Friday, July 26, 2024
Home Blog Page 110

Abortion is never an option, says young woman who became pregnant after rape

ACI Press Writing

When she was 17, Kristi Kollar became preg­nant as a result of rape. Af­ter battling the economic problems and criticism of those closest, she said yes to the life of little Ade­line, who is now “the light and purpose” of her life.

Through the proven platform Save The 1, Kristi says that the person who raped her was a friend of her. He was a “a manipula­tor that I couldn’t get rid of. He was the type of person who threatened to commit suicide” and blamed oth­ers for not supporting him, says the young mother.

She lived a horror sto­ry when her friend raped her. To commit his crime, the young man grabbed her neck in the back of his truck choking her, caus­ing her body to shiver completely out of control.

Kristi was in her se­nior year of high school in Montana (United States), “and had just been ac­cepted to the university of my dreams in New York.” A year earlier, she and her father had become homeless due to a fire and faced the death of people they loved.

“If there was a time that was the ‘wrong’ time to get pregnant, it was this. How could I put more burden on my dad when he was already dealing with so much? What would happen to the uni­versity?” Kristi wondered.

The young mother studied in a private Chris­tian school and was part of various extracurricular ac­tivities, where many young girls admired her. “What kind of example would it be for them?” she wondered.

These thoughts accom­panied her during the seven months in which she hid her pregnancy. But abor­tion was never an option, she knew that “I had a small person living in me. A life”, and nothing was his fault.

Kristi has always been provided, and despite the doubts that assaulted her, about her graduation and her studies at the univer­sity, she was sure that she could not kill a baby just because it was not part of the life plan she had.

“I remember writing a prolife essay (as I did ev­ery year) when I was 20 weeks pregnant. I remem­ber her little feet kicking me and his hiccups while writing. Suddenly I stopped and realized that at that point in my pregnancy it is still legal to end a life. I couldn’t imagine feeling such an active precious life within me and still denying its legitimacy,” says Kristi.

Thanks to her small complexion, it was simple to hide her pregnancy; How­ever, three weeks before graduation, the pastor of his church called his father to tell him his suspicions.

She remembers that her father entered her room “and started telling me how much he loved me and how proud he was of me. Then he asked me if I was pregnant and told him what happened. He immedi­ately requested an appoint­ment with the doctor and a meeting with my school and the church,” she said.

At school they were friendly, the doctor did the necessary check-ups and informed him that every­thing was fine with the girl in his belly, despite not having gone through all the prenatal appointments.

However, in the church it was not the same, they received it with confusion and rejection. The aggres­sor’s family also attended the same church, so the pas­tor decided to have a meet­ing with everyone involved.

“He (the aggressor) ad­mitted what he did in front of everyone. They did noth­ing. In fact, they tried to pressure us to get married. It was clear that they wanted to hide everything so as not to disturb the church. When I did not agree, they asked me to leave,” she lamented.

Fighting depression and spiritual confusion, because that church was her home for nine years, on July 27, 2018, Adeline Marie Kollar was born.

“The moment I saw her, all the previous pain of the nine months disappeared completely. I really believe that if I didn’t have Abby, I wouldn’t have been able to heal from the aggressions. She was and is the light and purpose of my life.”

Thank God, Adeline

was born well, and with her dad’s support, Kristi was able to follow her dream of going to college and having a life in New York.

Kristi is currently an acting student, single mother and a pro-life activ­ist. She leads a group that defends life at all stages, from conception to natu­ral death. She supports the pregnancy center, and gives talks at public events.

“I guide and attend young girls and I can help with more personal issues such as dealing with issues such as sexual abuse, sui­cide prevention and teen­age pregnancy,” he said.

Kristi is sure that moth­erhood does not kill dreams, and is not limited to age, “there is always support, even if it does not come from the family or from the closest ones. There are cen­ters, as well as other organi­zations and volunteers who want to do anything to help.”

“There doesn’t have to be perfect circumstances. Abortion is never the best option,” she concludes.

The 2010s: The decade in review?

N O T E F R O M T H E E D I T O R

D e a r r e a d e r s :

In closing this 2010s decades, I bring to you a small farewell written by one of my favorites in­vestigative journalists, James Corbett, who give his last review for the last 10 years. But due to lack of space, I had to chop it.

by James Corbett

corbettreport.com

I t ’s December of 2019, so you know what that means: We’ve arrived at that special time when newsletter writers start pen­ning their “Decade in Re­view” articles and pedants vainly contend that, “aK­tUAlLy, the new decade doesn’t start until 2021!”

So let’s ignore the pedants and get to that moment you’ve all been waiting for: The moment when I reveal my choice for the story of the decade.

The 2010s were obvi­ously a rollercoaster of a ride, including everything from wars and riots to false flag terror events and geo­political upheaval (and even the occasional good news story!). But you may be sur­prised that I believe that the 2010s will go down in the books as “The Decade That America Lost Its Hegemon.”

This will be especially surprising if you watched New World Next Year 2020 and saw that I picked the USSA unilaterally re-as­serting its Monroe Doctrine dominance over the entire Western hemisphere as my choice for the news story of 2019. After all, doesn’t a story like that simply prove that America continues to see itself as the unchallenged (and unchallengeable) uni­tary world superpower?

No, not necessarily. In fact, I would say—echoing Ryan Christian in a recent edition of The Last Ameri­can Vagabond—”They [Uncle Sam & co.] are losing their influence, but that’s why they’re wield­ing what they have left.”

Don’t believe me? Let’s roll up our sleeves and take a look at some of the lowlights of the last 10 years, shall we?

Libya: Mis ­sion Accomp lished?

Libya marks the last clear-cut victory for the Old World Order. From the be­ginning, everyone with his head screwed on straight was calling the 2011 campaign to drop humanitarian love bombs on Libya for what it was: a naked money and resource grab and an attempt to re-closet some old skel­etons. And (¡spoiler alert!) documents later proved we in the reality-based community were right.

In the end, The as­sassination of Gaddafi marked the last time the NATO mobsters were able to exert their will on the global stage uncontested. In the infamous words of Hillary Clinton: “We came. We saw. He died.”

But even though Lib­ya was a “Mission Ac­complished” for Obama, Clinton, Sarkozy and the other psychopaths-in-chief, in some ways it gave rise to the problems that are now threatening to crum­ble the Old World Order.

Of the many interesting (and largely unexplored) as­pects of the Libya invasion, one of the most important was the fact that Libya rep­resented the opening salvo in a hidden (and still escalat­ing) proxy war in Africa be­tween Washington and Bei­jing. As I noted at the time, some of the first targets of the Libyan campaign were Chinese business interests in the oil rich Eastern parts of the country, a fact that was not lost on China (or Russia, for that matter). Never again would China and Russia rubber stamp the UN reso­lutions that would be used to steamroll over a country that they were invested in.

W h i c h b r i n g s us naturally to . . .

S y r i a : M i s ­sion unaccomplished

The campaign to top­ple the Syrian government seemed to be cast in the Libyan campaign mold. In fact, I was warning that Syr­ia was in danger of becom­ing Libya 2.0 before Gad­dafi had even been killed.

A years-long covert campaign to overthrow the Syrian government? Check.

Cries that a tyrant worse than Hitler (who is also a suicidal madman) is “brutally suppressing his own people” while they engaged in “peaceful demonstrations”? Check.

An “international coali­tion” willing to train, fund, arm and equip the “moder­ate rebels” who were try­ing to overthrow the Syr­ian government? Check.

In fact, all the dominos were in place, the red line was drawn, the false flags were flown and everything was set for another US-led NATO love bombing.

. . . But something happened. Or, more to the point, something didn’t hap­pen. The green light wasn’t given, the all-out assault didn’t start. Even the cre­ation of a new al-CIAda army, dubbed I-CIA-SIS was not enough to justify the lusted-after invasion.

Incredibly, here we are about to close out the decade and Assad is still in power.

Syria has been wracked by years of struggle against the foreign terrorist insur­gency, but the death blow has not been delivered. And now the Iranian bo­geymen—who was always the ostensible target of the Syrian operation—wields even more power than they did at the start of the decade. Russian anti-missile sys­tems now provide a power­ful shield against NATO and Israeli military aggression.

There is something to be said for the idea that destabilization itself was the goal in Syria all along, but even so, not even the agents of chaos expected that the Syrian government would still be standing by now. And yet they are.

So what went wrong for the agents of the Old World Order?

The decade ended with one political puppet-in-chief announcing the retirement of the Osama bin Laden character and ended with another puppet-in-chief an­nouncing the retirement of the Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi character. In between, there were no end of false flag events, from bombings and knifings to shootings and truck attacks. But in all this false flag chaos, one event in particular stands out: The creation of I-CIA-SIS, a new, improved al-CIAda 2.0 for the Millennials and Gen Zers who are too young to remember to be afraid of the 9/11 bogeymen.

From its inception, the alphabet soupers’ ISIS gam­bit reeked of desperation. A ragtag band of fighters sup­posedly rose up out of the sands of the desert to over­throw the Iraqi army, cap­tured a convenient cache of weapons and a bank, setting off on a convoy across the desert that could be seen by everyone . . . but seemingly not stopped by anyone.

Were we really ex­pected to swallow this cockamamie story?

The special forces agents caught dress­ing up as ISIS fighters?

The state-of-the-art ISIS media productions?

The time that ISIS got mad at 9/11 truthers (exactly as The Onion joked would happen)?

Well, we probably weren’t expected to be­lieve it, but as long as there were enough Joe Sixpacks and Jane Soccermoms willing to go along with it, then the strategy of ten­sion could be maintained and the globalists could

go on with their false flag business as usual.

But here we are in 2019 and no one is talk­ing ISIS anymore. They’re still trotted out every now and then to try to scare the public, but it’s a half-assed

effort at best these days. Besides, the public is too busy squabbling about im­peachment shenanigans to bother noticing what’s hap­pening in Syria and Iraq anyway. Even resurrecting Baghdadi’s corpse to make a dramatic announcement that he had been killed

(again) hardly registered as a blip on the news radar.

Yes, the propagandists and globalist planners hardly got any mileage out of their ISIS vehicle be­fore it crashed and burned in the sands of the desert.

I n t h e m e a n t i m e , have a Happy New Year!

Is omega-3 supplementation an effective treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS)?

Omega-3 fatty acids may offer a natural approach to treat the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS). The nutrients may come from either health supple­ments or foods rich in fatty acids. Multiple sclerosis is a severe neurodegenerative disease. There is no cure, and no one knows what triggers the autoimmune response. Each patient with multiple sclerosis experi­ences different symptoms. Also, the disease progresses differently in individual pa­tients, making it hard to pick out a general pattern to it.

Researchers sought out alternative methods of treat­ing multiple sclerosis. They found exciting results with omega-3 fatty acids, and they believe that supple­menting with omega-3s may become standard practice for treating patients with the neurodegenerative disease.

Omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats that naturally appear in certain types of foods. Whereas sat­urated and trans fats harm health, these healthy fats support the normal func­tions of the body. The three main types of omega-3s are ALA, DHA, and EPA. They are popular over-the-counter health supplements.

Plant-based foods that contain large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids include flaxseed and soybeans. The animal-based sources are certain fish such as her­ring, mackerel, salmon and sardines. (Related: Research suggests canna­bis can relieve symptoms, pain associated with MS.)

Omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the harmful effects of multiple sclero­sis on the patient’s health

Omega-3 fatty acids benefit the body in many ways. It enhances vision, regulates inflammation, and helps people sleep better.

The health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids may directly alleviate the symptoms caused by mul­tiple sclerosis. Taking the fatty acids may improve the conditions of patients with progressive MS or during a relapse of the disease.

Supports eye health — Patients with multiple scle­rosis often suffer from poor vision, such as blindness, blurred vision, double vi­sion, and painful eyes. Ome­ga-3 fatty acids improve the sight organ’s health and vision, which suggests that they may help protect the eyes of MS patients.

Fights inflammation — Multiple sclerosis causes inflammation in the brain and spinal cord that damages the nerve cells there. Omega-3s have an­ti-inflamatoary properties that reduce the immune re­sponse, making them good candidates for controlling the symptoms of a relapse.

Improves sleep — Pa­tients with multiple scle­rosis may find it hard to fall asleep, and the ensu­ing tiredness makes the other symptoms worse. By helping people sleep better and rest more fully, omega-3 health supple­ments help reduce or pre­vent MS-related fatigue.

The immunomodu­lating effects of omega

US returns 3,500 copper coins to Mexico used more than 500 years ago

The United States re­turned a collection of over 3,500 pre-Hispanic cop­per coins to Mexican au­thorities in a ceremony in Miami on Monday.

The coins were used in what are now Michoacán and Guerrero between the years 1200 and 1500, ac­cording to Jessica Cascante, spokesperson for the Mexi­can Consulate in Miami. A U.S. collector ac­quired them in Texas at a numismatic fair in the 1960s, she said, but at that time neither Mexico nor the United States was part of a UNESCO convention that guarantees the return of such heritage artifacts to their countries of origin.  Cascante said the frag­ile, tongue-shaped coins, which are currently cov­ered in verdigris, will be sent to Mexico in January.

Agents of the U.S. Fed­eral Bureau of Investigations (FBI) who headed the op­eration to recover the coins attended the presentation ceremony along with the Consul General of Mexico in Miami, Jonathan Chait.  Mexican authorities notified the FBI of the existence of the coins in 2013 when they were taken to Spain for an auction. Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and His­tory (INAH) then began authenticating the coins in order to request their return.  As both countries were by then signatories to the UNESCO conven­tion (Mexico in 1972 and the United States in 1983), the return process was completed six years later.  Cascante did not di­vulge the name of the col­lector who obtained the coins in the 1960s, but said that he did so before it constituted a crime and turned them in voluntarily.  “Now we’re just wait­ing for the physical mate­rial to arrive [in Mexico],” she said, adding that they are currently being pack­aged with the support of specialists from his­tory museums in Florida. Source: El Universal (sp)

Argentina issues Treasury Bills, sub­scribed by the Central bank, to pay creditors

Argentina’s new gov­ernment announced the issuance of US$ 1.326 billion of dollar-denom­inated Treasury Bills, to be directly subscribed by the central bank, accord­ing to a decree in the Of­ficial Gazette on Thursday.  The issuance of the 10- year debt comes as the coun­try’s new Peronist President Alberto Fernandez looks to pay off creditors and stave off a damaging default.  Argentina, hit by a debt crisis since last year, is facing tough restructuring negotiations with creditors including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over around US$ 100 billion in sovereign debt which it is struggling to service.  The Treasury Bills will expire on Dec. 30 2029 with interest payable semi-annually. The rate will depend on the inter­est accrued by the central bank’s foreign reserves and capped at the annual LIBOR rate minus one percent­age point, the decree said.  A recently passed law to help revive Argentina’s economy, Latin America’s third largest, allows the government to issue up to US$ 4.571 billion in simi­lar dollar denominated bills.

President of Pan­ama denies privatiza­tions in health and water

President of Panama Laurentino Cortizo de­nied last week the priva­tization of the Institute of National Aqueducts and Sewers (IDAAN) and the Social Security Fund (CSS).  In statements to the press, Cortizo assured that his administration is work­ing on the transformation and rescue of both public insti­tutions so that they provide an efficient and sustainable service to the population.

Panamanian govern­ment agrees to increase wages for banana growers. A resounding triumph is being celebrated by banana growers in Changuinola today, in the northwestern tip of Panama, who suspended an indefinite strike after negotiating a 28 percent staggered salary rise.

The initial demand was for an increase of 25 percent, but during the negotiations they agreed to receive eight percent from January 15, a further 13% in 2021 and another 7% by 2023, Liberto Becker of the Industrial Union of Banana Workers in Independent Banana Producers, SITRAPBI.

They also agreed that the company would not dock wages for the strike action, while the government committed to the delivery of school and Christmas bonuses, and scholarships for workers’ children.

A presidential decree issued on Tuesday had granted a pay rise of juse eight percent, the highest of those approved for all sectors, but not representing a solution to banana workers’ demands, which saw them continue their strike action until the new deal was reached in the early morning yesterday.

As additional help, the government undertook to build some 1,500 homes for workers, many of whom come from the distant Ngabe Buglé Region and must rent accomodation while they work in the fields, near the border with Costa Rica.

The 7,000 workers of the 29 plantations benefiting from the agreements will receive a visit from the President of the country, Laurentino Cortizo, who promised to continue the dialogue on the concerns and needs of workers and possible solutions, union sources revealed.

Designer offers compensation to indigenous

Zimmermann seeks agreement with members of the Mazatec community

An Australian fash­ion brand has offered to pay compensation to in­digenous artisans whose designs it was accused of plagiarizing and proposed negotiating an agreement to allow it to sell its cultur­ally “inspired” garments.

Zimmermann, a fash­ion house that has stores around the world, with­ drew a dress from its 2021 collection last month after facing accusations by mem­bers of the Mazatec com­munity in the Cañada region of Oaxaca that it plagiarized the design of a traditional huipil, a loose-fitting tunic commonly worn by both indigenous and non-indig­enous women in Mexico.

The cut of the compa­ny’s Riders Paneled tunic dress, the birds and flow­ers embroidered on it and its colors all resemble a traditional Mazatec huipil.

Zimmermann apologized for using the design “without [giving] appropriate credit to the cultural owners of this form of dress and for the offense this has caused.”

Days after the company issued its apology, members of the Oaxaca Institute of Crafts (IOA), a state government organization, spoke with Malcolm Carfrae, a fashion consultant hired by Zimmermann to liaise with Mexican artisans.

Don’t you know what they are doing to us?

Who would have thought that the US would be about to collapse in a so short period of time, suddenly. That the great­est economic-military power would have been attacked in silence – not with nuclear bombs or military weapons, but with biological weap­ons, and traitors from within who would have sold them­selves for money and power to the enemies of freedom.

Who would have said that the Apocalypse that I have known in the Holy Scriptures as a child, which describes an end of times, where a satanic destruction takes over the world and a war between good and evil begins, would be witnessed now, in these moments.

That people without fac­es, with no direction other than that offered by a corrupt government run by ‘experts,’ a gagged press and social net­works that keep the popula­tion asleep and unconscious – would be walking without our freedoms guaranteed and protected by the Constitution.

Who would have said that the very rulers chosen by ourselves to protect us from external and domestic enemies, would have contributed to the destruction of the economy, taken away our popular power to govern ourselves, and have overshadowed the divine light that has shone on this blessed land called the United States, while the people did not real­ized what was being done to us.

Those powerful behind the visible power want to kill us, because they say that we are too many and we hinder them, therefore we must stop the births and convince the women of fertile bellies to kill the unborn and thus reduce our numbers, so that an idle and maliciously elite can take the planet for their own benefit.

If you have not noticed, we are about to lose the free­dom and the borders that serve us and each country in the world, that protect our cultures, histories, and an­cestral customs while many of us have not realized it…

They want to put poi­son in us to die gently and slowly, making us believe that it is for our own good; however, they do not tell us that with certain vitamins taken no virus can kill us.

It is time to wake up. Stop watching TV and the junk news where they offer us their violence and scan­dals to keep us scared and exalted. I assure you that they are trying to take God away from you so they can manipulate you and take over your minds more easily.

Freedom was given to us by God and not by the government, don’t forget.

California passes statewide rent control despite a massive housing shortage

NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 16: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon speaks to attendees during a rally for universal rent control on August 16, 2018 in New York City. Cynthia Nixon, who is running against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for the governor seat has pushed for a more response to high rents, also, Nixon has said that cities throughout the state should be allowed to impose it. Only NYC and some nearby areas are allowed to impose rent control, and only on apartments built before 1974. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)

Economists have long warned that rent control only limits housing supply and drives up prices in the long-run

 

by Christian Britschgi

 

On Wednesday, California lawmakers approved AB 1482, which caps rent increases at 5 percent per year plus inflation, and prevents landlords from evicting tenants without citing a government-approved reason.

Wednesday’s vote makes California the latest state to pass a rent control bill. Oregon passed a statewide cap on rents in February. In June, the New York legislature passed a bill strengthening existing rent controls in New York City while giving other cities in the state the ability to pass their own rent regulations.

Economists and other policy experts have long criticized rent control for reducing the supply and quality of rental housing in the long-run. California’s rent control bill is no exception says Michael Hendrix, state and local policy director at the Manhattan Institute.

“What we are going to get is a reason for landlords to convert apartments to condos,” says Hendrix. “The net result of that is potentially more units being taken off the market, and long-term this housing crisis getting worse, not better.”

Hendrix argues that landlords, when faced with limits on how much they can raise their rents, will simply take their rental units off the market, converting them into condominiums that can be sold at market price.

A study of rent control in San Francisco published in the journal American Economic Review this month found that “while rent control prevents displacement of incumbent renters in the short run, the lost rental housing supply likely drove up market rents in the long run, ultimately undermining the goals of the law.”

Supporters of rent control counter that they protect current tenants from rent spikes.

“These anti-gouging and eviction protections will help families afford to keep a roof over their heads, and they will provide California with important new tools to combat our state’s broader housing and affordability crisis,” said Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom in a statement following the bill’s passage.

Newsom’s support for AB 1482 appears to have been crucial in securing its passage, and in removing some amendments that would’ve lessened the impact of the bill.

Back in May, lawmakers agreed to raise the annual rent cap in AB 1482 to 7 percent plus inflation and to include a 2023 expiration date. Other amendments exempted housing newer than 15 years old and most single-family homes from its rent caps.

Those provisions were roughly in line with the rent control bill passed by Oregon early in the year and were enough to get the powerful California Realtors Association (CAR) to take a neutral stance on the bill.

In late August, however, Newsom announced that he had hashed out a deal with legislative leaders to lower annual allowable rent caps to 5 percent and extend the bill’s life to 2030.

That flipped the CAR back into opposition but proved to be enough to get AB 1482 passed just two days before the legislature’s deadline for passing legislation.

Members of California’s pro-development Yes in my backyard (YIMBY) faction also supported the bill which saw the bill, arguing that it, along with an increase in actual housing supply, would help address the state’s pressing housing affordability problems.

The California Apartment Association (CAA)—which represents landlords—was also convinced to drop their opposition to the bill in the final days of the legislative session.

The support from YIMBYs is both misguided and somewhat disappointing says the Manhattan Institute’s Hendrix, given that AB 1482, at best, does nothing to boost housing supply.

“One concern that YIMBYs in California should have is that we may very well find ourselves five or 10 years down the line with nothing to show for housing deregulation except more rent regulation,” he says.

Sen. Scott Weiner’s (D–San Francisco) promising, YIMBY-backed bill to upzone residential areas near transit and job centers stalled in the state senate earlier this year.

California’s housing crisis has been years in the making, and fixing it will require substantial deregulation of housing development. The rent control bill passed by legislators this week, while benefitting some current tenants, is ultimately a step in the wrong direction.

 

— More on rent control

 

California’s first-ever statewide rent cap prohibits landlords from raising rents by more than 5%, plus regional inflation, annually. AB1482 is retroactive to March, so any increases since then that exceeded the limit will have to be reduced. The law also prevents tenants who have been living in an apartment for more than a year from being evicted without a just cause, such as failing to pay rent or engaging in criminal activity.

These new protections are expected to cover millions of Californians, though they do not extend to apartments built within the past 15 years or to single-family homes, except those owned by corporations.

Homeowners who want to add an in-law unit to their properties should have an easier time: Five new laws aim to streamline the process for approving and building these projects, including SB13, which exempts them from most of the fees cities charge to offset the cost of providing services to secondary homes.

The changes are part of a state push to boost construction of much-needed new homes in California. So are the provisions of SB330, which places a five-year moratorium on local policies that make it harder to build in cities without enough housing. That means local governments could not limit the number of permits for new homes, add fees or rezone land to accommodate smaller projects.

Farm Workers: “Essential” but living in fear

Pilar Marrero

Ethnic Media Services

 

They have very low wages, few benefits, no health care coverage, and no sick days. About half are undocumented. Yet they are deemed “essential” workers who harvest and package vegetables and fruits, work in meat packing plants, pick up and transport the product.

They are farmworkers – so important to keeping the country fed and moving that they are exempt from ”stay at home” orders and even from the Trump administration’s recent two month ban on new immigrants. The rules for seasonal farmworkers have been relaxed and, if a recent proposal floated by the administration goes through, farmers may be allowed to “lower the wages” for them.

Now these workers work in fear of dying of Covid-19. So far very little has been done to stabilize their status, ensure they are protected and compensate them if they end of getting sick.

There is a growing push by legislators, trade unionists and advocacy groups “to protect farmworkers and the food supply chain,” Following reports in mid-April that 41 agricultural workers were diagnosed with Covid-19 in Monterey County, one of California’s key agricultural areas, California assemblymembers Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) and Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella) introduced the first Covid-19 relief package in the nation focused on farmworkers.The proposed legislation includes expanded paid sick leave, supplemental hazard pay to cover increased health and childcare costs, and other measures.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus wrote a letter to the leaders of both houses of Congress, urging financial assistance, support for childcare needs and additional funding for community health centers and direct financial assistance for farm workers, reminding them that “our nation’s food security depends on the ability of farmworkers to continue to work safely to produce ourfood.”

Relief couldn’t come soon enough for the men and women in California’s fields.

Honduran Jose Ramos works at a vegetable packing house in Santa Maria near Santa Barbara. Ramos, a 41-year-old father of four, goes to work nervously because his company, he says, didn’t say anything about COVID-19 until a few days ago.

“Until recently they didn’t give us any guidance but many of us took our own measures, such as buying gel to bring in and making our own masks because the bosses didn’t give them to us,” Ramos explained.He noted that in his packing house social distancing was nearly impossible. “in the area where I work there are four packers, two cashiers and 8 to 10 cutters in a small space, forget about six feet.There are three feet at most between one person and the next.”

Armando Elenes, secretary-treasurer of the United Farm Workers, said 77 percent of workers in a recent survey reported that employers had not changed work practices or offered information on the pandemic.

“Now many are being told to go to work with a mask on, it’s like telling someone who has to dig holes in the ground to come with their own shovel.If you demand equipment to work, you must provide it,” said Elenes, who noted that there are individual farms that are improving their practices.

Cal OSHA regulations detail a prevention and safety program that all employers in the agricultural industry are required to implement, including worker training and information about what COVID-19 is and how it is spread, how to prevent it and what the symptoms are.

Employers are required to implement on-farm safety measures and provide cleaners and disinfectants and hand washing units as well as measures to increase physical distance.

However, farm workers, trade unionists and health activists point out this has not been consistently enforced.

“The California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) farmworker program receives numerous calls from workers,” says Estella M. Cisneros, regional director of the program.“They report that many companies have not taken any action.”

“They’re in a difficult situation,” Cisneros added.“If they work they can expose themselves and if they don’t work they have no income or help of any kind.”

Some farm workers also report that foremen or crew leaders spread misinformation and say the virus is not real.Most worried are those who work in meat or vegetable packing plants, since they work indoors and in air-conditioned environments, considered much more dangerous than working in the sun and outdoors, Cisneros added.

A new report by the Civic Capacity Research Initiative (CCRI) at University of California in Merced, estimates that 42% of the 250,000 farm workers in the San Joaquin Valley are undocumented.At least 112,000 won’t receive the federal stimulus payment.

The report highlights other vulnerabilities exacerbated by the pandemic, including food and housing insecurity, lack of health benefits, lack of sick days, poor access to safety equipment. CCRI recommends that cities and counties in the Valley undertake policies to protect these workers.

“Farm workers work under enormously unequal conditions,” said Genoveva Islas, director of Cultura Tu Salud, a public health advocacy organization in Fresno.

“I am proud that this community of farmworkers is recognized as essential workers, but that is why they also need essential protections. For too long they have not been paid a fair wage, have no retirement, and have no access to health insurance.

Now COVID-19 has magnified the inequalities that already existed.

“In the San Joaquin Valley we have one percent of the nation’s agricultural land and produce 25 percent of America’s table food,” Islas says. “Anything that impairs our ability to do so would be catastrophic for California and potentially for our nation.”

COVID’s real-life ‘Romeo and Juliet’ engaged after falling in love from their balconies

by Elise Solé

Shared from Yahoo!

 

Sep 25th 2020 – An Italian couple nicknamed “Romeo and Juliet” who fell in love from their balconies during the coronavirus lockdown is engaged.

In March, neighbors Michele D’Alpaos and Paola Agnelli, created social media buzz for crushing on each other during lockdown from their respective balconies in Verona, Italy — the setting of the 1597 William Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet — while the pandemic raged throughout their country.

Then, Italy had more than 53,000 COVID-19 infections and the highest death toll in the world.

During Italy’s eight-week lockdown, which began on March 9, locals utilized their balconies for fresh air, social interactions and nightly serenades with clapping, singing and musical instruments to honor health care workers. It was when Agnelli’s sister Lisa, a professional violinist, put on a 6:00 p.m. performance that the couple locked eyes.

“I was immediately struck by the beauty of this girl, by her smile,” D’Alpaos, who lives on the seventh floor of his apartment building, told the Washington Post. “I had to know her.”

D’Alpaos found his future bride on Instagram (thanks to his sister, who knew her name) but he didn’t have an account. So he created one to message Agnelli. “When he contacted me, I was happy, but I didn’t want to deceive myself,” she told the Washington Post.

Agnelli lives with her sister and mother in a sixth-floor apartment with a balcony that faces D’Alpaos’ apartment. He lives on the seventh floor with his parents, according to the Washington Post.

Over the next two months, the pair flirted over the phone and from each other’s balconies, even requesting that Lisa play songs for the other, Agnelli told the BBC in April. And D’Alpaos made grand gestures like sending Agnelli flowers and hanging a bedsheet from his apartment that read “Paola.”

“I could write a book: Love in the Time of Coronavirus,” D’Alpaos joked to the BBC.

In May, when lockdown conditions eased, they met at the park and shared their first kiss. “We were both nervous but it went really well — he was just like I imagined he would be,” she told The Times.

“He’s the love of my life,” Agnelli tells Yahoo Life, adding that the couple is getting to know each other better and plans to wed in about two years.

The pair, who still reside in their separate units, plan to move into a Verona apartment owned by D’Alpaos. The big day might also be close to home, says D’Alpaos. “it would be a dream to be able to do the wedding ceremony on the terrace of my building.”

 

Trump wins court fight to deport Salvadorans with Temporary Protected Status

by Dave Goldiner

Shared from New York Daily News

 

President Trump won a legal round Monday in his fight to deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants from El Salvador and other countries who came to the U.S. after disasters in their homelands.

A divided three-judge panel of the federal Ninth Circuit appeals court ruled that Trump was within his rights to revoke so-called Temporary Protected Status from Salvadoran immigrants.

Assuming the ruling withstands possible scrutiny from the Supreme Court, the ruling means Trump could deport more than 300,000 immigrants, many of whom have been living and working in the U.S. for years.

The ruling is also expected to affect the status of people from Honduras, Nicaragua, Sudan and Nepal, whose separate lawsuit is expected to be governed by the outcome of the Salvadoran case.

TPS beneficiaries from six countries in all have been granted legal authorization to live and work in the U.S. through Jan. 4.

The ruling means that those immigrants must find another way to remain in the United States legally or leave the country after a winddown period of six months or a year in the case of El Salvador.

The timing means that the fate of the immigrants would likely be determined by the results of the upcoming presidential election.

Haitian immigrants who obtained TPS after a massive 2010 earthquake wreaked havoc on the Caribbean nation filed a separate case that is being heard by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.