March 27, 2023

24 Great Danes seized, owners arrested at breeding mill in Lafayette, authorities say

On March 23, the Macon County Sheriff’s Office and Animal Rescue Corps seized 26 large dogs, one small dog, five cats, and two chinchillas from a property in Macon County, Tennessee, officials said.

The owners of the animals were arrested and charged with animal cruelty after a search of the property revealed the dogs were living in horrible conditions. The dogs were found living in small, filthy wire cages inside a small shed, with even more found in flooded makeshift kennels, Animal Rescue Corps officials said.

“This is a clear case of animal neglect and abuse with some of the highest ammonia levels we’ve ever measured,” ARC Executive Director Tim Woodward said. “These breeding mills put profit above the welfare of the animals and it’s the animals who suffer.”

https://www.wvlt.tv/2023/03/27/24-great-danes-seized-owners-arrested-breeding-mill-lafayette-authorities-say/

The pictures are horrific. Poor babies. I hope they find good homes.

March 27, 2023

Black parents say implicit bias ban will harm all student

Studies show implicit biases lead to racial disparities in student achievement, learning opportunities and discipline that harm Black students.

In 2020, Black Tennessee students received out-of-school suspensions at more than four times the rate of white students, and received in-school suspensions at nearly double the rate of white students, according to state school report cards that track discipline. Expulsions and placement in alternative schools for Black students were nearly double the rate.

Pamela Campbell, a parent of four African American boys in Knox County Schools, told Knox News that her sons' were relentlessly and often unfairly disciplined.

"Between the time my oldest two boys were in school and my youngest two, I have seen things change in the way relationships are being built with the kids," Campbell said. "They are so quick to do a write-up or send them to the office without taking the time to really get to know these students or what they are going through."

https://www.knoxnews.com/in-depth/news/education/2023/03/27/black-parents-say-tennessee-implicit-bias-ban-will-harm-all-students/70048601007/

Further down in the article, it not only talks about the fact that nobody has mandatory implicit bias training and everyone has the opportunity to opt out, but that we all have implicit biases that we may not even be aware of.

March 26, 2023

A police chase in Jackson, Mississippi, ended with an innocent woman shot in her bedroom

Latasha Smith says she was lying in bed just after midnight on Dec. 11 when a bullet sliced through her bedroom wall, striking her in the arm.

Smith, 49, remembers dashing out of her apartment, wailing that she’d been shot. Outside, she saw Mississippi Capitol Police officers walking through the complex.

Three months later — with the bullet still lodged in her arm — she continues to wait for answers.

The Mississippi Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Capitol Police, has offered little information about what led an officer to open fire at Commonwealth Village apartments. The state has not given a timeline for releasing more details, including video from the body camera the officer was wearing.

The officer was initially placed on administrative leave after the shooting but has since returned to “active status,” Mississippi Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell said. The Capitol Police chief reviewed the findings of an internal investigation, which has not been made public, and determined that “there wasn’t any criminal conduct” that would warrant keeping the officer on leave, Tindell said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mississippi-capitol-police-chase-woman-shot-jackson-rcna75052

If you're following the news, the Missisippi legislature is trying to "whiten" the area around the Capitol

March 26, 2023

GEO Group sickened ICE detainees with hazardous chemicals for months, a lawsuit says

A new lawsuit filed against one of the nation's largest for-profit prison operators, GEO Group Inc., alleges the company improperly used toxic chemicals to clean its detention centers, causing inmates to get sick.

The Social Justice Legal Foundation is representing seven currently and formerly incarcerated individuals of the immigration detention facility in Adelanto, Calif. Attorneys for the company claim that while Adelanto had used the chemical, HDQ Neutral, for at least 10 years, staff at the facility increased the spraying of the product at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.

The attorneys for SJLF allege that due to the detainees' months-long, near-constant exposure to this chemical from February 2020 to April 2021, they suffered symptoms like persistent cough, throat and nasal irritation, skin irritation, rashes and headaches.

A new lawsuit filed against one of the nation's largest for-profit prison operators, GEO Group Inc., alleges the company improperly used toxic chemicals to clean its detention centers, causing inmates to get sick.

The Social Justice Legal Foundation is representing seven currently and formerly incarcerated individuals of the immigration detention facility in Adelanto, Calif. Attorneys for the company claim that while Adelanto had used the chemical, HDQ Neutral, for at least 10 years, staff at the facility increased the spraying of the product at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.

The attorneys for SJLF allege that due to the detainees' months-long, near-constant exposure to this chemical from February 2020 to April 2021, they suffered symptoms like persistent cough, throat and nasal irritation, skin irritation, rashes and headaches.

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/25/1165890634/geo-group-lawsuit-adelanto-ice-detainees-chemical-exposure

I call bullshit on company claims.

March 26, 2023

Are You Sure You Don't Want Kids? What If We Bribed You?

There have been some recent news stories about conservative lawmakers’ borderline wacky schemes to get the birth rate up. I call the schemes wacky because they do not seem like they were cooked up with the input of anybody who is on the fence about wanting kids (or wanting more of them).

Scheme One originates (where else?) in Texas, where conservative lawmakers introduced a bill last week that would give massive property tax breaks to straight couples who owned property and had many, many children. H.B. 2889 would give heterosexual couples with four children a 40 percent break on their property taxes, and all the way up to a 100 percent property tax break for families with 10 or more children, provided the parents were married.

I’m no tax expert, but it seems like that sort of law, in addition to being homophobic and creepy, would make it so that a theoretical school district containing only families with 10 or more children would have a property tax base of $0 with which to operate its public schools. Conservatives have made no effort to hide their hatred for public education, but until some pretty seismic shifts in the legal system occur, public schools still must exist. Again, I’m not an accountant, but it seems like a bad idea!

So, who is this incentivizing? I cannot envision a world in which avoiding paying property taxes would be worth the physical and emotional toll that having 10 fucking kids would have on me.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/are-you-sure-you-dont-want-kids-what-if-we-bribed-you

Note: No tax breaks to people who adopt, or gay couples who have or adopt kids. Adoption is strictly off the table. Nothing for single moms, either.

March 26, 2023

As the Rich Swarm Costa Rica, 1000s of Monkeys Are Killed

Down past the mango fields, past the river and pock-marked dirt roads, the town of Nosara occupies a dazzling portion of Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. Just north, at daybreak, thousands of baby sea turtles push through the sand and stagger their way to the ocean. The jungle teems with hummingbirds and coatis, peccaries and blue morphos and iguanas. Up in the branches, howler monkeys unleash roars that can be heard up to three miles away.

Paradise rarely gets left alone, and it’s no exception here. Once a quaint hideaway for yogis and surfers, Nosara has steadily beckoned more visitors, each cohort seemingly richer than the last. The pandemic accelerated that trajectory. Rental prices in sought-after areas have nearly doubled, locals say, while mega-mansions are selling for $7 million or more.

One casualty of that explosion is the wildlife that inspired much of the region’s popularity to begin with. Howler monkeys are suffering particularly gruesome deaths, from dog attacks, car accidents, and electrocutions caused by uninsulated power lines.

Because of dwindling habitat, “they’re forced to travel either on the ground, where they're vulnerable, or on the power lines, where they get killed,” said Robin Heubel, a retired wildlife biologist who now lives in the area. The electrocutions could largely be prevented by spending a few hundred dollars to insulate each transformer—and a few thousand dollars for every several hundred yards of cable—but nobody is putting up enough money to do it.

Depending on whom you ask, multiple parties are to blame: the power companies, the government, the developers, the home buyers. Undoubtedly, though, the surge of foreign transplants is exacerbating the problem. “With every new building, there’s higher voltage needed, because people are now building two and three story homes,” said Vicki Coan, founder of the nearby Sibu Wildlife Sanctuary. “[And] they want them totally air conditioned.”

The result, she continued, is that “this has been the worst year ever of electrocutions.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/as-the-rich-swarm-costa-rica-thousands-of-monkeys-are-being-electrocuted

March 26, 2023

UConn's dynasty is officially dead. That's good news for women's college basketball.

The dynasty is dead, officially.

For the first time in 15 postseasons, the women’s Final Four (and Elite Eight) will not include the UConn Huskies, the most dominant program in women’s basketball this century.

In a tournament full of stunning upsets, Ohio State pulled off the biggest one yet, beating the Huskies 73-61 to advance to the Elite Eight.

Two No. 1 seeds (Stanford and Indiana) had already fallen by the time the Buckeyes and Huskies tipped off Saturday. But UConn’s surprising departure — the Huskies haven't missed an Elite Eight since 2005 — signals a shift.

"The problem with streaks is the longer they go, you're closer to it ending than you are to the beginning of it,” said Huskies coach Geno Auriemma, pointing out that UConn snapped another unreal streak this season when it lost back-to-back games for the first time in 30 years.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaw/2023/03/25/uconn-dynasty-over-sweet-16-loss-ncaa-tournament/11544707002/

Nobody happier about it than I am, since he was so cocky about the Lady Vols dynasty being "officially dead". Dynasties are not good for any sport.

March 25, 2023

4 ex-cops charged in Tyre Nichols' death barred from police

Four of five former Memphis police officers charged in the killing of Tyre Nichols, a Black man who was handcuffed, brutally beaten and ignored by first responders for crucial minutes despite being barely conscious, can no longer work as law enforcement in Tennessee.

The Peace Officer Standards & Training Commission, or P.O.S.T., voted Friday to decertify Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin and Justin Smith. The state panel also approved the decision by Desmond Mills to surrender his certification.

The former officers have 30 days to appeal.

The beating of the 29-year-old Black man happened during a late-night traffic stop Jan. 7. The commission subsequently released documents showing that Haley dragged Nichols from his vehicle and never explained why he was stopped, and that he also took photos of Nichols slumped against the car after he was pummeled by officers and sent the pictures to colleagues.

https://www.wate.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/4-ex-officers-in-tyre-nichols-case-barred-from-police-work/

Unfortunately, since there are no national standards, this will not keep them from crossing the border to work as cops in Mississhitty or even in West Memphis, Arkansaw, y'all. Something needs to be done about that. But good work, Tennessee...for once!

March 24, 2023

I am the parent of a transgender child. What about my parental rights?

Jennifer Koslow

Florida Statute 1014 reads: "The Legislature finds that it is a fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their minor children." If HB 1421 and SB 254 pass into law, the state needs to update its language to say: "The Legislature finds that it is a fundamental right of some parents to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their minor children."

Sound familiar? Do you remember reading George Orwell's satirical novella "Animal Farm"? I do. I vividly recollect that the pigs on Manor Farm transformed the original tenet "All Animals are Equal" into "But Some Animals are More Equal than Others." What I never imagined, however, is that my family might be the subject of a similar dystopian nightmare.

I am the parent of a transgender child. I should have the fundamental right to determine what is in the best interests of my child's health and education. These legislations that would ban gender-affirming medical care for minors and put conditions on medical care for adults – and bills that would expand legislation related to educational institutions and instruction requirements – will all have the same impact. They undermine my parental authority.

My family and no family I know has ever made a medical decision regarding their transgender child without consulting a team of physicians. Having gender dysphoria is not being "confused." It is a condition where a person's feelings about their body are out of alignment with the physical traits of their body. For some (but not all), gender dysphoria creates extreme distress.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2023/03/22/florida-ban-trans-healthcare-undermines-parental-rights/11516854002/

Exactly. WHOSE parental rights are we talking about here? Where are the legislators' medical degrees?

March 23, 2023

First female police officer in rural Michigan town says fellow cops relentlessly harassed and assaul

First female police officer in rural Michigan town says fellow cops relentlessly harassed and assaulted her

Teresa Williams thought she had landed her dream job in Iron Mountain, Michigan, becoming the first female officer in the history of the rural town's police department.

But she was relentlessly harassed and assaulted during her 4½ years there and ultimately resigned, according to a federal lawsuit she filed last month against three Iron Mountain officers.

Within weeks of being hired in October 2017, she was forced to make out with her direct supervisor at a bar, according to the suit. The supervisor and Williams’ former patrol partner also bet on who could have sex with her first, the suit says.

“I want to see somebody step in and take action — like hold these people accountable,” she said Thursday. “Just because you wear a badge and you’re a cop, it doesn’t mean you’re above the law. It doesn’t mean you get to treat people however you want and break the law and do whatever you want.”

Williams, 35, also spoke about Iron Mountain, a tight-knit community of about 7,500 residents in the Upper Peninsula that borders Wisconsin.

“I want, especially the community of Iron Mountain, to know that I’m doing this because they have the right to know … what and who it is they have that is supposed to be protecting and serving them,” she said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/michigan-departments-first-female-cop-alleges-relentless-harassment-rcna76194

I put this in General Discussion rather than in the Michigan section because it's become typical of cops everywhere.