September 12, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nypd-releases-video-of-james-blake-arrest/

NYPD releases video of James Blake takedown
By JULIA DAHL CBS NEWS
September 11, 2015


NEW YORK -- The New York City Police Department has released video footage of the arrest Wednesday of former tennis professional James Blake.

The video depicts Blake standing alone in front of the Grand Hyatt hotel on 42nd Street, when an officer grabs him and drags him to the ground, then handcuffs him and leads him off-camera. Blake does not appear to resist.

Blake reportedly told officers to check his identification, and he was later released. The NYPD has apologized for the incident and the officer who arrested him, James Frascatore, has reportedly been placed on modified duty.

Blake, 35, was arrested in what the NYPD has called a case of mistaken identity. A department spokesperson said Thursday that officers were looking for a man they believed to be involved in a credit card theft case and who looked like Blake. According to the New York Times, the other man was later deemed to be unconnected to the case.

According to the Associated Press, Frascatore has been the subject of multiple complaints, including five in a seven-month period in 2013, and is currently the subject of two civil rights lawsuits involving men who claim they were beaten, pepper sprayed and falsely arrested by the 38-year-old.

Blake released a statement about the incident Friday, saying that he is "determined to use my voice to turn this unfortunate incident into a catalyst for change in the relationship between the police and the public they serve."


He stated that Frascatore did not identify himself as a police officer when he accosted him on the sidewalk, nor did he ask Blake his name.
"While I continue to believe the vast majority of our police officers are dedicated public servants who conduct themselves appropriately, I know that what happened to me is not uncommon," read the statement. "I am calling upon the City of New York to make a significant financial commitment to improving that relationship, particularly in those neighborhoods where incidents of the type I experienced occur all too frequently."

Blake said that NYPD Commissioner William Bratton has agreed to meet with him to discuss ideas to further this cause.




“He stated that Frascatore did not identify himself as a police officer when he accosted him on the sidewalk, nor did he ask Blake his name. "While I continue to believe the vast majority of our police officers are dedicated public servants who conduct themselves appropriately, I know that what happened to me is not uncommon," read the statement. "I am calling upon the City of New York to make a significant financial commitment to improving that relationship, particularly in those neighborhoods where incidents of the type I experienced occur all too frequently."

When high profile citizens like Blake experience these “takedowns” with no self-identification or preliminary questions by police officers, it will focus the spotlight on police training and supervision. When the ordinary black man is the recipient of such treatment it is much less likely to come to the attention of the public.

Another significant factor in this case is the fact that the NPYD did not make a proper suspect identification in the first place –yesterday’s article stated that the ID of the identity theft suspect was in itself inaccurate – and then that the officer made an eyeball ID from a security photograph. Unfortunately the criminal (who was incorrectly selected in the first place -- simply looked like Blake. I have been concerned about the use of often fuzzy photos from security cameras for positive ID. The FBI has a computer enhancement technique to clear the shots up for better identifications, but to me a fuzzy shot like those I’ve seen on the news are not clear enough to be used for that purpose. As cities place street cameras in many major cities for surveillance of everyone who happens to be walking down the street, often getting such fuzzy shots, I can imagine a veritable plague of incorrect identifications with unjust apprehensions and criminal charges coming as the result. Unlike the cleaned up images of police practices that we see on TV fiction, too many times the whole operation by police is suspect, and after that many unjust and inaccurate court cases ensue.

This is not done purposely, but it does reflect a lack of thoroughness and preliminary thought preceding the arrest. Courts need to dig in more deeply into the whole set of evidence that is presented and scrutinize it closely to prevent mistakes. There is also the issue, again recently in the news, of thousands of rape kits which have never been examined by a lab, causing innocent suspects not to be exonerated. We tend to trust the police and courts blindly in this society, and the result is injustice. Race being the kind of human issue that it is, many times those apprehended are “brown” to black skinned individuals. I wonder if some extensive mandatory psychological examination and racial bias training – that does already exist among psychologists and with some success according to one of my articles in the several months – would cut down on these frequently race-based police mistakes. I just googled that subject and found a number of entries dated 2015. The following goes straight to the point and is concerned specifically with police officers.



http://www.benningtonsheriff.org/bcsd-media.php?id=37

Training Programs Help Police Reduce Racial Profiling
September 12, 2015

BRATTLEBORO - The Rutland Police Department is a good example of a law enforcement agency that is making all of the right moves to reduce racial profiling, said Curtiss Reed, Jr., the executive director of the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, which offers bias-free policing training at law enforcement agencies around the state.

"The police department has taken on a leadership role," said Reed. It's done so by cultivating relationships with other agencies and is redefining its law enforcement narrative by returning to community policing.

"They've reconfigured the map of the city in terms of quadrants and assigned one sergeant to each quadrant," he said.

Recently, Reed was in Rutland, conducting training with Rutland police officers and some members of the Vermont State Police. Part of the training is to help officers understand their own social identity and how that drives their own perceptions on the job.

"How do you compensate for that in your police work?"

Admittedly, he said, it takes resources to conduct intensive training such as that offered by the partnership, but departments such as that in Rutland understand how important it is.

"It's not simply lip service. They're doing the work," said Reed, adding state police leadership also understands the importance of bias-free policing. He commended the leadership for its role in adopting a policy proposed by the Vermont Attorney General's Office and training its troopers in how to implement bias-free policing.

"Not only in the letter of the policy, but also in the spirit of the policy."

But the policy is only a good starting point, said Reed.

"We work with the AG's policy, but the training is not about the policy per se because you can memorize it in 10 minutes. This is about how to practice the policy."

However, Reed was not as complimentary toward the Brattleboro Police Department, which turned down his offer to present a training course to its officers.

"It has not made the investment in the training that's necessary," said Reed. "What it has done is used an online training tool that covers the basics of biasfree policing. That is the least effective way of engaging officers in understanding the conundrum of bias-free policing. That comes with face-to-face live training."

While Reed understands the fiscal constraints the Brattleboro Police Department is under, he believes it could be doing more to train its officers.

But Brattleboro Police Chief Gene Wrinn disputed Reed's contention. "We have a policy in place and I truly we believe that we do not profile or conduct biased policing."

And for those who feel they might have been unfairly treated, the Brattleboro Police Department has an avenue of complaint, he said.

"We have the citizen/police committee. If people have a concern or complaint, they can go through that process."

Still, Reed claimed the Brattleboro Police Department needs to do more. He said he recently received "a rash of calls" from people attending the recent graduation of SIT Graduate Institute, accusing local law enforcement of racial profiling.

Reed said the calls coincided with a recent kidnapping incident in Brattleboro in which four African Americans were arrested.

"We received a number of calls from visitors to the graduation that they were pulled over," said Reed, though the callers weren't clear on which agency was doing the pulling over.

This is indicative of a critical aspect of Vermont that law enforcement agencies need to consider when implementing biasfree policing, said Reed. As Vermont attempts to build awareness about its brand, especially in a multi-cultural audience, the state needs to insure visitors have a quality experience.

"That includes shopkeepers, the workforce and the hospitality industry, as well as law enforcement agencies," said Reed. But most of the time, the only government official a visitor comes in contact with is a police officer, he said, whether that's because they may be driving too fast or they're a victim of a crime. "How they walk away from that encounter determines what they say on social media," said Reed.

The Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, which is located in Brattleboro, was formerly known as ALANA. Previously, ALANA handled individual cases of discrimination. The Vermont Partnership is taking a bigger view, said Reed.

"This is more an issue of economics," said Reed. "Our focus is on getting organizations and institutions to understand we're positioning Vermont to attract greater numbers of tourists of color."

Part of that efforts was in helping the Vermont Department of Tourism to develop an African American Heritage Trail.

"This is being promoted throughout the world," said Reed. "The Department of Tourism gets it and it understands we can expand the economic pie by expanding who we market the state to. The issue is, are we prepared?"

According to recent report from the ACLU, Vermont's policing practices are not in line with the state's goals of attracting more people of color.

"It's pretty clear Vermont has some racial profiling problems," said Allen Gilbert, executive director of the Vermont chapter of the ACLU. "Good cops know that racial profiling is bad policing," he said.

'That's why they want to get rid of profiling.'

Karen Richards, the new executive director of the Vermont Human Rights Council, said she was not surprised by the ACLU's report. "We have a lot of issues in Vermont we are trying to work through," she said. "This is one of them."

Richards also said even if police were able to eliminate racial profiling all together, it's still a community issue, as indicated by Reed.

"The community as a whole has issues related to race across different services and institutions and among people," she said.

Col. Tom L'Esperance, the commander of the Vermont State Police, said the partnership's training program is helping his troopers get better at their job.

L'Esperance said understanding cultural identity is crucial in developing a trooper's understanding of his or her own biases and how they may affect the application of their duties.

"As tough as it is to admit, we all have biases. We try to recognize them and insure they are checked at the door and we don't bring them out at our job."

In addition to keeping up to date on the best training methods to implement bias-free policing, L'Esperance said the Vermont State Police is also pulling out all the stops to recruit people with different backgrounds to its ranks.

"We are having conversations with Curtiss now how to recruit people of color to Vermont and what we can do to better suit their needs and their families," he said.

Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark, who is the president of the Vermont Sheriff's Association, said his deputies have participated in some of the partnership's workshops.

Working with Reed helps his deputies to see issues from a different perspective, said Clark.

"There are still departments that are reticent or reluctant to have bias-free training," said Clark. "But it's not just about race. It also has to do with mental health and cognitive disability issues. Anytime you can better understand the issues, the better off you will be."

Robert Appel, who was the executive director of the Vermont Human Rights Council for more than 11 years and the Ve r m o n t Defender General for more than eight years, said training programs such as that offered by Reed have helped the state make strides in reducing racial profiling, but it still has a long way to go.

Racial profiling and heavyhanded treatment of people of color discourages some people from relying on police services, he said. "When that happens, it makes all of us less safe."

Appel noted that African Americans make up a disproportionate amount of people under the supervision of the Department of Corrections.

In 2002, people of color made up 5 percent of Vermont's prison population, said Appel. By 2012, that percentage had increased to 10. In 2012, Vermont had a population of a little more than 626,000, of which African Americans made up 1.1 percent.

"The notion that we are making progress is belied by the increase in rates of incarceration, particularly of African Americans," said Appel.

Some people in Vermont have the attitude that that means black people commit crimes at a higher rate than white people, said Appel, but a closer reading of statistics reveals black people are more likely to be prosecuted for the same crimes than white people.

"If you talk to young black men in the community, they all have stories," he said.

In 2012, the Uncommon Alliance, which consisted of four police agencies in the Burlington area and a grass-roots community group, released an analysis of stop data collected between 2009 and 2010.

"Once stopped, African Americans were nine times more likely to be searched," said Appel. "It may not be an intentional bias, but the data indicates bias is in play."

In general, the report concluded that black people were 25 percent more likely to be stopped than white people, that black drivers were 85 percent more likely to be stopped for "investigatory" purposes than white drivers, and that black drivers received higher penalties for the same infractions than white drivers.

"But white people use drugs at a higher rate than black people," said Appel. "That's not equal justice under the law."

Nonetheless, he said, the conversation started by the ACLU's report, the collection of stop data by the Vermont State Police and the willingness of some agencies to participate in programs such as that offered by the partnership are all good signs that Ve r m o n t e r s aren't ignoring the issue.

"Once stopped, African Americans were nine times more likely to be searched," said Appel.

"It may not be an intentional bias, but the data indicates bias is in play."

source Bob Audette - Brattleboro Reformer
source Compliments of: The Bennington Banner




“The Rutland Police Department is a good example of a law enforcement agency that is making all of the right moves to reduce racial profiling, said Curtiss Reed, Jr., the executive director of the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, which offers bias-free policing training at law enforcement agencies around the state. "The police department has taken on a leadership role," said Reed. It's done so by cultivating relationships with other agencies and is redefining its law enforcement narrative by returning to community policing. …. "They've reconfigured the map of the city in terms of quadrants and assigned one sergeant to each quadrant," he said. Recently, Reed was in Rutland, conducting training with Rutland police officers and some members of the Vermont State Police. Part of the training is to help officers understand their own social identity and how that drives their own perceptions on the job. "How do you compensate for that in your police work?" Admittedly, he said, it takes resources to conduct intensive training such as that offered by the partnership, but departments such as that in Rutland understand how important it is. "It's not simply lip service. They're doing the work," said Reed, adding state police leadership also understands the importance of bias-free policing. He commended the leadership for its role in adopting a policy proposed by the Vermont Attorney General's Office and training its troopers in how to implement bias-free policing. "Not only in the letter of the policy, but also in the spirit of the policy." …. However, Reed was not as complimentary toward the Brattleboro Police Department, which turned down his offer to present a training course to its officers. "It has not made the investment in the training that's necessary," said Reed. "What it has done is used an online training tool that covers the basics of biasfree policing. That is the least effective way of engaging officers in understanding the conundrum of bias-free policing. That comes with face-to-face live training." …. And for those who feel they might have been unfairly treated, the Brattleboro Police Department has an avenue of complaint, he said. "We have the citizen/police committee. If people have a concern or complaint, they can go through that process." …. The Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, which is located in Brattleboro, was formerly known as ALANA. Previously, ALANA handled individual cases of discrimination. The Vermont Partnership is taking a bigger view, said Reed. "This is more an issue of economics," said Reed. "Our focus is on getting organizations and institutions to understand we're positioning Vermont to attract greater numbers of tourists of color." …. According to recent report from the ACLU, Vermont's policing practices are not in line with the state's goals of attracting more people of color. "It's pretty clear Vermont has some racial profiling problems," said Allen Gilbert, executive director of the Vermont chapter of the ACLU. "Good cops know that racial profiling is bad policing," he said. 'That's why they want to get rid of profiling.' …. Richards also said even if police were able to eliminate racial profiling all together, it's still a community issue, as indicated by Reed. "The community as a whole has issues related to race across different services and institutions and among people," she said. Col. Tom L'Esperance, the commander of the Vermont State Police, said the partnership's training program is helping his troopers get better at their job. L'Esperance said understanding cultural identity is crucial in developing a trooper's understanding of his or her own biases and how they may affect the application of their duties. …. In addition to keeping up to date on the best training methods to implement bias-free policing, L'Esperance said the Vermont State Police is also pulling out all the stops to recruit people with different backgrounds to its ranks. "We are having conversations with Curtiss now how to recruit people of color to Vermont and what we can do to better suit their needs and their families," he said. …. "There are still departments that are reticent or reluctant to have bias-free training," said Clark. "But it's not just about race. It also has to do with mental health and cognitive disability issues. Anytime you can better understand the issues, the better off you will be." …. In general, the report concluded that black people were 25 percent more likely to be stopped than white people, that black drivers were 85 percent more likely to be stopped for "investigatory" purposes than white drivers, and that black drivers received higher penalties for the same infractions than white drivers.”

“Nonetheless, he said, the conversation started by the ACLU's report, the collection of stop data by the Vermont State Police and the willingness of some agencies to participate in programs such as that offered by the partnership are all good signs that V e r m o n t e r s aren't ignoring the issue.” It is encouraging to me to see that a fair number of local police forces have made voluntary efforts to improve the bias that inevitably exists with creating a more conscious awareness of their feelings.

The following statement from this article is fascinating to me. "There are still departments that are reticent or reluctant to have bias-free training," said Clark. "But it's not just about race. It also has to do with mental health and cognitive disability issues.” One of the really negative issues that is less often mentioned than racial hatred/bias is the way homeless and psychotic people are sometimes treated by police. One thing that most people have a problem with is the idea that mental health issues are a biological and therefore “real” phenomenon, rather than something imaginary or a simple “lack of control.”

Very conservative people especially tend to have a strong belief in “sin” where there is none in “mental illness,” with the result that they feel that punishment rather than medical treatment is what is needed. That is why so often Americans from poor or Lower Middle Class backgrounds tend to punish their children physically, and sometimes very harshly. They also feel “ashamed” that the kids are not perfect in every way, and again punish them and withhold love in the way they treat them. It’s sad.

Even less conservative people have a tendency to fail to see their own cognitive and emotional problems as being part of an illness, and especially to be willing to analyze and correct them with therapy and/or psychotropic drugs. If they feel suicidal, they think they are experiencing a lack of faith, which is a “sin.” If they feel angry, they tend to think it’s the fault of the other person, who “provoked them.” A Baptist girl I knew in high school told me that suicide is “the unforgivable sin.” I had never heard of an “unforgivable sin,” being a Methodist. I’m not against Christianity, but just a certain type of Christianity.

As for being more careful or gentle in dealing with someone who is apparently mentally ill, people frequently don’t have much human compassion within their own mental framework, and therefore have a tendency instead to be more brutal to such people. It’s a common human sickness especially in poor, uneducated, socially undeveloped or unthinking people. A bystander took a photograph of two teenaged boys a few years ago as they beat a homeless man to death with a stick. That’s what the training courses are for, to overcome that tendency. Most policemen are not very well educated or wealthy. They have a long way to go.


MORE ON RACIAL BIAS AND POLICING CAN BE FOUND BELOW for further reading.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/biases-back-mind-affect-feel-race/
How the biases in the back of your mind affect how you feel about race

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/may/28/gender-and-racial-bias-can-be-unlearnt-during-sleep-new-study-suggests
Gender and racial bias can be 'unlearnt' during sleep, new study suggests

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150528163135.htm
News may influence racial bias
Date: May 28, 2015

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/biases-back-mind-affect-feel-race/
How the biases in the back of your mind affect how you feel about race
March 30, 2015

https://en.wikipedia.org/.../Racial_bias_in_criminal_news_in_t...
Racial bias in criminal news in the United States

www.gq.com/story/police-psychologist-qa-texas-pool-party
Inside the Mind of an Angry Cop: A Q&A with a Police Psychologist
June 8, 2015





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-analysts-say-leadership-altered-isis-intelligence-assessments/

Report: Analysts say leadership altered ISIS intelligence assessments
By REBECCA KAPLAN CBS NEWS
September 10, 2015

Play VIDEO -- John Kerry on ISIS, nuclear deal with Iran
Play VIDEO -- Obama: Fight against ISIS a long, slow battle


More than 50 intelligence analysts at the U.S. Central Command have alerted the Pentagon watchdog that they believe their work is being altered to portray the war on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as more successful than it actually is, according to the Daily Beast.

The Daily Beast story notes for the first time just how many analysts have complained to the Pentagon inspector general about their concerns. Two senior analysts filed a report with the inspector general in July, after months of internal complaints were ignored. Some who complained were pressed to retire, while others left. Fifty other analysts said they support the formal report and can back up the claims.

The inspector general has now opened an investigation to see whether there has been any manipulation of intelligence reports, some of which have gone all the way to the president. The principal complaint is that senior officials are editing the intelligence analysts' reports to bring them into line with the Obama administration's claim that the war on ISIS is successful. The analysts said that some key pieces of intelligence had been removed from their reports, altering their conclusions.

"The cancer was within the senior level of the intelligence command," one defense official told the publication.

Senior U.S. leaders including Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama himself have said the U.S. can defeat the group. In May, Mr. Obama said in an interview, "I don't think we're losing."

CENTCOM spokesman Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder told the Daily Beast that he could not comment on the specific investigation, but said, "The Intelligence Community routinely provides a wide range of subjective assessments related to the current security environment. These products and the analysis that they present are absolutely vital to our efforts, particularly given the incredibly complex nature of the multi-front fights that are ongoing now in Iraq and Syria."

He added that the reports are taken into consideration by civilian and military leadership, along with information from other sources like commanders on the ground, key advisers, intelligence collection assets and previous experience.

CBS News Senior National Security Contributor Michael Morell, the former deputy director of the CIA, said that if the report is true, "somebody needs to lose their job over this."

"One of the central tenets, one of the key aspects of the policymaking process in the United States, is that analysts get to say what they think without any interference, without anybody changing it, so this is a very, very serious charge," he said on "CBS This Morning" Thursday. "I think it needs to be fully investigated."

Offering his own assessment of the war against ISIS, Morell outlined three different fights: one taking place in Iraq and Syria; another involving other insurgent groups around the world aligned with ISIS; and the ideological fight against ISIS for the hearts and minds of young people in the U.S., Western Europe, Australia and Canada.

Morell said he believes the U.S. is at a stalemate inside Iraq and Syria but is losing the other two fights.




“The inspector general has now opened an investigation to see whether there has been any manipulation of intelligence reports, some of which have gone all the way to the president. The principal complaint is that senior officials are editing the intelligence analysts' reports to bring them into line with the Obama administration's claim that the war on ISIS is successful. The analysts said that some key pieces of intelligence had been removed from their reports, altering their conclusions. …. , "The Intelligence Community routinely provides a wide range of subjective assessments related to the current security environment. These products and the analysis that they present are absolutely vital to our efforts, particularly given the incredibly complex nature of the multi-front fights that are ongoing now in Iraq and Syria." …. CBS News Senior National Security Contributor Michael Morell, the former deputy director of the CIA, said that if the report is true, "somebody needs to lose their job over this." "One of the central tenets, one of the key aspects of the policymaking process in the United States, is that analysts get to say what they think without any interference, without anybody changing it, so this is a very, very serious charge," he said on "CBS This Morning" Thursday. "I think it needs to be fully investigated." …. Offering his own assessment of the war against ISIS, Morell outlined three different fights: one taking place in Iraq and Syria; another involving other insurgent groups around the world aligned with ISIS; and the ideological fight against ISIS for the hearts and minds of young people in the U.S., Western Europe, Australia and Canada. Morell said he believes the U.S. is at a stalemate inside Iraq and Syria but is losing the other two fights.”

The US government has been manipulated by false evidence down through time. One example that I remember particularly is that of George W Bush, who went into Iraq because of stories about WMD, which were not found there after our forces took Baghdad. We destroyed the government of Iraq for no good reason. Going into Afghanistan which harbored Osama bin Laden made more sense, but Iraq didn’t.

Governments around the world manipulate information to further their own political and international goals. Lying is one the most basic human characteristics. This present situation should certainly be investigated and the perpetrators jailed, but it isn’t new, and probably wasn’t known or condoned by Obama, Kerry, and Clinton either. They’re just the handy Democrats to be attacked at will. I do wish Morell’s article had included something about the specific nature of the lies. He obviously had it at hand because he was able to read it for this report. I don’t really believe Morell’s claim unless he presents specifics and proofs.

“Morell said he believes the U.S. is at a stalemate inside Iraq and Syria but is losing the other two fights.” The US is at a point that we want to disengage from the fighting rather than increase it. That may not be a good option if ISIS succeeds in conquering territory as they seem to want to do. In addition, Russia is moving some forces into Syria. That isn’t good. They tend to go where the US fears to tread. They really don’t have to please their public at home like Obama does. They rule with an iron hand, now that Putin is in office. Glasnost was just a respite in the world conflict.

As for killing everyone around the world who espouses ISIS’s leadership and radical religious views, we simply can’t do that. It’s like deporting all the “illegal aliens” across the border to Mexico and beyond. It’s a practical impossibility. Obama tends to make the choices that do the least harm, and sometimes that means refraining from sending our ground troops into Iraq, Syria, and other failed nations around the Middle East and Africa. Meanwhile the Internet spreads the ISIS-sponsored ideological poison to young people here and abroad who are too immature to know better. Young men have always wanted to fight. In the end it’s a war of thoughts and beliefs.

I want us to stick to the views that we brought over to the New World and set up as our governmental principles. That will keep in place a haven for some basic freedoms, and if we allow ourselves to be crippled by engaging in constant warfare, those freedoms will disappear. They have been disappearing since the Bush reaction to 9/11 set up the Patriot Act, etc. Russia doesn’t have many freedoms of that sort to worry about, so they can move in on country after country until their money runs out. It should not be forgotten that they first allied with Adolph Hitler before they switched sides and joined us.





http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/09/12/439590199/california-approves-physician-assisted-suicide-bill-heads-to-governor-s-desk

California Approves Physician-Assisted Suicide; Bill Heads To Governor's Desk
APRIL DEMBOSKY
SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

A controversial bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in California is headed to the governor for consideration, after almost nine months of intense — often personal — debate in the legislature.

If Gov. Jerry Brown signs the bill, California would become the fifth state to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients who request it, after Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana.

"Our hope, our fervent hope, is that Gov. Jerry Brown will sign this bill and bring relief to hundreds of dying Californians," said Toni Broaddus, state campaign director for advocacy group Compassion & Choices.

The California bill was modeled after the Oregon law. It requires two different doctors to determine that a patient has six months or less to live before prescribing the drugs. Patients must be physically able to swallow the medication themselves, and must have the mental capacity to make medical decisions.

Numerous additional safeguards were added to the bill in recent months to sway opponents, including a sunset clause that ends the law in 10 years. Patients must request the drugs three times to receive them — once in writing before two witnesses — and they must sign a form two days before ingesting the medication.

"I can assure you that the joint and co-authors on this bill ... have endeavored to build in protections in this law that are stronger than the protections in any of the states where this has been practiced," said Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel.

Christy O'Donnell, who has advanced lung cancer, is one of several California patients suing for the right to get a doctor's help with prescription medicine to end their own lives if and when they feel that's necessary.

The bill continued to face fierce opposition, however, from religious groups and disability rights advocates. They are concerned that elderly and disabled people, especially those who are low-income, could be pressured into taking the drugs in order to end or avoid expensive, life-sustaining care. They fear the protections are not enough, and that family members or other heirs could slip the drugs to the patient without their knowledge or consent.

"The legislation effectively paints a target on the back of each and every elderly and disabled person in our state," said Sen. Joel Anderson, R-San Diego, paraphrasing an elder abuse advocate. "The promises and assurances of the safeguards and protections from the representatives of those in favor are based in innocent ignorance."

Opponents also criticized the procedure for getting the bill through the Legislature. During the normal legislative session, the bill stalled in the Assembly Health Committee when authors couldn't get enough votes. Several Democrats from Southern California would not support it.

But proponents managed to navigate through that roadblock by re-introducing the bill during a special session on health care financing, where committee memberships were different. The bill passed the Assembly on Wednesday 44 to 35, and it passed the Senate on Friday 23 to 14.

Gov. Jerry Brown's office also criticized the political pathway, saying the special session was not the appropriate venue for the physician-assisted suicide bill. But Brown has not indicated where he stands on the issue itself, nor whether he will sign or veto the bill. If he does nothing, after 30 days the bill will become law.

This story is part of a reporting partnership with NPR, KQED and Kaiser Health News.




“The California bill was modeled after the Oregon law. It requires two different doctors to determine that a patient has six months or less to live before prescribing the drugs. Patients must be physically able to swallow the medication themselves, and must have the mental capacity to make medical decisions. Numerous additional safeguards were added to the bill in recent months to sway opponents, including a sunset clause that ends the law in 10 years. Patients must request the drugs three times to receive them — once in writing before two witnesses — and they must sign a form two days before ingesting the medication. …. The bill continued to face fierce opposition, however, from religious groups and disability rights advocates. They are concerned that elderly and disabled people, especially those who are low-income, could be pressured into taking the drugs in order to end or avoid expensive, life-sustaining care. …. "The legislation effectively paints a target on the back of each and every elderly and disabled person in our state," said Sen. Joel Anderson, R-San Diego, paraphrasing an elder abuse advocate. …. Opponents also criticized the procedure for getting the bill through the Legislature. During the normal legislative session, the bill stalled in the Assembly Health Committee when authors couldn't get enough votes. Several Democrats from Southern California would not support it. But proponents managed to navigate through that roadblock by re-introducing the bill during a special session on health care financing, where committee memberships were different.”

The opposition to this bill was bipartisan, and Governor Brown is uncertain whether or not he will sign it. I do personally feel that a person in some painful and incurable condition should be allowed to choose a physician-assisted death. The fear that I have always had about it is that a patient could be prey to illegal organ harvesting. They bad people would do that when I was in a coma, for instance. I have not put myself down with the state as an organ donor. States that enact this legislation need to add to their bill that financial costs, the inability to pay hospital bills, the desire to move people out of hospital beds to make room for more, etc. should be expressly forbidden as contributing reasons to the decision to end the life.

This California bill does say that the diagnosis of two doctors and the patient must make three requests for the drugs, one in writing, and then two days before receiving the medication he should have to sign a form giving the doctors a release for their actions. I must say, this is pretty well provided with safeguards, and I do prefer a medication that would cause a hopefully quick death by just “going to sleep,” rather than experiencing pain, vomiting, etc. before dying. I would be interested in knowing what chemical/chemicals the California law allows – or maybe it would be up to physicians at the time. Maybe in the future with the advances of science there will be more drug choices that are more effective and merciful available to the doctors for the purpose.

Some places have allowed a physician or hospital to simply withdraw food and water from a comatose patient. I don’t feel sure people who are in a coma are actually unaware of the world. A few who have emerged from the coma with the ability to communicate again have said that they could hear people making mournful or otherwise undesirable comments about them while by their bedside. That would be a distinctly negative experience, as would an awareness by the patient of their hunger and thirst, and having to lie there and endure that. This California law specifies a pill. I would think that IV anesthesia which would take the patient all the way “out” of any consciousness and into death. Of course the states who use such injections to kill prisoners under the death sentence have been having trouble getting that formula just right with a completely merciful and quick death.





http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/09/12/439741271/leftist-jeremy-corbyn-wins-leadership-of-britains-labour-party

Leftist Jeremy Corbyn Wins Leadership Of Britain's Labour Party
Scott Neuman
Writer/editor, Digital News
SEPTEMBER 12, 2015

Photograph -- The new leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, makes his inaugural speech at the Queen Elizabeth Centre in central London, on Saturday.
Stefan Wermuth/Reuters/Landov


Left-wing British MP Jeremy Corbyn has been elected in a landslide to head the country's Labour Party.

As the BBC explains:

"Mr Corbyn, who began the contest as a rank outsider, saw off a challenge from frontbenchers Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall.

"He gained 251,417 or 59.5% of first preference votes - his nearest rival, Mr Burnham, got 19%.

"Ms Cooper was third on 17% and Ms Kendall a distant fourth with 4.5% of the vote."

"I say thank you in advance to us all working together to achieve great victories, not just electorally for Labour, but emotionally for the whole of our society to show we don't have to be unequal, it doesn't have to be unfair, poverty isn't inevitable," Corbyn said after his victory.

"They are fed up with the inequality, the injustice, the unnecessary poverty. All those issues have brought people in, in a spirit of hope and optimism," he said.

Reuters notes that "Corbyn has struck a chord with many Labour supporters by repudiating the pro-business consensus of former Labour leader Tony Blair and offered wealth taxes, nuclear disarmament and ambiguity about EU membership."

The news agency adds that his election "reflects growing popular support for left-wing movements across Europe, with Syriza taking power in Greece and Spain's anti-austerity party Podemos performing well in opinion polls.

"Corbyn's rise also has an echo of the way Senator Bernie Sanders has galvanized left-leaning Democrats in his bid to beat Hillary Clinton to the party's nomination for the U.S. presidential race," Reuters says.




“Left-wing British MP Jeremy Corbyn has been elected in a landslide to head the country's Labour Party. …. "I say thank you in advance to us all working together to achieve great victories, not just electorally for Labour, but emotionally for the whole of our society to show we don't have to be unequal, it doesn't have to be unfair, poverty isn't inevitable," Corbyn said after his victory. …. "They are fed up with the inequality, the injustice, the unnecessary poverty. All those issues have brought people in, in a spirit of hope and optimism," he said. …. Reuters notes that "Corbyn has struck a chord with many Labour supporters by repudiating the pro-business consensus of former Labour leader Tony Blair and offered wealth taxes, nuclear disarmament and ambiguity about EU membership." …. The news agency adds that his election "reflects growing popular support for left-wing movements across Europe, with Syriza taking power in Greece and Spain's anti-austerity party Podemos performing well in opinion polls. "Corbyn's rise also has an echo of the way Senator Bernie Sanders has galvanized left-leaning Democrats in his bid to beat Hillary Clinton to the party's nomination for the U.S. presidential race," Reuters says.”

There have been signs in the news that there is a good bit of discontent with the EU arrangement. The European nations have perhaps more differences than similarities, and the austerity issues have been hated in Greece as well as Spain. Austerity is a great deal of the problem here in the US, under Republican control. Keeping wages low is especially damaging here, and of course we have no government caps on the cost of living. When I lived in DC a friend of mine was very active on the subject of rent control, and we lived in a rent controlled building which did help a great deal with costs. I would like to read some of Corbyn’s plans to improve England’s economy. "They are fed up with the inequality, the injustice, the unnecessary poverty.” That sounds promising. I’ll try to track the news about his policies and successes.





http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/09/11/439509278/oh-nuts-why-california-s-pistachio-trees-are-shooting-blanks

Oh, Nuts! Why California's Pistachio Trees Are Shooting Blanks
ALASTAIR BLAND
SEPTEMBER 11, 2015

Photograph -- This year, many of the pistachios grown in California's San Joaquin Valley are missing the green, fatty meat that nut lovers crave. Instead, they're empty inside, the result of drought, heat and weather pattern changes that have messed with pistachio tree fertilization.
Kreg Steppe/Flickr
Photograph -- Hollow pistachios aren't spotted until after the harvest, when they're dumped into a water bath as part of standard processing. Blanks like the ones seen here float, while full nuts sink. Courtesy Andrew Howe/Horizon Nut Co.




In California's blazing hot San Joaquin Valley, millions of pistachio trees are now buried in clusters of small pinkish-green fruits — what would seem like a bumper crop.

But for many growers of the popular nut, the season is shaping into a disaster. Jeff Schmiederer, who farms 700 acres of family-owned pistachio trees on the western side of the San Joaquin Valley, says about 90 percent of the nuts he has sampled from his trees are hollow — what growers call "blanks."

"I've never seen a year this bad for blanks," says Schmiederer, who has been farming pistachios since the mid-1990s.

Richard Matoian, executive director of the Fresno, Calif.-based industry group American Pistachio Growers, says hollow nuts are always present in the pistachio crop, but usually the blanking rate runs about 10 percent. This year, as much as 50 percent of the harvested nuts could be hollow, Matoian says. He estimates this year's harvest could be 300 million pounds or less — down from 520 million pounds in 2014.

Behind the blanks are the same culprits as in many other ongoing agricultural crises: drought, heat and abnormal West Coast weather. Pistachios need plenty of cold during the winter — what farmers call chilling hours. This is essential for the female and male trees to properly bloom and pollinate. But if the winter doesn't provide the minimum chilling requirements, the male trees, which are scattered among the females, malfunction. So the male trees bloom and release pollen at the wrong time — often, after the female trees have bloomed.

"It could be compared to a bunch of guys going to a party, but getting there late — after all the girls have gone home," Matoian says.

Last winter was unusually balmy in interior California, with very little fog or rain in the normally wet months and a record-warm February.

For pistachios, the result of such conditions can be hollow nuts. The trees almost always produce shells, even after a winter of suboptimal conditions. However, they don't necessarily fill out with green, fatty pistachio meat. A pistachio tree full of blanks can easily fool a farmer scoping out his or her orchard from the roadside into thinking they're looking at a whopper crop.

California is home to 99 percent of the nation's pistachio orchards. But not all of the growing regions are showing high ratios of blanks. In lower-lying parts of the San Joaquin Valley, where sinking cold air tends to pile up in the winter, the crop is looking relatively good. Kevin Herman, a grower with about 1,200 acres of pistachios in Merced and Madera counties, is having a fine year.

"I'm not really being affected," he says. "My blanking levels are only about 5 percent." Ditto, Herman adds, for his nearby neighbors.

But on the higher-elevation edges of the wide agricultural valley, and in the southern regions, pistachios have not experienced adequate chilling hours for for at least two winters in a row. Yields here have been severely depressed.

The erratic blooming of the trees has also led to timing problems with the harvest. Because the bloom may last longer during warmer winters, fruiting in the summer becomes spread over a longer period of time. For processors, this is a major nuisance and cost. It means operations must keep running for two or three times as long to handle a smaller-than-normal crop.

"Most years, we harvest 90 percent of the crop in a 21-day window," says Andrew Howe, general manager of Horizon Nut Company, a processor with headquarters in Tulare, Calif. "Last year, it took 60 days." This year, harvest started in mid-August, Howe says, and will probably run into October.

Gurreet Brar, a nut crop specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension program, says there may be ways to help pistachio farmers deal with warmer winters. Brar's research is geared toward understanding how pistachios react when chilling requirements are not met. The hope is to better predict the trees' behavior and develop chemical treatments to ultimately boost crop yields following warm winters. Breeding new male and female pistachio varieties that require fewer chilling hours to bloom in sync is also a possible solution, Brar says, but one that is decades away.

Pistachios have become a lucrative crop for farmers in California's San Joaquin Valley. As with almonds, demand for pistachios is huge, and new acreage is being planted rapidly. Currently, California is home to about 225,000 acres of mature trees, with another 75,000 acres maturing toward full production age — which usually comes at seven to nine years. Pistachios are less demanding of water than almonds are. However, to produce a bumper crop, the trees require generous irrigation — a tall order in times of drought.

Scientists are anticipating a massive El Nino this winter, which could deliver gushing downpours and, hopefully, snowpack in the high mountains. For farmers, many of whom have been struggling to keep their crops irrigated, this is excellent news. But for pistachio growers, it might come with a bitter aftertaste.

"We could get a lot of rain and help refill our groundwater reserves," says Carl Fanucchi, a retired farmer from Bakersfield who now offers consulting services for pistachio farmers. "But it might mean warm weather, too, and less chilling hours."

That would set the stage for another bum year in the pistachio business.

Trends toward increasingly warm weather even have Herman, virtually untouched so far by blanking, unsure of the future.

"The coffee shop talk around here is speculation on whether the weather patterns we're seeing are just a cycle, and [we'll] eventually go back to getting colder weather," Herman says. "But if this isn't a cycle, and these changes in the weather are permanent, we're wondering what the future is going to be for pistachio growers in California."




“Jeff Schmiederer, who farms 700 acres of family-owned pistachio trees on the western side of the San Joaquin Valley, says about 90 percent of the nuts he has sampled from his trees are hollow — what growers call "blanks." …. Richard Matoian, executive director of the Fresno, Calif.-based industry group American Pistachio Growers, says hollow nuts are always present in the pistachio crop, but usually the blanking rate runs about 10 percent. This year, as much as 50 percent of the harvested nuts could be hollow, Matoian says. …. . Pistachios need plenty of cold during the winter — what farmers call chilling hours. This is essential for the female and male trees to properly bloom and pollinate. But if the winter doesn't provide the minimum chilling requirements, the male trees, which are scattered among the females, malfunction. So the male trees bloom and release pollen at the wrong time — often, after the female trees have bloomed. …. Last winter was unusually balmy in interior California, with very little fog or rain in the normally wet months and a record-warm February. …. . In lower-lying parts of the San Joaquin Valley, where sinking cold air tends to pile up in the winter, the crop is looking relatively good. Kevin Herman, a grower with about 1,200 acres of pistachios in Merced and Madera counties, is having a fine year. …. "Most years, we harvest 90 percent of the crop in a 21-day window," says Andrew Howe, general manager of Horizon Nut Company, a processor with headquarters in Tulare, Calif. "Last year, it took 60 days." This year, harvest started in mid-August, Howe says, and will probably run into October. …. Brar's research is geared toward understanding how pistachios react when chilling requirements are not met. The hope is to better predict the trees' behavior and develop chemical treatments to ultimately boost crop yields following warm winters. Breeding new male and female pistachio varieties that require fewer chilling hours to bloom in sync is also a possible solution, Brar says, but one that is decades away. …. Pistachios are less demanding of water than almonds are. However, to produce a bumper crop, the trees require generous irrigation — a tall order in times of drought.”

I do wish these farmers good luck. The photographs of the drought-scarred land in the news recently in California makes me very sad. I do like to see happy crops growing with good crops on the vines. Farmers everywhere have always had good and bad years, though, and if they have only one money crop like this they will have nothing to fall back on if it fails. Farmers can easily go out of business and be forced to leave their country homes for city jobs. Many people hate huge farming businesses like Monsanto because their products are often experimental and not trusted as much as the local farmer’s produce, but they have the “economies of scale” in their favor, allowing them to run local smaller farmers out of business. If their crop fails one year they can survive over the next few years when the rains will probably come again, and in this case, the winter will produce male trees that shed their pollen at the right time of year.

Piedmont and Eastern North Carolina have more rain that California and a more moderate climate. A wide variety of vegetables and of course, tobacco, soybeans and cotton grow in the state. A farmer can diversify the crops he plants, though many do grow mainly tobacco. Even today when so many Americans have wisely stopped smoking, other parts of the world still use it, so there’s a market. My father was a lumber inspector, but he was from a farming family and always grew a garden for our home use. He grew well over a dozen crops. That house was in the Piedmont of NC which has a layer of black rich top soil over red clay. The clay helps hold in the moisture and the top soil provides nutrients for the crops. In Eastern NC on the edge of the coastal plain is the “sand hills,” where melons, tomatoes, soybeans, tobacco, cotton and more plants grow well. NC is a major farming state, but the crops were more varied than there seems to be in California. Of course they have exotic plants like these almonds, avocados, dates, etc. which would be killed by the winter in NC.

We had enough rain, good soils and a moderately warm year with only a few months of truly cold weather in the winter. Planting an early crop like green peas would start in February, tomatoes in May to June. Any frost at all will kill tomatoes. Some plants such as collards attain their best flavor after “the frost bites them,” and were picked late into the autumn when temperatures would drop down into the 30’s. There was “winter wheat” and “spring wheat,” depending on when you plant it. There were apples, peaches, and both concord and scuppernong grapes. A black cousin to the American Indian’s scuppernongs grows wild in the woods in both the Piedmont and the Coastal Plain. There were no citrus trees of any type, but there are the delicious wild persimmons, which the Indians showed us. “Simmern puddin’” was one of the highlights at every neighborhood dinner in the autumn. It’s as richly sweet as candy and full of good spices. I’m afraid that if global warming causes widespread drought including in the East, farmers there will have to produce different crops that can survive the climate change. I’m glad to have grown up with a father who loved to garden and showed me a good many things about how to do it. It was a very pleasant life. It’s great down here in Florida, but I do sometimes miss North Carolina.





http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/royal-life-queen-elizabeth-ii-through-the-years/

Pictures – Royal Life Queen Elizabeth II – From Childhood

This series of 47 photos of Elizabeth II is great. I suggest that you go to this site and view them. Each has an informational comment with it. I also suggest that you go to your local library and check out a copy of the book “The Real Elizabeth” by Andrew Marr. Without any groveling he is clearly one of her fans, and includes lots of history in his commentary. I learned things about a time period that was before my awareness of the news – no TV back then -- and I feel that I “know” her a little bit. He talks about her real personality and some of her relationships with famous people such as Diana and the various Prime Ministers. This clip gives you an idea of what is there.

May 1933
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest serving British monarch on September 9, 2015, surpassing the record set by her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria with more than 63 years on the throne. Now 89-years-old, Elizabeth is also the country's oldest ever monarch.

Here, then Princess Elizabeth, is introduced by her mother Elizabeth, the Duchess of York, to disabled soldiers at an exhibition of their work in London, May 16, 1933.

CREDIT: AP