Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalShe helped impoverished communities in India. Now Nithya Raman wants to help L.A.
When urban planner Nithya Raman ran for Los Angeles City Council in November, she pledged to take on a herculean task: finding permanent dwelling for the city’s more than 41,000 unhoused residents.
California is home to nearly a quarter of the nation’s homeless population. But the progressive policies Raman advocated for — defund the police and build a half-million units of government-owned housing — seemed radical to many residents in the district she won, which stretches from the neighborhoods of Silver Lake to North Hollywood and has some of the highest homeownership rates in L.A.
In response, she led a grassroots campaign that mobilized large swaths of the city’s electorate who don’t typically vote in local elections: low-income renters, including many immigrants. In a race that saw historic turnout, she became the first South Asian and first Asian woman elected to the office, as well as the first person in nearly two decades to unseat an incumbent council member.
“One of the reasons I ran for office was because in L.A., historically, City Council elections haven’t had a lot of participation from voters,” Raman, 39, told NBC Asian America. “Usually, they’re homeowners in a city that’s majority renters — and they’re not as diverse as the city as a whole. Because so many more of these voters voted, to me their needs needed to be heard at City Hall.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/helped-impoverished-communities-india-now-nithya-raman-wants-help-l-rcna1822
How to permanently crack down on Team Trump's 'Kraken'
The only thing surprising about U.S. District Judge Linda Parker’s order early last month imposing monetary sanctions on nine Trump attorneys was that it was so long in coming. These lawyers — led by conspiracy-theorists-in-chief Sidney Powell and Lin Wood — made outlandish claims of election fraud in Michigan and other key battleground states, all of which were roundly rejected by every court that considered them.
The Michigan suit was part of multistate litigation that Powell called the “Kraken” after the mythic sea monster (the release of which she claimed would destroy President Joe Biden’s victory). The Trump legal team made unsubstantiated claims of computerized ballot stuffing by a deceased foreign dictator and late-night ballot dumps by mysterious trucks, leading Parker to lambaste the lawsuit as “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.”
The Kraken suit, and others brought by Trump campaign attorneys, imposed a stress test on the American legal system by seeking to co-opt courts to advance a fabricated account of the election results. Parker’s order suggests that the American system passed this test — just barely, and just for now. To protect against this type of attack in the future requires a concerted effort by the entire legal profession. It is therefore crucial that the lawyers on the bench and in the bar take seriously what they can do — and must do — better.
Parker’s order offers judges a master class in how to mobilize the significant tools at their disposal to protect against efforts to convert courtrooms into platforms for partisan, conspiratorial spectacles. These wide-ranging tools are derived from statutes, court rules and the inherent powers of judges to enforce standards of conduct in their courtrooms. This mean enforcing rules against vexatious litigation, frivolous claims and the failure to conduct independent analysis and fact-checking required by officers of the court.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/lessons-trump-s-kraken-lawyer-sanctions-michigan-ncna1278188
The rise of period pants
It was December 2020 and Janet (not her real name), a 53-year-old IT consultant from Edinburgh, was doing her weekly shop in the Sainsbury’s closest to her house. In went the toilet roll, meat and vegetables. She wheeled her trolley on to the feminine hygiene aisle and saw a pair of period knickers. They were £12.
Janet frowned and considered. She had heard about period underwear; a friend raved about her Thinx. Janet had even been on the Thinx website, but the cheapest pair, with delivery, were more than £30. “It was quite a lot of money if I didn’t like them,” she says. She was doubtful that the knickers would even work for someone who was perimenopausal and had recently gone back to using sanitary towels for the first time since she was a teenager because she found it too uncomfortable to wear a tampon.
Janet tossed a pair into the trolley. “I thought: £12 is not that extortionate. I’ll buy one pair and give it a go,” she says. “It was very much an impulse buy.” At home, she took them to the bathroom sink and dribbled water on them, “just to have that confidence that they’d absorb the liquid.” She watched, astonished, as the knickers absorbed the fluid entirely. Then she got back in her car and drove off to buy another pair. She has never looked back.
“I was really sceptical at first,” she says. “I thought I’d put a pair on and have to change them, as you would a pad. But there’s no odour and there’s no dampness. And it feels cleaner as well.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/01/the-rise-of-period-pants-are-they-the-answer-to-menstrual-landfill-and-womens-prayers
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I have no need for such now, but would have considered them. However, they're godawfully expensive, and I'd have needed quite a few for my long, heavy periods.
1 student injured in shooting at Mt Tabor High School in Winston-Salem
A school shooting shut down a high school in Winston-Salem.
There is a large police presence at the school.
Other schools in the area are locked down as well, but this is out of an abundance of caution, not a report of any secondary incidents.
The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department confirmed it was a shooting on their Facebook page. One student was injured and all other students are safe, according to police.
https://www.wate.com/news/shooting-at-mt-tabor-high-school-in-winston-salem-campus-is-secure-police-say/
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Aaaaaand here we go again.
A man accosted an MSNBC reporter during live hurricane coverage. A warrant is out for his arrest.
Shaquille Brewster stood near an empty Mississippi beach on Monday reporting on Hurricane Ida that slammed into the Gulf Coast states when a white 2016 Ford F150 pickup parked behind him.
Brewster, a broadcast news reporter for NBC News and MSNBC, saw a man run toward him yelling about "accuracy," so he quickly moved to clear the man from view.
But a few seconds later, the man forced the reporter to sign off.
"Craig, I'm going to toss it back to you because we have a man who is upset right now," Brewster said as the man approached him yelling.
When the camera broke away to another news anchor, the man assaulted Brewster, according to the Gulfport Police Department.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/09/01/msnbc-shaquille-brewster-attacker-viral-video-arrest-warrant/5678794001/
In Colorado, Aurora police, medics indicted for 2019 death of Elijah McClain
Five suburban Denver police officers and medics have been indicted by a Colorado grand jury in connection with the death two years ago of a young Black man walking home from the store.
Elijah McClain, 23, died after being thrown to the ground, restrained and being injected with the tranquilizer Ketamine by Aurora police and medics on Aug. 24, 2019, responding to a 911 call that he had worn a face mask into a convenience store to buy some iced tea. He was not accused of a crime by the caller. McClain choked on his own vomit, had a heart attack and never recovered, his family said. He was declared brain dead in the hospital and died a few days later.
“Nothing will bring back my son, but I am thankful that his killers will finally be held accountable,” his father, LaWayne Mosley, said Wednesday in a statement.
McClain's family is also suing Aurora police, individual officers and the medics.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/09/01/aurora-police-medics-indicted-death-elijah-mcclain-young-black-man/5683272001/
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It is about goddam time!
134 students disenrolled at Virginia Tech for noncompliance with COVID-19 vaccinations
Virginia Tech has announced 134 students were disenrolled after noncompliance with its policy regarding COVID-19 vaccinations.
According to the university, these students did not submit vaccine documentation or receive a medical or religion-backed exemption.
https://www.whsv.com/2021/08/31/134-students-disenrolled-virginia-tech-noncompliance-with-covid-19-vaccinations/
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