One year ago, on August 9th, 2014, at 12:03PM CDT in Ferguson, Missouri at Canfield Green Apartments, the events of what happened that afternoon changed the fate of the city of Ferguson and the STL Metro Area forever. The event in question is the shooting of Michael Brown by Ferguson Police Department officer Darren Wilson (who has since resigned) and the subsequent protests, riots, and looting that came in the aftermath of the shooting and after the Wilson grand jury decision was handed down on November 24th, 2014 at approx. 8:20PM CDT. The Andy Wurm Tire and Auto lot and the sidewalk across the Ferguson Police Department on South Florissant has been (and still is) a site of protest activity. West Florissant between Chambers Rd. and Ferguson Ave. is also a prominent protest corridor.

Joe Rodgers at Sporting News:

A 20-year-old first baseman for the Brewers' rookie affiliate in Helena, Mont., Denson was relieved when his Brewers teammates showed their support.

"They said, 'You're still our teammate. You're still our brother,'" Denson told the Journal Sentinel. "'Your sexuality has nothing to do with your ability. You're still a ballplayer at the end of the day. We don't treat you any different. We've got your back.'

"That was a giant relief for me. I never wanted to feel like I was forcing it on them. It just happened. The outcome was amazing. It was nice to know my teammates see me for who I am, not my sexuality."

A Milwaukee Brewers minor leaguer has achieved a first in the game's long history by becoming the first active player in affiliated pro baseball to come out as gay.

David Denson, a first baseman for the Brewers' rookie league affiliate in Helena, Montana, was spurred to come out to his teammates when, about a month ago, a teammate in the clubhouse jokingly referred to him with a derogatory term for a gay male. "Be careful what you say. You never know," Denson told the teammate, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which Denson engaged to help to share his story with the public.

After that encounter, Denson knew he had the opportunity he had been waiting for to share with his teammates.

While David Denson was busy playing in a doubleheader for Rookie-level Helena on Saturday night in Idaho Falls, his words in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel were making history.

The Brewers prospect told the newspaper he's gay, becoming the first Minor or Major League Baseball player to publicly do so while still active.

According to the newspaper, Denson first told his parents and sister the news this spring, not long before informing certain members of the Brewers farm system, including farm director Reid Nichols, thanks to help from Brewers team counselor Becky Schnakenberg. He recently told his Helena teammates of his sexuality and was greeted with open arms.

James Schlarmann at The Political Garbage Chute:

HAZARD, TENNESSEE — When Clem O’Connor walked into the Taco Bell in his town for the first time, he was greeted with words, smells and tastes that offended him to his core. Though someone’s taste buds being offended in Taco Bell is nothing new, what made The Political Garbage Chute reach out to Clem was the reason for his outrage, and the campaign he’s started because of that outrage. O’Connor is convinced that Taco Bell is “an agent working for the Mexican government” and they are “infiltrating American culture one Cheesy Gordita Crunch at a time.” So Clem wants Taco Bell run out of his small Tennessee town, and he’s petitioned everyone from his local city council on up to the governor of the state to have the fast food chain thrown out of Hazard for good.

“You know there isn’t a single hamburger to be found on Taco Bell’s menu,” Clem asked our interviewer rhetorically while adding, “there is nothing more American than a hamburger. So I have to ask, what is about America that Taco Bell hates?”

[...]

Clem said that "until the border is secure, we can't have any more Mexicans coming over here" and that "coming to a place like America and seeing authentic Mexican food at places like Taco Bell might encourage them to come here illegally and never leave."

[...]

“All I’m saying is that we live in America,” Clem said while continuing, “and if you’re not going to adopt American values then you should get out. Taco Bell is an American restaurant in America. There should be cheeseburgers and fries on the menu, and I should be encouraged to bring my gun into the joint. That’s American values right there. But instead I have to settle for a Chalupa and a seven layer burrito and I have to leave my gun in the car.”

I did my googling, and Hazard, Tennessee does not exist. Hazard, Kentucky is where the Taco Bell that O'Connor is proposing to shut down because of his irrational fear of Mexicans, encouraged by the likes of Donald Trump, Breitbart, and Fixed Noise.

The racially-motivated incident prompted a backlash against the company, with the hashtag #LaughingWhileBlack.

Howard Yune at Napa Valley Register:

The train stopped in St. Helena, where the women -- 10 black and one white -- were escorted through the six cars and off the train before a van took them back to Napa, she told the Register Sunday afternoon.

After Johnson detailed the aborted train ride on Facebook and Twitter later Saturday -- declaring her group was guilty of nothing more than “#laughingwhileblack” -- social media users from across the country used the platform to excoriate the rail company.

[...]

“She said people were complaining and I said, ‘Who’s complaining?’ And she said, ‘Well, people’s faces are uncomfortable,'” said Johnson. “At that point, one passenger nearby said, 'Well, this is not a bar.' We reacted, 'Yes, it is a bar, a bar on wheels.'"

[...]

The expelled book club members will soon decide on their next steps, said Johnson, including whether to pursue a lawsuit or civil rights complaint against the Wine Train.

What started as a joyous ride through wine county Saturday afternoon turned into a “humiliating” experience for 11 African American women, who said they were booted off the Napa Valley Wine Train for laughing and talking too loud.

Accounts and pictures of the episode have been spreading across social media, spawning the hashtag #LaughingWhileBlack while the women involved have questioned whether they would have been treated differently if they were not African American.

“It was humiliating. I’m really offended to be quite honest,” said 47-year-old Lisa Johnson, who was among Saturday’s group. “I felt like it was a racist attack on us. I feel like we were being singled out.”

[...]
The women — all wearing matching T-shirts — were all seated in the same car in adjacent tables and seats, laughing and having a good time. They and the other passengers on the sold-out train were ordering tastings and glasses of wine as they rode the 18-mile stretch from Napa to St. Helena through California’s most famous and picturesque vineyards and wineries.

And while the group — which included an 83-year-old grandmother — may at times have been “rambunctious,” they were not “obnoxious or intoxicated,” Johnson said.

The group of friends have all been given refunds from the train company, but they want a public apology.

However, Napa Valley Wine Train spokeswoman Kira Devitt said on Sunday that her company had “received complaints from several parties in the same car and after three attempts from staff, requesting that the group keep the noise to an acceptable level, they were removed from the train and offered transportation back to the station in Napa.”

This is the racist white lady who complained about ppl laughing & got 12 black ladies kicked off the #winetrainpic.twitter.com/7UJ2UCG7SP

— Bassem Masri (@bassem_masri) August 24, 2015

Lisa Johnson, one of the 11 ejected ladies, on Facebook summed it up best:

Alex Seitz-Wald at MSNBC:

MINNEAPOLIS – The Democratic National Committee passed a resolution Friday afternoon supporting the Black Lives Matter movement at the party’s summer meeting. The national party also affirmed a resolution supporting same-sex marriage in every state and another honoring the son of Vice President Joe Biden, Beau Biden, who passed away in May.

[...]
The resolution passed the party’s resolutions committee Thursday afternoon, and then was affirmed by the larger meeting of hundreds of DNC delegates Friday.

WHEREAS, the Democratic Party believes in the American Dream and the promise of liberty and justice for all, and we know that this dream is a nightmare for too many young people stripped of their dignity under the vestiges of slavery, Jim Crow and White Supremacy; and

WHEREAS, we, the Democratic National Committee, have repeatedly called for race and justice – demilitarization of police, ending racial profiling, criminal justice reform, and investments in young people, families, and communities — after Trayvon Martin, after Michael Brown, after Tamir Rice, after Freddie Gray, after Sandra Bland, after Christian Taylor, after too many others lost in the unacceptable epidemic of extrajudicial killings of unarmed black men, women, and children at the hands of police; and

WHEREAS, we hear the “Black lives matter” cry from the inspiration of creators Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, and Alicia Garza, and from the heart of a generation of young African Americans who feel totally dismissed and unheard as they are crushed between unlawful street violence and unjust police violence; we salute the courageous young people who participate in the #March2Justice, and we repeat the chant “say her name” to acknowledge the Black women whose stories are often untold and whose cases are unresolved; and

WHEREAS, without systemic reform this state of unrest jeopardizes the well-being of our democracy and our nation;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the DNC joins with Americans across the country in affirming “Black lives matter” and the “say her name” efforts to make visible the pain of our fellow and sister Americans as they condemn extrajudicial killings of unarmed African American men, women and children; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the DNC renews our previous calls to action and urges Congress to adopt systemic reforms at state, local, and federal levels to prohibit law enforcement from profiling based on race, nationality, ethnicity, or religion, to minimize the transfer of excess equipment (like the military-grade vehicles and weapons that were used to police peaceful civilians in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri) to federal and state law enforcement; and to support prevention programs that give young people alternatives to incarceration.

Benjamin Dixon at If You Only News:

The basis of this violent rant was the tragic killing of Texas Deputy Darren Goforth. In the video, Ener instructs all white people to get involved even if all they use is a slingshot. He then lets them know that he, and others like him, would handle the rest. Later in the video he pulls out his shotgun, cocks it, and tells any black protestors that that sound would be the last they hear when he and others like him come into their homes.

He specifically calls out the Black Panthers, #BlackLivesMatter and Sandra Bland by calling her a “freakin’ thug,” and stating that her life and the lives of “thugs” don’t matter. If you listen to the subtext of his ridiculous rant, you will realize that he is clearly defining “thugs” as anyone who would dare protest and march against systemic racism and white supremacy of which this video demonstrates he is a proponent.

“Starting now we holding these people responsible,” Ener warned. “Like I said, it stops now. Don’t ever let a Black Panther or any black group come to your town and march in that town and get done and be able to get in their vehicle and leave. That’s over with.”

Ener has previously been involved in confrontations with civil rights activist Quanell X over the mysterious death of Alfred Wright, and the Hemphill man has also promoted events by the Ku Klux Klan and the Redneck Mafia.

“Law enforcement, I’m talking to you now,” said Ener, a retired corrections officer. “When we get there — and we’re going to be there — step aside. Our fight is not with you — it’s for you.”

Ener urged older people and children to buy slingshots at Walmart to “pepper their ass with rocks” to disable black activists’ vehicles and force them to flee on foot — where they can be more easily targeted with violence.

“You light them up like they got mumps and measles when they go home with all the bumps and knots all over their asses,” Ener added. “They won’t come back, and what’s left of them — myself and some other people — we’ll take care of that.”

[...]
“The last fricking thing some of you sons of b*tches will ever hear is that noise when we’re out there, when we come in your goddamn house,” Ener warned. “Don’t ever threaten another cop in Texas, don’t ever threaten another white person. You black bastards, you goddamn Panthers and sh*t, try to come to another town and try to march — see what happens to you.”

After the confrontation, a person by the name of Nathan Ener went to Facebook and promoted a peaceful rally for this upcoming weekend in Hemphill.  He says it will include the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Pineknot Mafia, and Redneck Mafia just to name a few. Ener later spoke with KSLA News 12 Anchor, Domonique Benn and said that the protest is called off for this weekend.  He said he wanted to make it clear that he isn't a racist.  When asked why he posted the information about the Klan on his Facebook page, he said he simply wanted to let the people in the town know the Klan was coming.

Nathan Ener former police officer calling for the killing of people exercising their Constitutional rights. Whew we have a long way to go.

— Doretha Gill (@dodi70) September 1, 2015

His unbelievably tone deaf rant about #BlackLivesMatter protesters and Sandra Bland:

Zack Ford at Think Progress LGBT:

At Hillsboro High School in Missouri, Lila Perry came out as transgender last year. She used a unisex faculty restroom for a time, but felt ostracized, so this year told the school she wanted to be treated like other female students and use the girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. The school has been supportive, but parents have have not.

Parents at the school have claimed that Perry’s bathroom usage is violating the privacy of other girls. They held a protest Monday alongside a student walkout while Perry remained in the principal’s office for her safety. Shortly after, Jeff Childs and his son Blayke held their own demonstration, driving around the parking lot with “Girls Rights Matter” painted on their Ford pickup. “This needs to stop before it goes too far,” Childs warned.

The conservative legal juggernaut the Alliance Defending Freedom has also gotten involved, sending a letter to the district asking it to change its decision. “Compelling students to share restrooms and locker rooms with members of the opposite sex,” the letter claims, “violates their right to bodily privacy and would not only lead to potential legal liability for the School District and its employees, but would also violate the students’ and parents’ fundamental rights.”

[...]

But transgender-inclusive policies do make a difference for the students most impacted by them. Lila Perry, for example, dropped out of her physical education class because there was too little supervision to ensure she felt safe. Moreover, though she insists, “I am a girl. I am not going to be pushed away to another bathroom,” she admits that she rarely uses the bathroom now at school. One study in the Washington, D.C. area found that 70 percent of transgender people had experienced some kind of negative reaction when just trying to use the restroom.

“I’m not going to hurt their daughters,” Perry explained. “I’m not going to expose myself. I’m not a pervert; I’m a transgender woman; I’m a girl. I’m just in there to change, do my business, and that if they have any questions about being transgender, they are more than welcome to talk to me, and I’ll be happy to explain it.”

Around 150 students at Hillsboro (Mo.) High School walked out of school Monday to protest against a trans classmate using the girls’ locker room during gym class. Thirty or forty students also protested in support of Lila Perry, a Hillsboro senior who has identified as female since age 13 and came out as trans last school year.

The protest followed a contentious school board meeting last Thursday, where some parents voiced their concerns about their girls sharing a locker room with another girl.

“There’s a lot of ignorance, they are claiming that they’re uncomfortable. I don’t believe for a second that they are. I think this is pure and simple bigotry,” Perry told local news station KMOV.

Elizabeth Denton at Seventeen Magazine:

High school senior Lila Perry has identified as a female since she was 13​-years-old. In the middle of the school year last year at Hillsboro High School​in Hillsboro, MO, she came out publicly as transgender. ​The school is compliant with Title IX and has gender-neutral bathrooms, ​but Lila decided she's tired of the segregation. She wants to use the girls' bathrooms and locker rooms since she's a girl, but students at her school aren't having it.

Yesterday morning, 150 of Lila's fellow students walked out in protest of her using the girl's locker room in gym class. The walkout lasted for two hours, and Lila stayed inside the principal's office because she was afraid for her safety.

“I’m hoping this dies down,” said Lila Perry, the 17-year-old who began identifying as a girl publicly in February. “I don’t want my entire senior year to be like this.”

Ms. Perry, who began feeling “more like a girl than a boy” when she was 13, said school officials gave her permission to use the girls’ facilities as the new school year began.

[...]

The Missouri Gay-Straight Alliance Network will host a rally supporting Ms. Perry on Friday.

HILLSBORO, MO (KTVI) - Students staged a walk-out even though a transgender student at Hillsboro High School has decided to drop out of P.E. class and quit changing in the girl's locker room. It is an issue that educators across the country are dealing with.

Students walked out for almost two hours. Some against what the transgender student has been doing, others supporting her.

DanaBusted.blogspot.com on Loesch's misgendering of Lila Perry:

I have family and friends with children in the Hillsboro School District. That this issue is taking place here, a rural community about 45 minutes south of St. Louis, is pretty unbelievable. A young man, a senior in high school, has decided to "identify" as a girl and was given use of the gender-neutral faculty restroom. It wasn't a good enough option; he demanded use of the girls's locker rooms and restrooms as well, a move which made the girls extremely uncomfortable. Many students and parents oppose.
[...]
Unfortunately, he isn't like other female students because he isn't female. He also doesn't get to determine what's best for hundreds of young girls or judge their reaction. Hundreds of students walked out in protest. The young man claims the girls are bigots for wanting to be comfortable while undressing.

From the 09.01.2015 edition of KFTK/Radio America's The Dana Show:

He also appeared on TheBlazeTV's Dana later on to spew more anti-trans rhetoric.

From the 09.01.2015 edition of TheBlazeTV's Dana:

The real bigot is people like you and the transphobic protesters who were opposed to Lila Perry.

PROMO Missouri is encouraging people to #StandByLila:

Hillsboro thank you for NOT discriminating against transgender students. #StandByLilahttp://t.co/...pic.twitter.com/PUD7R06ISQ

— PROMO Missouri (@PROMOMissouri) August 31, 2015

Facebook user Ryan Coleman gives the cold hard facts about the transphobia Lila's facing:

Stephen C. Deere at STLToday.com:

FERGUSON • It took nearly 10 months, countless meetings, extensive research, expert testimony, public hearings, and an estimated 20,000 hours of work from commissioners and other volunteers who participated in the process.

On Monday, the Ferguson Commission will formally unveil its product: a 198-page report that recommends changes in a variety of areas, in an attempt to address racial inequities highlighted by mass demonstrations over the past year.

“The law says all citizens are equal,” the report states in its introduction. “But the data says not everyone is treated that way.”

• Consolidating the metro area’s many police departments and municipal courts — both of which have been accused of targeting minorities to raise revenue for cities and seen as key factors in the unrest following Brown’s death.

• Establishing a statewide use-of-force database to track police shootings and make the data publicly available.

• Developing a comprehensive statewide plan for dealing with mass demonstrations that focuses on the preservation of human life and allowing credentialed members of the media to cover events without being threatened with arrest.

• Ending hunger for children and families, partly by expanding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance and the Women, Infant and Children food programs, as well as identifying children during the school year who will need summer meal programs.

• Establishing school-based healing centers that will address behavioral and health issues.

• Ensuring access to equitable rigorous high school courses to help narrow the gap between the number of white and minority students who need remedial instruction in college.

• Ending predatory lending by capping the maximum annual percentage rate of interest for loans at 36 percent.

The commission set out to examine racial and economic gaps through the St. Louis region, and come up with policy recommendations. In their final report, the commission provides an unvarnished look at how a racially divided St. Louis underserves the African-American community.

The report provides a host of recommendations to transform how the region polices and educates itself – and its most vulnerable citizens. And in many cases, the suggestions would require the backing of a state legislature that may well balk.

In all of this, Starsky Wilson, the co-chairman of the commission, knows he's venturing into familiar territory.

• Bringing in Missouri's attorney general as a special prosecutor for police-involved killings. The report also recommends using the Missouri Highway Patrol as an investigative agency.
• Setting up a public database keeping track of police-involved killings from around the state.
• Expanding the amount of police officer training, particularly on interacting with residents, handling demonstrations and dealing with minority communities.
• Creating municipal and county review boards of police departments.
• Consolidating municipal police departments and municipal courts.
• Treating nonviolent offenses as civil violations – and collecting municipal court debts similarly to collecting civil debts.
• Creating "Community Justice Centers" that would provide "case management and social work services," giving judges and prosecutors "a broad range of alternative sentencing options."

“Police reform calls to action address use of force, police training, civilian review, and response to demonstration,” the report states. “Court reform calls to action address sentencing practices, protection of constitutional rights, and conflicts of interest in municipal and county courts. Consolidation calls to action address consolidation among St. Louis County’s 81 different municipal courts and 60 separate municipal police departments.”

Right there we are reminded that reformers are up against a powerful sector that combines law enforcement with organized labor – that is, the police – and that has leverage over both Democrats and Republicans. And the political landscape that must be changed is broken into a jigsaw puzzle of municipalities, police departments, municipal courts and school districts. Consolidating them will require a major act of political will – perhaps a great many major acts of political will, one for every municipality – and significantly reforming all of these splintered institutions individually before consolidation would require a whole lot of “problem-solving machines.”

In a 198-page report to be made public in Ferguson, Mo., on Monday afternoon, the commission lays out goals that are ambitious, wide ranging and, in many cases, politically delicate. Among 47 top priorities, the group calls for increasing the minimum wage, expanding eligibility for Medicaid and consolidating the patchwork of 60 police forces and 81 municipal courts that cover St. Louis and its suburbs.

The commission offers a blunt, painful picture of racial inequity in the region. Black motorists were 75 percent more likely to be pulled over for traffic stops in Missouri than whites last year, the report notes. The average life expectancy in one mostly black suburb, Kinloch, is more than three decades less than in the mostly white suburb of Wildwood, the report finds. And 14.3 percent of black elementary students in Missouri were suspended at least once during a recent school year, compared with 1.8 percent of white students.

[...]

The commission, though, envisions many more shifts ahead. It calls for an end to predatory lending practices, and the creation of “inclusionary” zoning laws. It wants a task force to study the complex education landscape in the St. Louis region, and a revision of the state’s schools accreditation system.

On questions of policing, the proposed changes are among the most extensive. The commission calls for assigning the state attorney general as a special prosecutor in all cases of police use of force resulting in deaths; requiring the state highway patrol to investigate most police use of force cases ending in deaths; creating a statewide use of force database, available to the public, charting use-of-force complaints; and directing police departments to revise their policies and training to authorize only the minimal use of force needed.

Some of the #Ferguson Commission's signature items in their final report. More details: http://t.co/...pic.twitter.com/eMEoAWsFo2

— STL Public Radio (@stlpublicradio) September 14, 2015

Report also calls for more police training, including implicit bias training:

Ferguson Commission's report calls for expanded officer training, among other reforms. More: http://t.co/...pic.twitter.com/os9dY83hkb

— NPR (@NPR) September 14, 2015

Economic reforms to be addressed, including the rise of the minimum wage and ending predatory lending practices:

Ferguson Commission calls for wide-ranging reforms to address racial inequity, including changes to economic policy pic.twitter.com/6wMU9RNaCa

— NPR (@NPR) September 14, 2015

The report on conflict of interest and collusion issues among judges and prosecutors (page 83):

Prevent Conflicts of Interest Among Judges
Municipal judges shall be prohibited from engaging in
municipal court practice in the county in which they serve
as a municipal judge.

Prevent Conflicts of Interest Among Prosecutors
Municipal prosecutors shall be prohibited from
representing criminal defendants in municipal courts
within the county in which they serve as a prosecutor.

Apply Conflict-of-Interest Rules Universally
The Missouri Supreme Court shall not exempt municipal
court personnel from its conflict-of-interest rules.

Prevent Targeting and Collusion in the Municipal Governance System
The Legislature and the Supreme Court shall create rules
to require the principal actors in the entire system of
municipal governance (municipal officials, police officers,
prosecutors, municipal court judges) to sign an annual
code of ethics that prohibits targeting or collusion.

Provide Medical Services for People in Custody
All municipalities shall develop and implement an
operating plan to provide necessary medical services,
including mental health services, for all persons in custody.

Establish Search and Seizure Procedures for LGBTQ Populations
Law enforcement agencies statewide shall establish
search and seizure procedures related to LGBTQ and
transgender populations.
(Adapted from Recommendation 2.12 of Presidential
Task Force on 21st Century Policing report)

• Create policies and procedures that are clientcentric.
(i.e. Individuals employed in shift work
jobs cannot easily answer telephone calls. Failure
to answer call forces individual to go to the “back
of the line”).
• Support and advocate for the expansion of SNAP
(Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and
WIC (Women, Infant and Children) programs.
• Ensure the ease of SNAP/WIC enrollment by
increasing positions in Family Services Division
and creating an online enrollment system and
implement “presumptive eligibility” into SNAP
for all children on free and reduced lunch.
• Identify students, before the end of the school
year, who need summer feeding programs and
link families to available food resources.
• Coordinate region wide, summer food programs
and dinner food programs including a regional
volunteer recruitment effort to staff summer and
dinner programs.
• Broadly examine food insecurity in the region
with a goal to end hunger in the region.
• Encourage institutions and non-profit
organizations serving youth and families to
incorporate a two question, food screening tool
to determine if a child/family are at high risk of
hunger.
• Educate schools with 40%+ students determined
eligible for free and reduced lunch that they
are eligible to participate in the Community
Eligibility Provision Program (CEP).

Projects for the St. Louis Region
Identify agreed upon priority transportation project(s) for
the St. Louis region (e.g., extending MetroLink on the
proposed North-South corridor, implementing Bus Rapid
Transit) in order to elevate the importance of key projects
for the region and make tangible the need and potential
benefits of transit.
Incentivize residents of St. Louis City and County to try
transit by:
• Implementing a ridership program that educates
individuals on how to use the system for work or
education trips and demonstrates the possibilities
for job access and educational trips and potential
personal cost savings;
• Improving bus tracking to enhance the ease with
which bus transit can fit into one’s schedule;
• Creating a reloadable transit card that obviates the
need for exact change for each ride; and
Forward Through Ferguson: A Path Toward Racial Equity
• Enhancing the public transit amenities among
current and future bus routes (e.g., bus shelters and
benches).

Protect the right of workers to organize and
collectively bargain.

Ensure language access for non-English speakers through
enforcement and expansion of Missouri Revised Statute
476.803.1 for courts-related services and addition of
statute to include all emergency services, including
law-enforcement departments and ambulance services.
Consider revision of statute to disallow parents to serve as
first-option translators for children in court.

Cory Shaffer at Cleveland.com:

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office released reports Saturday from two experts in use of force by police who concluded that the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by a Cleveland officer was "tragic" and "heartbreaking," but reasonable given that the officer believed the boy to be armed.

[...]

Retired Virginia FBI agent Kimberly Crawford and Denver-area District Attorney S. Lamar Sims, nationally renowned experts on police use-of-force issues, each stressed that they did not look at whether Loehmann or his partner Frank Garmback violated Ohio laws, made tactical mistakes or broke with department policy in the moments leading up to the shooting.

They only examined the constitutionality of Loehmann's decision to open fire on the boy during their two-second encounter.

 "There can be no doubt that Rice's death was tragic and, indeed, when one considers his age, heartbreaking," Sims wrote in a 52-page analysis. "However, I conclude that Officer Loehmann's belief that Rice posed a threat of serious physical harm or death was objectively reasonable as was his response to that perceived threat."

The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office is releasing three expert reports regarding the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by a Cleveland police officer on November 22, 2014. The Cleveland police officers involved in the case are Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback. The office has made no decision in the case.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A white Cleveland police officer was justified in fatally shooting a black 12-year-old boy holding a pellet gun moments after pulling up beside him, according to two outside reviews conducted at the request of the prosecutor investigating the death.

A retired FBI agent and a Denver prosecutor both found the rookie patrolman who shot Tamir Rice exercised a reasonable use of force because he had reason to perceive the boy -- described in an emergency call as a man waving and pointing a gun -- as a serious threat.

CLEVELAND (AP) — The lawyer for the family of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy holding a pellet gun who was fatally shot by a Cleveland patrolman, says reports finding that the shooting was justified show the prosecutor's office is avoiding accountability.

Subodh Chandra says the Rice family wants the officers held accountable and it seems "the prosecutor's office has been on a 12-month quest" to avoid it.

JUST IN: Family of #TamirRice statement on tonight's news that two experts call officers' actions "reasonable". @wkycpic.twitter.com/d3im4H4Mzl

— Chris Tye (@TVTye) October 11, 2015

Good to see this pubic scolding of the Cleveland Police Union. http://t.co/...#TamirRicepic.twitter.com/m6hbbHuLxc

— Amy (@AmyStephen) October 11, 2015

OH is an open carry state. #TamirRice had a toy gun and threatened no one.

— Goldie Taylor (@goldietaylor) October 11, 2015

Nothing excusable about Tamir Rice's death. Justifying his murder shows unreasonable bias in favor of police. https://t.co/...

— Rosie Knotts (@KnottsRosie) October 11, 2015

Lawyer for Tamir Rice family says reports finding shooting was justified show prosecutor avoiding accountability.

— Jennifer Banks (@JBanksFOX5) October 11, 2015

The review of deadly force in #TamirRice case is more simply summed up by: reasonable is whatever officer judges is reasonable, full stop.

— TC (@tchop_stl) October 11, 2015

Trump and his supporters at his rallies have a historyofracistandviolentHispanophobicbehaviordirectedattheLatino/acommunity (and Muslims), and this is just the latest of a long line of such incidents.

Ian Millhiser at Think Progress Immigration:

Video captured by a local TV reporter in Miami shows a man who disagrees with GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s immigration policies being violently ejected from a Trump campaign event. In the video, an unidentified white man wearing a red polo shirt is seen pulling another man identified as a protester by the back of his shirt. When the protester falls to the ground, the man in the polo shirt then drags him along the floor towards the room’s exit. Towards the end of the video, the polo-shirted man appears to kick the protester while the protester is still lying on the ground.

As this protester is being dragged out of the room, the crowd around him loudly chants “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

Donald Trump’s events tend to get more rowdy than a Jerry Springer show these days. Footage captured by a local reporter in Miami showed a man being brutally removed from the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign event after disagreeing with the GOP frontrunner’s immigration policies.

In the video below, we’re able to see a male protester being violently pulled toward the exit by a white man in a red polo shirt. When the protester falls onto the ground, his attacker doesn’t give up. The protester is then dragged across the floor before his assailant lets him go, delivering a few kicks. During the entire disturbing encounter, the crowd around the two men are cheering and chanting, “U-S-A! U-S-A!”, egging on the white man and drowning out other protesters.

The video, posted to Facebook by NBC6, shows protester Ariel Rojas being knocked to the ground and roughly dragged by a Trump supporter at the Miami event as other supporters chant, “USA! USA!”

NBC6 reports Rojas was one of several groups protesting Trump on Friday night at the Trump National Miami Doral Resort. Trump has made public statements against people of Mexican descent and women since launching his campaign. Rojas was holding the letter “Q” in a line-up of demonstrators spelling out the word “Equality.”

In the video, a bald man in a red shirt can be seen grabbing Rojas’ shirt then yanking him down onto his back and dragging him. Rojas is able sit up briefly after falling but the man kicks him then grabs his shirt again to try and drag him before bystanders intervene. Trump can be heard continuing to talk to the raucous crowd despite the violence.

Rojas and his group are students at Florida International University. He said before he was dragged out, Trump supporters grabbed their signs and tore them up.

Rojas told NBC6 he saw another Trump supporter hit a protester with a sign that read, “The silent majority supports Trump.”

Seems like Trump's supporters want to #MakeAmericaRacistAgain by acting like yuge racist arseholes.

NBC New York:

The Black Lives Matter movement is creating an environment that can put police officers at risk, Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie said Sunday, accusing President Barack Obama of supporting the movement, encouraging "lawlessness" and not backing up law enforcement.

"I don't believe that movement should be justified when they are calling for the murder of police officers," Christie said on CBS'"Face the Nation." Told that some individual members have been recorded calling for the deaths of officers, Christie replied that the environment is "what the movement is creating."

Black Lives Matter was established after the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teen, by a neighborhood watch enthusiast, and has become an issue in the 2016 presidential campaign. The group said on its Facebook page in September that conservatives are trying to turn the movement into a danger to officers.

"We're targeting the brutal system of policing, not individual police," the movement said in its statement. "The Black Lives Matter Network seeks to end the system of policing that allows for unchecked violence against black people."

According to the New Jersey governor, the president’s embrace of Black Lives Matter was just a symptom of his lawlessness, which Christie said included sanctuary cities.

“That type of lawlessness sets a tone, and then when you have liberal mayors like Bill de Blasio in New York who are basically tying one hand behind the back of police officers, and then we have folks — murder rate up 11 percent — police officers in New York City being murdered,” Christie argued. “I’ll be the type of president who will back up law enforcement, back up the police officers because I was a law enforcement officer.”

The Guardian:

Christie, the governor of New Jersey and a former US attorney, presents himself as a tough voice on law and order issues. He is nonetheless well down in polls regarding the 15-strong Republican presidential field.

On Sunday he said Black Lives Matter was “creating” an environment, as, he said, some of its supporters had chanted for the death of police.

Obama last week defended Black Lives Matter, urging the nation to take police treatment of black Americans seriously.

“We, as a society, particularly given our history, have to take this seriously,” Obama said.

Kamilah Muhammad at The Odyssey Online on debunking the right's lies about #BlackLivesMatter:

The media frenzy would have one believe that the uproar Black Lives Matter is creating is inciting people to go out and kill police officers. In reality, the shooting of police officers is down 16 percent this year. What the media does not display is the surge of black men and minorities in general killed by police officers.

The Cops' Lives Matter campaign that has recently sprung up all over social media is not a reasonable one, because cops' lives evidently do matter. When there is a manhunt that goes on for days and days using thousands of on- and off-duty officers, as well as volunteers, it is obvious that policemen's lives matter -- as they should. There is no doubt that cops' lives matter. The question is whether black lives matter, and therefore there is a need for a slogan, campaign, and movement. Thousands show up in honor one of their fallen cop coworkers, but after the murder of Michael Brown, his blood still stained the ground and only a cone stood in the place where his body lay for hours.

And while all lives should certainly matter, the need to specify and highlight black lives is clear. Unarmed Black men are disproportionately killed by police officers and are almost never charged and even more rarely convicted.

From the 10.25.2015 edition of CBS's Face The Nation:

WLTX:

The video began spreading on social media sites Monday afternoon. In it, a female student can be seen sitting in her chair in a classroom where several other students are present. An officer can be seen grabbing the student out of her desk, causing the chair to flip over. Once the student is on the ground, the officer can be seen grabbing the student and dragging her for several feet.

The officer then tells the girl to put her hands behind her back. The video stops at that point.

The Richland County Sheriff's Department is the agency that has school resource officers at Spring Valley High. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott tells News19 that a disruptive student refused to leave after a teacher asked her to. An administrator was called to the room, and also asked the student to leave, Lott said, and she refused again. Finally, the school resource officer came to the room. Lott said the officer forcibly removed the student and she resisted arrest.

A new video demonstrates the dramatic consequences of what's widely known as the "school-to-prison pipeline."

The video, taken by a student at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina, shows an in-school arrest going terribly wrong. A police officer apparently tells a female student to get up. When she seemingly disobeys, the officer flips over the student and her desk, and then tosses her to the other side of the room. The officer then finishes the arrest while the student lies on the floor.

Again, this is all happening in a public school in America. And to the students, it doesn't even seem surprising — those visible in the videos calmly watch the situation unfold or turn away.

WLTX's Joyce Koh reports that the officer has been directed to not return to any school in the district, while an investigation is underway:

Superintendent: "Pending the outcome of the investigation, the District has directed that the SRO not return to any school in the District."

— Joyce Koh (@JoyceKohWLTX) October 26, 2015

Officer Fields should have his badge revoked after this incident.

New York Daily News (and former Daily Kos staffer) writer Shaun King on Ben Fields:

Longer clip from a new student. Officer Ben Fields can be heard telling another student "I'll put you in jail next"https://t.co/...

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) October 26, 2015

Students & Grads @ Spring Valley High School have now told me of 4 separate incidents of brutality with Officer Ben Fields.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) October 26, 2015

Don't you dare critique the other students in this video for being frozen. Had they intervened & gotten killed we'd all ask why.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) October 26, 2015

Also, after these 15 seconds are over, many students could not contain their anger, & were threatened by the officer #AssaultAtSpringValley

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) October 26, 2015

Johnetta Elzie (@Nettaaaaaaaa):

And this poor baby. She is not making a sound. I can not imagine what her thoughts were before, during or after this officer brutalized her.

— Johnetta Elzie (@Nettaaaaaaaa) October 26, 2015

Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill):

Let's be clear... NOBODY would be asking what that little girl did to deserve a police assault if she were white.

— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) October 26, 2015

Brittany Packnett (@MsPackyetti):

Black girls suffer greatly from overpolicing in schools. Via @aapf:

#SpringValleyHighpic.twitter.com/aJP42m3Ht7

— Brittany Packnett (@MsPackyetti) October 26, 2015

What happened at #SpringValleyHigh was armed assault on a minor.

Period.

— Brittany Packnett (@MsPackyetti) October 26, 2015

Zack Ford at Think Progress on the truth about HERO:

On Tuesday, Houston voters will weigh in on Proposition 1, the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO). In the past week, HERO has won support from some prominent leaders, companies, and celebrities, while its opponents have continued to spread fear about what they call the “bathroom ordinance.”

HERO would create a broad swath of nondiscrimination protections for the city of Houston, including protections based on race, religion, sex, military status, pregnancy, genetic information, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Its opponents have zeroed in on the protections for transgender people, claiming that they will somehow protect “men” who wish to prey on women and children in public restrooms.

By consistently putting out the message that predators will invade women's restrooms (even after the claim has been repeatedly refuted by city officials, professionals who work with sexual abuse victims, and others), opponents of the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) have closed the polling gap and some experts have predicted a win for them in Tuesday's referendum.

HERO would create sweeping nondiscrimination protections for the city, which, unlike most cities across the country, has no such law protecting any class. And though it protects multiple identity factors, including religion, race, military status, disability, and pregnancy, opponents of the bill have focused on a very narrow aspect of its sexual orientation and gender identity protections — specifically, demonizing transgender women as sexual predators.

Opponents of HERO, identifying themselves as the “Campaign for Houston,” have blanketed the city with billboards, radio ads, television ads, and other forms of messaging, all of which focus on the singular message: “No men in women’s bathrooms!” The “men” refers to a distorted understanding of transgender women, individuals who were assigned male at birth but who have the inherent gender identity of a woman and would find protection from discrimination for that identity under HERO.

One ad misleadingly claims, “Any man at any time could enter a women’s bathroom simply by claiming to be a woman that day.” The campaign has also referenced “gender-confused men,” whose use of women’s facilities is, as one ad described it, “filthy, disgusting, and unsafe.”

[...]

Allowing transgender people to use the restrooms that match their identities does not lead to sexual assault. Plenty of other cities — even in Texas — have approved the protections and the supposed consequences have not occurred. Moreover, how opponents of HERO portray sexual assault isn’t even accurate. Cassandra Thomas, a national leader on sexual violence research and advocacy who works with the Houston Area’s Women Center, explains that sexual assault is overwhelmingly carried out by people the victim knows, not by strangers pretending to be transgender in bathrooms.

The Houston Equal Rights Ordinance does not make it legal to harm someone in a bathroom. It does not protect sexual predators, it does not allow men to freely use women’s bathrooms or locker rooms, and it does not let rapists off the hook.

The Houston Equal Rights Ordinance is not a “bathroom ordinance.”There is literally nothing in the ordinance language that says anything about bathrooms.

Additionally, there is a 1972 Houston law that specifically states, “It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly and intentionally enter any public restroom designated for the exclusive use of the sex opposite to such person’s sex without the permission of the owner, tenant, manager, lessee or other person in charge of the premises, in a manner calculated to cause a disturbance.”

That means it’s illegal to go into a bathroom with the intent to harm someone. And, last time we checked, rapists and abusers are going to behave as you would expect them to behave–without regard for the law, with or without an equal rights ordinance.

Some key opponents of Prop 1 that are calling for HERO's repeal include Campaign For Houston, No Unequal Rights, Bob McNair, Rafael Cruz, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Steve and Becky Riggle, and Lance Berkman.

The polls have shown a very close battle, with the pro-HERO side slightly ahead in polling.If you live in Houston and support HERO or undecided about supporting HERO, please vote YES to keep it in as law in H-Town tomorrow!

Hashtags: #HERO, #YesOn1HOU, #YesOnProp1, #KeepHERO, #BeyBeAHERO

Today, Mizzou Head Coach Gary Pinkel posted in a tweet that he bravely stood in solidarity with the Black football players striking over the inaction of School President Tim Wolfe on combatting racism on the University of Missouri campus. 

Joel Anderson at BuzzFeed:

A group of black football players at the University of Missouri said Saturday they refuse to keep playing unless the school’s president resigns, angered by his administration’s perceived failure to combat racism on campus.

[...]

“We will no longer participate in any football related activities until President Tim Wolfe resigns or is removed due to his negligence toward marginalized students’ experiences. WE ARE UNITED!!!!!”

The message was shared online by a school group called the Legion of Black Collegians (LBC).

Carmiah Townes at Think Progress Sports:

Following a series of racist incidents on campus, at least 32 members of the University of Missouri’s football team will not play until the school’s president, Tim Wolfe, resigns. On Saturday night, a group of black players declared that they are going on strike, citing Wolfe’s “negligence” in handling discrimination on campus.

The announcement was tweeted from Missouri’s Legion of Black Collegians, next to a photo of 32 players with linked arms. According to the Columbia Missourian, 60 of the 124 players on the current roster are black, but the exact number joining the protest is undetermined.

[...]

African-Americans make up 7 percent of the student body. The athletes’ decision came days after a graduate student named Jonathan Butler went on hunger strike for the same reasons.

“The revolting acts that are occurring at Mizzou are a result of a poisonous infestation of apathy that has been spawning from University of Missouri system leadership,” Butler wrote in a Facebook post Monday, when he announced his strike. “For some that may seem like a flamboyant statement but when you sit back and reflect on the fact that a MU student felt comfortable enough with the campus culture to use their own feces to draw a swastika on campus, that really tells you about the direction in which the University of Missouri is headed.”

USA Today, via KSDK:

Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel made it clear Sunday that the players threatening to boycott team activities and games have his full support.

"The Mizzou family stands as one. We are united. We are behind our players," Pinkel said in a tweet.

John Zupon at KOMU:

COLUMBIA - Members of the Missouri football team are standing with the #ConcernedStudent1950 movement on MU's campus. The movement's goal is to remove UM System President Tim Wolfe over his response to racist incidents on campus.

Les Carpenter at The Guardian:

But as a Missouri graduate I am far prouder of this football team than the previous two that won back-to-back SEC East titles. I am proud of this team because its African American players have done something we wish more college athletes would do: they have said they want people to know their time at school is going to be about something more than four seasons of chasing the NFL.

They say they want to make a difference on their campus. And for that we should all applaud.

College is supposed to be a place for growing and for understanding the bigger world. By boycotting football practices, games and activities until university president Tim Wolfe resigns, Missouri’s African American players are not only breaking from the protected bubble in which they exist, they are forcing the entire student body to confront their own perceptions of race and culture on the school’s campus. Few college athletes in big conferences have dared to do something like this, risking scholarships, their team’s success and perhaps professional careers in the name of social change. Certainly not a group as large as this one, which numbers more than half of Missouri’s roster.

[...]

Several of the players on this Missouri team were the same ones who embraced Michael Sam when he told them he was gay three seasons ago. When word of what that team had done for Sam leaked out, I felt proud to think this was my school’s team.

Los Angeles Times’ Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) on how former Missouri School of Journalism alumni are coming back to Columbia, Missouri cover this story:

KSDK’s Jacob Long (@JacobLong_KSDK) on campus President Wolfe’s response: 

The Daily Beast’s Goldie Taylor (@GoldieTaylor) on Mizzou potentially forfeiting at least Saturday’s game against Brigham Young:  

College football analyst Bryan D. Fischer (no relation to AFA’s spokesperson of hate Bryan J. Fischer) on how Saturday’s’s BYU-Mizzou game could be cancelled:

Of course, like with what we’ve seen with the Ben Fields incident in South Carolina and the 5 Rams players’ #HandsUpDontShoot pose in the aftermath of the Darren Wilson grand jury decision (among others), the reaction will NOT go over too well with the far-right conservatives and the #BlueLivesMatter crowd.

Also, the same people who defended Mizzou over their decision to cancel Planned Parenthood contracts are likely either silent or, far more likely, livid over Coach Pinkel defending #ConcernedStudent1950, as @tchop_stl points out. 

Sign the petition to get Tim Wolfe fired (via Change.org).

University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe has resigned in the wake of protests, racism on campus, and a players’ strike.

Nicole Hensley and Jason Silverstein at New York Daily News:

University of Missouri president Tim Wolfe resigned Monday morning after a slew of protests over exploding racial tensions at the school, which led to demonstrations, a football team mutiny and even a hunger strike calling for Wolfe's ouster.

His resignation came the same day the faculty planned a walkout as part of the protests.

Kevin S. Held at Fox2now.com:

COLUMBIA, MO (KTVI) – University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe resigned Monday morning at a board of curators meeting amid calls for him to step down.

T.J. Holmes reports that Jonathan Butler’s hunger strike is over:

Butler on Wolfe’s resignation: “This is only the first step!”

This afternoon at the Supreme Court, for the first time since 2007 in Gonzales v. Carhart, they have decided to take up an abortion-related case in Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole, a court case that will decide the legality of anti-abortion Texas HB2 (and other similar laws) and possibly erode or end Roe v. Wade if the Court rules in favor of keeping HB2 intact.

Brittney Martin at Dallas Morning News: 

AUSTIN — The U.S. Supreme Court will review portions of Texas’ landmark 2013 abortion law, the court announced Friday, taking up the constitutionality of restrictions on doctors and facilities that have led over half of the state’s abortion clinics to close.

The court’s ruling, which probably wouldn’t come until next summer, should provide guidance on how far states can go to regulate abortion.

The justices will determine whether two provisions of the law, requiring doctors who perform abortions to maintain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and requiring all abortions to be performed in hospital-like surgical centers, create an unconstitutional obstacle for women seeking abortions.

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the provisions in June, but the Supreme Court put the facilities requirement on hold while they considered a review. Two other provisions of the 2013 law, which ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and regulate the administration of abortion-inducing pills, are not currently being challenged.

Ian Millhiser at Think Progress Health:

The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will hear Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole, a case that presents a greater threat to a woman’s right to choose an abortion than any other that the Court has heard in the last 23 years. At issue is whether states can enact laws that appear, at least on the surface, to function as health regulations, but that actually exist to restrict or even shut down access to abortion. 

[...]

If the Supreme Court holds that states can use such sham health laws in order to restrict abortion, that could effectively be the end of a constitutional right to abortive care, as the only limit on anti-abortion laws could be lawmakers’ and advocates’ creativity in finding new ways to disguise abortion restrictions as health regulations.

Chris Geidner at BuzzFeed News:

The case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole, will address how far Texas can go to pass restrictions on abortion providers. Specifically at issue are two measures signed into law that require abortion facilities in Texas to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers (where outpatient surgery is performed) and require doctors who perform abortions to have admissions privileges at a nearby hospital.

Opponents of the law have argued that the law effectively shutters many of the clinics now operating in parts of the state.

In June, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the restriction. Later that month, in a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court put that ruling on hold pending the outcome of any appeal.

The court will hear the case in early 2016, with a decision expected by late June 2016.

Irin Carmon on HB2’s effects: 

Another abortion-related case, Currier v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, was NOT taken up at SCOTUS (at least for now).

Today’s scathing editorial by the New York Times’s Editorial Board nails 2016 GOP Presidential contender Donald Trump’s hateful racist xenophobic demagoguery really good. 

A portion of the New York Times editorial, comparing him to other notorious infamous bigots like Joseph McCarthy and George Wallace: 

Here’s Donald Trump on Sunday: “When the Syrian refugees are going to start pouring into this country, we don’t know if they’re ISIS, we don’t know if it’s a Trojan horse. And I definitely want a database and other checks and balances. We want to go with watch lists. We want to go with databases. And we have no choice. We have no idea who’s being sent in here. This could be the — it’s probably not, but it could be the great Trojan horse of all time, where they come in.”

Here’s Joseph McCarthy in 1950: “Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity. The modern champions of communism have selected this as the time, and ladies and gentlemen, the chips are down — they are truly down.”

Here’s Donald Trump last Tuesday: “We’re going to have to do things that we never did before. And some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling that security is going to rule. And certain things will be done that we never thought would happen in this country in terms of information and learning about the enemy. And so we’re going to have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago.”

Here’s George Wallace in 1963: “We must redefine our heritage, re-school our thoughts in the lessons our forefathers knew so well, in order to function and to grow and to prosper. We can no longer hide our head in the sand and tell ourselves that the ideology of our free fathers is not being attacked and is not being threatened by another idea ... for it is.”

[...]

This isn’t about shutting off Mr. Trump’s bullhorn. His right to spew nonsense is protected by the Constitution, but the public doesn’t need to swallow it. History teaches that failing to hold a demagogue to account is a dangerous act. It’s no easy task for journalists to interrupt Mr. Trump with the facts, but it’s an important one.

David Badash at The New Civil Rights Movement:

The New York Times Editorial Board speaks directly for the Paper of Record. It generally addresses issues of great importance, and generally in a measured tone.

Today, the Times Editorial Board took Donald Trump to task, labeling him as a "demagogue" while detailing his "racist lies."

Scott Eric Kaufman at Salon on Congressman Keith Ellison’s “He’s [Trump’s] going to get somebody hurt” remark on last night’s All In With Chris Hayes:

Hayes asked Ellison specifically about why Trump would “essentially invent a conspiracy theory,” to which the congressman replied,“he’s whipping up hatred to scapegoat a minority religious group, which has some very dangerous historic precedents. It’s the kind of behavior, classic demagoguery, and he’s going to get somebody hurt.”

“What do you mean by that?” Hayes asked.

“When leaders who have a national platform whip up hate and hysteria against a particular group,”Ellison said, “particularly a minority religious group that is not popular — invariably, the people who are mentally unstable or motivated by hate come out of the woodwork and you see the desecration of buildings that are associated with that group, you see assaults, you see murders, you see things, things happen.”

Ellison is 100% right.

Back to the editorial: Señor Trump is a hateful racist xenophobic demagogue who is NOT going to #MakeAmericaGreatAgain, but #MakeAmericaWorseOff.

Yesterday over at cross-town rival New York Daily News, an editorial there calls out Trump for the demagogic blowhard that he is:

Among the worst of his irresponsible accomplishments, Donald Trump is reviving the loathsome tactic of exploiting racial and religious animosities for political gain.

The Republican front-runner’s false claim about Muslims celebrating 9/11 and his wildly wrong assertion that most white murder victims are killed by blacks are a variant of the white-power racial stances that once kept Southern politicians in business.

[...]

A liar and demagogue, Trump is disgracefully, destructively trafficking in ideas befitting a skin-head while running for President.

The 2016 GOP Presidential candidate and perennial arsehole Donald Trump acting like a lying petulant jerk 
as usual... this time, it’s him tastelessly mocking New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis. 

Jose A. DelReal at Washington Post:

Businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump is under fire for mocking a New York Times reporter with a congenital joint condition during a campaign rally in South Carolina this week, drawing a scornful rebuke from the reporter and others who called Trump’s actions “despicable.”

[...]

On stage Tuesday, Trump berated Times investigative reporter Serge Kovaleski for his recent recollection of an article he had written a few days after the attacks. Trump appeared to mock Kovaleski's physical condition; the reporter has arthrogryposis, which visibly limits flexibility in his arms.

“Now, the poor guy — you've got to see this guy, ‘Ah, I don't know what I said! I don't remember!'"Trump said as he jerked his arms in front of his body.

The gesture was all the more personal because Kovaleski covered Trump while reporting for the New York Daily News between 1987 and 1993, a tumultuous period for Trump in which he struggled through several financial setbacks.

Ashley Feinberg at Gawker: 

If you had “mocking another human’s physical handicap” as the next foot to go in Donald Trump’s mouth—congratulations. You have unfortunately won.

At a rally on Friday, while citing to a Washington Post article by Serge Kovaleski to support his own whimsical version of 9/11, Donald Trump decided to emphasize his point by physically imitating Kovaleski, a man who suffers from arthrogryposis (a rare, congenital musculoskeletal disorder that limits the movement of his arms).

Ben Schreckinger at Politico:

Donald Trump has added a new item to his growing list of presidential campaign firsts: mocking a person’s physical handicap.

During a defense of his widely debunked claim that thousands of people in parts of New Jersey with large Arab populations celebrated the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001, Trump performed a derisive impression of New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski — who suffers from a chronic condition that has limited the movement of his arms — at a rally in South Carolina on Tuesday night.

[...]

Kovaleski suffers from arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that limits the movement of the joints and weakens the muscles around them. As a reporter at the New York Daily News in the late 1980s and early ’90s, he covered Trump’s business exploits and met with the developer on several occasions.
 

Video of Trump mocking NYT reporter Kovaleski, via CNN:

Washington Post Reporter Jose A. DelReal on Kovaleski’s coverage of Trump during his tenure as a NYDN reporter back in the late 1980s/early 1990s:

Petition at Change.org to make Donald Trump apologize to Serge Kovaleski and persons with disablities. 

Tonight on the Senate floor in Congress, the US Senate voted to pass a bill that defunds Planned Parenthood and repeals Obamacare 52-47-1. 

Some key notes about the Senate vote: All Dems + Dem-Caucusing Independent Angus King + Mark Kirk and Susan Collins from the GOP voted NAY; 2016 GOP Presidential contenders Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, and Rand Paul vote YEA; and 2016 Democratic Presidential contender Bernie Sanders wasn’t present on Senate floor, but would’ve voted NAY. 

AP, via Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled Senate voted on Thursday to demolish President Barack Obama's signature health care law and block Planned Parenthood's federal money, spurring a veto fight the GOP knows it will lose but believes will delight conservative voters in next year's elections.

Congress has voted dozens of times to repeal all or parts of the 2010 statute. If the House as expected sends the Senate bill to Obama, the measure will become the first of its kind to reach the White House and be vetoed, an act Republicans say will highlight GOP priorities for voters.

Frank Thorp V at MSNBC: 

The Senate narrowly passed a bill Thursday that would repeal key pieces of the Affordable Care Act and strip federal funding of Planned Parenthood for one year.

The bill, which only needed 51 votes to pass because it was being considered using a procedure allowing it to bypass typical Senate procedures which require 60 votes to advance a piece of legislation, passed 52-47.

The bill is not expected to become law.

It now goes to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass, but the White House has already said that the President will veto the legislation once it reached his desk, and Republicans do not have the two-thirds majority needed to override that veto.

Nicole Knight Shine at RH Reality Check:

Senate Republicans on Thursday led a successful vote to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding in a legislative package aimed at repealing significant parts of the Affordable Care Act.

The repeal passed 52-47 as part of budget reconciliation package, which required only 51 votes for approval. President Obama is expected to veto the package.

The vote comes after the U.S. House passed two anti-choice bills in September—one to gut Planned Parenthood’s federal funding for one year unless the reproductive health-care provider stops performing abortions, and another that pro-choice advocates say would have a chilling effect on providers.

Alan Fram at TPM: 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Openly welcoming a preordained veto, Republicans drove legislation to Senate passage Thursday aimed at crippling two of their favorite targets: President Barack Obama's health care law and Planned Parenthood.

With a House rubber stamp expected in days, the bill would be the first to reach Obama's desk demolishing his 2010 health care overhaul, one of his proudest domestic achievements, and halting federal payments to Planned Parenthood. Congress has voted dozens of times to repeal or weaken the health law and several times against Planned Parenthood's funding, but until now Democrats thwarted Republicans from shipping the legislation to the White House.

Thursday's vote was a near party-line 52-47.

[...]

Senators rejected a pair of similar amendments that would have restored the Planned Parenthood money. They also blocked proposals for tightening gun curbs, a response to Wednesday's mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, last week's fatal attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado and last month's terrorist massacre in Paris.

On another, senators voted 90-10 to permanently repeal taxes on high-priced "Cadillac" insurance policies, sending a strong signal of growing congressional momentum for erasing that levy.

GOP lawmakers said the overall bill could serve as a bridge to a future Republican health care law. Though Obama's overhaul was enacted five years ago, GOP members of Congress have yet to produce a detailed proposal to replace it.

The 52 cowards in the Senate (all Republicans minus Kirk and Collins) who voted to repeal PPACA & defund Planned Parenthood are getting a trip on Santa's Naughty List!

It will head to the House next and is expected to pass there, but President Barack Obama will quash this partisan bullcrap with a veto pen to prevent its passage into law. Thankfully, there will NOT be enough votes to veto override this. 

Speaking at the Muslim Advocates’ 10th annual dinner on Thursday, US Attorney General Loretta Lynch has announced that her Department of Justice will go after Islamophobic hate speech that incites violence against the Muslim-American community, and of course right-wingers and Islamophobes aren’t too happy about this news one bit. 

John Stanton at BuzzFeed News: 

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Thursday warned that the Justice Department could take aggressive action against people whose anti-Muslim rhetoric “edges towards violence” and told the Muslim community that “we stand with you in this.”

Speaking at Muslim Advocate’s 10th anniversary dinner, Lynch said since the terrorist attacks in Paris last month, she is increasingly concerned with the “incredibly disturbing rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric … that fear is my greatest fear.”

Dean Obediallah at The Daily Beast:

“The Muslim American community is expanding, which is beautiful.” I doubt you would ever hear these words uttered by a Republican governmental official anywhere. And we definitely know it’s not something you will hear from the 2016 GOP presidential candidates.

But those were the very words that United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch told the sold-out crowd on Thursday night at the Muslim Advocates 10th anniversary dinner.

[...]

But Lynch went further than just speaking out against anti-Muslim hate. In stark contrast to Trump’s vow to close American mosques, Lynch made it clear that she will fight for the rights of American Muslims to “expand and build mosques.” She added that “the Department of Justice is there for you” to ensure Muslims have the same rights as Americans of other faiths to build houses of worship.

[...]

No doubt some on the right will be outraged that Lynch appeared at a Muslim advocacy event. But then again these are generally the same people who demonize the Black Lives Matter Movement and attack La Raza, the Latino advocacy group. You get a sense that some of the people on the right simply want people of color to shut our mouths in the face of injustice. That in their view, we should just be happy we are allowed to live in “their country,” despite the fact we are also American citizens. These right-wingers can get as outraged as they want, but they should know we will never be silent. 

Josh Gerstein at Politico:

With terrorist attacks in Paris and a shooting spree in California prompting alarm on the part of many Americans, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Thursday that her "greatest fear" is that expressions of anti-Muslim sentiment will lead to attacks on Muslims in the U.S.

"The fear that you have just mentioned is in fact my greatest fear as a prosecutor, as someone who is sworn to the protection of all of the American people, which is that the rhetoric will be accompanied by acts of violence,"Lynch told a dinner hosted by a Muslim civil rights organization. "My message to not just the Muslim community but to the entire American community is: we cannot give in to the fear that these backlashes are really based on."

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"I know people are saying, 'Oh, if you stop the refugees,' and passing a bill and make people sign to guarantee them ... you know, this is not the way," Lynch said, apparently referring to a measure the House passed last month. "I will look at anything and consider anything that will keep the American people safe but … you take aggressive action you don’t take impetuous action."

"My view is that we cannot be ruled by fear. When we are ruled by fear, we actually are not making ourselves safe," Lynch declared."My message to the Muslim community is we stand with you in this."

AG Lynch is correct, and that has righties (and sadly some on the left) mad as hell that their Islamophobic bigotry got called out.

Leada Gorde at AL.com reports that AG Lynch will investigate the unfair arrest of Ahmed Mohamed:

The Justice Department is investigating the case of a 14-year-old Muslim boy who was arrested after bringing a homemade clock to his Texas high school.

Speaking at a Thursday event held by Muslim Advocates, a national legal advocacy group, Lynch said her department is looking into the actions of the Irving, Texas Police Department in the September arrest of high school freshman Ahmed Mohamed.

Mohamed was questioned and threatened with suspension after bringing what he described as a homemade clock to school. Police said a teacher had contacted authorities over concerns the item was a bomb. No charges were filed against Mohamed, but that did not stop outcry that the teen was targeted  because he was Muslim.

"We have opened an investigation into the case of the young man in Irving, Texas so we will see where that goes," Lynch said.