Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Home Blog Page 240

Colombian film gets more Awards Platinum

by the El Reportero’s news services

The Colombian film El abrazo de la serpiente (‘’The embrace of the snake’’) won seven Platinum Awards on Monday, including for the best Ibero-American fiction film, at the gala held at the Convention Center in this city.

The Argentinian-Venezuelan co-production, directed by Colombian Ciro Guerra, received awards in the categories of Director, Original Music, Film Editing, Photography, Sound and Art Direction.

In addition to this film, Ixcanul, from Guatemala; the Argentinian-Spanish co-production El clan, the Chilean The Club, and Truman, from Spain, were competing for the title of best film production during the third edition of the Platinum Awards.

The Argentinian Guillermo Francella was awarded for the best male performance for his role in El clan, while Argentinian actress Dolores Fonzi was selected as the best female performer for her performance in Argentinian-Brazilian co-production ‘Paulina’.

In the category of best screenplay the winners were Pablo Larrain, Guillermo Calderon and Daniel Villalobos, for the screenplay of El Club, directed by Larrain.

The Platinum Award for best animation production went to the Spanish film Atrapa la bandera (‘Capture the Flag’), by Enrique Gato; while the Chilean El botón de nácar (‘The Nacre Button’), directed by Patricio Guzman, was named best documentary.

Ixcanul, by Jayro Bustamante, received the best Opera Prima Award, and the Brazilian film ¿Que horas ela volta? (‘At What time Does She Come Back?), by Anna Muylaert, won the Platinum Award for Film and Education in Values.

The Platinum Award of Honor of the Latin American Film Industry went to the Argentinian actor Ricardo Darin.

The Audience Awards were obtained by the film Ixcanul, Darin for his performance in Truman, and Penelope Cruz for her role in Ma Ma.
Eight hundred eighty-six audiovisual productions, premiered in 2015, competed in the third edition of the Platinum Awards, representing 23 countries. Twenty-six of the premiered films reached the finals.

The Fourth Edition of the Platinum Awards will take place next year in Madrid, Spain, announced Luis Cueto, coordinator of the Madrid Town Hall, during the awards gala.

Gente de Zona wants another summer with La Macarena and Los del Río

Cuban duo ‘’Gente de Zona’’ are filling social networks and specialized media websites with a new version of the song La Macarena together with the artists who made the song popular, Los del Rio.

Six days after the new version – called Mas Macarena – was premiered at the 13rd edition of the Premios Juventud Awards in the US city of Miami, Florida, the new single CD and video with the sounds of the song has been viewed 500,000 times on YouTube.

The new version, with much more electronic sounds, still preserves a great deal of the original sound and allows members of Los del Rio, Antonio Romero and Rafael Perdigones (Seville, Spain), who are celebrating 50 years together, to incorporate some lines in Flamenco, while Alexander Delgado and Randy Malcolm give the song elements of urban rap.

After the premiere, the artists went to Cuba, to film the video on the island, under the guidance of Venezuelan, Daniel Duran, who has worked with Gilberto Santa Rosa and Wisin.

The original version of La Macarena was recorded, published and broadcast in 1993 and included in a CD called A Mi Me Gusta.

It has been sung and danced to all over the world, becoming a world musical hit and reaching the top of the list of musical hits in the US specialized music magazine, Billboard. It is one of the most important single hits in the history of Hispanic music.

Media covert ops and the alternate universe

— George W Bush and Obama would never have emerged out of obscurity. Bush would be, at best, the part owner of a baseball team; and Obama, a man pounding the streets of Chicago trying to make a name for himself —

by Jon Rappoport

This article is based on my 30 years as a reporter, during which I’ve had many private conversations with mainstream journalists and editors. This isn’t speculation. This is how the game works.

Most media covert ops and cover-ups involve the omission of information. What is not published is important. What is published is cover, diversion, distraction, and limited hangout (the exposure of partial and relatively harmless truth).

The truth is, the US government helped create ISIS, and funds it and backs it and weaponizes it? That truth is never revealed. What we get is: the US is fighting against ISIS.

The truth is, the US medical system kills 225,000 people a year like clockwork? What we get is: modern medicine is a living miracle, and new stunning breakthroughs are right around the corner.

As I explained on my most recent Fade To Black radio segment with Jimmy Church, there is a potential contagion factor. If one boggling buried truth were revealed via major media, if it were exposed, and if reporters pounded on it week after week, the public would start to wake up and think: well, maybe there are other truths the media are covering up.

For example, fluoride. If the public became aware that the EPA’s own union of scientists has been attacking fluoride since 1999, labeling the chemical as a cause of cancer and lowered IQ, the next thought would be: are there other chemicals we don’t know anything about? What about pesticides? What about medical drugs? What about vaccines? How harmful are they?

And if major media did, in fact, start pounding on pesticides and exposing the truth about their harm, the contagion factor would escalate—and so forth and so on…

And if this contagion factor had caught on, say, 20 years ago in the press, we would now be living a different world.

An alternative universe, so to speak. Things would be vastly different. Heavy hitters would be in jail. Their trials would have been major spectacles. People would have a completely different view of government and corporate crimes.

The dangers to life and limb would have been laid out in full view. Reforms would have been enacted, under great pressure.
In other words, if the press had been doing its relentless job, on behalf of the people, life would not be the same.

Imagine that.

You need a bit of imagination to see it, to see what could be.

This isn’t fluff or speculation. This is the hard reality.

Let me give you another example. When the Globalist trade treaty, NAFTA, was signed into being in the mid-1990s, if a mainstream news editor told his reporters, “Look, we know this is madness. We know this is going to gut American jobs and hollow out a big piece of the US economy, and you sons of bitches are going to go out and document this, chapter and verse, for the next five years, in towns and cities, and we’re going to publish it, piece by piece, and put it all together and show the people what’s being done to them and their families and their future—“ If that had happened, other news outlets would have picked up on it, too, and Bush One and Clinton would now be pariahs of the first order. They’d be Al Capones. They’d be illustrations of political criminals held up for all to see and remember. And NAFTA would have been repealed, and the Globalist march to predatory corporate triumph would have been squelched like a bug.

And we would be living in an alternate universe. Jobs in the US would be plentiful. Bush Two and Obama would never have emerged out of obscurity. Bush would still be part owner of a Texas baseball team and Obama would still be pounding the streets of Chicago, trying to make a name for himself as a community organizer. Hillary Clinton would be trying to raise pittances for a barely surviving foundation, and she would have offloaded Bill years ago as a useless partner.

“You’re radioactive, baby. Close the door on your way out.”

Believe me, I know why the press doesn’t do its job. I know all the reasons. But the point is, reporters were originally tasked, in a Republic, with exposing the inevitable excesses and crimes of politicians and big businessmen.

And now…we have the exponential rise, online, of the independent reporter. The tilt of the news see-saw is changing. The whole enterprise is reverting to its original purpose.

It’s not too late. It’s never too late. The game is afoot. The outcome is never a done deal.

There are moments when, if you want to, you can see and feel and touch a different present and future. You can feel it hovering in the air, waiting to be born.

The news the public sees is not news. It never was. But the endless repetition of it makes it news in people’s minds. They can’t imagine it could be something else.

That’s the illusion.

The lies, the omissions, the cover stories, the anchors, the style of presentation, the studio sets, the collection of so-called experts—it all collaborates to produce an effect in the audience: this is what news is; anything else would not be news.
Reality is built, maintained, funded, and sold.

Actually, reality is as elastic as taffy. It is always on the verge of becoming something quite different. It takes great effort to hold it in one shape and keep it there.

From the time of the earliest television anchors, men like John Daly and Edward Murrow; and going back much further into radio news, and then back into print news, the key has been: pretended authority.

Major media cultivate employees who can deliver authority.

But that star is fading.

There are now many ways of conveying information. Independent reporters are just beginning to discover and plumb and imagine and invent how they can overcome the tower of fake authority. How they can deliver actual news.

Many styles of approach are coming into being—and I’m not just talking about technological innovations. I’m talking about personal approaches. I’m talking about what the news could and will be, when individuals—more of more of them—see they can launch and project their own energies along with deeper and deeper fact. Launch their own energies, their own voices, their own reactions to authoritarian lies, their own passions, their own, yes, art. Because news is art. It is art with fact. It is art with discovery. It is unlimited.
All this is in the process of happening, before our eyes.

The new day isn’t coming. It’s here.

The android freak show is closing down.

(Jon Rappoport is the author of three explosive collections, The Matrix Revealed, Exit From The Matrix, and Power Outside The Matrix). 

An important distinction: Democracy vs Republic, which one is best for individual liberty? Part 2

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Dear readers:

Most people pretty often hear here and there accusations among political contenders of being anti-democratic, while demanding ‘more democracy.’ Most consider the United a States a Democracy regardless that only two traditional political parties – which many believe are partners – are allowed in the debates – while other less known parties are blocked from participating. The majority talk about Democracy as the safeguard of liberty, but, is it? How about a Republican form of government – we never hear public debates about it. Was the US created as a Democracy or a Republic? The following article – which doesn’t identifies its author – brings light about the difference of the two. You, the reader have the last word.
THIS IS PART 2 OF A SERIES.

An important distinction: Democracy versus Republic, which one is best for individual liberty?

by anonymous author

This topic–the danger to the people’s liberties due to the turbulence of democracies and omnipotent, legislative majority–is discussed in The Federalist, for example in numbers 10 and 48 by Madison (in the latter noting Jefferson’s above-quoted comments).

The Framing Convention’s records prove that by decrying the “excesses of democracy” The Framers were, of course, not opposing a popular type of government for0 the United States; their whole aim and effort was to create a sound system of this type. To contend to the contrary is to falsify history. Such a falsification not only maligns the high purpose and good character of The Framers but belittles the spirit of the truly Free Man in America–the people at large of that period–who happily accepted and lived with gratification under the Constitution as their own fundamental law and under the Republic which it created, especially because they felt confident for the first time of the security of their liberties thereby protected against abuse by all possible violators, including The Majority momentarily in control of government. The truth is that The Framers, by their protests against the “excesses of democracy,” were merely making clear their sound reasons for preferring a Republic as the proper form of government. They well knew, in light of history, that nothing but a Republic can provide the best safeguards–in truth in the long run the only effective safeguards (if enforced in practice)–for the people’s liberties which are inescapably victimized by Democracy’s form and system of unlimited Government-over-Man featuring The Majority Omnipotent. They also knew that the American people would not consent to any form of government but that of a Republic. It is of special interest to note that Jefferson, who had been in Paris as the American Minister for several years, wrote Madison from there in March 1789 that:

“The tyranny of the legislatures is the most formidable dread at present, and will be for long years. That of the executive will come it’s turn, but it will be at a remote period.”

Somewhat earlier, Madison had written Jefferson about violation of the Bill of Rights by State legislatures, stating:

“Repeated violations of those parchment barriers have been committed by overbearing majorities in every State. In Virginia I have seen the bill of rights violated in every instance where it has been opposed to a popular current.”

It is correct to say that in any Democracy–either a Direct or a Representative type–as a form of government, there can be no legal system which protects The Individual or The Minority (any or all minorities) against unlimited tyranny by The Majority. The undependable sense of self-restraint of the persons making up The Majority at any particular time offers, of course, no protection whatever. Such a form of government is characterized by The Majority Omnipotent and Unlimited. This is true, for example, of the Representative Democracy of Great Britain; because unlimited government power is possessed by the House of Lords, under an Act of Parliament of 1949–indeed, it has power to abolish anything and everything governmental in Great Britain.

For a period of some centuries ago, some English judges did argue that their decisions could restrain Parliament; but this theory had to be abandoned because it was found to be untenable in the light of sound political theory and governmental realities in a Representative Democracy. Under this form of government, neither the courts not any other part of the government can effectively challenge, much less block, any action by The Majority in the legislative body, no matter how arbitrary, tyrannous, or totalitarian they might become in practice. The parliamentary system of Great Britain is a perfect example of Representative Democracy and of the potential tyranny inherent in its system of Unlimited Rule by Omnipotent Majority. This pertains only to the potential, to the theory, involved; governmental practices there are irrelevant to this discussion.

Madison’s observations in The Federalist number 10 are noteworthy at this point because they highlight a grave error made through the centuries regarding Democracy as a form of government. He commented as follows:

“Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed, that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions.”

Democracy, as a form of government, is utterly repugnant to–is the very antithesis of–the traditional American system: that of a Republic, and its underlying philosophy, as expressed in essence in the Declaration of Independence with primary emphasis upon the people’s forming their government so as to permit them to possess only “just powers” (limited powers) in order to make and keep secure the God-given, unalienable rights of each and every Individual and therefore of all groups of Individuals. (WILL CONTINUE ON THE NEXT WEEK EDITION).

Amish girl who fled US to escape forced chemotherapy is now cancer-free

by J. D. Heyes

Some might call it a “miracle,” but alternative and holistic medicine healers aren’t really surprised to learn that a 12-year old Amish girl is now cancer-free — after her doctors testified in court just six months ago that she would be dead by now if her family were permitted to refuse her chemotherapy.

As reported by the Medina Gazette, of Medina County, Ohio, Maurice Thompson, head of the libertarian non-profit group 1852 Center for Constitutional Law, said young Sarah Hershberger now shows no signs of being stricken with cancer at all and appears to be healthy.
“She had MRIs and blood work, and the judge over the last year helped facilitate at least one trip to the Cleveland Clinic. The MRIs did not show any cancer,” Thompson told the Gazette recently.

He added that her family is continuing to treat her with less invasive alternative medicine.

“Once you have it, you’re never 100 percent out of the woods, whether or not you get chemotherapy,” he said. “I know how she looks isn’t really an indication of whether she has cancer, but she’s looking very healthy.”

And yet, as the paper noted, not a single trace of cancer has shown up in any test.

Court finds parents have no rights — again

When Sarah was diagnosed with cancer in 2013, her parents, Andy and Anna Hershberger, initially agreed to chemotherapy treatments. However, they opted to end such treatments when Sarah’s condition grew worse, fearing that the treatments themselves might eventually lead to her death.

As is typical in today’s post-constitutional America, officials at Akron Children’s Hospital responded with a legal attempt to strip Sarah’s parents of their right to choose their own daughter’s medical treatment. The hospital sought court permission to obtain “limited guardianship” over her, thereby giving them the authority over medical decisions pertaining to her. Doctors testified she would not make it six months without chemotherapy.

Initially, Probate Judge John L. Lohn — since retired — ruled that Sarah’s parents were competent enough to make medical decisions on their daughter’s behalf. Eventually, however, a higher court ordered him to appoint a guardian.

The family responded by fleeing the country, choosing instead to seek alternative medical treatment in Mexico and Canada. Months thereafter, the hospital decided to relinquish guardianship, seeing no point in pursuing the matter further.

According to the Gazette:
“Thompson said Probate Judge Kevin Dunn — who replaced Lohn when he retired in 2014 — formally terminated Sarah’s guardianship on Sept. 24. Thompson said the judge acknowledged that Sarah, who will turn 13 in November, showed no symptoms of cancer and that she appeared to be healthy.”

Following Sarah’s case, Thompson has since called on Ohio lawmakers to reform rules that give judges the authority to overrule parental health care decisions involving their children.

Low survival rates for chemotherapy

“It is now time for Ohio’s legislators to protect Ohio families from wayward judges,” Thompson said, as reported by the Gazette.
Primarily, Thompson lashed out against the legal test that judges typically utilize in cases like Sarah’s, in order to circumvent parental authority in decisions involving their children’s health and well-being.

“This test allows county judges to overrule health care, educational and other important decisions of suitable Ohio parents,” Thompson said. “In the wake of Sarah’s case, the concept came to be known as ‘medical kidnapping.’”

While the children’s hospital declined to comment on the story, a spokesperson nonetheless told the Gazette that Akron Children’s had established a committee to interact with the Amish community, in order to “facilitate better communication regarding health care in the wake of Sarah’s case,” the paper reported.

That said, overall survival rates for chemotherapy — not the underlying cancer for which mainstream medicine prescribes it — is very low. According to a 2004 study, while some 60 percent of cancer patients in Australia survived, chemotherapy had little or nothing to do with those survival rates.

“I’ve never met a person who was cured by cancer with chemotherapy. Not a single one,” said Natural News editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, following actor Patrick Swayze’s untimely death from pancreatic cancer (after receiving chemotherapy). “Never even heard of such a person. They don’t exist. Even the cancer industry will tell you their ‘cure rate’ is zero (because they don’t believe cancer can ever be cured).” (Natural News).

When the river turned yellow

by David Bacon

In the afternoon of Aug. 6, 2014, the water in the Bacanuchi River turned yellow. At Tahuichopa, where the Bacanuchi flows into the larger Sonora River, Martha Agupira was one of the first to see it.

“We had no warning,” she remembers. “We just saw the river change color-yellow, with a really terrible smell, like copper or chemicals. All the fish died. A bull drinking in the river died right away. Other animals died, too.”

Tahuichopa is a small Mexican town of about 200 people, situated where the foothills of La Elenita mountain begin to flatten out into the high plain of the Sonora Desert, about 60 miles south of the Arizona border. The town’s cornfields line the banks of both rivers. “So people had to go through the river to get to them. The people were contaminated too,” she says.  

From Tahuichopa, the Sonora River flows southwest through wide green valleys separated by narrow canyons. The yellow water arrived next at Banamichi, then Baviacora, and then Ures.  

Two days after Martha Agupira saw the fish die, Luz Apodaca was visiting San Felipe de Jesus, the next town downstream.  Like many valley residents, she liked going along the riverbank to collect watercress. “I went into the water,” she laments. “That day, the river was dark brown, like chocolate. But I didn’t pay much attention because we’re used to going in and bathing there.”

In fact, the river is a big tourist attraction, or it was. Families on weekends would drive up from Hermosillo, Sonora’s capital city of 700,000, which lies farther, between two big reservoirs. Visitors would fill the restaurants in the river towns, or picnic on the sandbars.  

But the river began to smell like ammonia, Apodaca says, and by evening her face began to swell. “Over the next two days, my skin began to break out, and ever since I’ve had sores on my face and arms and legs. My fingernails all fell off. For many days I couldn’t sleep because of the pain in my face, and my knees and bones and nerves all hurt.”

What the two women experienced, along with the other 20,000 inhabitants of the Sonora and Bacanuchi River valleys, was one of the worst toxic spills in the history of mining in Mexico. In her report on the incident, Dr. Reina Castro, a professor at the University of Sonora, said, “A failure in the exit pipe from a holding pond at the mine led to the spill of approximately 40,000 cubic meters of leached material, including acidified copper sulfate.” On August 9, the Mexican agency overseeing water quality, CONAGUA, found elevated levels of heavy metals in the water, including aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, copper, chromium, iron, manganese, nickel, and mercury.

The contamination did more than harm the health of river residents. It undermined the economic survival of their communities, and damaged the ecology of the valleys in ways that could be permanent.  

But the spill also created a political movement of townspeople in response, in alliance with miners involved in one of the longest strikes in Mexico’s history. That alliance is bringing to light the impact that corporate giants on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border have on the people of this binational region.

The headwaters of both rivers rise in La Elenita, where the Cananea copper mine, one of the world’s largest, has been slowly pulverizing the mountain for more than a century. By the time of the spill, the mine’s workers had been on strike for nearly seven years, since July 2007. Since 2010, the mine has been operated by strikebreakers hired by the mine’s owner, Grupo Mexico, a global mining corporation. Some workers are hired directly by the subsidiary that runs Cananea’s mine operations, Buenavista del Cobre. Others work for contractors.  

In a press statement issued September 1, 2014, three weeks after the spill, Grupo Mexico blamed a contractor for causing it. “We recognize that, among other factors, a relevant cause was a construction defect in the seal of a pipe in the Tinajas 1 system … [which had been] contracted to a specialized company in the region, TECOVIFESA.” Grupo Mexico announced it was sending workers to clean up the river, and later agreed with the Mexican government to set up a fund, or fidecomiso, to compensate residents for damage from the spill.

Hiring contractors to replace the mine’s skilled workforce, however, has been going on for many years, according to the miners’ union, Section 65 of the National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Allied Workers. The Cananea mine contains 13 ponds holding millions of gallons of liquid left over from leaching metal from the rock. The work of maintaining them was originally performed by members of the union, before the company contracted it out. The use of contractors is one of the principle reasons for the strike.  

Grupo Mexico today owns mines in Mexico, Peru, and the United States. In the first quarter of 2016, the corporation earned profits of $406 million, on revenue of $1.9 billion. Even with the recent decline in China’s vast appetite for metal and raw materials, the company is still one of the most profitable in mining.

The company was originally the Mexican division of ASARCO, the American Smelting and Refining Company, started by the Guggenheim family in 1899. Until 1965, ASARCO owned many mines in Mexico. Under nationalist development policies, however, ASARCO sold its Mexican subsidiary to Mexican investors, among them Jorge Larrea Ortega, Mexico’s “King of Copper.” Today, his son German Larrea Mota controls Grupo Mexico.

The Cananea mine, Mexico’s largest, originally belonged to a U.S. owner, Colonel William C. Greene. In 1906, miners rebelled against the “Mexican Wage”-an arrangement paying white miners from the United States higher wages than Mexicans. In the violent insurrection that followed, the Arizona Rangers crossed the border into Mexico and put down the strike. The battle is considered the first conflict of the Mexican Revolution.

Cananea afterward belonged to the Anaconda Copper Company until the Mexican government took it over in 1971. During the last years it owned the mine, Anaconda ended the old method of shaft mining, and began open-pit operations. That decision had an enormous impact on the area’s ecology.  

In an open-pit mine, huge chunks of rock are blown out of the mountain, loaded onto giant trucks, and taken to a crusher. There, the ore is ground down into fine particles, and laid out on huge “benches.” The crushed rock is then sprayed with acid that leaches out the metal, which is collected below in ponds. Big electrodes pull the metal from the solution, and the leftover liquid is channeled into those 13 ponds. The 2014 spill originated in one of them.  

Today, benches of tailings tower over miners’ homes in Cananea. Part of the old town now lies buried beneath them. On a hot windy day, dust from pulverized rock blows into doorways, and miners’ families breathe the minerals the wind carries. On Cananea’s outskirts, the giant ponds line the southbound highway, parallel to the Sonora River.

– Due to lack of space, we were not able to run the whole story. We will try to continue it on next week edition.
To read the complete article, please visit: http://prospect.org/article/when-river-turned-yellow.

Unaccountable police unions endanger minorities and everyone else

Obama and conservatives need to stop beating around the bush and confront police unions squarely

by Shikha Dalmia
Analysis

Over the last two weeks, the nation has weathered two horrific retaliatory slayings of police officers, first in Dallas and then in Baton Rouge. In his funeral oration for the slain Dallas Gmevi Photo Dreamstime.comofficers, President Obama lamented many reasons for the rising “cycle of violence” between law enforcement and minority communities: Poverty, unemployment, underinvestment in schools, lack of rehab programs, easy availability of guns, and more. Meanwhile, after the Baton Rouge ambush, Donald Trump yet again blamed the breakdown of “law and order” in inner cities.

Surely there is at least some truth to all of this. But there’s another critical reform to America’s criminal justice system that is little talked about, but very important: Hidebound police unions that block elementary transparency and public accountability at every level.

Thanks to America’s history of state-enforced slavery and segregation, black communities have rarely trusted the police. But relations have only gotten worse in the age of cell phones, when footage of innocent black men getting shot by police officers, often white, keeps popping up with disturbing regularity. The Ferguson shooting of Michael Brown represented a tipping point that fully launched the Black Lives Matter movement. And the Louisiana and Minnesota shootings this month that triggered the Dallas protests represent a new level of rising frustration and anger.

Conservative police apologists often dismiss this frustration, claiming that police shootings are the result not of bigotry and bias by police but greater black crime rates. And to prove their point they have seized on a study by Harvard University’s Roland G. Fryer, black himself, that found no evidence that police are more likely to use lethal force against blacks and Hispanics than whites. (However, the cops are 50 percent more likely to use non-lethal force such as slapping, slamming, and punching against blacks and Hispanics than whites and Asians.)

But Fryer, a careful researcher with a stellar reputation, doesn’t have great confidence in his own findings because comprehensive national data about police shootings doesn’t exist. His investigation was therefore limited to select areas of Texas, Florida, and Los Angeles that were willing to share their internal records. And this, he acknowledges, introduced a massive self-selection bias in his sample. “These departments only supplied the data because they are either enlightened or were not concerned about what the analysis would reveal,” he noted.

So why don’t national stats exist? Because America’s 18,000 law enforcement agencies don’t want them to.

The Crime Control Act of 1994 asked the FBI to annually compile and publish data about the use of police force in all instances so that the country could keep track of trends of police violence, identify problematic precincts, or catch enforcement bias. But union representatives of law enforcement agencies successfully lobbied the feds to make reporting optional. So most departments now simply plead poverty and refuse to comply.

This is a huge problem. In the absence of good data, it is impossible to say definitively if racism is driving police abuse in black communities. And because it is impossible to identify the size and scope of this problem, it is impossible to craft and enact a solution to it—a solution, mind you, that would not only better serve and protect minority communities, but also keep police safer, too.
This is but one example of police unions going to eye-popping lengths to protect rogue cops at the expense of citizens (and the many decent cops who are tainted as well). Consider the binding arbitration that has become a standard feature of virtually all police contracts, which are often negotiated in secrecy. Binding arbitration allows cops to appeal any disciplinary action taken by their superiors to outside arbitrators such as retired judges. In theory, these folks are supposed to be neutral third parties. In reality, they are usually in the pockets of unions and dismiss or roll back a striking two-thirds of all actions, even against cops with a history of abuse and excessive violence. The upshot is that police chiefs are powerless to clean house, even as community complaints pile up. This is exactly what was happening in Baltimore when Freddie Gray died during his ride to the police station last year.

But chiefs aren’t the only ones rendered impotent by union contracts. The 1994 federal law gave the Justice Department expanded powers to investigate civil rights abuses in police departments and mandate reforms through agreements called consent decrees. But Justice’s prescribed reforms often don’t have to be implemented if they conflict with existing union contracts. Last month, the leftist In These Times, usually friendly to public unions, published its investigation of 17 consent decrees that Justice signed between 1997 and 2016. In at least seven of the 17 cases, “collective bargaining agreements presented a major roadblock to implementing them,” so that even after Justice concluded its probe, nothing really changed.

Among the special protections that police enjoy that the Justice Department is often powerless to override are rules:
• Allowing police departments to destroy civilian complaint records against officers.
• Giving cops involved in shootings several days before filing their statements. This gives them crucial time to get their stories straight, in essence turning the notorious “blue code of silence” into official policy.
• Barring citizens from filing complaints anonymously and revealing their names to the offending officer. Outrageously, however, names of officers involved in shootings are often withheld from the public. Indeed, The Washington Post reported that last year 210 people were fatally shot by police officers whose identity was never publicly revealed by their departments. This of course means that citizens have to fear retribution if they complain against a rogue cop even as the cop has little fear of being held accountable by citizens.

Police unions have even prevailed on state lawmakers to enshrine some of these protections into law through “Police Bill of Rights” in 14 states.

Police unions insist these special protections are necessary given the inherent dangerousness of their jobs. They often demonize anyone who questions them as “anti cop.” (Just ask New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.) But it is inconceivable that any profession that has managed to so insulate itself from elementary checks and balances isn’t rife with abuse. And if that’s the case, then it would be a miracle for the most vulnerable communities to not be disproportionately affected. That is just how the world works.

Neither President Obama nor Donald Trump are doing anyone any favors by ignoring all of this. There is no hope that Trump will ever speak honestly. But if the president wants to leave a legacy of healing, he ought to forthrightly confront the fact that when those who’ve been charged with protecting the laws of the country write laws to protect themselves, they endanger everyone—including themselves.

This column originally appeared in The Week.

SFREP’s statement of Fifth Circuit Appeals ruling on Texas Voter ID

The Ruling is a Victory for Texas Voter

by the El Reportero’s wire services

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruling on the Texas Voter ID law – ruled on the voter ID law, Senate Bill(SB)14, last July 20, said the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.

“The Fifth Circuit Court struck down Texas’ restrictive voter ID law and found it to violate the Voting Rights Act. This is a victory for Texas voters. We ask that the lower court demand that the State of Texas fix the ‘requirements’ of the voter ID immediately. The good news comes just in time to get ready for the 2016 November elections,” said Antonio González, SVREP President.

“SVREP sued Texas to stop a law that violates the voting rights of over 800,000 Latinos, African Americans and other ethnic communities, including white women voters. SVREP worked in 2011 to stop SB14 from becoming law at the legislative level,” said Lydia Camarillo, SVREP Vice President.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that SB14, Voter ID, has a discrimination effect on Latino, Black and other voters who lack documents to produce the required photo identifications required under SB14. The Court did not strike down the law. It asks the lower court to provide new procedures to assist potential voters without required ID.


Gov. Jerry Brown nominates Latino legal scholar to CA Sup Court

Gov. Jerry Brown announced Tuesday that he was nominating Mariano-Florentino Cuellar — a Mexican immigrant who teaches administrative law at Stanford University — to the California Supreme Court.

“Tino Cuellar is a renowned scholar who has served two presidents and made significant contributions to both political science and the law,” Brown said.  “His vast knowledge and even temperament will — without question — add further luster to our highest court.”
Cuellar, 41, is Brown’s second nominee this term to the high court. In both instances, Brown picked law professors without judicial experience. 

Cuellar’s name began circulating as a possible nominee back when Brown was considering who to appoint to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Carlos R. Moreno. Brown’s decision to nominate Goodwin Liu, a UC Berkeley law professor, instead of a Latino angered some Latino bar leaders.

Cuellar was born in Matamoros, Mexico, and for years crossed the border by foot to attend school in Texas. He moved with his family to the Imperial Valley when he was 14.

Cuellar obtained his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, his law degree from Yale Law School and a doctorate in political science from Stanford. (By Maura Dolan)
To read the complete story visit:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-supreme-court-nominee-20140722-story.html)

PG&E Receives Agricultural Legacy Award at California State Fair

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — The California State Fair bills itself as the “17 Best Days of Summer,” including its signature food. But it’s not just deep fried delicacies that are getting props this year, it’s also farm fresh fare. Supporters of California’s $53 billion agriculture industry – including Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) – are being recognized too.

PG&E was inducted into the California Agricultural Heritage Club today at the California State Fair in Sacramento. The Heritage Club is a prestigious group of families and businesses dedicated to preserving agriculture’s heritage, as well as moving the industry forward. PG&E is one of 18 businesses, farms and ranches being inducted this year and is the sole recipient recognized for more than 150 years of support.

“Since our beginnings in 1852 as the first gas utility in the west, PG&E has shared the pioneering spirit of California’s farmers and ranchers. We appreciate the value of agriculture to our daily lives, and to our local, regional, state and national economies. We look forward to continuing our work with our local agricultural customers for another 150 years, and helping this vital industry thrive,” said Deb Affonsa, vice president of customer service for PG&E.

“Reliable, affordable energy supplies are vitally important to farmers and ranchers and, because PG&E’s extensive infrastructure passes over and under farms and ranches, PG&E operations are closely linked to agriculture,” said Karen Norene Mills, associate counsel and director of public utilities for the California Farm Bureau Federation. “Farm Bureau looks forward to PG&E’s ongoing dedication to the state’s agricultural resources as an important segment of its customer base, a vital link in its ability to operate its system, and a key component of the state’s economy and environment.”

Agriculture and food processing help drive the state’s economy, at the same time they can be very energy-intensive. PG&E has a range of energy efficiency programs and incentives to help agricultural customers reduce their water and energy usage, and therefore reduce their costs. Over the past five years, PG&E has helped its large agriculture and food processing customers reduce energy usage by approximately 37 million kilowatt hours and 17 million therms, and provided $17 million in rebates to encourage energy efficiency changes.

The company introduced new programs and incentives to help farmers and ranchers weather the ongoing drought, and created an Agriculture Task Force and customer advisory groups to deal directly with customers on issues that matter most to them.

PG&E is also sponsoring a scholarship through the Friends of the California State Fair Scholarship Program, which supports high school seniors and college students pursuing careers in areas including agriculture, business and viticulture.

The California Agricultural Heritage Club Induction Ceremony was held at the Clubhouse at the Cal Expo Grandstand during a breakfast this morning. (Submitted by PG&E).

A fantastic night of flamenco in Berkeley

Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff

This special night show will be led by Clara Rodríguez, the Artistic Director of Oakland-based AguaClara Flamenco, Joelle Gonçalves , a professional dancer and director of Sol Flamenco, Kerensa DeMars a a San Francisco based Flamenco dancer, choreographer and instructor, and guitarist Esteban Bello.

Potluck 7-8 p.m. So (Please bring food and Drink). Performance on Friday July 22, from 8 to 10 p.m. Performance at 8-10 p.m.
At the Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley. For more info call at 510-472-3170. All Ages. Wheelchair accessible. Donation $10-$20.

Community rally in support of November ballot initiatives for SF public schools

This Friday, on the last day of summer classes at City College, community members will be participating in an interactive public art activity and sidewalk chalk project to educate voters about two November ballot initiatives that would increase funding for public schools.

“Free City College” will make tuition free for all SF residents through a tax on mansions, bringing in $13 million annually. Prop 55 will keep taxing the wealthiest 2 percent of Californians, bringing in $4 billion dollars per year for our public education system.

Speakers will be addressing the affordability crisis in San Francisco and the urgency for voters to tackle the growing income gap by taxing the wealthiest to pay their fair share.

On Friday, July 22, from 12-1:30 p.m., at City College Chinatown campus at 808 Kearny Street.

Dance Brigade Auditions, be a part of history!

Dance Brigade is seeking female and male professional dancers with strong technique in ballet and modern (partnering experience +) for Dance Brigade’s 40th Anniversary Celebration at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on January 13 and 14, 2017. 

Audtions will be held Saturday July 23rd @ Dance Mission Theater from 3:30 – 5:30 p.m., 3316 24th Street and Mission.

Paid rehearsals and performances. Rehearsals begin Sept. 19, 2016, Mondays 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays 9:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.  
Please bring resume and photo. For more info call 415 826-4401 or email dancebrigade1984@gmail.com

Julieta Venegas at Stern Grove Festival

GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY award-winning Mexican singer/songwriter Julieta Venegas performs an admission-free concert at Stern Grove Festival.
The stage opens at 2 p.m. with local high-energy Afro-Colombian and cumbia band La Misa Negra.

On Sunday, July 24 at 2 p.m., at Stern Grove, 19th St. and Sloat, San Francisco.

Visit the Stern Grove Festival website to learn about this concert and more from the 79th Season! http://www.sterngrove.org/concerts/#july-24

El Vucko Latin Jazz Quartet at Forest Hill

A unique Quartet interpreting a wide variety of Latin American classics. 

With Larry Vuckovich, piano, leader; Jackie Ryan vocals; Jeff Chambers, bass; John Santos – percussion. Refreshments.

On July 23rd, from 7:30 pm. – 9:30 p.m., at Forest Hill Church, 250 Laguna Honda Blvd. San Francisco. Near Forest Hill Muni Station. Free and easy parking. Cover charge $20. For more info visit: fhcfa.org.

Richard Bean & Sapo with Tortilla Soup

More Latin Rock and Soul music. On Saturday Aug. 13, 2016. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., show starts at 8:30 p.m. At Fulton 55, 875 Divisadero Street, Fresno, California 93721. For more info call at 559-412-7400.

Tickets $20 adv. / $25 door by calling 415-285-7719, writing at Rosie.eros@latinrockinc.com or online at: www.latinrockinc.net/events/2016-08-13-richard-bean-sapo-tortilla-soup.aspx

Zoe Saldana questions Hollywood Acadamy

by the El Reportero’s news services

US actress Zoe Saldana has questioned the reasons behind the awards granted by the Academy of Hollywood, which she claims are today influenced by external interests.

Adding that the Oscars no longer interest her, she stated that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of the United States system is marked by relationships, personal judgments and other kinds of interests.

“Only a few people have the power to determine who is worthy of the awards,” she said.

“I respect what the Academy should represent, but is not balanced nor clean. I do not need to be accepted by them,” she told the press.

According to the actress,38, her films make people happy, “if nobody watched my films, then I would have to change something,” said the acclaimed star of Avatar, Guardians Of The Galaxy and Star Trek.

Recently, the president of the Academy, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, announced changes that will hopefully lead to a transformation. Invitations were sent to 683 film personalities from around the world asking them to join the US group composed of just over 6,200 specialists.

However, this year those who voted for the Oscar nominations had an average age of 62 years, 94 percent were white and 77 percent men.
In this edition, the race for the golden statuette was tempered by racial controversy; for the second consecutive year, no black actor was among the nominees. After protests, the academy promised to take action.

Mexican playright to stage work on Perez Prado

Mexican group Conjuro Teatro will premiere a work based on the Mambo, que rico es, e, e, which compilation is based on the and musical work of Damaso Pérez Prado, was reported here today.

The selection, published by Ediciones Matanzas, is the result of the work of the playwright Ulises Rodríguez Febles and poetess Yanira Marimon, about who is known as the king of that genre and born in this city, at 100 kilometers east of Havana.

Febles Rodriguez told Prensa Latina that the playwrights of the Central American nation are scheduled to begin performances in March 2017 through Matanzas, to continue later by the rest of the island and later in Mexico.

Specialists maintain, even in these times, one porfía about the creator of the rhythm and while another part point out to Orestes López, others point to Arsenio Rodríguez, and a third group gives recognition to Perez Prado.

The truth is that the latter placed the Mambo at its highest point in the 1950s, which gained followers and caused a passion for its choreography, and offers rained down to Cara de Foca, as nicknamed to Pérez Prado another great Cuban musician, Benny Moré.

The volume, which is already circulating in Cuba, collecting items, theoretical texts and reviews of important personalities of culture such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alejo Carpentier, Leonardo Acosta and Radames Giro, among others, commented Rodriguez Febles.

Cuban salsa band touring South America

After the successful completion of its European tour, Cuban band Maykel Blanco y su Salsa Mayor is currently organizing a tour of South America to promote his latest album “Que no me quiten la fe”.

For the first time, the band will perform in Chile, on Aug. 12 at Orixas salsa club. Later, the orchestra will play for second time in Argentina, on August 13, at La Trastienda Club in Buenos Aires and in Rumbavana dance club in Rosario, on Aug. 14.

1...239240241...599Page 240 of 599

SELECTIONS

POPULAR TICKETS

POPULAR CATEGORY

ABOUT US

Welcome to our Marvin J. Ramirez website! We are an innovative newspaper located in the heart of San Francisco. With a relentless passion for telling powerful stories, we inform our community with truthful news, insightful analysis, and compelling reporting.

Contacto: lreportero@aol.com

FOLLOW US

© Copyright 2023. Agenciadigital.pw. All rights reserved.