husband Edwin Bach in Switzerland © Bertrand GUAY / AFP/File

Turner, who had embraced Buddhism and saw it as "a way out" of her dangerous first marriage, pointed to the faith as a catalyst for rejuvenation and stability.

She often swatted away probing questions, once saying reliving the past was like a "curse."

But personal hardships were impossible to ignore, including the violence from Ike.

"He used my nose as a punching bag so many times that I could taste blood running down my throat when I sang," she wrote in her 2018 memoir, "My Love Story."

In life after Ike, her concerts became glitzy spectacles -- and she kept the high-octane rock flowing for decades.

A Wembley Stadium concert in 2000 saw a 60-year-old Turner holding nothing back, grinding across the stage in stiletto heels and her trademark leather miniskirt.

In 2008, she embarked on her Tina! - 50th Anniversary Tour, which grossed some $130 million.

In 2013, three months after marrying Bach and taking Swiss nationality, Turner relinquished her US citizenship.

The grande dame enjoyed her later years with Bach in their Zurich home and a vacation mansion near the French Riviera.

Tragedy struck in 2018 when Turner's eldest son Craig, from her pre-Ike union with saxophonist Raymond Hill, committed suicide at 59.

Ike Turner -- who died in 2007 -- and Tina had one child together, Ronnie, who died last year at 62 of complications from colon cancer.

At Tennessee museum, fans remember Tina Turner’s talent, strength, influence

Adrian Sainz

1 of 4
Sherry and Tom Raggett speak with a reporter inside the Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in Brownsville, Tenn. Turner attended Flagg Grove school as a child in nearby Nutbush. The school was moved to the center and opened as a museum in 2014. Turner's manager says she died Tuesday, May 23, 2023, after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

BROWNSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Standing in a Tennessee museum, near exhibits of shimmering dresses worn by Tina Turner, Lisa Lyons wiped tears from her cheeks as she remembered the impact the singer and actress had on her life.

Lyons recalled watching Turner’s performance in the film “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” as Auntie Entity, the tyrannical leader of a post-apocalyptic civilization.

“She was fierce, and she was strong, and she was powerful, and that has stayed with me,” said Lyons, who, like Turner, is Black. “As a little girl of color who didn’t have that type of role model in real life, it has stuck with me all these years.”

Turner, 83, died Tuesday, after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, according to her manager. Her Grammy-winning singing career includes the hit songs “Nutbush City Limits,” “Proud Mary,” “What’s Love Got To Do With It” and “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” from “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.” Her film credits also include “Tommy” and “Last Action Hero.”

Lyons, 56, said she heard about Turner’s death on Wednesday and drove to the museum in Brownsville, west of Jackson, where Lyons lives.

When it comes to her musical legacy in a region known for its blues, rock and roll, R&B and soul music, Turner was the “cream of the crop,” Lyons said.

“She is the standard. She is the goal to aspire for,” Lyons said. “She did it and she did it well, and she did it on her own terms.”

The museum opened in 2014 inside the renovated Flagg Grove School at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center in Brownsville, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Memphis. Turner attended school in the one-room building as a child growing up in nearby Nutbush, one of the small, rural towns that dot the farms and fields of West Tennessee.

The building was on farmland owned by Benjamin Flagg, who saw a need for a school for the area’s black children and began building it in 1889. The school is representative of the schoolhouses for African-American children that sprang up in the rural South after the Civil War.

The school closed in the 1960s and was used as a barn before the dilapidated building was moved by tractor-trailer from Nutbush to Brownsville.

Lisa Lyons, 56, poses for a photo inside the Tina Turner Museum at the Flagg Grove School at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, in Brownsville, Tenn. Turner, the unstoppable singer and stage performer who teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit records and live shows in the 1960s and ‘70s and triumphed in middle age with the chart-topping "What's Love Got to Do With It," has died at 83. Turner died Tuesday, after a long illness in her home in Kuesnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, according to her manager. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

The museum contains a setup of the classroom, including the original blackboard and wooden desks used by Turner and her fellow students. It also contains photos of Turner, and the Armani, Versace and Bob Mackie dresses Turner wore on stage during the energetic performances for which she was known.

On Wednesday, Turner fans went to the museum to pay their respects. Some of them had already planned to visit before news of Turner’s death broke, while others made a special trip after they found out.

Sherry Raggett and her husband, Tom, had already planned to visit the center as the final stop of a museum tour that took them from their home in the Memphis suburb of Collierville to a few places in Kentucky and Nashville, then back to west Tennessee.

Sherry Raggett called Turner “a wonderful person” and praised her for “her strong influence on women and how they can overcome so many things.”

“I grew up listening to her, and she was a fantastic entertainer,” Tom Raggett said. “I loved every minute watching her.”

The heritage center’s director, Sonia Outlaw-Clark, said she met Turner in 2019 in New York during the opening of “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical.”

“It was such an honor to be in her presence, but it was also such a feeling of ease,” Outlaw-Clark said. “Even though she was an international icon, a superstar, I still felt that she was a hometown girl. It was like meeting a neighbor.”

Outlaw-Clark said the center was hoping to honor Turner this weekend during its annual Exit 56 Blues Fest and during another event in September that takes place on the anniversary of the museum’s opening.

THEY DO NOT PROTECT WOMEN

Alabama lawmakers attempt to define ‘what is a woman’

today

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama lawmakers on Wednesday advanced legislation that would define who is recognized as female and male under state law.

The House Health Committee voted along party lines to approve the “What is a Woman Act” and send the legislation to the full House of Representatives. The bill is similar to measures introduced in several GOP-controlled states and would base the definitions off a person’s reproductive systems.

Republican Rep. Susan Dubose, the bill’s sponsor, argued the definitions are needed to protect “women’s spaces” such as dorm rooms. She said the words male and female appear frequently in law without being defined.

“Activists have sought to redefine these words and separate sex from biology,” Dubose said when she introduced the bill last week.

The bill defines a female and woman as an “individual whose biological reproductive system is designed to produce ova” and a male and man as an “individual whose biological reproductive system is designed to fertilize the ova of a female.” The bill states that it is important to “distinguish between the sexes with respect to athletics, prisons or other detention facilities, domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, locker rooms, bathrooms” and other areas.

The bill drew heavy opposition during a public hearing last week where several transgender women called the bill an attack on their assistance.

Carmarion D. Anderson-Harvey, Alabama state director Human Rights Campaign, in a statement Wednesday called the bill the “LGBTQ+ Erasure Act” that “aims to strip away dozens of legal protections and rights for LGBTQ+ Alabamians.”

“LGBTQ+ people have spent decades fighting to be equal members of society, but this bill is a slap in the face to all of the progress we’ve made,” said Anderson-Harvey, who is also a trans woman.