November 24, 2017


News and Views


THANK GOD! FINALLY, PEOPLE ARE PAYING ATTENTION TO A SITUATION WHICH IS PROBABLY ALL TOO COMMON – THE FAILURE TO REPORT CRIMES FOR THE GUN CRIME DATABASE CALLED NICS. I’VE READ ABOUT THESE FAILURES TO REPORT ON THE LOCAL LEVEL IN THE POLICE OR SHERIFF’S OFFICE TO THE CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM WILL BE UP TO DATE AND READY TO STOP THE NEXT KILLING. IT IS USUALLY NOT MANDATORY, SO IT TOO OFTEN JUST ISN’T DONE. THAT IS SOMETHING WHICH SHOULD CHANGE – IT SHOULD BE MANDATORY.

TWO OTHER TIMES IN THE LAST YEAR OR TWO I’VE SEEN STORIES ABOUT IT. I HOPE A FEDERAL LAW WILL BE MADE TO HANDLE THE PROBLEM. STATE AND LOCAL PEOPLE ARE RARELY AS SCRUPULOUSLY HONEST, UNFORTUNATELY, OR EVEN SUFFICIENTLY CONCERNED ABOUT SUCH A “SMALL” MATTER SUCH AS RECORDING A PIECE OF DATA IN THE PROPER DATABASE AS WE THE PEOPLE NEED FOR THEM TO BE. “NOT MY JOB, MAN!”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nics-failure-national-instant-criminal-background-check-system/
CBS NEWS November 24, 2017, 7:37 AM
Why federal database is failing to bar certain people from gun purchases

Potentially thousands of people who should not have guns are able to buy them because of an apparent failure of federal record-keeping. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a review this week of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, known as NICS. The mandate follows this month's shooting massacre in Texas where the Air Force failed to submit the gunman's domestic abuse conviction to the federal database. But that's just one case that has fallen through the cracks.

The NICS system relies on state and local agencies as well as the military to accurately report criminal history and other information. But for years, they have failed to upload these critical records with no consequences for failing to follow federal law, reports CBS News' Paula Reid.

"Every time one of these mass murders happen, it just brings everything back emotionally for me," Jim Sitton said.

Sitton's 6-year-old daughter, Makayla, was killed on Thanksgiving eight years ago when a family member went on a shooting rampage after dinner. Three others were also killed. Investigators later discovered the shooter, Paul Michael Merhige, had been involuntarily committed to a mental institution three times. That should have kept him from passing a federal background check.

"It's ridiculous that someone can have all of that history – mental and legal – and still the state will give him a concealed carry and the feds will sell him as many guns as he wants," Sitton said.

Just days after the massacre this month at a Texas church, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said it was clear that the shooter, Devin Kelley, should have been barred from getting a weapon.

"We need to fix this broken background check system," Cornyn said.

Kelley was court martialed during his time in the Air Force and then discharged for abuse against his wife and step child.

The NICS background check system is comprised of three different databases. The main FBI one is the NICS Indices, but as of December 2016, there is just one person entered by the military as committing abuse against their spouse. About half of all states also report few or no abuse convictions and restraining orders. The FBI tells us the records may reside in the other two databases, however the FBI did not make those numbers available to CBS News.

"There is no question that if the data is not in the system, people are going to die and they do die," said Kim Gandy, who leads the National Network to End Domestic Violence. "It's a systemic problem and there are thousands, maybe tens of thousands, maybe even more prohibited abusers who are not in the system and who are out there buying guns and endangering lives."

But in 2016, almost 9,000 people were denied a firearm based off of a domestic assault conviction, and more than 120,000 people were denied overall.

"The NICS system works very well when the data is there… but when the data doesn't go into the system it can't work," Gandy said.

The FBI lists 11 categories that should keep offenders from buying weapons including committing any felony, being adjudicated for mental illness or having a drug conviction.

But in 2007, Virginia Tech student Cho Seung Hui killed 32 people after he legally purchased a weapon. The state of Virginia later admitted they should have put him in the system since he had been "adjudicated as a mental defective."

"The system is only as good as the records that are in it," said National Rifle Association Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre.

The NRA has estimated seven million offenders are not in the system. The group supports better enforcement of the NICS system reporting requirements. The FBI told CBS News: "NICS relies upon its local, state, and federal partners to provide authorized data and information."

But the international organization of chief of police told us: "There is no national standard or funding to ensure all local agencies contribute to a national instant check data base. In addition to an unwillingness for states to mandate clear requirements for who is legally responsible for inputting convictions."

For Sitton, he said lives like his young daughter's will be lost if nothing is done.

"You are going to spend the money one way or another. You are either going to hire the manpower to enforce the laws on the books or you are going to buy body bags," Sitton said.

Sessions asked the FBI and ATF to issue a report detailing the number of times the agencies actually investigate and prosecute people for lying on their gun purchase applications. Lawmakers have been critical of previous administrations for failing to enforce these laws, which could deter some of these purchases.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



THE REASON WE NEED TO BE SO CAREFUL ABOUT HIRING AND PROMOTING TEACHERS IS THAT, LIKE DOCTORS AND POLICE OFFICERS, THEY ARE CAPABLE OF DOING A GREAT DEAL OF HARM, AND TOO OFTEN GOING UNDETECTED IN THE MATTER. THIS ISSUE OF HER EARLIER ACCUSATION IN A LAWSUIT IS DISPUTED BY HER LAWYER. HE SAYS THAT SHE REPORTED THE TEA TO THE DEPT OF EDUCATION IN WASHINGTON FOR GRANTING A NO-BID CONTRACT TO A BUSINESS WHICH IS INCAPABLE OF PERFORMING THE SERVICE THAT IT ADVERTISES. THAT GROUP IS CALLED SPEDX. SEE BELOW FOR INFORMATION ON THEM AND THEIR SERVICES.

THE STORY IMPLIES POSSIBLE GUILT ON HER PART, BUT DOESN’T STATE IT. HER LAWYER SAYS THAT THIS IS PAYBACK FOR HER FILING A COMPLAINT WITH THE FEDERAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, AND THAT THE ALLEGATIONS IN THE OREGON LAWSUIT ARE FALSE. I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-special-education-director-fired-serious-allegations/
AP November 24, 2017, 10:40 AM
Texas special education director fired over past "serious allegations," agency says

Photograph -- Laurie Kash is seen in a photo obtained by CBS Dallas station KTVT.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas has fired its special education director after learning that she had been accused in a lawsuit of trying to keep others from talking about the alleged sexual abuse of a student at an Oregon school district where she previously worked.

Laurie Kash started with the Texas Education Agency on Aug. 15. A lawsuit accused her of ordering several employees to say nothing about the sexual abuse allegations while she was special education director at the Rainier School District, about 40 miles north of Portland, Oregon.

"These allegations were not disclosed during the hiring process, and if these serious allegations had been disclosed, she would not have been hired," the Texas Education Agency said in a statement.

The agency added that "Dr. Kash has no business being in charge of special education policy and programming in Texas."

Kash's attorney, Bill Aleshire, told the Austin American-Statesman that Kash mentioned the lawsuit's allegations in her interview for the Texas job. He said three Oregon state agencies investigated the allegations and found them to be without merit.

Aleshire also told the American-Statesman that he believed Kash was fired because she had filed a federal complaint against the Texas Education Agency. She was fired the day after she complained to the U.S. Department of Education, saying that TEA wrongly agreed to a no-bid $4.4 million contract with a Georgia company to analyze private records for children with disabilities.

She asked the department's inspector general to investigate the contract with SPEDx,* which was hired to detect patterns and trends in student records. She said in her complaint that she worried that parents do not realize the information is going to a for-profit company and that SPEDx cannot perform the tasks for which it was hired.

Kash was not made aware of her dismissal until contacted by an American-Statesman reporter.

"This is how TEA treats a whistleblower, plain and simple," Aleshire said.

TEA said in a statement that SPEDx was hired after "a thorough review of the landscape of vendors" in the U.S. because it was the only one with the analytics capacity sophisticated enough for the job.

© 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


SPEDx,*
https://www.spedx.com/

SPEDx explores data to attain the most extraordinary successes for children with special needs.

Our consulting services focus on helping our partners figure what could work best to move their special education priorities forward. Our approach is steeped in design thinking and understanding problems from the ground up, with empathy, and then quickly iterating potential solutions that can scale widely.

SPEDx offers IEP analysis to help educators identify individualized patterns for increasing progress towards a student's intellectual and behavioral goals. We then use these patterns to understand what specific interventions accelerate progress. Through this analysis, educators ensure that each student can make ambitious progress inside and outside of the classroom.



FLYNN INVOLVED IN A KIDNAPPING PLOT? FLYNN COPPING A PLEA? AS OF 11/24 AT 8:32 PM, NOTHING HAS HAPPENED YET, OR HAS BEEN REPORTED. WE ALL WAIT WITH GREAT ATTENTION TO THE NEXT NEWS REPORTS. THIS REPORT FROM TWO WEEKS AGO STATES THAT A BIG PART OF THE FLYNN INVESTIGATION MIGHT BE THE RUMORED KIDNAP PLOT OF THE DISSIDENT TURKISH CLERIC.

https://newrepublic.com/minutes/145780/robert-mueller-looking-allegations-michael-flynn-plotted-kidnapping
Jeet Heer
14 days ago (as of 11/24/17)

Photograph – Flynn gives victory sign. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Robert Mueller is looking into allegations that Michael Flynn plotted a kidnapping.There have been longstanding reports, fuelled by testimony from James Woolsey, a former Trump adviser and onetime CIA director, that Trump’s first national security advisor wanted to kidnap Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish dissident living in the United States, and return him to his native country. The story of the kidnapping plot seemed too amazing to be true, more like something a gangster would do than a high government official.

But The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Robert Mueller is now investigating these allegations:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating an alleged plan involving former White House National Security Adviser Mike Flynn to forcibly remove a Muslim cleric living in the U.S. and deliver him to Turkey in return for millions of dollars, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Under the alleged proposal, Mr. Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., were to be paid as much as $15 million for delivering Fethullah Gulen to the Turkish government, according to people with knowledge of discussions Mr. Flynn had with Turkish representatives. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has pressed the U.S. to extradite him, views the cleric as a political enemy.

If the Mueller investigation can credibly tie Flynn and his son to a kidnapping plot, this would enormously increase the leverage they have to flip the Flynns, who are reportedly looking to make a deal with the FBI. As outlandish as it may sound, the proposed kidnapping of Gulen might be the pivot on which the Mueller investigation turns.

November 22, 2017



VIDEO ONLY
https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/michael-flynn-may-be-cooperating-with-robert-muellers-probe/
Michael Flynn may be cooperating with Robert Mueller's probe

NOVEMBER 24, 2017, 3:09 PM| CBS News has confirmed that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's lawyers are no longer communicating with President Trump's legal team. It's a sign, some say, that Flynn may have made a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether there was collusion between Mr. Trump's campaign and Russia. Zeke Miller, an Associated Press White House reporter and CBSN political contributor, joins CBSN to discuss the latest developments.


FOR THE LATEST ON FLYNN, SEE THIS REUTERS ARTICLE.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-flynn/flynn-could-prove-to-be-key-asset-in-muellers-u-s-campaign-probe-sources-say-idUSKBN1DO2OJ
#POLITICS NOVEMBER 24, 2017 / 5:40 PM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Flynn could prove to be key asset in Mueller's U.S. campaign probe, sources say
John Walcott, Karen Freifeld
5 MIN READ

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lawyers for former national security adviser Michael Flynn have halted communications with U.S. President Donald Trump’s legal team, a potentially critical step in the probe into contacts between Trump’s election campaign and Russia, sources familiar with the investigation said on Friday.

FILE PHOTO: White House National Security Advisor Michael Flynn speaks at the White House in Washington, U.S. on February 1, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner, called John Dowd, Trump’s private lawyer, on Wednesday to say the matter had reached a point where the two could no longer could discuss it, two people familiar with the call told Reuters on Friday.

The New York Times first reported that the two sets of lawyers had stopped communicating.

Flynn, a retired Army general, is a central figure in a federal investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into whether Trump aides colluded with alleged Russian efforts to boost his 2016 presidential campaign.

It was not clear whether Kelner made the call because he had negotiated a plea agreement with Mueller for Flynn to cooperate in the probe, or because Flynn had decided to engage with Mueller, said two other sources.

“No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about General Flynn cooperating against the president,” Jay Sekulow, another attorney for Trump, said on Thursday.

Dowd on Friday declined to comment on the matter, as did Peter Carr, Mueller’s spokesman. Kelner also declined to comment. White House officials also have declined to comment.

The cooperation of Flynn, who was a top campaign adviser before becoming Trump’s national security adviser in the White House, would be a major asset in Mueller’s investigation.

In March, as he unsuccessfully sought immunity for his client to testify to House and Senate investigations into the issue, Kelner said, “Mr. Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he certainly wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit.”

Two sources familiar with Mueller’s investigation said Flynn may be able to provide insight into three major areas of inquiry.

These are: any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 campaign; money laundering and other possible financial crimes by Trump aides; and whether Trump sought to obstruct justice when he fired former FBI Director James Comey in May, as Comey was probing the Trump campaign’s dealings with Russia.

Russia has denied interfering in the election. Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion with Russia by his campaign and has called the inquiry a witch hunt.

QUESTIONS FOR FLYNN

Two congressional officials involved in separate probes into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia said one key area of investigation is whether Flynn or other advisers to Trump ever suggested U.S. economic sanctions on Russia could be lifted in exchange for favorable business deals.

Possible deals include a proposed commercial nuclear power project involving Russian firms that Flynn in recent years worked to promote to potential clients in the Middle East, sources familiar with the project told Reuters.

“At this point, there is no evidence of an effort to negotiate that kind of deal, but Flynn is near the top of the list of people who probably would know if there was any such effort,” said one of the congressional officials, also speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Trump fired Flynn on Feb. 13, after disclosures that Flynn had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with then Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak in December, the month before Trump took office, and later misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations.

Flynn has acknowledged contacts with Kislyak dating back to 2013, but beyond saying they covered a variety of subjects has said nothing about the content of their conversations during Trump’s campaign and after his election.

Flynn has been under scrutiny by the special counsel in a number of areas, sources familiar with the investigation have said.

Mueller has been investigating whether Flynn knowingly made false statements to the government about his foreign travels, income, and contacts on his security clearance form.

Flynn also has come under scrutiny for work on behalf of Russian clients, and over whether his work for a businessman with ties to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was lawful.

Mueller has been investigating Flynn’s son, Michael Flynn, Jr.‘s, involvement in some of his father’s business dealings in Russia, Turkey, and elsewhere, the sources said, and that could provide a potent additional incentive for Flynn to cooperate.

Barry Coburn, a lawyer for Flynn’s son, declined to comment.

Reporting by Nathan Layne, Karen Freifeld, Will Dunham, John Walcott and Patricia Zengerle; Writing by Will Dunham and John Walcott; Editing by Kieran Murray and Frances Kerry
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/11/24/why-trump-should-be-nervous-but-not-panicking-after-michael-flynns-lawyers-cut-off-communication/
The Fix Analysis
Why Trump should be nervous, but not panicking, after Michael Flynn’s lawyers cut off communication
By Callum Borchers November 24 at 12:29 PM

The juiciest possible meaning of a decision by Michael Flynn's legal team to cut off communication with President Trump's team is that Flynn, the former White House national security adviser, is about to roll over and provide incriminating information about Trump or members of his inner circle to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that “the notification led Mr. Trump's lawyers to believe that Mr. Flynn — who, along with his son, is seen as having significant criminal exposure — has, at the least, begun discussions with Mr. Mueller about cooperating.” That's a logical conclusion because, as the Times's Michael S. Schmidt, Matt Apuzzo and Maggie Haberman explained, “it is unethical for lawyers to work together when one client is cooperating with prosecutors and another is still under investigation.”

Norman Eisen — President Barack Obama's White House ethics czar, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution — tweeted that personal experience with Mueller leads him to believe that Flynn could implicate Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner or even the president himself.

I negotiated a cooperation deal for a target with Mueller's office when he was US Atty and lemme tell ya, he's not gonna give one to Flynn unless he implicates someone up the ladder. That means Kushner, Don Jr., or Big Daddy. They are all having indigestion tonight. https://t.co/8SNzelLuBp

— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) November 24, 2017

One more thing I learned about Mueller. When I was at State & he was at FBI we worked together on an investigation, & he loves surprises. Kushner, Donnie Jr. and the rest of the Trump crime family better keep their overnight bags handy. Pack shoes with no laces guys. https://t.co/oYOh9yIWBt

— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) November 24, 2017

Trump should be nervous, but he need not hit the panic button yet. Here's why:

As The Washington Post's Carol D. Leonnig and Rosalind S. Helderman pointed out in their report on Flynn's move, “even if Flynn has begun discussions with Mueller's office, there is no guarantee he will ultimately reach a deal with prosecutors.” Mueller might demand more information than Flynn is willing to give or Flynn's knowledge might prove unworthy of favorable treatment by Mueller. It's hard to know whether a deal involving Flynn could hurt Trump when we don't know whether there will be a deal at all.

Could Flynn merely offer incriminating information about himself, in an effort to protect his son? Not likely, said Jeffrey S. Jacobovitz, a partner at Arnall Golden Gregory in Washington who specializes in white-collar criminal defense.

Michael Flynn and his son, Michael G. Flynn, arrived at Trump Tower in New York on Nov. 17, 2016. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

“I don't think Mueller would offer him a deal, if that were the case,” Jacobovitz told me. “I think it would have to be some higher-ups that Flynn would be able to provide information about.”

Someone higher up does not necessarily mean the president or a member of his family, however. An alternative target: Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, against whom Mueller already has secured an indictment.

“That would be valuable because Manafort, at this point, is still going to trial,” Jacobovitz said, adding that Mueller “would take all the help he can get” in that case.

Trump has effectively turned his back on Manafort. On the day Mueller announced charges against the man who once headed Trump's campaign, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that the indictment “has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the president's campaign or campaign activity.”

Don't expect the president to feel too bad if the result of Flynn's possible cooperation with Mueller is more trouble for Manafort.

It also is possible that Flynn could spill damaging information about Trump that is unrelated to collusion with Russia.

“It could be related to obstruction,” Jacobovitz told me, pointing to James B. Comey's claim that Trump asked the then-director of the FBI to drop its investigation of Flynn.

That would be bad for the president, but it would not indicate that his campaign aided Russia's effort to meddle in the presidential election. It would not, in other words, undermine the validity of Trump's victory, which seems to be Trump's primary concern about Mueller's probe.



COMPARE THESE TWO CASES. THERE IS EVIDENCE HERE OF A WAR AGAINST WOMEN, I BELIEVE, NOT TO MENTION THAT BOTH WOMEN ARE BLACK. DISPARATE JUSTICE IS NOT JUSTICE. WE AMERICANS NEED TO WATCH THE NEWS MUCH MORE CLOSELY, DON’T EVEN GO TO SITES LIKE BREITBART, AND STAND UP FOR THESE ABUSES OF JUSTICE IMMEDIATELY WHEN THEY OCCUR IN THE LOCAL COURTS. MARCH IN PROTEST IF NEEDED. JUSTICE SHOULDN’T TAKE YEARS.

>https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cyntoia-brown-case-celebrities-support-teen-killer-highlight-sex-trafficking-abuse/
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS/AP November 24, 2017, 1:01 PM
Cyntoia Brown case: Celebrities support teen killer, highlight sex trafficking abuse

Photograph -- Cyntoia Brown WTVF

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A celebrity social media campaign is highlighting issues of sex trafficking abuse in the case of a Tennessee woman convicted as a teen of killing a 43-year-old man who had picked her up for sex.

Cyntoia Brown was 16 when she shot and killed Johnny Allen in 2004, who she encountered after demands from an abusive pimp to make money. She claims she was afraid of Allen, who she said was behaving strangely and had a house full of guns. She says she thought Allen was reaching for a gun when she fired, reports CBS affiliate WTVF.

But prosecutors in Nashville say Brown killed Allen in order to steal from him — she left with his pants, containing his wallet, and some guns. At her 2006 trial, the jury sided with prosecutors, convicting Brown of first-degree murder and sentencing her to life in prison.

View image on Twitter

Kim Kardashian West
✔
@KimKardashian
The system has failed. It’s heart breaking to see a young girl sex trafficked then when she has the courage to fight back is jailed for life! We have to do better & do what’s right. I’ve called my attorneys yesterday to see what can be done to fix this. #FreeCyntoiaBrown
10:57 AM - Nov 21, 2017
4,426 4,426 Replies 218,007 218,007 Retweets 524,001 524,001 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy

But since then, a 2011 documentary shown on public television has stirred sympathy for her, and support on social media this week from celebrities including Rihanna and Kim Kardashian West has caused the case to go viral. Supporters say Brown was a victim of abuse who was instead treated by the legal system as a prostitute.

Nashville attorney Charles Bone said he became interested in Brown's case after seeing the film. He was in court last week arguing that Brown deserves a new trial for reasons including that her attorneys at the original trial were deficient, specifically in advising her not to testify.

Her current attorneys believe that advice was given based on a misconception about the law.

"I wanted to testify. My family thought I should testify," Brown, now 24, said during the Nov. 13 hearing. If she had, the jury likely would have heard something like what she next told the judge.

At the age of 16, Brown was a runaway who had been crashing with friends in Nashville for about a year. Toward the middle or end of July 2004, she met a 24-year-old man nicknamed "Cut-throat." They started living together — staying at different motels around town and snorting cocaine every day.

He abused her physically and sexually. She said he once choked her until she passed out. Other times he pulled a gun on her.

"He would explain to me that some people were born whores, and that I was one, and I was a slut, and nobody'd want me but him, and the best thing I could do was just learn to be a good whore," she testified.

He forced her to prostitute herself so that they would have money to live, she said. On the day she met Allen — Aug. 5, 2004 — the man she called Cut had hit her and told her to go out and bring back some money.

Allen picked her up off the street and bought her some fast food. He asked her if she was OK, but after listening to her story, asked if she was "up for any action," Brown said.

He drove her back to his house where his strange behavior frightened her and made her want to escape. When she couldn't sneak away, she said she wanted to nap. He lay down with her but didn't fall asleep. He kept getting up and standing over her, she said. She became more panicked, convinced something was going to happen to her. Finally, she shrugged off his advances and, as he rolled over, she took a gun from her purse and shot him once in the head.

Richard Adler, a clinical and forensic psychiatrist, who also testified Nov. 13, suggested that Brown's erratic behavior could be explained by her birth mother's abuse of alcohol while she was pregnant with Brown. He and other experts have diagnosed Brown as suffering from alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder — a type of fetal alcohol syndrome disorder that he characterized as a "severe mental disease and defect."

Although Brown has a high IQ, Adler said that testing last year showed her to be functioning at the level of a 13 or 14 year old.

Brown's attorneys argued that was evidence that should have been presented at her original trial.

Prosecutor Jeff Burks, in cross-examination, sought to show that Brown had some of the best criminal defense attorneys in Nashville at trial, so her defense was far from deficient. He also suggested that had Brown testified on her own behalf or introduced evidence from a mental health expert, then other issues that would reflect badly on Brown would also have come up.

Burks mentioned her drug use, her lengthy juvenile history and a suggestion to an acquaintance that they return to Allen's house to steal more.

Bone told WTVF he plans to appeal to the Tennessee governor for clemency next month.

"We think it's time for her to be considered for some drastically reduced sentence," Bone said.

The documentary about Brown, called "Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story," was part of PBS's Independent Lens series. Director Dan Birman, who was filming in court last week, said it was also picked up by the BBC and has been shown elsewhere abroad.

"I think there are still people who don't see her as a victim because they think she made the choice to be out there and put herself in that situation," Brown's former public defender Kathy Sinback told WTVF. "But when you look at all the factors that led her to that place, she was being victimized by an older man who was her pimp, who was beating her, threatening her, and abusing her emotionally, physically, and sexually. I think most people would not be able to protect themselves in those situations if they were 16 years old."

It wasn't immediately clear what caused the renewed interest from Rihanna and West, who posted using the hashtag, #FreeCyntoiaBrown. A petition calling for her release is also gaining momentum online.

Sinback told WTVF Brown is grateful for the support.

"Just knowing that she had people who see her as a human being has been incredibly important for her," she said.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/us/marissa-alexander-released-stand-your-ground.html
Florida Woman Whose ‘Stand Your Ground’ Defense Was Rejected Is Released
By CHRISTINE HAUSER FEB. 7, 2017

Photograph -- Marissa Alexander, flanked by her lawyers Bruce Zimet and Faith E. Gay in Jacksonville, Fla., in 2014. Credit Pool photo by Bob Mack

Marissa Alexander no longer wears an ankle monitor. She is now free to go to the park and play basketball with her children in her Jacksonville, Fla., neighborhood. She can ride a bicycle and stroll on the beach, which she dreamed about in prison.

“I didn’t carry an umbrella when I first got home,” she said, “because I wanted to feel the rain drops on my skin.”

Ms. Alexander, 36, spent almost a half-dozen years either locked in prison or confined to her house after she was convicted of aggravated assault charges in 2012 for firing a warning shot at her husband, who she said had abused her. According to her account in court documents, he had threatened her nine days after she gave birth to their daughter.

Ms. Alexander was finally freed on Jan. 27. She plans to take up the fight for domestic abuse victims and push for a change in what advocates have called the uneven application of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law. She will advocate amending the law in order to take the burden of proof off defendants who have to demonstrate in pretrial hearings that they acted in self-defense and deserve immunity from trial.

In Florida, the law allows for the use of deadly force in self-defense with no duty to retreat when a violent intruder breaks into a home or car.

That shield was denied her in 2011, when a judge in a pretrial hearing rejected her attempt to use the law, saying she did not meet the burden of proof because there was a “factual dispute” on her Stand Your Ground defense. That led to her trial and ultimate conviction, said Faith E. Gay, one of Ms. Alexander’s lawyers.

“Here is a black woman who had a history of abuse against her and tried to use Stand Your Ground and ended up with a 20-year sentence,” Bruce Zimet, one Ms. Alexander’s lawyers, said in a telephone interview.

Ms. Alexander said of how she believed the court viewed her defense, “It was a crime from the jump,” adding, the Stand Your Ground law “was never considered.”

On Thursday, she plans to speak before a Florida Senate committee meeting in support of that proposed amendment to the law. If enacted, it would shift the burden of proof from defendants to prosecutors.

State Senator Rob Bradley, a sponsor of the bill, said, “I think it is important that anybody who feels that the criminal system has affected them shares their stories.”

In the years since the shooting, Ms. Alexander has become the face of efforts to challenge laws, like the state’s mandatory-sentencing rules, that can have an impact on self-defense cases. The events that sent Ms. Alexander down a path to prison began in August 2010. She and her husband began arguing, according to court records, and Ms. Alexander said she fired at him in self-defense.

But prosecutors noted that the bullet went into the wall behind her husband rather than into the ceiling, and they asserted that she had fired “out of anger,” Mr. Zimet, her lawyer, said.

Ms. Alexander was convicted and, because of the sentencing laws, initially received 20 years in prison, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

Her husband at the time, Rico Gray Sr., acknowledged in a hearing that there had been previous instances of violence, and the trial judge allowed the testimony to be introduced as evidence, court documents and Ms. Gay said.

Mr. Gray could not be reached for comment. But the lawyer who represented him, Richard R. Kuritz, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that Mr. Gray cooperated with prosecutors because he wanted the case resolved so as not to put his children through the process. “People have lost sight of the fact that he was standing with his son when she came back into the house with the gun,’’ Mr. Kuritz said. “He was unarmed and she shot at him.”

In 2013, Ms. Alexander’s conviction was overturned on appeal. As she was awaiting a new trial, she negotiated a plea agreement that allowed her to serve three years in prison and two years confined to her house.

Some have compared her case to another, more prominent, one in Florida: that of George Zimmerman, who was tried and cleared in 2012 in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager.

Although the Stand Your Ground law was not a factor in Mr. Zimmerman’s defense — his lawyers argued he shot in self-defense — it was part of the jury’s instructions and played a role in the way the police approached the initial investigation.

Protesters have demanded changes to the law, which some prosecutors and police officers say is vague and has been misused by people to avoid prosecution.

“It was highly controversial because it encourages vigilantism, but it seems to have not been applied evenly,” Ms. Gay said.

Florida was the first state to pass a Stand Your Ground law, in 2005, with strong support from the National Rifle Association. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, 23 other states have such laws.

In Louisiana, the authorities invoked the state’s own version of the laws to defend the pace of their investigation into the shooting death of the former N.F.L. player Joe McKnight and their treatment of the suspect, Ronald Gasser Jr., who was freed initially. The sheriff said officials needed time to build a better case. Eventually, Mr. Gasser was indicted on a second-degree murder charge last week.

The Miami Herald also reported that last month defense lawyers invoked the state law to try to have charges dismissed against a Louisiana man accused of shooting three people outside a Key West strip club in 2016.

Ms. Alexander’s case also became part of the debate over the state’s mandatory sentencing laws, which require 10 years, 20 years or life in prison in cases involving someone firing warning shots and the possession or use of a firearm. Some have argued that the guidelines take discretion out of judges’ hands.

“It is pure over-criminalization,” Ms. Gay said.

Florida lawmakers eventually removed the charge of aggravated assault* — the same charge Ms. Alexander was given.

Ms. Alexander served her sentence in Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala, Fla. Her time in prison took her away from her job at a payroll processing company, as well as from her three children.

Now, she is doing consulting work for an elementary school and has established a nonprofit called the Marissa Alexander Justice Project, which will provide advocacy in cases of domestic violence, as well as promote policy reform.

Free Marissa Now, an alliance of activists that had campaigned for Ms. Alexander’s release, said in a statement that there were many more such cases, and it linked to those compiled by Survived and Punished advocates that involve abused women caught up in the system after being charged, or in prison or immigration detention.

Ms. Alexander said: “I have had another opportunity, a second chance, and I believe everybody deserves that. So I am going to live my best life going forward.”


AGGRAVATED ASSAULT SENTENCING NO LONGER INCLUDED IN MANDATORY MINIMUM LAW:

http://www.bradenton.com/news/local/crime/article57186068.html
Unanimous Florida Senate removes aggravated assault crimes from mandatory 20-year sentences
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
JANUARY 28, 2016 12:00 AM
UPDATED JANUARY 28, 2016 11:29 PM

TALLAHASSEE -- A unanimous Florida Senate removed the crime of aggravated assault Thursday from the list of gun-related crimes requiring a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a law known as 10-20-Life.

The 38-0 vote reflects a growing belief by political leaders inflexible minimum mandatory sentencing laws can produce arbitrary and unjust penalties. It's a philosophical evolution by a tough-on-crime Republican Legislature that passed 10-20-Life nearly two decades ago during an epidemic of gun-related crimes across the state.

The new legislation is supported by prosecutors and public defenders and has breezed through three House committees without a dissenting vote. It could reach Gov. Rick Scott's desk before the current legislative session ends.

The bill (SB 228), sponsored by state Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, was inspired by a series of several high-profile cases in which people have been sentenced to 20-year terms for firing "warning shots" in which no one was injured.

"Too many times, you have somebody who has made the decision to go to trial because they have a genuinely held belief that they were acting in self-defense," said state Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, a former prosecutor. "They felt like they had a good defense, and then a jury convicted them, and at that point, the judge's hands are tied."

That's precisely what happened in a case in which a Polk County man received a 20-year sentence for firing a shot into the living room wall of his home in an attempt to scare off his teenage daughter's boyfriend, who had fought with and struck the daughter, according to court testimony.

Orville Lee Wollard III claimed he was protecting his wife and daughters, and not trying to hurt the boyfriend. After he fired the shot in 2008, the Polk County prosecutor's office offered him five years probation if he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.

He rejected the offer, demanded a trial and a jury convicted him. The judge had no say over the 20-year sentence and Florida's self-defense law did not apply because the boyfriend was in the Wollard home legally.

Wollard, 60, had no prior felony convictions. He petitioned the state for release last September, but Scott denied the request. He will be eligible for release in 2028, when he will be 73 years old.

The latest bill would not apply to Wollard because it's not retroactive.

A review of 10-20-Life was recommended by a statewide task force Scott created in 2013 in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. The task force urged the Legislature to "eliminate any unintended consequences" under the 10-20-Life law.

Times/Herald staff writer Kristen M. Clark contributed to this report.


HERE IS YET ANOTHER SAD GUN-RELATED STORY. PEOPLE WHO ARE VERY MUCH IN FAVOR OF AN UNRESTRICTED SECOND AMENDMENT WON’T WANT TO SEE THIS, BUT I DON’T BELIEVE THAT SUCH FREEDOMS SHOULD EXIST WITHOUT LIMITS. IN FACT, NO LAW OF ANY KIND SHOULD. IT IS ONE OF THE MAIN CAUSES OF ABUSE IN THIS COUNTRY, ALONG WITH DISHONEST JUDGES AND REGULATORY AGENCIES. I ALSO THINK THAT MUCH OF THE CONSTITUTION NEEDS TO BE REVISED TO MODERNIZE IT AND TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE PROBLEMS THAT HAVE OCCURRED IN RELATION TO SUCH RIGHTS. I HAVE LITTLE DOUBT THAT THIS KILLING WAS A TRUE ACCIDENT, BUT THEY HAPPEN EVERY YEAR, ESPECIALLY AROUND DEER HUNTING. ONLY ONE THING MAKES ME ASK QUESTIONS, THOUGH, WHICH IS THAT PEOPLE HUNTING DEER DON’T USE PISTOLS. THEY USE RIFLES. IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE HUNTER HAS NOT BEEN FULLY TRUTHFUL? TOO MANY HUNTERS AREN’T QUITE SOBER, AND BAD EYESIGHT IS A REAL PROBLEM. “HUNTING” AFTER DARK IS, THE ARTICLE SAYS, ILLEGAL, BUT IT IS ALSO FOOLISH I WOULD THINK. AGAIN, IT MAKES ME QUESTION HIS HONESTY.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/woman-walking-dogs-fatally-shot-after-hunter-mistakes-her-for-deer/
AP November 24, 2017, 4:59 PM
Woman walking dogs fatally shot after hunter mistakes her for deer

SHERMAN, N.Y. -- Authorities say a 43-year-old woman has been accidentally shot to death by a hunter while walking her dogs in a rural field in western New York.

The Chautauqua County Sheriff's Office says Rosemary Billquist, of Sherman, took her dogs for a walk in her hometown near the Pennsylvania border around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Deputies say she was walking in a field when a man hunting nearby mistook her for a deer and shot her once with a pistol.

The hunter heard her scream, called 911 and stayed with her until emergency crews arrived. Billquist was taken to a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania, where she was pronounced dead.

Officials say the shooting occurred about 40 minutes after sunset, when it's illegal to hunt.

Police say the hunter hasn't been charged. The investigation is continuing.

© 2017 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



THE TOOLS OF THE DEMAGOGUE’S TRADE INCLUDE THIS ONE. “‘TRUMP’S RAGE-TWEETS ABOUT LAVAR BALL* ARE PART OF A PATTERN. TRUMP REGULARLY ATTACKS HIGH-PROFILE AFRICAN AMERICANS TO FEED HIS SUPPORTERS’ BELIEF THAT THE SYSTEM IS RIGGED FOR MINORITIES,’ SARGENT WROTE ON TWITTER WEDNESDAY.”

TRUMP GIVES YET ANOTHER “LET THEM EAT CAKE” ANSWER TO A SERIOUS QUESTION. SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE. HE LACKS INTEREST IN HUMAN VALUES AND “THE SOCIAL CONTRACT,” AND CARES NOTHING ABOUT THE SERIOUSNESS AND DIGNITY OF THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/11/23/trump-replies-make-america-great-again-to-tweet-about-his-attacks-on-african-americans/
Politics
Trump replies ‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’ to tweet about his attacks on African Americans
By Kristine Phillips November 23, 2017 at 11:22 AM

President Trump kicked off Thanksgiving Day by replying to a tweet that said his latest Twitter rage is part of a racist pattern of attacking prominent African Americans.

Trump’s response, tweeted at about 6:30 a.m.: “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 23, 2017

The tweet that prompted the response from the president came from Greg Sargent, who writes about politics for The Washington Post. Sargent had shared his opinion article about Trump’s latest tweetstorm related to LaVar Ball, whom the president has repeatedly called out for not thanking him properly for his role in resolving a shoplifting charge in China against Ball’s son.

In his piece published Wednesday, Sargent argued that Trump “goes out of his way to attack prominent African Americans,” including Ball and professional football athletes.

[Trump just rage-tweeted about a prominent African American again]

“Trump’s rage-tweets about LaVar Ball* are part of a pattern. Trump regularly attacks high-profile African Americans to feed his supporters’ belief that the system is rigged for minorities,” Sargent wrote on Twitter Wednesday.

To which the president replied the following day with his campaign slogan. In response, Sargent retweeted Trump’s tweet with a comment: “Happy Thanksgiving, Mr. President.”

It’s unclear if Trump’s tweet was meant to agree with or acknowledge Sargent’s points that his behavior on social media fits a racist pattern against African Americans, or if it may have been sent by mistake. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some on Twitter immediately took notice.

This is hard to process.

— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) November 23, 2017

The president has spent the last few days engaging in a war of words with Ball, who has accused Trump of inflating his role in freeing his son, UCLA basketball player LiAngelo Ball, and two other teammates. The three were arrested for shoplifting while in Hangzhou for a tournament earlier this month.

Trump said that during his 12-day trip to Asia, he personally asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help resolve the case of LiAngelo Ball and his two teammates.

After returning to the United States, Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to himself in the third person: “Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you to President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!”

Asked by ESPN later about Trump’s role in securing his son’s release, LaVar Ball said: “Who? What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”

[‘Poor man’s version of Don King’: Trump continues his war of words with LaVar Ball]

During a testy interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo Monday night, Ball again questioned Trump’s role in his son’s freeing.

“It wasn’t like he was in the U.S. and said, ‘Okay, there’s three kids in China, I need to go over there and get them,’” Ball said. “That wasn’t the thought process.”

In response, the president fumed, often in the form of predawn tweetstorms. At one point, he said he should’ve let LiAngelo Ball and his teammates stay in jail.

At about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, Trump called LaVar Ball an “ungrateful fool,” who, if not for his personal intervention, would have spent several Thanksgivings with his son locked up in China.

…LaVar, you could have spent the next 5 to 10 years during Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you. But remember LaVar, shoplifting is NOT a little thing. It’s a really big deal, especially in China. Ungrateful fool!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2017

“It wasn’t the White House, it wasn’t the State Department, it wasn’t father LaVar’s so-called people on the ground in China that got his son out of a long term prison sentence — IT WAS ME. Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair,” Trump said.

Curiously, the president resurrected attacks on the NFL a few minutes later:

The NFL is now thinking about a new idea – keeping teams in the Locker Room during the National Anthem next season. That’s almost as bad as kneeling! When will the highly paid Commissioner finally get tough and smart? This issue is killing your league!…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2017

Sargent wrote that the immediate segue to football players, whom Trump has repeatedly criticized for kneeling during the national anthem, shows a clear pattern of a public attack on prominent African Americans.

“It is true that in some of these cases, Trump was attacked or at least criticized first. But it’s hard to avoid noticing a gratuitously ugly pattern in Trump’s responses, in which Trump vaguely suggests either that his targets are getting above their station, or that they’re asking for too much and are insufficiently thankful for all that has been done for them,” Sargent wrote.

The president has repeatedly said that kneeling during the national anthem, meant to protest racism and police brutality, is disrespectful to the flag and to the country.

[Trump suggests that protesting NFL player is more loyal to Mexico than to U.S.]

Last month, Trump drew criticisms over his condolence call to the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed with three other soldiers during an ambush in Niger.

Myeshia Johnson said that during the call, the president told her that her husband “knew what he signed up for.” She also said that Trump couldn’t even remember her husband’s name.

Trump disputed the slain soldier’s widow’s account, saying in a tweet: “I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!”

Read more:

A year ago, Trump called for unity. He’s repeatedly demonstrated what he thinks that means.

Trump blasts NFL for not adopting a requirement that players stand during anthem

Fallen soldier’s mother: ‘Trump did disrespect my son’



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/11/22/a-year-ago-trump-called-for-unity-hes-repeatedly-demonstrated-what-he-thinks-that-means/?utm_term=.95578e809eb8
Politics Analysis
A year ago, Trump called for unity. He’s repeatedly demonstrated what he thinks that means.
By Philip Bump
November 22, 2017

Photograph -- As president, Trump has fostered the divisions that he leveraged to get elected. (Evan Vucci/AP)

If LaVar Ball had wanted to avoid President Trump’s ire, he should have had the presence of mind to ensure a vote for Trump’s tax bill by running for the Senate.

Instead, as a Trump critic with access to a microphone, Ball has been a focus of Trump’s rage for several days running. The father of LiAngelo Ball, one of the UCLA basketball players arrested in China for shoplifting, the elder Ball has refused to pay Trump the fealty the president clearly feels he deserves for his son’s escaping jail time in the country. While LiAngelo pointedly thanked Trump (after the president hinted that he should), LaVar declined to do so in an interview on CNN Tuesday.

[LaVar Ball’s CNN interview, annotated]

“If I was going to thank somebody, I was going to thank President Xi,” he said, referring to the president of China. He added more thoughts on the president of the United States: “If he said he helped, that’s good for his mind. If you helped, you shouldn’t have to say anything.”

So, on Wednesday morning:

It wasn’t the White House, it wasn’t the State Department, it wasn’t father LaVar’s so-called people on the ground in China that got his son out of a long term prison sentence – IT WAS ME. Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair. Just think..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2017

Trump once said that his tweets may not be presidential in the traditional sense but, instead, are “modern-day presidential,” as though he has redefined the meaning of the word to his benefit. Americans, broadly speaking, would prefer a traditionally presidential president, with 70 percent in a recent poll suggesting he change his approach to Twitter.

For Trump, though, the medium has an obvious benefit: He uses it to encourage and rile up his base of support to his own political advantage. His base, those who fervently approve of him, also approves of the way he behaves in office. A Pew Research poll from August found that a majority of those who approve of Trump’s job performance approved of him because of his approach and personality more than his policies and political values. Trump encourages the base and the base loves it.

The latest iteration of his fight with Ball happened the day before Thanksgiving. Last year, Trump used Thanksgiving as an opportunity to try to assuage the concerns of Americans who hadn’t voted for him and many of whom had taken to the streets in protest after his win. It was his first extended statement as president-elect, and it had a deliberate theme.

“It’s my prayer that on this Thanksgiving we begin to heal our divisions and move forward as one country, strengthened by shared purpose and very very common resolve,” Trump said.

“This historic political campaign is now over. But now begins a great national campaign to rebuild our country and to restore the full promise of America for all of our people,” he later continued. “I’m asking you to join me in this effort. It’s time to restore the bonds of trust between citizens because what America is unified there is nothing beyond our reach, and I mean absolutely nothing.”

It was, in short, a call for unity, ostensibly for building an America in which his voters and Hillary Clinton’s came together for one American Dream. Bonds of trust between citizens restored! An ideal modern-day America.

As president, though, Trump has fostered the divisions that he leveraged to get elected. Not only on Twitter, though certainly there. His policies have been broadly focused on his political base, which itself isn’t unusual, but he’s also spent a great deal of energy on undoing policies enacted by his predecessor.

Over the weekend, Politico noted that Trump still tracks polls obsessively, as he did early in the campaign when the numbers were more favorable. The polls he sees, though, are generally “designed to make him feel good,” Politico’s Josh Dawsey and Steven Shepard wrote, often only including the opinions of that same core base of support.

A pollster who’d worked on Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign explained the rationale to Dawsey and Shepard.

“[T]hey don’t really care where all Americans stand on the issue of tax reform,” he said. “Because 35 to 40 percent of Americans are never going to support anything he does. Why should I spend my money trying to find out what they think?”

In that sense, disunity is self-reinforcing. If you believe that your opponents will never change their minds — and 57 percent of Trump opponents said they wouldn’t in an August poll — then there’s no point in trying to actually join with them in unity. Set aside that 40 percent say they could be persuaded to support Trump.

Set aside, too, that this is not a newly emergent phenomenon. It is not the case that Trump tried to actually appeal to those who’d opposed him, as noted above. His inaugural speech quadrupled down on the divisive rhetoric of his campaign, and he wasted no time in making the changes that he’d pledged in the primary and which he’d never moderated. Trump’s call for unity was never about both sides coming together. It was about his opponents accepting and embracing him because he was president.

It was about fealty.

In that sense, the feud with Ball is the perfect capstone to the past year. It’s a literal manifestation of Trump’s insistence that he get credit for good things whether it’s presidential to demand it and whether that credit is actually due. It’s Trump’s version of unity: He deserves love and admiration, the end.

This may be modern-day presidential in the sense that the president in this modern day acts this way. But there’s a reason that former presidents didn’t act this way: They were actually more deliberate about leading a united United States.



FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO, LIKE ME, DON’T FOLLOW SPORTS, WHO IS LAVAR BALL? A BASKETBALL PLAYER WHOSE CLAIMS FOR HIMSELF AND HIS SONS ARE NOT RECOGNIZED AS BEING TRUTHFUL: “[22] LAVAR HAS ALSO STATED THAT HE BELIEVES HIS ELDEST SON IS "THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD," SPECIFICALLY COMPARING HIM WITH LEBRON JAMES AND RUSSELL WESTBROOK.[23]”

IN FACT, IN HIS BRAGGADOCIO, HE SOUNDS VERY SIMILAR TO DONALD TRUMP – LARGEST INAUGURAL CROWD IN HISTORY, WAS THE STATEMENT, I THINK. WHEN NEWS PEOPLE SHOWED THE ACTUAL CROWD SIZE AND THEN OBAMA’S HE CRIED “FAKE NEWS.” THAT MAY BE WHY THEY ARE CLASHING SO STRONGLY NOW. AGAIN, I DON’T CARE MUCH ABOUT SPORTS ANYWAY; BUT I’M ALWAYS CURIOUS ABOUT PERSONALITIES, AND I LOVE A GOOD GAME OF BASKETBALL. I LIKE SPORTS THAT MOVE, AND FOOTBALL AND GOLF DON’T DO THAT. I HAVE WATCHED MICHAEL JORDAN PLAY, AND HE WAS VERY GOOD. HIS DISCOUNTING JORDAN’S SKILL IRRITATES ME. I STILL DON’T THINK TRUMP SHOULD BE MAKING ATTACK AFTER ATTACK ON HIM, THOUGH, AND THERE IS VERY PROBABLY A RACIAL ELEMENT (TO PUT IT CAREFULLY) TO HIS ABUSE. THE FOLLOWING IS ABOUT BALL. I HAD BEEN SO UNFOCUSSED ON SPORTS THAT I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW BALL’S NAME.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaVar_Ball
LaVar Ball
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

LaVar Ball (born October 23, 1967) is an American media personality and businessman who is the father of three basketball players: Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo, UCLA freshman guard LiAngelo, and LaMelo.[1][2][3][4] A former basketball and American football player himself, LaVar is the founder and CEO of the sports apparel company Big Baller Brand.[5]

Ball played basketball and American football while at Canoga Park High School. He then played basketball at the collegiate level for West Los Angeles College, Washington State and Cal State Los Angeles. He played at Long Beach City College for a season, and had a short professional career with the London Monarchs of the World League of American Football, and as a practice squad member of the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers in 1995, but never played in an NFL game.

Following a series of bold statements in the spring of 2017, Ball began repeatedly making national sports headlines. His early remarks included saying that his son Lonzo is better than Stephen Curry and claiming that he himself could defeat Michael Jordan one-on-one. He was subject to both praise and criticism as he continued making similar comments, some of which involved his company, Big Baller Brand. Ball has made several appearances on national TV and has routinely drawn attention from major sports media outlets.

Early life and college basketball career

Ball was born on October 23, 1967, and was brought up in South Los Angeles, California.[6][7] He has four brothers, named LaFrance, LaValle, LaRenzo, and LaShon.[7] LaVar attended Canoga Park High School in Canoga Park, Los Angeles, where he was a prominent quarterback on the football team and played basketball as a forward.[8][9] In one season, Ball grabbed a total of 316 rebounds to break the school record.[9] He stood 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) and weighed 250 lbs (113 kg) by college.[8] Aside from sports, Ball majored in criminal justice at college and had hopes of being a U.S. Marshal.[10]

. . . .

When asked who Lonzo plays like, he described his son as "Magic (Johnson) with a jumper."[7] The family continued rising in popularity after SLAM magazine featured them in an article in August 2016.[1] Subsequently, Ball himself rapidly rose in profile through a series of incredible comments about his children, such as on November 26, 2016, when in a TV interview he guaranteed that UCLA, spearheaded by Lonzo, would win the 2017 NCAA Division I Tournament.[20] On December 14, LaVar predicted that all three of his sons would be one-and-done prospects for the NBA draft.[21]

Many of Ball's eccentric claims have involved well-known basketball players. In early March 2017, he said that he viewed Lonzo as a better player than Stephen Curry.[22] UCLA all-time leading scorer Don MacLean called the comments "outrageous," and many bloggers ridiculed Ball for them.[22] LaVar has also stated that he believes his eldest son is "the best player in the world," specifically comparing him with LeBron James and Russell Westbrook.[23] Kyle Boone of CBS Sports responded: "There's no way in the world Lonzo would be taking down LeBron or Westbrook in any form of basketball right now."[23]



IN THE PROCESS OF DOING DAILY NEWS BLOGS I HAVE COME TO LOVE CERTAIN SOURCES, AND I SIMPLY AVOID OTHERS AT ANY COST. COMMON DREAMS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITES, AND THIS SANDERS REPORT IS EXCELLENT. HE SUMMARIZES THE SITUATION THAT BECAME OBVIOUS AT THE CONVENTION, AND WHICH ANGERED ME DEEPLY AND STRONGLY. I NOT ON CAN’T FORGET IT, BUT I AM UNWILLING TO DO THAT, BECAUSE WHEN NOT OPPOSED, AGGRESSIVE FORCES CONTINUE TO DOMINATE. THAT’S WHY WE MUST FIGHT THE FAR RIGHT CROWD WHO HAVE BECOME SO DANGEROUSLY POWERFUL IN THE USA.

WE ALL WANT THE PARTY TO UNITE FOR GREATER STRENGTH, BUT THERE IS A PURIFICATION PROCESS THAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN FIRST. SANDERS GIVES SOME SPECIFICS ON WHAT MUST BE CHANGED, BEFORE THOSE OF US WHO IMMEDIATELY RESIGNED OUR MEMBERSHIP AFTER THE NOVEMBER VOTE LAST YEAR ARE LIKELY TO COME BACK. I DO TRUST BERNIE TO LEAD US IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/11/10/bernie-sanders-explains-his-plan-fix-broken-democratic-party
Published on
Friday, November 10, 2017
byCommon Dreams

Bernie Sanders Explains His Plan to Fix a Broken Democratic Party

"At a time when we have a Republican president and Republican Party whose leadership and agenda are strongly opposed by the American people, now is the time for real change."

byJake Johnson, staff writer

Photograph -- It is "not acceptable" that "hundreds of millions of dollars flow in and out of the DNC with little to no accountability," Sanders concluded. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr/cc)

Following a massive wave of progressive victories in elections throughout the U.S. earlier this week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) argued in a Politico op-ed on Friday that the Democratic Party must embrace "fundamental reforms" and "welcome into its ranks millions of working people and young people" if it is to build on this grassroots momentum and overcome the "unprecedented crisis" posed by the Trump administration.

"Do you believe in open primaries, or do you not? Do you believe in transparency or not? Do you believe in keeping 700-plus superdelegates or not? Do you believe in letting people vote in caucuses who currently cannot?"

—Sen. Bernie SandersSanders' plea for systemic change within the party that has been decimated at nearly every level of government over the past eight years comes just ahead of the final meeting of the DNC's "Unity Reform Commission," a group formed in the aftermath of the 2016 Democratic primary with the stated goal of "ensur[ing] that inclusivity is upheld in all things that we do."

Some of the reforms Sanders says the commission "desperately" needs to consider during its December meeting if it is to have any hope of defeating Trump's "agenda of the billionaire class" include:

Reducing the power of superdelegates, which currently have "the power to control the nominating process and ignore the will of voters";

"Making voting easier, and not harder" by "ending the absurdity of closed primary systems" that lock out independent voters and fully embracing "universal and same-day voter registration";

Developing a process that makes it easier for working people and students to participate in the voting process in states that use caucuses "even if they are not physically able to attend a caucus"; and

"Fully appreciat[ing] Donna Brazile's revelations and understand the need for far more transparency in the financial and policy workings of the Democratic Party." Brazile, Sanders wrote, "exposed the rot."

The Democratic Party, Sanders argues, "cannot remain an institution largely dominated by the wealthy and inside-the-Beltway consultants" if it is to defeat Trump's "reactionary agenda"—which includes massive tax breaks for the wealthy coupled with enormous cuts to life-saving social programs.

It is "not acceptable" that "hundreds of millions of dollars flow in and out of the DNC with little to no accountability," Sanders writes. "At a time when we have a Republican president and Republican Party whose leadership and agenda are strongly opposed by the American people, now is the time for real change. It is critical that we come together and reform the Democratic Party. When we do that, we will win local, state, and national elections and transform our country."

In addition to pressuring the Democrats to support his proposed reforms in op-eds and interviews with major news outlets, Sanders also began circulating a petition Thursday calling on DNC chair Tom Perez to work toward making the party "as open, as inclusive, and as progressive as it can possibly be."

Sanders told the Washington Post that the petition had already garnered tens of thousands of signatures just hours after going live.

"Do you believe in open primaries, or do you not? Do you believe in transparency or not? Do you believe in keeping 700-plus superdelegates or not? Do you believe in letting people vote in caucuses who currently cannot?" Sanders said, outlining the basic questions underlying his proposed reforms. "Those are the issues."

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License



RACHEL MADDOW --

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 11/24/17
Women lead backlash against Trump, whether U.S. is ready or not
Rachel Maddow looks at how the election of Donald Trump motivated women to action in protest and also in running for political office, and replays a portion of her earlier discussion with Hillary Clinton about how America responds to a woman running for office. Duration: 13:07


http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 11/22/17
Legal fund ambiguity a complicating influence in Trump probe
Rachel Maddow looks at how daunting the legal bills can be in for staffers in the Trump campaign and White House, and how a loose promise of a reimbursement fund might be used to influence testimony in the Mueller Trump Russia investigation. Duration: 24:42


http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 11/22/17
Trump risks 'hush money' accusations with witness legal fund
Michael Beschloss, NBC News presidential historian, talks with Rachel Maddow about why Donald Trump needs to be careful about making vague offers to cover legal fees for Trump Russia probe witnesses given the precedent set by Richard Nixon.Duration: 3:56


http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 11/21/17
Mueller examining Kushner contacts with foreign leaders: WSJ
Rachel Maddow relays a report from the Wall Street Journal that special counsel Robert Mueller is giving attention to Jared Kushner's contacts with foreign leaders during the Trump transition. Duration: 2:12


http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 11/21/17
Dismissal of key US attorney, Dana Boente, a mystery
Rachel Maddow describes the close proximity of U.S. attorney Dana Boente to some of key players and moments in the Trump Russia investigation, making his abrupt dismissal by Donald Trump particularly suspicious. Duration: 4:00


http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 11/21/17
Trump FCC would close internet with revocation of net neutrality
Xeni Jardin, editor of Boing Boing, talks with Rachel Maddow about why net neutrality is key to preserving the openness of the internet and why the Trump administration is likely to face a lot of uncomfortable pressure to undo its decision to revoke it.