Auburn85

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/uc-berkeley-halts-construction-new-student-housing-tensions-protesters-rcna41455 (University of California, Berkeley officials said Wednesday afternoon that they are pausing work on construction of new student housing after clashes earlier in the day between police and protesters at People’s Park. A group of protesters demonstrating against the university’s decision to build student housing on the site, which is owned by the school, broke through a recently erected fence around the park and faced off with officers as a construction crew started work on the project. The park was cleared overnight Tuesday and the fencing erected after an Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled days earlier that the university could move forward with its housing plan despite local groups suing to stop it. Dan Mogulof, UC Berkeley's assistant vice chancellor, said in a statement that the decision to halt the work was made “due to the destruction of construction materials, unlawful protest activity, and violence on the part of some protesters.” He said multiple people were arrested, but said no additional details would be provided until Thursday. “All construction personnel were withdrawn out of concern for their safety,” Mogulof said. “The campus will, in the days ahead, assess the situation in order to determine how best to proceed with construction of this urgently needed student housing project.” UC Berkeley wants to build apartment-style housing for 1,100 students on the site in response to low housing supply and high market prices in the city, according to the university’s website. The project was announced in 2017. Protesters consider the park, which is located about three blocks from campus, to be a vital gathering space for members of the community including homeless people. An online fundraiser by the the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group opposing the construction has raised more than $14,000. UC Berkeley student Sam Nelson, 21, said she believes the housing will be expensive and will benefit the university, not students. She said the protest was also about protecting trees at the park, some of which were cut down. Nelson, who is a member of Defend People’s Park, an organization that aims to protect the park, said she started protesting around midnight when the university began erecting construction lighting and fences. “Some folks started coming out to protest and that’s when police got involved,” she said. She added that police were using excessive force on protestors. UC Berkeley police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News, but in a statement to the Associated Press said that protesters threw rocks, bottles, and glass at crews working at the park, which is considered aggravated assault. The department didn’t say if anyone was arrested. The park has been a longstanding point of contention between UC Berkeley and protesters. In 1969, community organizers turned the site, which the state and university had seized under eminent domain, into the People’s Park. The university erected a fence around the park, and protesters tried to reclaim it, resulting in police fatally shooting one man and wounding dozens of others. The May 15, 1969, uprising, known as “Bloody Thursday,” triggered more protests and then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan summoned the National Guard to occupy Berkeley.)

https://people.com/politics/sarah-krivanek-brittney-griner-case-differences-wrongfully-detained-russia/ "In response to the nine-year sentence Brittney Griner received Thursday following her trial in Russia for drug smuggling, U.S. President Joe Biden spoke out about the WNBA star's devastating circumstances. "Today, American citizen Brittney Griner received a prison sentence that is one more reminder of what the world already knew: Russia is wrongfully detaining Brittney," Biden said in a statement. "It's unacceptable, and I call on Russia to release her immediately." In saying that Griner is wrongfully detained, the president is alluding to an assessment that is likely underway for another American woman jailed in Russia, Sarah Krivanek, according to Chris Costa, a 34-year veteran of the Department of Defense and former U.S. Army Intelligence officer who is now the executive director of the International Spy Museum. PEOPLE spoke with Costa Friday to get insight into Krivanek's case. As special assistant to the president and senior director for counterterrorism in Donald Trump's White House, Costa worked on cases of Americans that were wrongfully detained overseas. Since leaving his job in government, Costa's work with the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation and Hostage US includes tracking wrongful detention cases around the world. Despite the lack of attention paid to Krivanek — who was arrested in Moscow Dec. 15, 2021, when she tried to board a plane to leave Russia amid pending charges connected to a domestic violence incident — Costa is "absolutely confident" that the U.S. is looking closely at her case. "I believe the U.S. government doing its due diligence. They are always assessing cases for wrongful detention," he says, adding that Americans imprisoned in Russia are of particular interest right now. "Sarah's family could be optimistic that the United States is really redoubling," Costa adds. "We are committed to taking care of U.S. citizens held abroad wrongfully." Indeed, a State Department official confirmed the arrest of a U.S. citizen in Russia on Dec. 15 and told PEOPLE, "We take our role in assisting U.S. citizens abroad seriously and are monitoring the situation." Determining whether Krivanek is wrongfully detained is based on criteria laid out in the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act, which was passed in 2020 to shore up resources to help bring American hostages and wrongfully detainees home. Krivanek was charged with "intention to inflict slight bodily harm" and "threatening to kill or do grievous bodily harm" in Russia after a Nov. 11, 2021, altercation with Mikhail Karavaev. In court, she alleged Karavaev was abusive and that she was defending herself when she wielded a kitchen knife and cut his nose. Karavaev later withdrew his complaint against Krivanek and later told the Russian court, "I was the one at fault." Despite his admission and her defense, Krivanek is currently serving a one year and three month sentence at a penal colony in Ryazan, a city about 120 miles southeast of Moscow, PEOPLE learned this week. Costa is adamant that Krivanek appears to be a victim of domestic violence — but also of "a flawed justice system." "It's the Russian justice system," he says, "and the United States just generally has to be really careful that we can't intercede in other nations' legal systems, unless, and this is key, unless it meets criteria that's laid out in the Levinson Act." Although Costa isn't privy to the likely ongoing assessment of Krivanek's detention, he says she does not appear to be "considered by the United States, as far as I know, as being wrongfully detained." He notes that her status "does not mean that the United States is not working on ensuring that she has all of what is entitled by a U.S. citizen in terms of Consular support." "She is a victim, but she might not be a wrongfully detained, that's a category," Costa adds. "She was defending herself, but that doesn't mean she's wrongfully detained in accordance with Russian law." He also emphasized that a determination of whether a prisoner is wrongfully detained based on the Levinson Act is likely ongoing and could certainly change over time. "It's an analytical judgment based on the facts of the case. But it's kind of a sliding ruler based on the situation. It's dynamic, too, because new facts can come to light and political environments can be revealed," he says. After her November 2021 arrest, Krivanek sought help from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and was given a repatriation loan to cover travel expenses and an escort to the airport, where she was apprehended by Russian authorities on Dec. 15, 2021. As of two months later, she was apparently not aware of any efforts made by the embassy to assist her. In a letter dated Feb. 7, 2022, which she sent from a Moscow detention center, Krivanek wrote to an unnamed contact: "to this date no one from the American Embassy has come to see me." Costa tells PEOPLE that might not be because no one at the embassy tried. "It sounds suspicious to me, and I would say the fault would lie with the Russians," he says. "Maybe she was prohibited from making the obligatory phone calls that we're used to in the United States. That might not be an opportunity that a local jailer allowed her." "The idea of consular services not seeing an American who is being detained, that sounds suspect and unusual to me," he adds. He says he's left scratching his head, "because I know that the State Department would make a prison visit or jail visit a priority." In correspondence with PEOPLE this week, a State Department official said, "We continue to urge that Russian authorities allow consistent, timely consular access to all U.S. citizen detainees in Russia in line with its legal obligations and allow us to provide consular services for U.S. citizens detained in Russia. Our requests for access are consistently delayed or denied." "We also continue to press for fair and transparent treatment for all U.S. citizen detainees in Russia," the official added. According to the Levinson Act, an American citizen can be deemed "detained unlawfully or wrongfully" for several reasons. One is if the "individual is being detained solely or substantially to influence United States Government policy or to secure economic or political concessions from the United States." Griner, who is now the subject of discussions on a prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia, may fall into that category in part, Costa said, because of the notoriety she has as a famous basketball player with countless supporters — including President Biden — speaking out on her behalf. "People came out to speak about it right away to show their solidarity for her," Costa said of Griner. "So, that in itself raises the stakes for Russia. Okay, there's interest, a lot of interest in Brittney Griner, therefore they want to exact some kind of political advantage." Krivanek, on the other hand, hasn't had that support and could be considered less valuable to the Russians, which might be why her detention isn't considered wrongful based on the Levinson Act. "Perhaps the United States government will look very, very hard at this particular case and ultimately declare her wrongfully detained," Costa said. "But that is a call that the U.S. government, the State Department, would have to make." In the meantime, Costa added, "Just because Sarah [Krivanek] is not declared wrongfully detained, meeting the criteria of the Levinson Act, that does not mean that day in and day out, that the Consular Affairs in Russia are not working on her case." "

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/indiana-rep-jackie-walorski-killed-car-accident-rcna41410 "Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., was killed in a car accident on Wednesday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy confirmed in a tweet. She was 58. McCarthy said that Walorski's husband, Dean Swihart, was informed of her death by the Elkhart County Sheriff's office on Wednesday afternoon. A former Indiana state lawmaker, Walorski was first elected to Congress in 2012 and was running for her sixth term this fall. She was well-liked by her Republican and Democratic colleagues in the House, where she was close to McCarthy and his leadership team. McCarthy named her the top Republican on the House Ethics Committee, and she was set to be chairman of the bipartisan committee if Republicans won the majority in November. "

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/3579988-is-there-a-recession-only-the-national-bureau-of-economic-research-gets-to-decide/

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/illinois-democratic-party-chair-fight-turns-ugly-accusations-racism-rcna40373

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/blood-on-your-hands-msnbc-contributor-rails-against-democrats-spending-to-boost-far-right-candidates/

https://www.thewetumpkaherald.com/news/video-police-brutality-accusations-made-against-elmore-county-law-enforcement/article_0ab65c2c-0509-11ed-aac6-9bb87ffb31a9.html more at the link

Warning with some of the language

https://reason.com/2021/04/07/microaggressions-uva-student-kieran-bhattacharya-threat/?itm_source=parsely-api#comments Then a dean of student affairs asked to meet as well. Meanwhile, the Academic Standards and Achievement Committee met to to discuss the concern card. This committee voted to send Bhattacharya a written reminder to "show mutual respect" to faculty members and "express yourself appropriately." The committee also suggested that he get counseling. On November 26, this suggestion became a mandate: The student was informed that he must be evaluated by psychological services before returning to classes. Bhattacharya repeatedly asked university officials to clarify what exactly he was accused of, under whose authority his counseling had been mandated, and why his enrollment status was suddenly in doubt, according to the lawsuit. These queries only appear to have made UVA officials more determined to punish him: Bhattacharya's mounting frustration with these baseless accusations of unspecified wrongdoings was essentially treated as evidence that he was guilty. At his hearing, he was accused of being "extremely defensive" and ordered to change his "aggressive, threatening behavior." He was ultimately suspended for "aggressive and inappropriate interactions in multiple situations." On December 30, UVA police ordered him to leave campus. UVA's administration engaged in behavior that can be described as "gaslighting." Administrators asserted that Bhattacharya had behaved aggressively when he hadn't, and then cited his increasing confusion, frustration, and hostility toward the disciplinary process as evidence that he was aggressive. And all of this because Bhattacharya asked an entirely fair question about microaggressions, a fraught subject. His lawsuit contends that UVA violated his First Amendment rights by retaliating against him for speaking his mind. UVA filed a motion to dismiss the case, but a district court judge ruled that the suit could proceed. "Bhattacharya sufficiently alleges that Defendants retaliated against him," wrote thecourt. "Indeed, they issued a Professionalism Concern Card against him, suspended him from UVA Medical School, required him to undergo counseling and obtain 'medical clearance' as a prerequisite for remaining enrolled, and prevented him from appealing his suspension or applying for readmission." It is vital that UVA lose this case, and lose badly. Students must have the right to question administrators about poorly formed concepts from social psychology without fearing that they will be branded as threats to public order. That's the difference between a public university and an asylum. Update: This post initially identified Sara Rasmussen as the professor who filed the complaint, but it was Nora Kern, a co-organizer of the event. Both are defendants in the lawsuit.

https://foxbaltimore.com/news/project-baltimore/city-student-passes-3-classes-in-four-years-ranks-near-top-half-of-class-with-013-gpa

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/twitter-troll-arrested-election-interference-related-disinformation-campaign-n1255864

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/ultra-progressive-college-hit-with-11m-in-damages-for-taking-sides-in-racial-profiling-case-that-wasnt/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-oberlin-bakery-racial-dispute-20171210-story.html Associated Press Dake Kang Students at Oberlin College have long enjoyed pastries, bagels and chocolates from Gibson's Bakery, a century-old, family-owned business near campus. That sweet relationship has turned bitter amid hotly disputed accusations of racism, roiling a school and town long known for their liberal politics. The dispute, which began in November 2016 with the arrest of three black Oberlin students who tried stealing wine from Gibson's, is now a lawsuit in which the exasperated bakery owners accuse the college and a top dean of slandering Gibson's as a "racist establishment" and taking steps to destroy the family's livelihood. Caught in the middle are longtime residents of this town of 8,300 people, many of whom identify themselves as liberals but who have patronized Gibson's for decades. Many believe the timing was right for the conflict to boil over; the arrests came the day after Donald Trump won the presidential election, electrifying students who had long heard suspicions of racial profiling at Gibson's. "I can understand why people were looking for some outlet for their frustration, but it's just counterproductive to bend that anger towards a small family business that to my knowledge is not guilty of the sort of racial profiling that people accuse it of," said retired Oberlin professor Roger Copeland. The three students were arrested after punching and kicking the white shopkeeper. The 18- and 19-year-old students said that they were racially profiled and that their only crime was trying to buy alcohol with fake identification; the shopkeeper, Allyn Gibson, said the students attacked him after he caught them trying to steal bottles of wine. The day after the arrests, hundreds of students protested outside the bakery. Members of Oberlin's student senate published a resolution saying Gibson's had "a history of racial profiling and discriminatory treatment." Few colleges put the "liberal" into "liberal arts" more than Oberlin, which in the early 1800s became the first in the country to regularly admit women and minorities. But it also more recently has become, for conservatives, a symbol of political correctness gone awry and entitled youth. News articles in 2015 quoted students decrying the school dining hall's sushi and Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches as cultural appropriation. The divisive, voice-of-a-generation actress Lena Dunham, famously a 2008 Oberlin alumna, was quoted in Food & Wine magazine as saying, "The press reported it as, 'How crazy are Oberlin kids?' But to me, it was actually, 'Right on.'" With Oberlin's reputation preceding it and news of the Gibson's protests spreading online, bikers and out-of-town counter-protesters soon converged on the town to jeer students and buy doughnuts from Gibson's. Conservatives derided the students on social media as coddled "snowflakes" with a mob mentality, while students attacked the store as a symbol of systemic racism. The three students arrested at Gibson's pleaded guilty in August to attempted theft and aggravated trespassing and said in statements required by a plea agreement that their actions were wrong and that the store wasn't racist. Even so, students continue to boycott Gibson's over perceived racial profiling, causing business to suffer. Pressed by a reporter to provide evidence or examples of profiling, they said only that when black students enter the store, they feel as though they're being watched. "Racism can't always be proven on an Excel sheet," said Kameron Dunbar, an Oberlin junior and vice chair of the student senate. Copeland and other residents say the accusations of racism are unfounded. "I've never seen evidence; it's always hearsay," Copeland said. "When your fellow student is shutting down a conversation because he or she is made uncomfortable, it leads to a hive mentality." On Nov. 7, the Gibsons sued Oberlin and Meredith Raimondo, vice president and dean of students, for slander, accusing faculty members of encouraging demonstrations against the bakery by suspending classes, distributing flyers, and supplying protesters with free food and drink. It says Raimondo took part in the demonstration against Gibson's with a bullhorn and distributed a flyer that said the bakery is a "RACIST establishment with a LONG ACCOUNT of RACIAL PROFILING and DISCRIMINATION." Today, the lawsuit says, college tour guides continue to inform prospective students that Gibson's is racist. Dave Gibson, the bakery's owner, says the lawsuit is about standing up for his right to crack down on shoplifting without being branded as a racist. The suit says Oberlin demanded that he stop pushing criminal charges on first-time shoplifters and call school deans instead. "I have not taken a paycheck since this happened more than a year ago," Gibson said in an email. "Sometimes you have to stand up to a large institution. Powerful institutions — including Oberlin College — and their members must follow the same laws as the rest of us." Gibson's loses thousands of dollars to theft, the lawsuit said. It rejects any accusations of racial bias, pointing to police figures in the past five years that show only six out of 40 adults arrested for shoplifting at the bakery were black. The school said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed that it and Raimondo deny Gibson's claims and that the college has stopped buying the bakery's goods, ending what had been a decades-long relationship. Raimondo did not respond to an email seeking comment. Attempts by the Oberlin Business Partnership to mediate between the school and bakery ended in failure, said partnership Director Janet Haar, with neither side appearing to be interested. The clash has inspired Oberlin senior Jake Berstein, who said he witnessed the initial altercation, to produce a podcast trying to create a conversation that "isn't being had" between the two sides. "Gibson's has become all that is wrong with America," Berstein said. "It's a classic case of those political bubbles that don't communicate with each other, and don't want to."