Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalEveryone's talking about Gabby Petito. But they're having the wrong conversation, experts say.
Gabby Petito's father posted a photo of his daughter on Twitter Sunday night with the caption, “She touched the world."
It was not an overstatement. Petito's disappearance has captivated a public consumed by anguish for her family and anxious for answers in what has become a highly-publicized case. The 22-year-old vanished while on a cross-country expedition with her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, 23. Her family last heard from her on August 30th, two days before Laundrie returned home without her.
Police announced Sunday human remains believed to be Petito's were discovered in Wyoming. They have described Laundrie, who has now disappeared himself, as "a person of interest."
The Petito case has received overwhelming media attention and public scrutiny, but experts in gendered violence say coverage and conversation have lacked context on the broader dynamics that make violence against women a pervasive social problem.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2021/09/21/gabby-petito-brian-laundrie-and-tragedy-domestic-violence/5792811001/
North Carolina workers are often told not to talk about their wages. That's not legal.
Under federal law, keeping employees from discussing pay with coworkers is an unfair labor practice. Yet across North Carolina, workers, advocates, and labor experts say such “pay gag” infractions are widespread, with awareness of the law at a minimum.
Whether it’s a formal company policy or off-the-cuff words from a manager, a strict prohibition or a gentler ask, any communication that might reasonably stifle workers from sharing their salaries is, in the vast majority of situations, a violation of the National Labor Relations Act.
“It is not isolated to specific industries or even white-collar, blue-collar,” said Jeff Hirsch of the UNC School of Law. “One of the reasons it’s so prevalent despite the fact that it’s clearly illegal is that most people have no clue.”
Despite the law, many companies continue to maintain pay secrecy policies. A 2021 nationwide study by the Washington-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research found close to 50% of full-time employees reported having been dissuaded or prohibited from discussing pay at work.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/09/21/north-carolina-workers-discuss-wages-despite-workplace-rule/5796705001/
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I've been told this in the past, and I didn't even live in NC. How about you?
Cops Are Giving Out 'Not Reaching Pouches.' Twitter Calls Them 'Don't Murder Me' Bags.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety has a new plan to keep drivers safe during traffic stops: clear, plastic holders called “not-reaching pouches” that put a person’s driver’s license and insurance information in plain view so a cop doesn’t think they’re grabbing something more nefarious.
But some people are grimly dubbing the devices—which drivers can keep on their air vent—”please-don’t-execute-me pouches” or a “don’t-murder-me pouches.”
“Hey guys? The problem isn't that people sometimes have to find the paperwork when you ask for it. It's that you sometimes shoot people when they are looking for that thing you asked,” one person said on Twitter Thursday, addressing the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. “This doesn't solve that problem.”
https://www.vice.com/en/article/epn3ya/minnesota-department-of-public-safety-not-reaching-pouches-dont-murder-me-pouches-traffic-stops
Richmond Electoral Board chair 'puzzled' as to why registrar never opened two early voting locations
The Richmond Electoral Board chairman is speaking out after he learned the registrar did not open two out of three early voting locations in the city on the first day of early voting.
Chairman James Nachman said the electoral board was led to believe that all of the satellite voting locations including City Hall, Hickory Hill Community Center and the registrar’s office on Laburnum Avenue would be open to voters starting Friday, Sept. 17.
“I was surprised,” Nachman said on how he felt learning that Hickory Hill Community Center was closed to voters on the first day of early voting. He also pointed out that the early voting location at city hall was not opened either.
“This is a disservice to our community,” said frustrated voter and Southside resident Jackie Robinson.
She planned to vote this week at the Hickory Hill location, which is closest to her home, but now she can’t.
https://www.wric.com/news/politics/local-election-hq/richmond-electoral-board-chair-puzzled-as-to-why-registrar-never-opened-two-early-voting-locations/
Records of 3.5 million enslaved people are digitized, giving Black families ancestry clues
After more than 20 years researching her family’s origin in America, Nicka Sewell-Smith found the name of an uncle who had filed a complaint about having his horse stolen. Another notation said he had shopped for bacon, a broom and tobacco in “Short’s Place” in Louisiana about seven months before the 13th Amendment was passed in 1865.
With her standard supply of popcorn and a beverage at her reach, Sewell-Smith clicked on, and learned that Hugh Short was a lawyer and owner of enslaved Black people. Then she came upon Short’s will, which listed the names of her great-great-great-grandparents near the bottom of the document.
“I could not turn from the page for an hour,” she said. “I had resigned myself to the fact that I was never going to find them. So, I called my cousin who had been searching also for 20 years and I said, ‘Guess what? We didn’t come here on a spaceship from Cameroon and land in North Louisiana.’”
A renowned genealogist, Sewell-Smith gathered much of the information through the Freedmen’s Bureau, a federal agency for formerly enslaved Black people created near the end of the Civil War in 1865. Its goal was to assist the newly freed in their transition out of slavery by negotiating labor contracts, legalizing marriages and locating lost relatives, among other things, documenting it all. It also provided food, housing, education and medical care to more than 4 million people, including poor whites and veterans displaced by war.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/digital-records-19th-century-give-black-families-glimpse-ancestry-rcna2060
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This is WONDERFUL! I'm a genealogy buff myself, so anything I don't have to go digging around in dusty archives for.....
Biting my tongue
This past weekend we did a rock and gem show. I have to say it was pretty wildly successful, as in, our best ever financially. So no grousing about that whatsoever except that my feet are killing me---hours on a concrete floor, even with new cushioned shoes and fatigue mats...... owowow!
But Saturday morning didn't start off too well. We stopped in at the local 7/11 for coffee and stuff and the usual kaffeeklatsch of old farts was infesting a back booth (they got kicked out of the adjacent Burger King a couple of years ago for being a nuisance and I wish the owners of the 7/11 would follow suit!) and spewing their usual verbal vomit for all to hear. First one commented that "Old man Biden had gone off to New Hampshire...AGAIN...just like always." Another one replied "That's all he ever does." (My mind registered "New Hampshire? Since when?"
Then they're off on another tack--"You know they got the results out there in Arizona but them asshole Democrats and Republicans won't let 'em give them out." "Uh-huh, no they won't." Looks like Q has done his work well up here. One of the guys has a big rebel flag and a Gadsden flag flying from the back of his pickup and as we drove by it my husband observed, "It would be fun to replace those with a couple of rainbow flags while they're in there spouting off."
Later on at the show a rather large dude was spotted in one of those 1776 t-shirts proclaiming "When government becomes tyranny, rebellion becomes duty." I so wanted him to tell him to just go to Russia. I bit my tongue. Some days I get tired of being a blue dot in a big red ocean.
In 'We're Not Broken,' Author Eric Garcia Takes On Myths About Autism
Whether you know it or not, you know somebody who is autistic.
So if you think autism doesn't affect you, you're wrong, says Eric Garcia, a senior Washington correspondent for The Independent. Garcia is the author of the book We're Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation. The book was written partly out of frustration — frustration over the media's coverage of autism, frustration over the myth surrounding autism, and the policies that have been shaped by society's misconceptions.
Garcia's autistic and knows the consequence of such policies first hand. Policies that he says have wrongfully focused on finding a cure for autism. Something he says Autistic people don't want and never asked for. His book asks: instead of trying to prioritize trying to 'fix' autistic people, what can we do to make their lives better?
We're Not Broken is a lyrical mix of myth-busting, memoir, history, field interviews, and straight-up advice on how to better understand the autism spectrum, how to talk about it, and why it impacts every one of us.
Garcia spoke with Life Kit about the wide range of autistic experiences and how to help your autistic loved one live their most fulfilling life (spoiler alert: just ask).
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/16/1037852578/autism-myths-eric-garcia-changing-the-conversation
Shenandoah County's public buses ready to roll Oct. 4
Shenandoah County residents will soon have access to a bus system that will take them to various points in the county.
In two weeks, the county will debut a new public transit bus service dubbed “ShenGo Transit,” which is set to begin operation on Oct. 4. The service, provided by Virginia Regional Transport, will operate from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday during an 18-month “demonstration trial,” according to Jenna French, the county’s director of tourism and economic development.
For a $1 one-way fare, passengers can travel via bus from Strasburg in the north end of the county to New Market on the south end (and vice versa), or get on and off at various stops between those two towns. Children 12 and under can ride free of charge.
https://www.nvdaily.com/nvdaily/shenandoah-countys-public-buses-ready-to-roll-oct-4/article_a1a498e6-1c9f-5d3f-9bbe-6472b5033ca9.html
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I hope this takes off. It would be better if these were electric buses, but it's a good start!
How Sarasota Became the Conspiracy Capital of the United States
The video opens like the trailer for a post-apocalyptic movie.
There’s doom-laden bass-heavy music, drone footage of cars backed-up as far as the eye can see, and hundreds of people queuing around the block. Then, a young girl appears on camera, looks straight down the lens, and says: “My father sacrificed for your freedom.”
But this isn’t the latest dystopian movie from Roland Emmerich, it’s a video from an event organized in Sarasota, Florida last week, where organizers claim thousands of parents were able to get mask mandate waivers signed for their children.
No one is willing to take credit for organizing the event, which took place at a picturesque wedding location near the city of Venice, but one person who is central to the event was disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
“You can see the numbers of people that are here to learn about our health and the health tyranny we are facing in this country,” Flynn said in the video taken at the event.
It would have been difficult to miss Flynn’s presence at the event: He brought his own personal security team with him, who were photographed wearing camo gear and carrying assault rifles.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/k78vvm/sarasota-florida-conspiracy-capital
The black cowboys of Chicago's South Side
When the legendary black Chicago cowboy, Murdock "The Man with No First Name", rides one of his horses through Chicago's Hyde Park and along the South Shore segment of the lakefront path, he often finds himself explaining the rules of the road to questioning police officers.
"It's perfectly legal to ride a horse in Chicago," said Murdock, who was himself a cop before founding one of the city's last remaining private equestrian clubs, the Broken Arrow Horseback Riding Club, "so long as you obey the traffic rules."
Until the early 20th Century, it was a common sight to see horses prancing along Chicago's streets. The steady sounds of clip-clopping hooves gave rhythm to the day, as horse-drawn carts and carriages transported people and goods across the city.
Horse racing also was among the city's most popular sports, and by the 1930s, Chicago boasted more horse racing venues than any other metropolitan area in the US, thanks to its legal gambling laws. Until the 1950s, dozens of livery stables rented horses by the hour for recreational riding along the more than 17 miles of bridle paths that stretched along Lake Michigan and through Chicago parks. But as the city and automobile traffic grew, recreational horse riding's popularity sank. The last city-sponsored public riding stable, Lincoln Park's New Parkway Riding Stables, closed in 1967.
But for the past 31 years, Murdock has been working to revive the Windy City's horse-riding heritage and make it more inclusive for the city's diverse residents. Currently located in the city's southern suburb of Chicago Heights, his Broken Arrow Horseback Riding Club is beloved by Chicago's black cowboys, who compete in the local Latting Rodeo just outside Chicago as well as national rodeos across the US. At 73, Murdock hasn't hung up his cowboy hat either. "I was involved in calf and tie-down roping for a while, until I injured my back," he said. "I still compete locally in Latting Rodeos, doing the less dangerous events, barrel and flag racing."
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210919-the-black-cowboys-of-chicagos-south-side
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