11-20-2024  12:24 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

Each year this bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. is carefully packed and transported from The Skanner office for display at the MLK Breakfast. (photo by Julie Keefe) 

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To make a donation, of any amount, to The Skanner Foundation to help support the 36th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast, and the foundation's other community programs, please use the donate button below.

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For the last 35 years, The Skanner Foundation has invited the community to celebrate the life of civil rights giant the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at our shared breakfast event. This year we are inviting you to join us on the morning of Jan. 17, 2021 to once again honor Dr. King's life and legacy.

We'll be announcing the speaker soon – watch this space and sign up for our newsletter – and we are working on a fantastic lineup to inspire us to begin 2022 with joy and determination to bring Dr. King's dream a little closer to reality.

Sponsor the Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast

For information about sponsorship opportunities, please contact Jerry Foster at [email protected] or 503-285-5555 ext. 506 or Bernie Foster at [email protected] or 503-285-5555 ext. 501.


 

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AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Latest AFIRCAN AMERICANS Headlineshttps://digitalservices.ap.org/rss/theskanner/389bc7bb1e1c2a5e7e147703232a88f6/latestafircan%20americans.rss Latest AFIRCAN AMERICANS Headlines en-us Copyright 2015 The Associated Press Wed, 20 Nov 2024 08:20:54 GMT <![CDATA[Woman faces hate crime charges after confronting man wearing 'Palestine' shirt]]>DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. (AP) — A suburban Chicago woman faces hate crime charges for allegedly confronting a Palestinian American man wearing a sweatshirt with “Palestine” written on it and trying to knock a cellphone out of his pregnant wife's hands as she recorded the encounter, authorities and the man said.

Alexandra Szustakiewicz, 64, appeared in court Monday for her arraignment on two felony hate crime counts and a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge. A DuPage County judge ordered the Darien woman to have no contact with the victims and to stay away from the restaurant where police said the confrontation occurred Saturday. Szustakiewicz's next court hearing is set for Dec. 16.

There was no immediate response to a message left Tuesday for her public defender, Kendall Pietrzak, seeking comment.

Szustakiewicz was at a Panera Bread restaurant in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove on Saturday “when she confronted and yelled expletives at a man regarding a sweatshirt he was wearing with the word Palestine written on it,” the DuPage County State's Attorney’s Office and Downers Grove police said Monday in a statement.

She also allegedly “attempted to hit a cell phone out of the hands of a woman who was with the man when the woman began videotaping the incident,” it added.

A complaint filed against Szustakiewicz, who was arrested Sunday, alleges that she “committed a hate crime by reason of perceived national origin” of the two victims.

DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement that “this type of behavior and the accompanying prejudice have no place in a civilized society.”

The man Szustakiewicz is accused of confronting said he was wearing a hoodie with the word “Palestine” on it when she approached and yelled expletives at him while trying to hit his pregnant wife, whom he shielded as she filmed Szustakiewicz with her cellphone.

Waseem Zahran told the Chicago Sun-Times it was not the first time he has been harassed for wearing the sweatshirt, and he expects it won't be the last time.

“Since I was a child, I’ve seen my mom threatened, parents screamed at, cousins yelled at. But it was a first for me to be attacked,” Zahran told the newspaper.

He said he tried to deescalate the situation multiple times, even after Szustakiewicz allegedly hit him in the face and attempted to throw hot coffee on his wife before and after swinging at her multiple times.

Zahran said Szustakiewicz continued swinging at his wife even after he told her she was pregnant.

“I don’t care,” he said she replied.

He said in a statement Monday by the Chicago Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations that he is “a born and raised American who took his wife out for lunch. I was not able to do that simply because I was Palestinian.”

CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab condemned the attack.

“We have long seen how European migrants like this woman feel a bizarre sense of entitlement to regularly harass and accost native Palestinians in their ancestral homeland, knowing they enjoy full impunity and knowing their victims have no recourse,” Rehab said in the statement.

“Now, shockingly but not surprisingly, that same anti-Palestinian hatred has followed them into their new homeland, here in America, where they were born and raised."

]]>
http://hosted.ap.org/theskanner/article/6d1d3d322dd065ba21a666467b343ec8/woman-faces-hate-crime-charges-after-confronting-man 6d1d3d322dd065ba21a666467b343ec8 Wed, 20 Nov 2024 01:35:23 GMT
<![CDATA[Former West Virginia jail officers plead guilty to civil rights violation in fatal assault on inmate]]>

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Two more former correctional officers in West Virginia have pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights violation in the death of a man who died less than a day after being booked into a jail.

As part of plea agreements, Johnathan Walters entered a plea Monday in U.S. District Court and Corey Snyder pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring with other officers to beat Quantez Burks as retaliation at the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver.

Walters and Snyder each face up to 30 years in prison and a fine up to 0,000. No sentencing date for either defendant was immediately announced.

They were among five ex-correctional officers and a former lieutenant at the jail who were indicted by a federal grand jury in November 2023, the same month that two other former jail officers entered guilty pleas in the beating.

Burks, 37, was booked into the jail on a wanton endangerment charge in March 2022. According to court documents, Burks tried to push past an officer to leave his housing unit. Burks then was escorted to an interview room where correctional officers were accused of striking him while he was restrained and handcuffed.

Walters and Snyder admitted knowing the interview room had no surveillance cameras and that inmates and pretrial detainees who had previously engaged in misconduct had been brought to the room for punishment, according to court documents.

Two other defendants face sentencing in the case in January, and three more are set for sentencing in February. A trial for the remaining defendant is scheduled for Dec. 10.

The case has drawn scrutiny to conditions and deaths at the jail. Last year, West Virginia agreed to pay million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by inmates who described conditions at the jail as inhumane. Gov. Jim Justice’s administration fired a Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation official and the chief counsel for the state Department of Homeland Security after a federal magistrate judge cited the “intentional” destruction of records in recommending a default judgment in the lawsuit.

The state medical examiner’s office attributed Burks’ primary cause of death to natural causes, prompting the family to have a private autopsy conducted. The family’s attorney revealed at a news conference in 2022 that the second autopsy found Burks had multiple areas of blunt force trauma on his body.

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http://hosted.ap.org/theskanner/article/52769cdc242c6d17cc43b1155d1739f7/former-west-virginia-jail-officers-plead-guilty-civil 52769cdc242c6d17cc43b1155d1739f7 Tue, 19 Nov 2024 22:37:01 GMT
<![CDATA[Tens of thousands crowd New Zealand's Parliament grounds in support of Māori rights]]>

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — As tens of thousands crowded the streets in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, on Tuesday, the throng of people, flags aloft, had the air of a festival or a parade rather than a protest.

They were marching to oppose a law that would reshape the county’s founding treaty between Indigenous Māori and the British Crown. But for many, it was also a celebration of a resurging Indigenous language and identity that colonization had once almost destroyed.

“Just fighting for the rights that our tūpuna, our ancestors, fought for,” Shanell Bob said as she waited for the march to begin. “We’re fighting for our tamariki, for our mokopuna, so they can have what we haven’t been able to have,” she added, using the Māori words for children and grandchildren.

What was likely the country’s largest-ever protest in support of Māori rights — a subject that has preoccupied modern New Zealand for much of its young history — followed a long tradition of peaceful cross-country marches that have marked turning points in the nation's story.

“We’re going for a walk!” one organizer proclaimed from the stage as crowds gathered at the opposite end of the city from the nation’s Parliament. People had traveled from across the nation over the past nine days.

For many, the turnout reflected growing solidarity on Indigenous rights from non-Māori. At bus stops during the usual morning commute, people of all ages and races waited with Māori sovereignty flags. Some local schools said they would not register students as absent. The city’s mayor joined the protest.

The bill that marchers are opposing is unpopular and unlikely to become law. But opposition to it has been widespread, which marchers said indicated rising knowledge of the Treaty of Waitangi’s promises to Māori among New Zealanders — and a small but vocal backlash from those who are angered by the attempts of courts and lawmakers to keep them.

Māori marching for their rights is not new. But the crowds were larger than at treaty marches before and the mood was changed, Indigenous people said.

“It’s different to when I was a child,” Bob said. “We’re stronger now, our tamariki are stronger now, they know who they are, they’re proud of who they are.”

As the marchers moved through the streets of Wellington with ringing Māori haka — rhythmic chants — and waiata, or songs, thousands more holding signs lined the pavement in support.

Some placards bore jokes or insults about the lawmakers responsible for the bill, which would change the meaning of the principles of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi and prevent them from applying only to Māori — whose chiefs signed the document when New Zealand was colonized.

But others read “proud to be Māori” or acknowledged the bearer’s heritage as a non-Māori person endorsing the protest. Some denounced the widespread expropriation of Māori land during colonization, one of the main grievances arising from the treaty.

“The treaty is a document that lets us be here in Aotearoa so holding it up and respecting it is really important,” said Ben Ogilvie, who is of Pākehā or New Zealand European descent, using the Māori name for the country. “I hate what this government is doing to tear it down.”

Police estimated that 42,000 people tried to crowd into Parliament’s grounds, with some spilling into the surrounding streets. People crammed themselves onto the children's slide on the lawn for a vantage point; others perched in trees. The tone was almost joyful; as people waited to leave the cramped area, some struck up Māori songs that most New Zealanders learn at school.

A sea of Māori sovereignty flags in red, black and white stretched down the lawn and into the streets. But marchers bore Samoan, Tongan, Indigenous Australian, U.S., Palestinian and Israeli flags, too. At Parliament, speeches from political leaders drew attention to the reason for the protest — a proposed law that would change the meaning of words in the country’s founding treaty, cement them in law and extend them to everyone.

Its author, libertarian lawmaker David Seymour — who is Māori — says the process of redress for decades of Crown breaches of its treaty with Māori has created special treatment for Indigenous people, which he opposes.

The bill’s detractors say it would spell constitutional upheaval, dilute Indigenous rights, and that it has provoked divisive rhetoric about Māori — who are still disadvantaged on almost every social and economic metric, despite attempts by the courts and lawmakers in recent decades to rectify inequities caused in large part by breaches of the treaty.

It is not expected to ever become law, but Seymour made a political deal that saw it shepherded through a first vote last Thursday. In a statement Tuesday, he said the public could now make submissions on the bill, which he hopes will experience a swell of support.

Seymour briefly walked out onto Parliament’s forecourt to observe the protest, although he was not among the lawmakers invited to speak. Some in the crowd booed him.

The protest was “a long time coming,” said Papa Heta, one of the marchers, who said Māori sought acknowledgement and respect.

“We hope that we can unite with our Pākehā friends, Europeans," he added. "Unfortunately, there are those that make decisions that put us in a difficult place.”

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http://hosted.ap.org/theskanner/article/54d5a5345815bed2c2a12687d4f6b625/tens-thousands-crowd-new-zealands-parliament-grounds 54d5a5345815bed2c2a12687d4f6b625 Tue, 19 Nov 2024 08:30:18 GMT
<![CDATA[New Zealand's founding treaty is at a flashpoint. Why are thousands protesting for Māori rights?]]>

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A proposed law that would redefine New Zealand’s founding treaty between the British Crown and Māori chiefs has triggered political turmoil and prompted tens of thousands of people to show up in protest at the country's Parliament on Tuesday.

The bill is never expected to become law. But it has become a flashpoint on race relations and a critical moment in the fraught 180-year-old conversation about how New Zealand should honor its promises to Indigenous people when the country was colonized -– and what those promises are.

A huge crowd gathered in the capital, Wellington, on Tuesday morning for the final stretch of a weeklong protest that has spanned the length of the country — a march through the city streets to Parliament. It follows a Māori tradition of hīkoi, or walking, to bring attention to breaches of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi — and is likely to be the largest treaty rights demonstration in the history of modern New Zealand.

Why is a 180-year-old treaty being debated?

Considered New Zealand’s founding document, the treaty was signed between representatives of the British Crown and 500 Māori chiefs during colonization. It laid out principles guiding the relationship between the Crown and Māori, in two versions -– one in English and the other in Māori.

It promised Māori the rights and privileges of British citizens, but the English and Māori versions differed on what power the chiefs were ceding over their affairs, lands and autonomy.

Over decades, the Crown breached both versions. By the mid-20th century, Māori language and culture had dwindled -– Indigenous people were often barred from practicing it -- tribal land was confiscated and Māori were disadvantaged in many metrics.

How were treaty rights revived?

Prompted by a surging Māori protest movement, for the past 50 years the courts of New Zealand, lawmakers and the Waitangi Tribunal -– a permanent body set up to adjudicate treaty matters -– have navigated the differences in the treaty’s versions and tried to redress breaches by constructing the meaning of the treaty's principles in their decisions.

Those principles are intended to be flexible but are commonly described as partnership with the Crown, protection of Māori interests and participation in decision-making.

While Māori remain disenfranchised in many ways, the weaving of treaty recognition through law and attempts at redress have changed the fabric of society since then. Māori language has experienced a renaissance, and everyday words are now commonplace -– even among non-Māori. Policies have been enacted to target disparities Māori commonly face.

Billions of dollars in settlements have been negotiated between the Crown and tribes for breaches of the treaty, particularly the widespread expropriation of Māori land and natural resources.

Why is there fresh debate?

Some New Zealanders, however, are unhappy with redress. They have found a champion in lawmaker David Seymour, the leader of a minor libertarian political party which won less than 9% of the vote in last year’s election -– but scored outsized influence for its agenda as part of a governing agreement.

Seymour‘s proposed law would set specific definitions of the treaty’s principles, and would apply them to all New Zealanders, not only to Māori. He says piecemeal construction of the treaty’s meaning has left a vacuum and has given Māori special treatment.

His bill is widely opposed — by left- and right-wing former prime ministers, 40 of the country’s most senior lawyers, and thousands of Māori and non-Māori New Zealanders who are walking the length of the country in protest.

Seymour’s bill is not expected to pass its final reading. It cleared a first vote on Thursday due to a political deal, but most of those who endorsed it are not expected to do so again.

Detractors say the bill threatens constitutional upheaval and would remove rights promised in the treaty that are now enshrined in law. Critics have also lambasted Seymour -– who is Māori -– for provoking backlash against Indigenous people.

Why are protesters marching?

Peaceful walking protests are a Māori tradition and have occurred before at crucial times during the national conversation about treaty rights.

Police in the country of 5 million estimated that more than 40,000 people thronged Parliament's grounds on Tuesday after a march through the central city that shut down streets and drew thousands more onlookers, many holding signs in support of the protesters.

As those outside Parliament waved flags, sang Māori songs and listened to speeches, crowds who could not squeeze onto the grounds spilled onto the surrounding streets, which remained closed to traffic.

Many are marching to oppose Seymour’s bill. But others are protesting a range of policies from the center-right government on Māori affairs -– including an order, prompted by Seymour, that public agencies should no longer target policies to specifically redress Māori inequities.

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http://hosted.ap.org/theskanner/article/623dbb403ca78ad35cd96d9392e12778/new-zealands-founding-treaty-flashpoint-why-are-thousands 623dbb403ca78ad35cd96d9392e12778 Tue, 19 Nov 2024 07:40:27 GMT
<![CDATA[Trump says he is naming former Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy to be transportation secretary]]>

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he is naming former Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy as his nominee for transportation secretary, as he continues to roll out picks for his Cabinet.

Duffy is a former reality TV star who was one of Trump’s most visible defenders on cable news — a prime concern for the media-focused president-elect. Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years, was a member of the Financial Services Committee and chairman of the subcommittee on insurance and housing. He left Congress in 2019, and is co-host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business.

In his announcement, Trump noted that Duffy is married to a Fox News host, calling him “the husband of a wonderful woman, Rachel Campos-Duffy, a STAR on Fox News.”

A spokesperson for Fox News Media wished Duffy "the best of luck in his return to Washington" and said he left the company Monday.

Duffy is so far the second Fox-affiliated television host that Trump has named to his Cabinet. Trump last week announced his choice of Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as his defense secretary.

Trump said Duffy would use his experience and relationships built over the years in Congress “to maintain and rebuild our Nation’s Infrastructure, and fulfill our Mission of ushering in The Golden Age of Travel, focusing on Safety, Efficiency, and Innovation. Importantly, he will greatly elevate the Travel Experience for all Americans!”

Duffy in 2022 ruled out a run for Wisconsin governor despite pleas from Trump to make a bid, saying he needed to care for his nine children, including his youngest child who had a heart condition.

He is a former lumberjack athlete and frequent Fox News contributor. He was featured on MTV’s “The Real World: Boston” in 1997. He met his wife on the set of MTV’s “Road Rules: All Stars” in 1998.

A reality television background before politics is not unusual in Trump's world. The former president launched his political career after his hit reality show, “ The Apprentice,”

Duffy, after his time on reality television, worked as a special prosecutor and Ashland County district attorney. He won election to Congress as part of a tea party wave in 2010.

When he first ran for office, Duffy was largely considered an underdog but attracted national attention for his campaign ads, in which he donned a red flannel shirt and chopped trees. He told voters he came from a “long line of lumberjacks” and would bring his axe to Washington.

He served until resigning in 2019.

The Transportation Department oversees the nation’s complex transportation system, including pipelines, railroads, cars, trucks, the airlines and mass transit systems as well as federal funding for highways.

If confirmed, Duffy would take over at a time of tremendous change, especially on the nation’s highways. Traffic deaths remain near record highs at a time when new technologies are being introduced that could help make the roads safer. Multiple companies are deploying autonomous robotaxis and even driverless semis with no specific federal regulations. And the nascent move from gasoline to electric vehicles presents safety problems of its own, especially with battery fires that can be difficult to extinguish.

The department includes the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which regulates automakers, including Elon Musk’s Tesla. The department sets fuel economy standards for cars and trucks and regulates the airline industry through the Federal Aviation Administration, which is grappling with a shortage of air traffic controllers to ensure the safe and orderly flow of air travel.

Nicholas Calio, president and CEO of Airlines for America, said the association was “thrilled” by the choice of Duffy.

“Congressman Duffy has a proven track record for getting things done, and we are eager to collaborate with him on key issues impacting the U.S. airline industry," Calio said.

Trump has criticized electric vehicles as expensive and unreliable and called President Joe Biden’s policy to promote them “lunacy. He also has said EV manufacturing will destroy auto industry jobs and has falsely claimed that battery-powered cars don’t work in cold weather and are unable to travel long distances.

Trump has softened his rhetoric about electric vehicles in recent months after Musk endorsed him and campaigned heavily for his election.

Even so, industry officials expect Trump to try to slow a shift to electric cars, and a tax credit for EV purchases is reportedly among those the Trump administration may seek to eliminate next year.

Trump, in his statement, said Duffy would “prioritize Excellence, Competence, Competitiveness and Beauty when rebuilding America’s highways, tunnels, bridges and airports.” Trump, as he campaigned for the White House, would sometimes complain about the state of air travel in particular, lamenting that the nation’s “once-revered airports” are a “dirty, crowded mess.”

Duffy, Trump said Monday, “will make our skies safe again by eliminating DEI for pilots and air traffic controllers.” DEI refers to “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs.

___

Price reported from New York and Superville reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Matthew Daly and Amanda Seitz in Washington, Tom Krisher in Detroit and David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.

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http://hosted.ap.org/theskanner/article/c465bbc516b5f898233f86bee31a7a45/trump-says-he-naming-former-wisconsin-rep-sean-duffy-be c465bbc516b5f898233f86bee31a7a45 Tue, 19 Nov 2024 02:44:09 GMT
<![CDATA[Agent says GPS data puts Georgia student Laken Riley in same area as man accused in her death]]>

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — An FBI special agent testified Monday that electronic location data seems to place Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and the man accused of killing her in the same wooded area at the time of her death.

Jose Ibarra, 26, is charged with murder and other crimes in Riley’s death in February. He waived his right to a jury trial, meaning Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard is hearing the case and will alone decide on Ibarra's guilt or innocence.

The killing of the 22-year-old woman added fuel to the national debate over immigration during this year's presidential campaign when federal authorities said Ibarra illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to stay in the country while he pursued his immigration case.

FBI Special Agent James Burnie told the court Monday that he reviewed location data from Ibarra's cellphone and Riley's cellphone and smart watch. GPS data from Riley's watch very precisely puts her inside the wooded area with running trails where her body was found on Feb. 22. Pings between Ibarra's phone and cell towers and the fact his phone wasn't making any Wi-Fi connections at the time indicate he was also likely in the woods, Burnie said.

Prosecutors also played a recording of a jail phone call from May between Ibarra and his wife, Layling Franco. FBI specialist Abeisis Ramirez, who translated the call from Spanish, testified that Ibarra told Franco that he had been at the University of Georgia looking for work, and that his wife repeatedly said she was fed up and that she wanted him to tell the truth.

Franco "continues to ask, ‘What happened with the girl?’" and said Ibarra “must know something,” Ramirez said. He responds: “Layling, enough." Ramirez said Franco told Ibarra that it's crazy that police only found his DNA.

Ibarra is charged with one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder and one count each of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, hindering an emergency telephone call, tampering with evidence and being a peeping Tom.

Ibarra took selfies of himself early on the day Riley was killed, according to testimony from an FBI agent who analyzed data from cellphones seized from the apartment where Ibarra lived with his two brothers and two other people. In the photos, Ibarra is wearing a black Adidas baseball cap and a dark hooded jacket.

A few hours before Riley was killed, a man in a black Adidas baseball cap was captured on surveillance video at the door of a first-floor apartment in a University of Georgia housing complex. A female graduate student who lived there testified Monday that she heard someone trying to get inside her apartment when she was in the shower. As she looked through the peephole, the person ducked and walked away, but then she saw the same person peering into her window, she said.

Police officers using a grainy screen shot from the surveillance video approached a man wearing a black Adidas cap the day after the killing. That turned out to be Diego Ibarra, one of Jose Ibarra's brothers.

University of Georgia police Sgt. Joshua Epps testified that he was called to question Diego Ibarra outside the apartment where the Ibarras lived. Epps testified that the brother had no obvious recent injuries.

Outside the apartment, police also questioned Argenis Ibarra, Jose Ibarra and Rosbeli Elisbar Flores Bello. Epps and Corporal Rafael Sayan, who speaks Spanish and helped with the questioning, testified that they noticed scratches on Jose Ibarra.

When asked why his knuckles were red, Jose Ibarra told them it was because of the cold but didn't really explain several scratches on his arms, Sayan said.

Security video from the apartment complex showed a man wearing a shirt with a distinctive pattern throwing something into a trash bin. A crime scene specialist from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation testified there was a lot of clothing in the one-room apartment but that she didn't find that shirt in the apartment and didn't find any bloody clothing.

A police officer testified Friday that he found a dark hooded jacket in the trash bin seen in the video and that testing revealed Riley's blood on the hoodie.

Flores Bello identified the man in the video as Jose Ibarra and confirmed that identification on the witness stand Monday. She said she had previously seen him wearing the dark hooded jacket and thought it was strange that he threw it away.

Testifying through of an interpreter, Bello said she met Ibarra in Queens, New York. Ibarra's brother, Diego, lived in Athens and had been urging Ibarra to move there, saying they would find work. She traveled with Ibarra to join his brother in Georgia. She said they went to the Roosevelt Hotel, which served as an intake center for migrants, to ask for a “humanitarian flight” to Georgia in September 2023. When they arrived in Atlanta, a friend of Diego Ibarra picked them up and drove them to Athens.

Riley was a student at Augusta University College of Nursing, which also has a campus in Athens, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) east of Atlanta.

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http://hosted.ap.org/theskanner/article/b60ef50867ebc284ce1e89855439bd7e/agent-says-gps-data-puts-georgia-student-laken-riley-same b60ef50867ebc284ce1e89855439bd7e Mon, 18 Nov 2024 23:11:18 GMT
<![CDATA['Interior Chinatown': Its cast has faced Hollywood struggles uncannily like its characters]]>

Jimmy O. Yang once played “Chinese Teenager #1.” He's now No. 1 on the call sheet in “Interior Chinatown” — despite playing downtrodden background actor Willis Wu in the new Hulu series.

There’s no escaping the layers of meta around “Interior Chinatown,” an adaptation of Charles Yu’s award-winning satirical novel that jabs at how Asian American men have been treated by Hollywood — and in life — one trope at a time.

“I feel like I have gone through every single number on the call sheet now,” Yang told The Associated Press. “And I’ve learned from a lot of other great No. 1s, you know? To carry yourself a certain way. It’s not just about showing up when you work, but it’s also about leading by example.”

The dramedy, premiering Tuesday, is told from the view of Willis, a Chinatown restaurant server stuck in a police procedural show whose perspective starts to shift as he looks into the yearslong disappearance of his older brother. The 10-episode season has a mostly Asian cast including Ronny Chieng, Chloe Bennet, Archie Kao and Tzi Ma. There is also plenty of Asian talent behind the scenes, led by Yu, who serves as creator and executive producer.

The episodes are full of nods to cop dramas such as “Law & Order.” They also evoke scenes from '80s and '90s U.S. action-comedies structured around one of the co-leads being Asian and knowing martial arts — think “Rush Hour” and “Martial Law.” But it wasn't a youth spent watching these movies and shows that inspired Yu's book, which is structured like a screenplay.

“More what informed the book was the experiences of my parents, who are immigrants, and of their community and seeing how they and their friends had built lives here, were trying to be Americans, were succeeding at it in a lot of ways, but still were feeling like outsiders — and wanting to just tell their story,” Yu said.

Taika Waititi, the director of “Jojo Rabbit” and two “Thor” movies and the first person of Māori descent to win an Academy Award, also produces. He's no stranger to promoting underrepresented voices on television, co-creating the Emmy-nominated “Reservation Dogs,” the first series where every role on and off-screen was held by someone Indigenous. Growing up in New Zealand, he saw similarities in “Interior Chinatown” with how Indigenous Māori like him were treated even in daily interactions.

“I remember working in a convenience store and I was always out the back of the convenience store. There were people who got to come in — and I’d been working there for six months — and they went straight to work on the till,” Waititi told The Associated Press. “One of the big draws to me was to be able to be involved in something that highlights those issues.”

The series' episode titles reference different archetypes that have shadowed Asian American actors for decades. These include “delivery guy,” “tech guy,” “kung fu guy” and “Chinatown expert.” There has been a reclaiming in recent years of “kung fu guy,” particularly. Marvel’s “Shang-Chi,” the CW’s “Kung Fu,” and “Warrior” on Max all have protagonists with martial arts prowess who also deal with personal baggage. All three stories happen to take place in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

The show's commentary on stereotyping seems more relevant in a post-coronavirus pandemic era, Ma said.

“In every major city, you know, the Chinatowns are going through hard times particularly after the pandemic,” Ma said. “I hope that people who come to Chinatown realize that Chinatown isn't just a place for you to eat food. It’s a community.”

Chieng, who plays curmudgeonly restaurant server Fatty Choi, memorably stuck up for Chinatowns everywhere in 2016 when he used his “Daily Show” gig to put Fox News’ Jesse Watters on blast for a racist segment about Manhattan’s Chinatown. (The Malaysian-born comedian says that takedown helped get him his part in “Crazy Rich Asians,” alongside Yang. Unlike the characters in “Interior Chinatown,” he says, he has since been very fortunate. In fact, he didn’t even have to read for Yu and other producers.)

A third of “Interior Chinatown's” main cast has been in projects set in a Chinatown, which Yu says affirms the story's examination of how Hollywood limits the range of roles available to Asian Americans.

“You don’t have to look too far down the IMDb listings of some of our cast who are really successful actors, but a few years ago could have easily been — you know, Jimmy likes to still tell the story of how he was ‘Chinese Teenager (#1)’ on Chloe’s show, ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,’ which is 10 years ago,” Yu said.

Bennet, who is half Chinese and half white, has spoken out before about struggling to be considered for roles when she used her actual surname, Wang. For so long, Bennet felt like her whiteness was what people saw at work and her “‘Asian-ness’ was always reserved for home,” the former “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” star told the AP. So, just walking onto the “Interior Chinatown” set was emotional.

“I’m viewed as white and so I’ve never really been a part of something where being Asian was so much at the forefront on and off-screen,” Bennet said. “And so being surrounded by our incredible crew, who was also very diverse, was something I didn’t realize I’d seen and that it was the immediate power of representation. I felt so much more comfortable.”

Yang, though, was too embarrassed to tell his frequent scene partner about his nameless part on her show.

“The journey that Willis was going through was the journey that I went through. I just have to zoom back 10 years,” said Yang, who also has his own production company. “I had a phase where I was fighting for the same kind of roles. ... Even I had to fight to get Chinese Teenager #1.”

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<![CDATA[Herlda Senhouse, the second-oldest U.S. resident, dies at age 113]]>

WELLESLEY, Mass. (AP) — Herlda Senhouse, who founded a jazz dance group to raise money for Black students in the 1950s and lived to become the second-oldest person in the United States, has died at age 113.

Senhouse died “peacefully in her sleep” on Saturday, said Stephanie Hawkinson, public information officer for the town of Wellesley, Massachusetts, where Senhouse had lived for the last four decades.

“She never missed an opportunity to learn more, do more, experience more,” said Hawkinson, who met Senhouse on her 108th birthday and had celebrated with her every year since.

Born Feb. 28, 1911, in Piedmont, West Virginia, Senhouse was sent to live with an aunt in Woburn, Massachusetts, at age 16 and graduated from Woburn High School. According to the Boston Globe, she dreamed of becoming a nurse but was turned away by a nursing school after it had met its quota of two Black students in 1931.

She later worked as a housekeeper for several families and founded the Boston Clique Club, which raised money to improve educational opportunities for Black students in Boston.

At age 105, she enrolled in the New England Centenarian Study, which seeks to determine how people like her age so slowly while delaying or escaping aging-related disease. She also bequeathed her brain to researchers, Hawkinson said.

According to the Gerontology Research Group, the oldest person in the United States is Naomi Whitehead, 114, who lives in Greenville, Pennsylvania.

Hawkinson said Senhouse often said the secret to her longevity was never having children, though she enjoyed children and caring for them. She surrounded herself with a community of relatives, friends and members of her church, and was always up for an adventure, Hawkinson said.

“She was truly an inspiration to so many in our community,” she said.

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<![CDATA[Australian senate censures Indigenous lawmaker who yelled at King Charles III]]>

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian senators on Monday voted to censure an Indigenous colleague who yelled at King Charles III during a reception in Parliament House last month.

The censure of independent Sen. Lidia Thorpe is a symbolic gesture that records her colleagues’ disapproval of her conduct during the first visit to Australia by a British monarch in 13 years.

The motion was carried 46 votes to 12.

Government leader in the Senate Penny Wong said Thorpe’s outburst sought to “incite outrage and grievance.”

“This is part of a trend that we do see internationally which, quite frankly, we do not need here in Australia,” Wong told the Senate.

Thorpe launched an expletive-laden rant at Charles following his speech during his visit to Canberra and Sydney.

“You are not our king. You are not sovereign,” Thorpe yelled at Charles as she was led by security guards from the reception.

“You committed genocide against our people. Give us our land back. Give us what you stole from us: our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people,” she added.

Following her censure, Thorpe said she would repeat her rant if Charles returned.

“If the colonizing king were to come to my country again, our country, then I’ll do it again,” Thorpe told reporters.

“And I will keep doing it. I will resist colonization in this country. I swear my allegiance to the real sovereigns of these lands; First Peoples are the real sovereigns. You don’t have some random king rock up and say he’s sovereign,” she added.

Sen. Mehreen Faruqi, a member of the minor Greens party, opposed the censure motion.

“The bubble of white privilege that encapsulates this parliament is a systemic issue,” Faruqi said. “That’s why we are here today, debating a Black senator being censured for telling the truth of the British crown’s genocide on First Nations people and telling it the way she wants to."

The vote took place before Thorpe arrived on a flight from Melbourne. Thorpe said she had wanted to be in Parliament for the vote but government senators refused to wait.

Indigenous people account for fewer than 4% of Australia's population and are the nation's most disadvantaged ethnic group.

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<![CDATA[Justice Department demands records from Illinois sheriff after July killing of Black woman]]>

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is demanding records related to the shooting of an Illinois woman who was killed in her home by a sheriff's deputy as it investigates how local authorities treat Black residents and people with behavioral disabilities.

The government made a list of demands in dozens of categories in a letter to the Sangamon County Sheriff's Office, dated Thursday.

“The Sheriff’s Office, along with involved county agencies, has engaged in discussions and pledged full cooperation with the Department of Justice in its review," Sheriff Paula Crouch said Friday.

Sonya Massey, a 36-year-old Black woman, was killed in July when deputies responded to a call about a possible prowler at her home in Springfield, Illinois. She was shot three times during a confrontation with an officer.

Sean Grayson, who is white, was fired. He is charged with murder and other crimes and has pleaded not guilty.

The Justice Department wants to know if the sheriff's office has strategies when responding to people in “behavioral health crises,” among many other requests.

“The incident raises serious concerns about ... interactions with Black people and people with behavioral health disabilities," the government said.

Andy Van Meter, chairman of the Sangamon County Board, said the Justice Department's review is an important step in strengthening the public's trust in the sheriff’s office.

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<![CDATA[From New Jersey to Hawaii, Trump made inroads in surprising places in his path to the White House]]>

TOTOWA, N.J. (AP) — Patrons at Murph's Tavern are toasting not just Donald Trump's return to the presidency but the fact that he carried their northern New Jersey county, a longtime Democratic stronghold in the shadow of New York City.

To Maria Russo, the woman pouring the drinks, the reasons behind Trump's win were as clear in the runup to the election as the shot glasses lined up on the high-top tables. A mother raising two kids on her own in Passaic County on a barkeep's income, she saw it not just in light of her own situation but those of the people around her.

“Anybody can see what’s going on, you know? The prices of everything. And me being a single mom?” she said. “I notice that when I go shopping – just like everybody else does.”

Although Trump's win once again reflected a deep political divide across the United States, he made inroads in surprising places. From the suburbs of New Jersey to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s New York City congressional district to reliably liberal Hawaii, Trump gained ground even as support for Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, dropped off.

AP VoteCast, a far-reaching survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide, found that Trump made substantial gains among Black and Latino men, younger voters, and nonwhite voters without a college degree, compared with his 2020 performance.

Common themes emerged in the AP VoteCast data. Voters were most likely to see the economy and immigration as top issues facing the country. More voters said their family's financial situation was “falling behind," compared with 2020. When they voted, Trump supporters were thinking about high prices for gas, groceries and other goods and the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Even in Hawaii, dominated by Democrats since the 1950s when labor unions organized sugar and pineapple plantation workers who built the state’s middle class, Republicans had commanding victories.

In West Oahu, for example, where many plantations have given way to suburban development, school teacher Julie Reyes Oda, a Republican, flipped one state House district in the heavily blue-collar, working-class town of Ewa Beach. In the district next door, state Rep. Diamond Garcia held on to a seat he turned Republican two years ago. Democrats still control supermajorities in both chambers, but the GOP’s nine House and three Senate seats are the most the party’s had in the Legislature since 2004.

Newly elected Republican state Sen. Samantha DeCorte said voters in her Waianae district west of Honolulu have long been frustrated by a lack of resources for basic needs such as public safety. Residents feel like they have to look over their shoulders when they are pumping gas, DeCorte said.

“They don’t want to go to the grocery store at night because they have to walk back to their car in the parking lot," she said.

Economic concerns, including the high cost of housing, may have figured prominently in the thinking of some Hawaii voters. On an island where the median cost of a single-family home tops jumi.1 million, many people, including large numbers of Native Hawaiians, have been forced to move to the continental U.S.

In New Jersey, AP VoteCast showed that Trump grew his support among nonwhite suburban voters and younger women, in addition to the demographic swings that showed up nationally. In New York, the survey showed especially large movement toward Trump among nonwhite men without a college education, although a majority of that group still supported Harris, the vice president.

About half of New Jersey voters said Trump would better handle the economy, according to AP VoteCast, while about one-third said this about Harris, giving him a slightly bigger advantage on the issue there compared with national numbers.

Few places better demonstrated Trump’s strength in traditionally blue areas than Passaic County, where Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to carry the county in more than three decades.

Interviews with voters and experts suggest Trump’s hammering on the economy influenced how people voted or whether they stayed home.

“Those people taking the subway into Manhattan, they live in a very different world than those people who live in Manhattan,” said Richard F. Bensel, a political historian at Cornell University. “They live in very different worlds in terms of the pressures that they feel, challenges that they feel in life, and they don’t want to be preached to.”

Sebastian Giraldo, a member of the Air Force stationed in Del Rio, Texas, who was home in Queens on leave recently, said it was a “no brainer” to vote for Trump despite having supported Democrat Joe Biden four years ago.

“Just the current trajectory of the United States these last four years have obviously been downhill,” he said. “I mean, for everybody, I think it’s been harder to live. The grocery shopping, buying clothes and gasoline. Just living.”

Ramon Ramirez-Baez, a 66-year-old writer and community activist in the Queens borough of New York, said he voted for Trump and encouraged others to do so despite being a registered Democrat who had voted for Democrats in the past four presidential elections and even ran unsuccessfully for the Legislature as a Democrat.

The native of the Dominican Republic, who came to Queens more than three decades ago, blamed Biden administration immigration policies for the explosion of prostitution, illegal brothels and unlicensed food carts that have bedeviled his neighborhood in recent years.

The White House’s position on the war in Gaza peeled away some Muslim voters in key swing states such as Michigan, and it cost them elsewhere, too.

Selaedin Maksut, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in New Jersey, said he voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein over Harris, though he backed other Democrats.

“It’s a protest vote,” he said. ”We’re not going to just give you our vote.”

In New Jersey, U.S. Rep. Andy Kim, who previously captured a House district claimed by Trump in 2020, carried Passaic County in his winning Senate race. It shows, he said in an interview, that people see local and state issues differently than national ones. He said voters have told him they appreciate his focus on “broken politics."

“If these are people who are distrusting of government, I think my message is saying, like, look I am also frustrated with how things are happening."

Ocasio-Cortez, like Kim, invited split-ticket voters to weigh in on social media about how they could back both Trump and her. That resonated across the Hudson River in New Jersey, where John Coiro, a patron at Murph's and a Trump supporter, said he respected her for asking the question.

Trump’s performance could force a reckoning among Democrats in places where they are accustomed to winning regularly.

Ralph Caputo, a former state legislator from northern New Jersey, said Trump, unlike Democrats, connected with different groups of voters. Trump was sharper, too, Caputo said, because he had been tested in the primaries, something Harris did not face because of Biden's late withdrawal from the race in July.

“Those days are over where you just put somebody up for election and think they’re going to win because they’re on a Democratic ballot,” Caputo said. “They can’t win automatically.”

___

Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, and Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.

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<![CDATA[Forget downtown or the ’burbs. The far-flung exurbs are where people are moving]]>

HAINES CITY, Fla. (AP) — Not long ago, Polk County’s biggest draw was citrus instead of people. Located between Tampa and Orlando, Florida’s citrus capital produces more boxes of citrus than any other county in the state and has devoted tens of thousands of acres to growing millions of trees.

But last year, more people moved to the county than to any other in the United States, almost 30,000.

Bulldozed citrus groves in recent years made way for housing and big box stores that could one day merge the two metropolitan areas into what has half-jokingly been dubbed, “Orlampa.”

The migration — and property sprawl — reflects a significant kind of growth seen all over the country this decade: the rise of the far-flung exurbs.

Outlying communities on the outer margins of metro areas — some as far away as 60 miles (97 kilometers) from a city’s center — had some of the fastest-growing populations last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Those communities are primarily in the South, like Anna on the outskirts of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area; Fort Mill, South Carolina, outside Charlotte, North Carolina; Lebanon outside Nashville; and Polk County’s Haines City.

For some residents, like Marisol Ortega, commuting to work can take up to an hour and a half one-way. But Ortega, who lives in Haines City about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from her job in Orlando, says it’s worth it.

“I love my job. I love what I do, but then I love coming back home, and it’s more tranquil,” Ortega said.

A pandemic exodus and more

The rapid growth of far-flung exurbs is an after-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Census Bureau, as rising housing costs drove people further from cities and remote working allowed many to do their jobs from home at least part of the week.

Polk County’s Hispanic population has grown from one-fifth to more than one-quarter of the overall population over the past five years, driven by Puerto Rican migration from the island after 2017’s Hurricane Maria and then from New York during the pandemic.

The county has grown more diverse with the share of non-Hispanic white residents dropping from 61% to 54%, and it has also gotten more educated and wealthier, according to the Census Bureau. Despite the influx of new people, the county’s Republican leanings have remained relatively unchanged.

Yeseria Suero and her family moved from New York to Polk County at the start of the decade after falling in love with the pace of life and affordability during a visit. Still, there were some cultural adjustments: restaurants closing early, barbecue and boiled peanuts everywhere, strangers chatting with her at the grocery store. Suero is now involved with the tight-knit Hispanic community and her two boys are active in sports leagues.

“My kids now say, ‘Yes, ma’am,’” she said.

Recent hurricanes and citrus diseases in Florida also have made it more attractive for some Polk County growers to sell their citrus groves to developers who build new residences or stores.

Over the past decade, citrus-growing there declined from 81,800 acres (33,103 hectares) and almost 10 million trees in 2014 to 58,500 acres (23,674 hectares) and 8.5 million trees in 2024, according to federal agricultural statistics.

“It hasn’t been a precipitous conversion of citrus land for growth,” said Matt Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, a grower’s group. “But certainly you see it in northern, northeastern Polk.”

An exurb of an exurb

Anna, Texas, more than 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of downtown Dallas, is seeing the same kind of migration.

It was the fourth-fastest growing city in the U.S. last year and its population has increased by a third during the 2020s to 27,500 residents. Like Polk County, Anna has gotten a little older, richer and more racially diverse. Close to 3 in 5 households have moved into their homes since 2020, according to the Census Bureau.

Schuyler Crouch, 29, and his wife wanted to buy a house in a closer-in exurb like Frisco, where he grew up, so they could settle down and start a family. But prices there have skyrocketed because of population growth.

In Anna, they fell in love last year with a house that was more reasonably priced. They both work in Frisco, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) away, and it has become their go-to for eating out or entertainment instead of downtown Dallas, even though not long ago Frisco itself was considered a far-flung outpost of the metro area.

Still, Crouch said he has noticed the exurbs keep getting pushed further north as breakneck growth makes affordable housing out of reach in neighborhoods once considered on the fringes of the metro area.

“The next exurb we are going to be living in is Oklahoma,” he joked.

___

Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform X: @MikeSchneiderAP.

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<![CDATA[California will rename places to remove racist term for a Native American woman]]>

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A racist term for a Native American woman will be removed from nearly three dozen geographic features and place names on California lands, the state Natural Resources Agency announced Friday.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022 signed a bill into law that bans use of the word “squaw” in future place names and ordered the agency rename all places that used the slur, including on streets, bridges, public buildings and cemeteries, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

New names have been selected in consultation with California’s Native American tribes for over 30 locations in 15 counties. The California Advisory Committee on Geographic Names will work to implement approved replacement names by Jan. 1.

One example is in the city of West Sacramento, where local officials worked with the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation to develop two new street names to replace the slur. The name recommended by the Tribal Council of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation is “tebti,” which is a word and blessing that translates to streams that flow together.

“With continued consultation, tribes can lead initiatives to eliminate such words from California’s public places,” said Anthony Roberts, tribal chairman.

A full list of new California names was not available Friday but will be made public shortly, the natural resources agency told The Associated Press in an email.

Assemblymember James C. Ramos, a Democrat from San Bernardino who became California's first Native American state lawmaker in 2018, authored the bill. He is a resident of the San Manuel Indian Reservation and member of the Serrano/Cahuilla tribe.

In 2021, a popular Northern California ski resort changed its name to Palisades Tahoe as part of efforts nationally to address a history of colonialism and oppression against Native Americans and other people of color.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland also moved in 2021 to rename any geographic features or location names on federal lands that use the term, including dozens in California.

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<![CDATA[Trial begins for the man accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley]]>

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — A Venezuelan man "went hunting for females on the University of Georgia’s campus” earlier this year and ended up killing nursing student Laken Riley after a struggle, a prosecutor said Friday. A defense attorney said the evidence is circumstantial and doesn't prove his client is guilty.

Jose Ibarra, who entered the U.S. illegally two years ago, is charged with murder and other crimes in Riley's February killing, which helped fan the immigration debate during this year's presidential campaign. Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial, meaning his case is being will be heard and decided by Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard.

Prosecutor Sheila Ross told the judge that Ibarra encountered Riley, a 22-year-old student at Augusta University College of Nursing, while she was out running on Feb. 22.

“When Laken Riley refused to be his rape victim, he bashed her skull in with a rock repeatedly,” Ross said, adding that the evidence will show that Riley “fought for her life, for her dignity.”

As a result of that fight, Ibarra's DNA was left under her fingernails, Ross said. Riley called 911 and, in a struggle over her phone, Ibarra's thumbprint was left on the screen, she said.

The forensic evidence is sufficient to prove Ibarra's guilt, but digital and video evidence will also show that Ibarra killed Riley, the prosecutor said.

Defense attorney Dustin Kirby called the evidence in the case graphic and disturbing, but he said none of it proves that his client killed Riley.

“The evidence in this case is very good that Laken Riley was murdered," he said. "The evidence that Jose Ibarra killed Laken Riley is circumstantial. The evidence that anyone had any intent or certainly committed any sexual assault is speculation.”

The killing added fuel to the national debate over immigration when federal authorities said Ibarra illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case.

Republicans, including President-elect Donald Trump, blamed Democratic President Joe Biden’s border policies for her death. As he spoke about border security during his State of the Union address weeks after the killing, Biden mentioned Riley by name.

Riley's mother, Allyson Phillips, and other family members packed the courtroom Friday. Phillips put her face in her hands and cried frequently, especially when photos of her daughter were shown and during testimony about what happened to her.

Ibarra sat at the defense table in a plaid shirt with his hands and feet chained. He wore headphones to hear a Spanish-language interpreter and appeared attentive, sometimes looking up when photos or video were shown and sometimes looking down at his lap.

During her opening statement, Ross laid out a timeline for the judge using doorbell and surveillance camera footage as well as data from Riley’s phone and watch to piece together her final moments.

Riley left home at 9:03 a.m. and headed for wooded trails where she often ran. Data from her watch shows that at 9:10 a.m., she was running at a fast pace when something happened that made her “stop dead in her tracks,” and she called 911 at 9:11 a.m.

A 911 dispatcher answered but no one responded when she repeatedly sought a response, and then the call was ended by the caller. The dispatcher immediately called back, but no one answered.

“Her encounter with him was long. Her fight with him was fierce,” Ross said, noting that Riley's watch data showed her heart was still beating until 9:28 a.m.

Ross also played security camera video that shows a man she said is Ibarra at 9:44 a.m. in a parking lot at his apartment complex. The man tossed something in a recycling bin and then appeared to throw something in nearby bushes. In the recycling bin, officers found a dark hooded jacket with blood that turned out to be Riley's on it and strands of long dark hair caught on a button. In the bushes, they found black disposable kitchen gloves, one of which had a hole in the tip of the thumb.

Another video from about 35 minutes later shows what appeared to be the same man wearing different clothes and walking toward a trash bin with a bag and then walking back empty-handed. That bin was emptied before police were able to search it.

One of Riley's three roommates testified that she became worried when Riley didn't return from a run. The four friends used a phone app to track each other's whereabouts, and Lilly Steiner testified that she became more worried when she saw that Riley's phone showed her in the same location for a long time.

Riley often talked to her mother by phone when she ran, and her mother also became concerned that morning when her daughter didn't answer her calls.

Steiner and another roommate, Sofia Magana, walked to the trail where the phone app indicated Riley was located. They found what they believed was one of Riley's AirPod earbuds on the trail and returned home to call police.

One of the officers who responded found Riley's body partially covered by leaves, 64 feet (nearly 20 meters) off the trail. Although her shirt and underwear had been pulled up, Ross said there was no evidence that Riley had been sexually assaulted.

Before Ross played Maxwell's body camera video in court, she warned Riley's family that video of her dead body would be shown. Riley's mother left the courtroom, but other family members and friends remained in the courtroom, some of them crying or covering their faces.

Ibarra is charged with one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder and one count each of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, hindering an emergency telephone call, tampering with evidence and being a peeping Tom.

Prosecutors say that on the day of Riley’s killing, Ibarra peered into the window of an apartment in a university housing building, which is the basis for the peeping Tom charge.

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<![CDATA[Dutch coalition survives crisis over top official resignation decrying offensive comments]]>

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Dutch government dominated by hard-right leader Geert Wilders survived a government crisis that centered on the resignation of the finance state secretary over what she saw as denigrating comments on immigrants after Israeli fans were assaulted following a soccer game in Amsterdam.

Wilders last Wednesday blamed Moroccans for attacks on Israeli soccer fans, claiming that “we saw Muslims hunting Jews” and added it was fueled by ”Moroccans who want to destroy Jews.” He said those convicted of involvement should be deported if they have dual nationality.

Morocco-born Nora Achahbar of centrist New Social Contract party announced her resignation as finance secretary late Friday and said that “the polarizing manners have had such an impact on me that I could, or would, no longer fulfill my role as state secretary.”

“Polarization in society is dangerous because it undermines the bond between people. Because of that, we start seeing each other as opponent instead of fellow citizens,” she said in a statement.

Prime Minister's Dick Schoof said after the resignation that among the 4 coalition parties “we saw that we wanted to continue,” and denied there was racism involved in the talks of and among leading coalition officials.

While lawmakers condemned antisemitism and agreed that perpetrators of the violence should be prosecuted and handed harsh punishments, opposition legislators accused Wilders of pouring oil on the fire. Wilders, whose party became the biggest in last year's election, also sowed some dissent within the four-party coalition with his comments.

The leader of the Green-left-Socialist opposition, Frans Timmermans, lauded Achahbar even before any move was announced.

“In this government, racist remarks are the order of the day. This government is not for all Dutch people,” he said.

Violence erupted in the Dutch capital before and after last week’s soccer match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Fans from both sides were involved in unrest. A number of Maccabi fans chanted anti-Arab slogans and ripped a Palestinian flag off a building, while some men carried out “hit-and-run” attacks on Maccabi fans and people they thought were Jews, according to a 12-page report on the violence issued by Amsterdam authorities.

___

Casert reported from Brussels

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http://hosted.ap.org/theskanner/article/fd4f44c8bf944dbd60c9fdd52663b1f9/dutch-coalition-survives-crisis-over-top-official fd4f44c8bf944dbd60c9fdd52663b1f9 Fri, 15 Nov 2024 23:06:06 GMT
<![CDATA[The daughters of Malcolm X sue the CIA, FBI and NYPD over the civil rights leader's assassination]]>

NEW YORK (AP) — Three daughters of Malcolm X have accused the CIA, FBI, the New York Police Department and others in a 0 million lawsuit Friday of playing roles in the 1965 assassination of the civil rights leader.

In the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, the daughters — along with the Malcolm X estate — claimed that the agencies were aware of and were involved in the assassination plot and failed to stop the killing.

At a morning news conference, attorney Ben Crump stood with family members as he described the lawsuit, saying he hoped federal and city officials would read it “and learn all the dastardly deeds that were done by their predecessors and try to right these historic wrongs.”

The NYPD and CIA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nicholas Biase, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, which was also sued, declined comment. The FBI said in an email that it was its “standard practice” not to comment on litigation.

For decades, more questions than answers have arisen over who was to blame for the death of Malcolm X, who was 39 years old when he was slain on Feb. 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom on West 165th Street in Manhattan as he spoke to several hundred people. Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, Malcolm X later changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

Three men were convicted of crimes in the death but two of them were exonerated in 2021 after investigators took a fresh look at the case and concluded some evidence was shaky and authorities had held back some information.

In the lawsuit, the family said the prosecution team suppressed the government’s role in the assassination.

The lawsuit alleges that there was a “corrupt, unlawful, and unconstitutional” relationship between law enforcement and “ruthless killers that went unchecked for many years and was actively concealed, condoned, protected, and facilitated by government agents,” leading up to the murder of Malcolm X.

According to the lawsuit, the NYPD, coordinating with federal law enforcement agencies, arrested the activist's security detail days before the assassination and intentionally removed their officers from inside the ballroom where Malcolm X was killed. Meanwhile, it adds, federal agencies had personnel, including undercover agents, in the ballroom but failed to protect him.

The lawsuit was not brought sooner because the defendants withheld information from the family, including the identities of undercover "informants, agents and provocateurs" and what they knew about the planning that preceded the attack.

Malcolm X’s wife, Betty Shabazz, the plaintiffs, “and their entire family have suffered the pain of the unknown” for decades, the lawsuit states.

“They did not know who murdered Malcolm X, why he was murdered, the level of NYPD, FBI and CIA orchestration, the identity of the governmental agents who conspired to ensure his demise, or who fraudulently covered-up their role,” it states. "The damage caused to the Shabazz family is unimaginable, immense, and irreparable."

The family announced its intention to sue the law enforcement agencies early last year.

]]>
http://hosted.ap.org/theskanner/article/682c71e26cbeaf293d0ea783999c0c5e/daughters-malcolm-x-sue-cia-fbi-and-nypd-over-civil-rights 682c71e26cbeaf293d0ea783999c0c5e Fri, 15 Nov 2024 20:58:44 GMT
<![CDATA[Pakistani province declares health emergency due to smog and locks down two cities]]>

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani province declared a health emergency Friday due to smog and imposed a shutdown in two major cities.

Smog has choked Punjab for weeks, sickening nearly 2 million people and shrouding vast swathes of the province in a toxic haze.

A senior provincial minister, Marriyum Aurangzeb, declared the health emergency at a press conference and announced measures to combat the growing crisis.

Time off for medical staff is cancelled, all education institutions are shut until further notice, restaurants are closing at 4 p.n. while takeaway is available up until 8 p.m. Authorities are imposing a lockdown in the cities of Multan and Lahore and halting construction work in those two places.

“Smog is currently a national disaster,” Aurangzeb said. “It will not all be over in a month or a year. We will evaluate the situation after three days and then announce a further strategy.”

Average air quality index readings in parts of Lahore, a city of 11 million, exceeded 600 on Friday. Anything over 300 is considered hazardous to health.

The dangerous smog is a byproduct of large numbers of vehicles, construction and industrial work as well as burning crops at the start of the winter wheat-planting season, experts say.

Pakistan’s national weather center said rain and wind were forecast for the coming days, helping smoggy conditions to subside and air quality to improve in parts of Punjab.

Dr. Muhammad Ashraf, a professor at Jinnah Hospital Lahore and Allama Iqbal Medical College, said the government must take preventative measures well before smog becomes prevalent.

“It is more of an emergency than COVID-19 because every patient is suffering from respiratory tract infections and disease is prevailing at a mass level,” he told The Associated Press earlier this week.

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http://hosted.ap.org/theskanner/article/899d54e8b4474c2468cdf59d9aaf5225/pakistani-province-declares-health-emergency-due-smog-and 899d54e8b4474c2468cdf59d9aaf5225 Fri, 15 Nov 2024 19:37:51 GMT
<![CDATA[Palm Springs officials approve .9M to pay Black and Latino families displaced from neighborhood]]>

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California city will pay .9 million to compensate Black and Latino families who were displaced from a neighborhood in the 1960s and decades later led a fight for restitution.

The Palm Springs City Council approved the deal in a unanimous vote Thursday. The council also approved million for a first-time homebuyer assistance program, million for a community land trust and the creation of a monument commemorating the history of the neighborhood known as Section 14.

Mayor Jeffrey Bernstein earlier this week said the city is “taking bold and important action that will create lasting benefits for our entire community while providing programs that prioritize support for the former residents of Section 14.”

It has not been determined how much each family or individual would receive in direct compensation, attorney Areva Martin said earlier this week. Martin represents over 300 former residents and hundreds of descendants. Money for housing assistance would go toward low-income Palm Springs residents, with priority given to former Section 14 residents and descendants.

Section 14 was a square-mile neighborhood on a Native American reservation that many Black and Mexican American families once called home. Families recalled houses being burned and torn down in the area before residents were told to vacate their homes.

The city council voted in 2021 to formally apologize for the city's role in the displacement. Families filed a tort claim with the city in 2022, and the following year announced they were seeking [scripts/homepage/home-dev.php].3 billion for the harm caused by their displacement.

The tort claim argued the tragedy was akin to the violence that decimated a vibrant community known as Black Wall Street more than a century ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma, leaving as many as 300 people dead. There were no reported deaths in connection with the displacement of families from Section 14.

]]>
http://hosted.ap.org/theskanner/article/e36199f510b44dbf57b8d1d52c083033/palm-springs-officials-approve-59m-pay-black-and-latino e36199f510b44dbf57b8d1d52c083033 Fri, 15 Nov 2024 18:22:01 GMT
<![CDATA[A French student who was arrested and detained in Tunisia returns to Paris]]>

PARIS (AP) — A French doctoral student detained in Tunisia returned to Paris on Friday after weeks of top-level diplomatic discussions.

Victor Dupont, a 27-year-old pursuing a Ph.D. at Aix-Marseille University’s Institute of Research and Study on the Arab and Islamic Worlds, arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport on Friday afternoon, 27 days after he was arrested in Tunis.

“Obviously, we welcome this outcome for him and, most of all, we welcome that he is able to reunite with his loved ones here in France,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said.

He announced the release at a ministry news briefing on Friday, saying that Dupont was freed Tuesday from prison and returned on Friday back to France.

Tunisian authorities in recent years have arrested journalists, activists and opposition figures, but Dupont’s arrest garnered international attention and condemnation because of his nationality and because he wasn’t known as a critic of the government.

Dupont researches social movements, youth unemployment and Tunisia’s 2011 revolution. Three other French nationals were also arrested Oct. 19 in front of Dupont's Tunis apartment. At least two were subsequently released. The whereabouts of the third person, a woman with dual French-Tunisian citizenship, weren’t immediately clear Friday.

Tunisian authorities have not commented on any of the arrests.

Dupont's arrest provoked concerns about the safety and security of foreign researchers in Tunisia, where rights and freedoms have gradually been curtailed under President Kais Saied.

Saied harnessed populist anger to win two terms as president of Tunisia and has reversed many of the democratic gains that were made after the country became the first to topple a longtime dictator in 2011 during the regional uprisings known as the Arab Spring.

Dupont's supporters, both at his university and in associations representing academics who work in the Middle East and North Africa, said that his research didn't pose any security risks, called the charges unfounded and decried authorities' choice to charge him in military court.

“It has no connection with foreign powers or foreign affairs and presents no threat whatsoever to the security of the Tunisian state. Rather, Dupont’s arrest highlights the constraints on academic freedom in Tunisia today and poses a dangerous precedent for the future of social scientific investigation in the country,” Asli Bali, Yale Law School professor and president of the Middle East Studies Association, wrote in a Nov. 9 letter to authorities.

Tunisia and France have maintained close political and economic ties since Tunisia became independent after 75 years of being a French protectorate. France is Tunisia’s top trade partner, home to a large Tunisian diaspora and a key interlocutor in managing migration from North Africa to Europe.

A French diplomatic official not authorized to speak publicly about the arrest told The Associated Press in late October that officials were in contact with Tunisian authorities about the case. Another diplomatic official with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday that French President Emmanuel Macron had recently spoken to Saied twice about the case and said that it was the subject of regular calls between top level diplomats.

Though foreign researchers are regularly surveilled while working in parts of the Middle East and North Africa, such arrests and charges against them are rare. In 2016, Giulio Regeni, an Italian Ph.D. student researching trade unions in Cairo, was found dead near a highway and marked with signs of torture. After an investigation, Italian prosecutors are trying four Egyptian security officials in absentia in Rome.

___

Metz reported from Rabat, Morocco. Associated Press writers Angela Charlton in Paris and John Leicester in Le Pecq, France contributed to this report.

]]>
http://hosted.ap.org/theskanner/article/d4dba920ade92601fbda3de6673d3dea/french-student-who-was-arrested-and-detained-tunisia d4dba920ade92601fbda3de6673d3dea Fri, 15 Nov 2024 15:45:41 GMT
<![CDATA[Trump wants to end 'wokeness' in education. He has vowed to use federal money as leverage]]>

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump's vision for education revolves around a single goal: to rid America’s schools of perceived “ wokeness ” and “left-wing indoctrination.”

The president-elect wants to forbid classroom lessons on gender identity and structural racism. He wants to abolish diversity and inclusion offices. He wants to keep transgender athletes out of girls’ sports.

Throughout his campaign, the Republican depicted schools as a political battleground to be won back from the left. Now that he’s won the White House, he plans to use federal money as leverage to advance his vision of education across the nation.

Trump’s education plan pledges to cut funding for schools that defy him on a multitude of issues.

On his first day in office, Trump has repeatedly said he will cut money to “any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children.” On the campaign trail, Trump said he would “not give one penny” to schools with vaccine or mask requirements.

He said it would be done through executive action, though even some of his supporters say he lacks the authority to make such swift and sweeping changes.

Trump’s opponents say his vision of America’s schools is warped by politics — that the type of liberal indoctrination he rails against is a fiction. They say his proposals will undermine public education and hurt the students who need schools' services the most.

“It's fear-based, non-factual information, and I would call it propaganda,” said Wil Del Pilar, senior vice president for Education Trust, a research and advocacy organization. “There is no evidence that students are being taught to question their sexuality in schools. There is no evidence that our American education system is full of maniacs.”

Trump's platform calls for “massive funding preferences” for states and schools that end teacher tenure, enact universal school choice programs and allow parents to elect school principals.

Perhaps his most ambitious promise is to shut down the U.S. Education Department entirely, a goal of conservative politicians for decades, saying it has been infiltrated by “radicals.”

America’s public K-12 schools get about 14% of their revenue from the federal government, mainly from programs targeting low-income students and special education. The vast majority of schools' money comes from local taxes and state governments.

Colleges rely more heavily on federal money, especially the grants and loans the government gives students to pay for tuition.

Trump's strongest tool to put schools' money on the line is his authority to enforce civil rights — the Education Department has the power to cut federal funding to schools and colleges that fail to follow civil rights laws.

The president can't immediately revoke money from large numbers of districts, but if he targets a few through civil rights inquiries, others are likely to fall in line, said Bob Eitel, president of the conservative Defense of Freedom Institute and an education official during Trump's first term. That authority could be used to go after schools and colleges that have diversity and inclusion offices or those accused of antisemitism, Eitel said.

“This is not a Day One loss of funding,” Eitel said, referencing Trump's campaign promise. “But at the end of the day, the president will get his way on this issue, because I do think that there are some real legal issues.”

Trump also has hinted at potential legislation to deliver some of his promises, including fining universities over diversity initiatives.

To get colleges to shutter diversity programs — which Trump says amount to discrimination — he said he “will advance a measure to have them fined up to the entire amount of their endowment.”

His platform also calls for a new, free online university called the American Academy, to be paid for by “taxing, fining and suing excessively large private university endowments.”

During his first term, Trump occasionally threatened to cut money from schools that defied him, including those slow to reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic and colleges he accused of curbing free speech.

Most of the threats came to nothing, though he succeeded in getting Congress to add a tax on wealthy university endowments, and his Education Department made sweeping changes to rules around campus sexual assault.

Universities hope their relationship with the administration won’t be as antagonistic as Trump’s rhetoric suggests.

“Education has been an easy target during the campaign season,” said Peter McDonough, general counsel for the American Council on Education, an association of university presidents. “But a partnership between higher education and the administration is going to be better for the country than an attack on education.”

Trump’s threats of severe penalties seem to contradict another of his education pillars — the extraction of the federal government from schools. In closing the Education Department, Trump said he would return “all education work and needs back to the states.”

“We’re going to end education coming out of Washington, D.C.,” Trump said on his website last year. In his platform, he pledged to ensure schools are “free from political meddling.”

Rather than letting states and schools decide their stance on polarizing issues, Trump is proposing blanket bans that align with his vision.

Taking a neutral stance and letting states decide wouldn't deliver Trump's campaign promises, said Max Eden, a senior fellow at AEI, a conservative think tank. For example, Trump plans to rescind guidance from President Joe Biden's administration that extended Title IX protections to LGBTQ+ students. And Trump would go further, promising a nationwide ban on transgender women in women's sports.

“Trump ran on getting boys out of girls' sports. He didn’t run on letting boys play in girls' sports in blue states if they want to,” Eden said.

Trump also wants a say in school curriculum, vowing to fight for “patriotic” education. He promised to reinstate his 1776 Commission, which he created in 2021 to promote patriotic education. The panel created a report that called progressivism a “challenge to American principles” alongside fascism.

Adding to that effort, Trump is proposing a new credentialing body to certify teachers “who embrace patriotic values.”

Few of his biggest education goals can be accomplished quickly, and many would require new action from Congress or federal processes that usually take months.

More immediately, he plans to nullify executive orders issued by Biden, including one promoting racial equity across the federal government. He's also expected to work quickly to revoke or rewrite Biden’s Title IX rules, though finalizing those changes would require a lengthier rulemaking process.

Trump hasn’t detailed his plans for student loans, though he has called Biden’s cancellation proposals illegal and unfair.

Most of Biden’s signature education initiatives have been paused by courts amid legal challenges, including a proposal for widespread loan cancellation and a more generous loan repayment plan. Those plans could be revoked or rewritten once Trump takes office.

___

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

]]>
http://hosted.ap.org/theskanner/article/24f864d83e2f5745d12a79ebac0d7cc4/trump-wants-end-wokeness-education-he-has-vowed-use 24f864d83e2f5745d12a79ebac0d7cc4 Fri, 15 Nov 2024 15:10:10 GMT

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