Demovictory9
Demovictory9's JournalAustin passes prop B - which will reinstate criminal penalties for camping in public spaces
'People won't have a place to stay': Uncertainty fills homeless communities after Prop B passes
Tony Davis, 55, nursed a cup of coffee while he sat outside his tent Sunday and squinted at others also living under Interstate 35 in downtown Austin, pondering where he would go if he were told to leave.
"I have no idea," he said.
Davis was one of many Austinites experiencing homelessness who found themselves facing that question Sunday, a day after voters decided it will be illegal to camp in the city once again. Proposition B, which will reinstate criminal penalties for camping in public spaces, passed with 57% of the vote, according to unofficial results.
"People won't have a place to stay," Davis said, listening to the Sunday morning Christian praise songs and sermon that volunteers brought to the camp every week.
The majority of homeless people who spoke to the Statesman said they would leave if police told them to.
"No sense getting locked up again," said Maurice Lott, 50, who became homeless after completing a prison sentence for robbery in the Gatesville Correctional Facility last year. Lott said he would prefer to move somewhere that allowed him to continue sleeping in his tent, which was on West Cesar Chavez.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/people-wont-have-a-place-to-stay-uncertainty-fills-homeless-communities-after-prop-b-passes/ar-BB1gi8eR
Swiss City Offers Homeless One-Way Travel Ticket to Europe If They Sign Contract to Never Return
City Offers Homeless One-Way Travel Ticket to Europe If They Sign Contract to Never Return
The city of Basel in Switzerland has offered its homeless community a free one-way ticket to any other European destination if they agree to sign a contract vowing never to return.
Toprak Yergu, a Basel Department of Justice spokesperson, told local newspaper 20 Minutes that homeless individuals in the city can request a travel voucher and 20 Swiss Francs—USD$21.90. In return, the individuals must sign a contract vowing not to return to the country for a specified period of time.
The official told the outlet any individuals caught violating the contract could face deportation.
"Beneficiaries must undertake in writing not to return to Switzerland—at least for a certain period of time. If they are checked again, they risk expulsion from our country," Yergu said.
Thirty one homeless individuals have taken the city's offer including 14 from Romania and seven from Germany, according to Le News, an English-language newspaper published in Switzerland.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/city-offers-homeless-one-way-travel-ticket-to-europe-if-they-sign-contract-to-never-return/ar-BB1ggpzo
Hidden in a canyon, an enormous marijuana grow is discovered in Death Valley (40 acres)
Tucked away in a remote canyon, park rangers in Death Valley National Park stumbled across a massive, illegal marijuana grow.
The 40-acre grow was found in Jail Canyon, a rarely visited canyon on the western side of the Panamint Mountains, the National Park Service said in a news release. The area is near the border between California and Nevada.
While California legalized marijuana in 2016, it remains prohibited on federal lands. It's not known who was cultivating the spot, but a park spokesperson told National Parks Traveler that rangers flew over the area to "photograph the extent and to (hopefully) encourage the growers to abandon the site."
The illegal grow is one of hundreds that authorities have found in Death Valley over the last decade, officials said, and marijuana grow sites can damage or destroy parts of the national park. Chemicals used in pesticides, clearing of protected lands and diverting water resources can all cause irreparable destruction.
https://www.sfgate.com/california-parks/article/2021-04-marijuana-grow-death-valley-california-16144492.php
Instagram influencer charged , falsly claimed Latino couple tried to kidnap her kids
https://twitter.com/henrykleeKTVU/status/1338664273652793351A California mom and Instagram influencer who went viral last December after accusing a Latino couple of attempting to kidnap her kids in a Petaluma crafts store has been charged with giving false information to police, according to county prosecutors.
Katie Sorensen, of Sonoma County, is facing two misdemeanor counts for allegedly lying to cops about the incident. The outlandish accusation against longtime locals Eduardo and Sadie Martinez, who have five kids of their own, was an obvious case of racial profiling, the two said at the time.
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The wild claim began with a video Sorensen posted Dec. 13 to her now-defunct Instagram account, @motherhoodessentials.
“Monday of this week, my children were the targets of attempted kidnap,” she said. “Um, which is such a weird thing to even vocalize. But, um, it happened. And I want to share that story with you in an effort to raise awareness as to what signs to look for and to just encourage parents to just be more aware of their surroundings and what is going on around them.”
Sorensen, who is white, later told local news outlet KTVU that a man and woman had followed her, her 4-year-old son, and her 1-year-old daughter into the store. She said in the Instagram video that she then heard the couple, who “didn't look necessarily clean cut,” on the phone, describing what her kids looked like.
“I heard them talking about the features of my children, but I was totally paralyzed with fear,” Sorensen continued. “I just couldn't bring myself to say anything.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/sonoma-influencer-katie-sorensen-charged-with-false-kidnap-claim-against-latino-couple-eduardo-sadie-martinez
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Police released a CCTV image of the couple and asked for witnesses to come forward but they were unable to find any evidence or witnesses to corroborate Sorensen’s account.
Sadie Martinez, who recognized herself and her husband in the surveillance camera photo, said at a subsequent press conference, “I couldn’t believe it. It’s like we’re literally guilty of being brown while shopping.”
'We're Suffering': How Remote Work Is Killing Manhattan's Storefronts Landlords cut small retailers
‘We’re Suffering’: How Remote Work Is Killing Manhattan’s StorefrontsLandlords cut small retailers a break on rent during the pandemic, but stores are still struggling because too few office workers and tourists have returned.
A big shift toward working from home is endangering hundreds of locally owned Manhattan storefronts that have been hanging on for life to return to the desolate streets of Midtown and the Financial District.
The fate of these stores, and by extension the country’s two largest business hubs, will hinge in large part on how long landlords will keep offering the rent breaks that have kept many retailers afloat. Landlords themselves are under growing financial pressure as office vacancies soar and commuters and visitors stay away.
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“Right now, we’re suffering,” said Gili Vaturi, who operates Torino Jewelers on Lexington Avenue. She said her sales are still so weak that she is not covering all of her costs even with a much-reduced rent deal with her landlord, GFP Real Estate, which owns dozens of Manhattan properties and has a large minority stake in the landmark Flatiron Building.
GFP, Ms. Vaturi’s landlord, has allowed over half its storefront tenants to pay roughly 10 percent of their sales in rent so they can survive, said Eric Gural, one of the company’s co-chief executives. The forgone rent is increasingly becoming a burden: the financial cushions GFP keeps for unexpected costs at each of its 56 buildings have been “materially depleted,” Mr. Gural said, meaning they might not be able to make up for rent shortfalls from other tenants.
“We always say, ‘How is it going to rain 56 times?’” he said. “And there it was, it happened. It rained 56 times.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/02/business/economy/remote-work-manhattan-storefronts.html
Off Madison, on East 43rd Street, Sandeep Tirumalasetty had almost no customers to serve at Langford Wine and Spirits. Before the pandemic, Fridays were particularly busy, he said, because companies bought crates of alcohol for office happy hours. “Now, it’s completely dead,” Mr. Tirumalasetty said.
With so few people in the offices above, and tourists yet to return in big numbers, Ms. Lindsey’s store took in just $8,000 in March.
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All across Midtown, there were vacant storefronts on nearly every block.
Should Nurses Take a 30% Pay Cut When Their Patient Turns 23?
With one ear on the sound monitor linked to his daughter’s room, Joe Trimarchi sat at his dining room table in the Rosebank section of Staten Island. He was stuffing dozens of envelopes, hoping that one of them would land on the desk of a politician who might care. Mr. Trimarchi, 55, is a cashier in the billing department of Staten Island University Hospital, but what animates him is advocating for his daughter Alexia.
Since she was born 20 years ago with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, a seizure disorder, and hydrocephalus, he has been pestering government agencies and state senators. The Trimarchis have endured two decades of anxiety, hospitalizations and middle-of-the-night scares. But now, the family is facing a full-blown crisis.
When Alexia turns 23, the New York State Department of Health will change her classification from “medically fragile child” to “medically fragile adult.” That distinction, which may seem minor, has enormous consequences. For one thing, Alexia’s caregivers will no longer receive the same hourly rate to which they’ve become accustomed.
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Alexia is one of around 1,500 medically fragile children in New York State who depend on Medicaid for private-duty nurses. Children deemed medically fragile require continuous nursing care as well as life-sustaining medications and treatments. In addition, many rely on interventions like feeding tubes, ventilators or supplemental oxygen.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/nyregion/medically-fragile-nurses-salary.htm
Aziza Hankins, left, has spent years caring for Alexia Trimarchi, who was born with severe health problems. “As much as I love Alexia,” Ms. Hankins said, “I’m not going to be able to continue with her” when she turns 23, triggering a drop in pay.Credit...Olga Ginzburg for The New York Times
Aziza Hankins, a licensed practical nurse, has been with Alexia since she was a little girl. But in three years, when Alexia is considered an adult, Ms. Hankins’s rate will drop to $23 an hour from $32 an hour, and she fears she’ll have no choice but to leave for a higher-paying job.
So I saw my cat outside...
MAGA Huntington Beach Mayor Pro Tem Ortiz filed for unemployment even as city checks kept coming
Huntington Beach Mayor Pro Tem Tito Ortiz filed for unemployment even as city checks kept coming
He listed Feb. 9 as his last day of work on City Council, though he remains in his position.
https://www.ocregister.com/2021/04/30/huntington-beach-mayor-pro-tem-tito-ortiz-filed-for-unemployment-even-as-city-checks-kept-coming/
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Public records show that Ortiz, whose legal name is Jacob C. Ortiz, sought unemployment benefits on Feb. 22 of this year. He gave his first day of work as Dec. 7, 2020, when he was sworn in after comfortably winning his seat in the November election. He stated that his last day of work was Feb. 9, 2021, although he still serves on the council.
On the portion of the unemployment application that asks for a “reason for separation,” Ortiz listed, “Still working part-time or on-call – related to the coronavirus (COVID-19).”
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At his swearing in, Ortiz called the pandemic the “plandemic,” in reference to the debunked notion that its danger has been cynically exaggerated. Only days later, Ortiz spoke at a “stop the steal” pro-Trump rally where he told fans, “I ain’t taking that (coronavirus) vaccine – hell no!”
In January, he posted a video on social media blasting a popular Huntington Beach hamburger joint for refusing to serve him unless he put on a mask. After that incident, three council members authored a proposal to strip Ortiz of his mayor-pro-tem title – but the agenda item ultimately fizzled. Ortiz later apologized for denigrating the restaurant.
https://www.ocregister.com/2021/04/30/huntington-beach-mayor-pro-tem-tito-ortiz-filed-for-unemployment-even-as-city-checks-kept-coming/
Millions of Americans are about to get hit with diaper sticker shock
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/23/business/diaper-costs-families-poverty/index.htmlDiapers are a pricey, essential item for parents. Now, they're getting even more expensive, hurting low-income families already struggling with the pandemic's economic woes.
Disposable diaper prices rose 8.7% during the year ending April 10, according to the latest numbers from NielsenIQ, which tracks point of sale data from retailers. Diaper makers recently said they are planning additional price increases, which may further stretch low-income families' budgets if stores choose to pass on the hikes.
Kimberly-Clark (KMB), the maker of Huggies and Pull-Ups, will increase prices on these products by mid-to-high single-digit percentages in June, while Procter & Gamble (PG)— which manufactures Pampers, Luvs and All Good diapers — will raise prices on such brands in the mid-to-high single digit percentage range in mid-September.
It costs around $80 a month to provide diapers for one child, and one in three American families struggled to afford diapers even before the pandemic, according to Joanne Goldblum, chief executive officer of the National Diaper Bank Network.
Demand for diaper banks has surged during the pandemic. The non-profit group, which has a nationwide network of over 200 diaper banks, reported an 86% increase on average in the number of diapers distributed to children and families during the pandemic compared to pre-pandemic figures.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/23/business/diaper-costs-families-poverty/index.html
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