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17 October 19
Michael Moore | Elijah Cummings Was a Fighter
Michael Moore, Michael Moore's Facebook Page
Moore writes: "One of the great members of Congress in my lifetime passed away this morning - Elijah Cummings, Democrat of Maryland. He was a fighter for those who weren't allowed a seat at the table. A strong, powerful voice for the voiceless."
Michael Moore, Michael Moore's Facebook Page
Moore writes: "One of the great members of Congress in my lifetime passed away this morning - Elijah Cummings, Democrat of Maryland. He was a fighter for those who weren't allowed a seat at the table. A strong, powerful voice for the voiceless."
IN MEMORY OF A DEDICATED REPRESENTATIVE:
He was always willing to give of his time for me, offer his guidance, tell me what was really going on in ways few others would. When he agreed to be in my film, “Capitalism: A Love Story,” he pulled no punches about the Crash of ‘08 when Congress bailed out the banks and Wall Street but let millions of families lose their savings and be evicted from their homes. He told me it was all a ruse, a giant robbery of the American people.
“The word that we got in Congress was that if we didn’t act ‘immediately’ the ‘whole economy would collapse - no doubt about it.’ This whole fiasco shows you there’s some powerful forces (that are not democratic) that are in control here in this building — big time.” His point was that it was the top one-percent who owned the politicians and the government — and that we’d never be a true democracy until ‘we the people’ controlled the economy. Elijah Cummings was the real deal — authentic to his core, honest to a fault, and a peoples’ representative in the truest sense of the word. I am stunned and saddened by his death. He couldn’t have been taken from us at a worse time. Much love and gratitude to his family. We will all honor him best by carrying on his work with our own passion and an unrelenting commitment to real justice and equality. Rest In peace, my friend. We, though, will not, until your work - our work - is done.
Gordon Sondland, center, arrives at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C., on 17 October. (photo: Oliver Douliery/Getty)
Trump Ordered Diplomats to Work With Giuliani on Ukraine, Sondland Testifies
Julian Borger, Guardian UK
Borger writes: "Donald Trump instructed US diplomats to go through his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to make the Ukrainian president's access to the White House dependent on launching investigations into Trump's political opponents, the US ambassador to the EU has testified."
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Julian Borger, Guardian UK
Borger writes: "Donald Trump instructed US diplomats to go through his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, to make the Ukrainian president's access to the White House dependent on launching investigations into Trump's political opponents, the US ambassador to the EU has testified."
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Judge Neomi Rao. (photo: Zach Gibson/Getty)
Did Kavanaugh's Replacement, Neomi Rao, Show the Supreme Court a Path to Justify Trump's Defiance of Congress?
David R. Lurie, The Daily Beast
Lurie writes: "Donald Trump has been mocked for threatening to sue Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff to prevent his impeachment, but don't laugh too soon."
David R. Lurie, The Daily Beast
Lurie writes: "Donald Trump has been mocked for threatening to sue Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff to prevent his impeachment, but don't laugh too soon."
EXCERPTS:
As the well-reasoned majority decision demonstrated, however, Supreme Court precedents provide that Congress can conduct investigations that directly implicate and concern illegal conduct by the president and other Executive Branch officials in order to consider potential legislative options available to prevent misconduct in the future. Yet Judge Rao disagreed, in an opinion that many constitutional scholars observed was squarely at odds with settled law.
It may seem initially puzzling why Rao devoted the effort to providing an unconvincing argument that Congress is without the ability to conduct an investigation concerning misconduct by a government official in its legislative oversight role. After all, Congress has now begun an impeachment investigation that should ultimately allow the House to obtain the materials at issue, even under the argument Trump initially proffered to the appeals court.
But Rao’s agenda clearly extends beyond the subject at hand. Her dissent appears calculated to provide judicial credence to the contention of Trump’s White House Counsel Pat Cipollone that it is “constitutionally invalid” for Trump to be impeached.
Article I of the Constitution grants the House exclusive jurisdiction over presidential impeachment proceedings. Accordingly, Trump’s threat to “sue” to prevent his impeachment is as ridiculous as it appears. Indeed, in her dissent, Rao concedes that disputes regarding impeachment proceedings may not be “justiciable.” Yet Rao’s dissent nonetheless implies that Trump may be able to turn to the courts to frustrate, and challenge the legitimacy of, Congress’ impeachment investigation nonetheless.
Community organizers and activists demand police accountability at a rally in New York City on August 9, 2019. (photo: Erik McGregor/Getty)
It's Time for Effective Oversight of Police Violence
Zenobia Jeffries Warfield, YES! Magazine
Warfield writes: "Atatiana Jefferson is dead. The 28-year-old was shot and killed in her Texas home by a Fort Worth police officer on October 12. According to reports, the officer was responding to a nonemergency call for a wellness, or welfare, check. Jefferson's neighbor made the call when he saw 'both her front doors opened and all the lights on in her house' at 2 a.m."
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Zenobia Jeffries Warfield, YES! Magazine
Warfield writes: "Atatiana Jefferson is dead. The 28-year-old was shot and killed in her Texas home by a Fort Worth police officer on October 12. According to reports, the officer was responding to a nonemergency call for a wellness, or welfare, check. Jefferson's neighbor made the call when he saw 'both her front doors opened and all the lights on in her house' at 2 a.m."
READ MORE
Roylan Hernandez-Diaz. (photo: ICE)
A Cuban Asylum-Seeker Died of an Apparent Suicide After Spending Months in ICE Detention
Hamed Aleaziz and Adolfo Flores, BuzzFeed
Excerpt: "A 43-year-old Cuban asylum-seeker who had gone on a hunger strike after becoming frustrated with his immigration case died of an apparent suicide after months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, according to an internal government report."
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Hamed Aleaziz and Adolfo Flores, BuzzFeed
Excerpt: "A 43-year-old Cuban asylum-seeker who had gone on a hunger strike after becoming frustrated with his immigration case died of an apparent suicide after months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, according to an internal government report."
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Students protest in Sant Jaume square in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019. (photo: Bernat Armangue/AP)
Riots Darken Catalan Separatist Dream of Peaceful Secession
Aritz Parra, Associated Press
Parra writes: "Catalonia's separatist leader vowed Thursday to hold a new vote to secede from Spain in less than two years as the embattled northeastern region grapples with a wave of violence that has tarnished a movement proud of its peaceful activism."
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Aritz Parra, Associated Press
Parra writes: "Catalonia's separatist leader vowed Thursday to hold a new vote to secede from Spain in less than two years as the embattled northeastern region grapples with a wave of violence that has tarnished a movement proud of its peaceful activism."
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Heavy metals that may damage a developing brain are present in 95 percent of baby foods on the market. (photo: Cirou Frederic/Getty)
Toxic Metals Found in 95 Percent of Baby Foods
Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch
Davidson writes: "Heavy metals that may damage a developing brain are present in 95 percent of baby foods on the market, according to new research from the advocacy organization Healthy Babies Bright Futures (HBBF), which bills itself as an alliance of scientists, nonprofit organizations and donors trying to reduce exposures to neurotoxic chemicals during the first three years of development."
Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch
Davidson writes: "Heavy metals that may damage a developing brain are present in 95 percent of baby foods on the market, according to new research from the advocacy organization Healthy Babies Bright Futures (HBBF), which bills itself as an alliance of scientists, nonprofit organizations and donors trying to reduce exposures to neurotoxic chemicals during the first three years of development."
EXCERPTS:
Researchers commissioned by HBBF looked at 168 different baby foods that spanned 61 brands commonly found on grocery store shelves. From that large sample, 95 percent were contaminated with one or more of four toxic heavy metals — arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury.
The high prevalence of the toxic metals meant that 26 percent of the foods tested had all four of the heavy metals.
"Arsenic, lead and other heavy metals are known causes of neurodevelopmental harm," said Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician and director of the Program in Global Public Health and the Common Good in the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society at Boston College, in an HBBF issued statement. "Low level exposures add up, and exposures in early life are especially dangerous. The cumulative impact of exposures is what makes this a significant concern that demands action."
Foods with the highest concentration of neurotoxins tended to be rice-based products, sweet potatoes and fruit juices, according to the report.
"Even in the trace amounts found in food, these contaminants can alter the developing brain and erode a child's IQ. The impacts add up with each meal or snack a baby eats," said the analysis, as CNN reported.
Four of seven infant rice cereals had a toxic form of arsenic in excess of the FDA's threshold of 100 parts per billion (ppb).
"Current arsenic contamination levels in rice cereal and juice are 36% and 75% less, respectively, than the amounts measured a decade ago," said HBBF research director and study author Jane Houlihan in a statement. "When FDA acts, companies respond. We need the FDA to use their authority more effectively, and much more quickly, to reduce toxic heavy metals in baby foods."
In lieu of tighter regulations, the HBBF report recommends parents take steps to protect their babies by offering them rice-free snacks, frozen bananas and chilled cucumbers instead of teething biscuits, oatmeal instead of rice-cereal, and offering a wide-variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.
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