Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalGerman ministers urge leniency for taking thrown-out food
Two German government ministers are calling for authorities to relax the application of rules enabling the prosecution of people who take food that is still fit for consumption from supermarket garbage bins.
Agriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir and Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said in a statement Tuesday that they wrote to the justice ministers of Germany’s 16 states to suggest a “practical solution” to the issue. In the highly decentralized country, it is the states that would have the power to make the change.
The practice known in Germany as “containering” counts as theft for legal purposes. The ministers’ statement said that around 11 million tons of food are thrown away every year in the country, about 7% of it in the retail sector due to factors such as traders ordering more than they can sell. Another 17% comes from restaurants, canteens and the like.
“If people take home food that has been thrown away without causing damage or unlawful entry, then, in my opinion, that should no longer be prosecuted,” Buschmann said. Ozdemir said refraining from prosecuting such cases “is one of many elements in the fight against food waste.”
https://apnews.com/article/politics-germany-hamburg-climate-and-environment-585ae50febec30cac61082da86e7f763
Should do that in this country too, and extend it to things like the stale/leftover donuts at Dunkin etc.
Missouri boarding school under investigation will shut down
A Christian boarding school in Missouri that’s been under intense scrutiny over abuse allegations announced Wednesday that it will close later this month due to financial hardship.
Agape Boarding School in Stockton has been the subject of state and location investigations and several lawsuits from former students. It will stop providing service effective Jan. 20, according to a statement from the school for boys.
Attendance at Agape plummeted after abuse allegations surfaced. Agape had 132 students 13 months ago, its lawyer, John Schultz said. It now has 12.
The school’s focus now is “on getting the boys who remain in the program safely transitioned to their parents or to foster care, other group homes or residential programs,” its former director, Bryan Clemensen, said in a statement.
Clemensen said the decision to close “is voluntary and solely due to the lack of financial resources to continue caring for the boys.”
Agape’s trouble began in 2020 when former students came forward with abuse allegations. One former student said he was raped at Agape and called “seizure boy” because of his epilepsy. Others said they suffered permanent injuries from being disciplined or forced to work long hours of manual labor.
https://apnews.com/article/crime-stockton-missouri-education-6d4bc69348f4349249e49b3ec7c29172
The NYC nurses strike reveals a fundamental flaw in US health care
More than 7,000 nurses in New York City are on strike after failing to agree on a new contract with the hospitals where they work, leading two hospital systems in the city to cancel elective surgeries, ask ambulances to divert patients to other hospitals, and bringing in traveling nurses to maintain operations.
The strike was very nearly a much bigger crisis: Nurses at eight other city hospitals reached a last-minute deal with their management. It is still perhaps the most high-profile example of the tension between hospital executives and their medical staff that has been magnified by the pandemic.
The past few years have made clear the degree to which American hospitals rely on nurses to handle a surge of patients in a public health crisis and the struggles of the same health system to appropriately value that nursing work. While the strike in NYC involves only four facilities, it’s a symptom of a structural failure in US health care: Hospitals do not have a strong financial incentive to invest in their nursing staffs.
Strikes by nurses and medical staff have occurred frequently in recent years. Eight of the 25 major work stoppages involving 1,000 workers or more that the US Labor Department tracked in 2022 were initiated by health care workers, the highest share of any single profession. There have been dozens of smaller walkouts by nurses in the past few years.
Labor shortages have left nurses overworked and insisting on more help in contract negotiations. There are more than 700 positions currently open at the three Montefiore hospitals in the Bronx where nurses are striking, the New York Times reported. The nurses have said that management’s current offers on compensation and, in particular, hiring more staff to relieve overburdened nurses are not sufficient.
https://www.vox.com/health-care/2023/1/11/23548236/nyc-nurses-strike-2023-mount-sinai-montefiore-hospitals
[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://i.postimg.cc/KjR0jLzn/MNLME.webp[/img][/url]
Picture says it all!
House Republicans form committee to investigate the government
The House on Tuesday approved a GOP resolution to create a select subcommittee that Republicans say will launch a far-reaching examination of the agencies and people that investigated Donald Trump and that Democrats describe as an unprecedented breach of protocol on criminal probes and national security matters.
The subcommittee, approved on a party-line 221-211 vote, will be empowered to investigate any federal agency that collects information about Americans, even in cases of an ongoing criminal investigation — a carve-out at odds with the Justice Department’s long-standing practice of not providing information about ongoing investigations.
The subcommittee, which will be housed under the Judiciary Committee and led by that panel’s chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), is expected to have resources akin to the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — a concession extracted last week from GOP leaders by hard-line detractors of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in exchange for the votes necessary to make him the new speaker.
The broad resolution also explicitly authorizes the select committee to seek access to highly classified information provided by intelligence agencies to the House Intelligence Committee. Members of that panel are often briefed on extremely sensitive information with contents that, if widely shared, could damage national security and endanger the lives of American intelligence officers and their assets.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/10/house-vote-republicans-committee-investigate-government/
They should start with themselves, since they are a part of it..... I guess they have no plans to actually govern, or anything.
Suspect in custody after sixth shooting reported at New Mexico officials' homes, offices
A suspect was in custody Monday in a string of shootings that may have targeted Democratic leaders in Albuquerque, officials said Monday.
The suspect, whose name was not released, was being held on charges unrelated to the six shootings at or near Democratic officials' homes and offices, police Chief Harold Medina said at a news conference.
Officials did not say what charges the person was being held on or if charges will be filed in connection with the shootings since early last month.
Medina said police have seized a weapon from at least one of the shootings. No one has been injured in the shootings.
New Mexico's incoming state house speaker is the sixth Democrat official to be the apparent target of gunfire since early December, police said earlier Monday.
"We're worried and concerned that these are connected and possibly politically motivated," Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/suspect-custody-sixth-shooting-reported-new-mexico-officials-homes-off-rcna65017
Possibly? POSSIBLY?
School failed to stop harassment of 14-year-old who reported a sex assault, complaint says
Classmates called Riley a slut and a whore as she walked through the halls of Andrews Middle School in fall 2021, after she told police and school officials that a high school football player had sexually assaulted her, according to a federal complaint.
False rumors spread that Riley, then 14, an eighth grade cheerleader, was pregnant, and some classmates said she had “come on to” the 16-year-old football player, according to a letter Riley’s lawyer sent last year as part of a federal Title IX complaint against Cherokee County Schools in western North Carolina.
And even more troubling, rumors spread that the football player had recorded an intimate video of Riley, which she feared was circulating among her classmates, her complaint states.
This video may or may not have existed. NBC News has not seen it, nor spoken to anyone who saw it firsthand. The rumors about the video were the subject of official probes, and one middle school student told administrators that he had seen it. Yet the football player denied making a video, and the district later concluded that “the preponderance of the evidence shows a video did not exist,” a conclusion Riley’s lawyer tried to get the district to reverse. Prosecutors filed a charge against the football player related to the video but later dropped it.
Riley and her mother said they expected school staff to curb the harassment and stop the rumored spread of a video. Instead, Riley’s Title IX complaint alleges a cascading series of failures by teachers, coaches, counselors and administrators who ultimately left Riley on her own, forcing her to quit a sport she loved and withdraw from school.
“I felt very broken and defeated,” said Riley, who is being identified by her middle name because of her age. “I felt like my trust was shattered, and very isolated and alone.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sexual-harassment-complaint-cherokee-county-north-carolina-rcna61303
The school's behavior here is absolutely shameful, especially that of the principal. I hope they have to pay BIG.
Four former NWSL coaches banned for life after abuse investigation
The National Women’s Soccer League permanently banned four coaches on Monday in response to an investigation into alleged abuse and misconduct in the league.
Four former coaches Paul Riley (North Carolina), Rory Dames (Chicago Red Stars), Richie Burke (Washington Spirit) and Christy Holly (Racing Louisville) were banned from coaching in the league. Former Utah Royals coach Craig Harrington and former Gotham general manager Alyse LaHue were suspended from working in the NWSL for two years.
The NWSL and its players association announced the results late last month of the investigation, which found “widespread misconduct” directed at players dating back to the beginnings of the league nearly a decade ago.
The investigation stemmed from allegations of harassment and sexual coercion made by two former players against Riley, who was among five NWSL coaches who were either dismissed or resigned amid claims of misconduct in 2021. US Soccer also investigated reported misconduct in the league.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jan/09/four-former-nwsl-coaches-banned-for-life-after-abuse-investigation
In some states, your 6-year-old child can be arrested. Advocates want that changed
Kaia Rolle was 6 years old when police arrested her at a Florida school in 2019. The then first-grader was accused of kicking and punching staff members while throwing a tantrum.
A police officer used zip ties to handcuff her. The video of her crying and pleading with a school resource officer not to handcuff her sparked widespread outrage at the time. It also led to changes in state law.
But Kaia is still feeling the effects of that day more than two years later, her grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, tells NPR. Kaia's in therapy for PTSD, she says. "She also still suffers from separation anxiety."
Kaia's ordeal prompted Florida to set a minimum age for a juvenile's arrest. It was part of a wider police reform bill and says no one under 7 years of age can be arrested, charged or adjudicated unless they've committed a forcible felony. Those felonies are defined by the state.
But there's growing debate in several states about whether the minimum age should be higher, that children behaving badly shouldn't be viewed as criminal.
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/02/1093313589/states-juvenile-minimum-age-arrested-advocates-change
Remember the 6 year olds arrested in Murfreesboro, TN, for a neighborhood dustup? I do.
In some states, your 6-year-old child can be arrested. Advocates want that changed
Kaia Rolle was 6 years old when police arrested her at a Florida school in 2019. The then first-grader was accused of kicking and punching staff members while throwing a tantrum.
A police officer used zip ties to handcuff her. The video of her crying and pleading with a school resource officer not to handcuff her sparked widespread outrage at the time. It also led to changes in state law.
But Kaia is still feeling the effects of that day more than two years later, her grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, tells NPR. Kaia's in therapy for PTSD, she says. "She also still suffers from separation anxiety."
Kaia's ordeal prompted Florida to set a minimum age for a juvenile's arrest. It was part of a wider police reform bill and says no one under 7 years of age can be arrested, charged or adjudicated unless they've committed a forcible felony. Those felonies are defined by the state.
But there's growing debate in several states about whether the minimum age should be higher, that children behaving badly shouldn't be viewed as criminal.
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/02/1093313589/states-juvenile-minimum-age-arrested-advocates-change
The Secret Concessions 'Addendum' That House Republicans Can't Agree Exists
Somewhere in the Capitol, in the clutches of at least some GOP lawmakers, there’s a secret three-page addendum to the new House rules package that went into effect Monday night. It’s just that not every member can read it—and it doesn’t seem to require a vote of any kind.
Reportedly, the “addendum”—as it’s simply become known—outlines the concessions House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made to his defectors in order to win the speaker’s gavel. Punchbowl News reported Monday that the addendum included promises for three seats on the Rules Committee for Freedom Caucus members, freezing spending at the fiscal 2022 levels, some sort of agreement on debt ceiling demands, committee assignments, and more.
And yet, the public, House Democrats, and seemingly most House Republicans have yet to see the addendum.
Far from being online or passed around to congressional offices, there was a growing dispute that the addendum even exists—like a more boring, bureaucratic version of National Treasure.
On Monday night, before Republicans voted on their package of rules governing the House, Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) said he wasn’t “at liberty” to discuss whether or not he’s seen the three-page document. But Johnson also said “there’s pretty widespread understanding of the context of it” and that “leaders make those sorts of commitments and have those kinds of conversations with members literally every single day.”
Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), on his walk to the Capitol Monday night, said he had some questions about the addendum, but he still expressed general confidence in the package.
“I just don’t like surprises,” the Montana congressman—and former Interior Secretary—said.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-secret-concessions-addendum-that-house-republicans-cant-agree-exists
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