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A downtown march and rally in support of theOccupy Wall Street movement turned briefly chaotic as police scattered a crowd of rowdy protesters — including a pregnant 19-year-old and an 84-year-old activist — with blasts of pepper spray.A downtown march and rally in support of theOccupy Wall Street movement turned briefly... more
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Who are the "Fukushima 50" -- the workers trying to take regain control of Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant?
Twitter messages and blog posts by the workers' families offer an inkling of the "Fukushima 50," so nicknamed because the 180 employees at the site work in 50-person shifts.
One of the workers is a veteran power plant worker, a 59-year-old who volunteered to take on the assignment, according to Jiji Press, a Japanese news wire service, quoting a woman who claimed to be his daughter on Twitter. The job puts him at risk of exposure to dangerous amounts of radiation that could cause death or lead to a higher risk of cancer.
http://usaheadline.blogspot.com/2011/03/fukushima-50-battle-radiation-risks-as.htmlWho are the "Fukushima 50" -- the workers trying to take regain control of... more
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11 months ago
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After a long summer of name-calling and absurd attempts to deny birthright citizenship to children of immigrants, immigration hawks are now bullying immigrant children on their own turf: Public schools.
California, New York, Iowa and Colorado are among the states that have cracked down on immigrant students by hiring ICE agents to investigate residency statuses or unlawfully barring students from enrolling. Such blatant discrimination flies in the face of the 14th amendment and Supreme Court precedent, both of which guarantee all children the right to a public education regardless of immigration status.
The latest assault on immigrant students comes not from over-zealous school districts, however, but from state lawmakers adamant about stripping immigrants of the few rights they possess.
Kick ‘em out of school
As Matt Vasilogambros of the Iowa Independent reports, Iowa’s lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Kim Reynolds recently came out in support of denying public education to undocumented children, a sentiment she shares with her running mate, former Gov. Terry Branstad. Branstad’s position is even more extreme, however. He has argued that the Supreme Court decision in Plyer v. Doe—the 1982 case which guarantees immigrants the right to public education—should be overturned.
So far, only Colorado third party gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo has fully endorsed Branstad’s extreme opinion. Tancredo has even gone so far as to say that, if elected, he would ignore the Supreme Court ruling altogether.
Branstad and Tancredo may be on their own for the moment. But, if this summer’s birthright citizenship fiasco is any indication, anti-immigrant conservatives must be delighted to fall back on the age-old myth that immigrants are here to steal social services.
New York stands up
Last week, the New York Department of Education fired back at anti-immigrant activism in schools by issuing a memo that directs schools not to investigate the immigration status of their students.
According to Braden Goyette of Campus Progress, the memo came in response to a New York Civil Liberties Union report charging that 139 New York school districts were collecting information about prospective students’ immigration statuses—and barring or discouraging children from enrolling if they failed to provide proof of their citizenship.
Goyette notes that federal law only requires students to fulfill two simple requirements before enrolling: residency in the school district, and intent to remain in the school district. Immigration status is not a factor.
The memo is a victory for immigrant rights advocates, especially as it comes on the heels of reports that two California school districts are adopting even harsher anti-immigrant policies.
Negating Pyler v. Doe
As New America Media’s Jacob Simas and Elena Shore translate from a La Opinión, a daily Spanish-language newspaper based in Los Angeles. Both the Unified School District of Calexico and the Mountain Empire School District near San Diego have hired staff exclusively to investigate the immigration statuses of their students. The school districts are attempting to get around Pyler v. Doe by arguing that their proximity to the border necessitates stricter enforcement of federal residency requirements.
In other words, they’re worried that Mexican children are crossing the border to take advantage of our first-class, world-renowned public school offerings. The simple fact that student residency can be determined without revealing immigration status is obviously beside the point.
Cutting social services in New Jersey
Meanwhile, immigrants in New Jersey may be robbed of their own social services, as the state threatens to removes 12,000 non-citizens from it’s low-income family insurance plan.
As Change.org’s Prerna Lal reports, several legal immigrants have joined a class action lawsuit against New Jersey’s Department of Human Services, alleging that the state is violating “the equal protection guarantees of the United States and New Jersey Constitutions” by denying health care subsidies to legal permanent residents. Lal notes that legal permanent residents possess nearly all of the same rights as U.S. citizens, and pay taxes to both state and federal governments. They should, therefore, be safe from public policy discrimination.
But, while it’s well documented that both legal and undocumented immigrants pay into our social services system through income taxes, that fact is persistently overlooked by the anti-immigrant zealots who want to keep immigrants off Medicaid and out of public schools.
Even former President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors agreed that immigrants have a positive fiscal impact Social Security and Medicaid, contributing $80,000 more in taxes than they receive in public services. Other studies put that figure much higher.
Given their immense contribution to the social services net, guaranteeing immigrants’ access to those public services is more than a matter of justice—it’s a matter of fiscal responsibility.After a long summer of name-calling and absurd attempts to deny birthright citizenship... more
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The Gulf Coast's endangered wetlands are a long way from the concrete towers of Lower Manhattan, but a wood paneled federal courtroom here on Pearl Street can provide invaluable lessons for handling the BP disaster that could save endless amounts of time, money and anguish.
In that courtroom, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein last month approved a comprehensive monetary settlement that could be worth more than $700 million if it is accepted by 95 percent of 10,000 workers who toiled on the debris pile of the World Trade Center. The workers sued New York City and more than 100 private contractors who did work for the city during the nine month cleanup in 2001 and 2002, claiming that they were recklessly exposed to dangerous chemicals by a city overly eager to get things back to normal.
The parallels to the current situation in the gulf are many. Recently, a panel of national health experts met in New Orleans to look into the potential health risks to thousands of cleanup workers and volunteers who are being exposed to the raw petroleum washing up on the beaches, as well as the chemicals in the dispersants being used to break up the floating sheets of oil. Some have complained of dizziness, nausea and headache. BP claims the chemicals are safe and that the workers are reacting to the heat or to contaminated food.
The only certain way to know how this exposure will affect the health of workers is through long-term epidemiological studies. But those can take decades, and no one suggests that waiting that long is reasonable. Data is still being collected on how exposure to the ground zero dust nine years ago will impact the long term health of those workers.
Personal injury lawyers do not wait for epidemiologists to complete their work. In New York they hauled 10,000 lawsuits before the court without actually proving any link to the dust. The legal tab for both sides leading up to last month's settlement offer is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
BP's recently announced $20 billion compensation fund is sure to attract personal injury lawyers the way a pile of day old Louisiana oyster shells attracts flies. Those receiving compensation will have to give up their right to sue, but the track record in New York suggests that many will pass up participation in the fund and will look for recourse in the courts.
Litigation on such a huge scale would drag on for many years, as it has in New York. But the proceedings before Judge Hellerstein suggest ways to make sure that those who legitimately are injured receive the help they need without unnecessary delay, while making it more difficult for people to grab money they may not deserve.
• Keep records. Sounds simple but it is important to know who worked where, when and for whom. We still don't know how many people worked at ground zero. Some responders have been forced to produce photographs to prove they were there.
• Set fair limits. Just as important as when the administration of the $20 billion fund begins is when it will end. When the original September 11th Victim Compensation Fund shut down in December 2003 many respiratory illnesses stemming from exposure in 2001 had not yet surfaced, leaving many little choice but to sue.
• Monitor. The sooner an independent medical monitoring system (not paid for by BP) begins, the easier it will be to establish a data base that can track linkages between the oil and certain diseases. Better yet, give workers a basic exam before they start.
• Communicate carefully. The U.S. government may be taking a passive role in the cleanup but it must ensure that risk is communicated with the same care and precision as operating a submersible a mile below the surface of the gulf. At ground zero, government officials glossed over significant details about where the air was safe, leading workers to make poor decisions about protecting themselves.
• Follow the science. Correlating injuries with recovery work is not the same as proving causation. The possible areas of concern should be clearly outlined as soon as possible. In the ground zero litigation, workers have complained of more than 350 different diseases. In addition, thousands who admit they are not sick now could end up receiving compensation awards because they are worried they could fall ill in the future.
Kenneth R. Feinberg, a Washington lawyer who oversaw the original 9/11 victim fund, has been appointed final arbitrator in the ground zero settlement. He also have been named administrator of BP's $20 billion compensation fund. Mr. Feinberg's experience in New York will help him foresee and possibly avoid some of the same pitfalls that have delayed the ground zero litigation for so long. The environmental damage and economic consequences of the gulf disaster will be difficult enough to overcome without making the victims suffer unnecessarily by repeating the mistakes of the past.The Gulf Coast's endangered wetlands are a long way from the concrete towers of... more
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Marilyn's On Monroe, a nude dance club in downtown Toledo, Ohio, is raising money to send to the Haiti relief efforts, CNN reports, though they're not yet sure which organization will receive their donations.
"You know, just like everyone our hearts went out to Haiti and we were thinking 'What can we do?" said manager Kenny Soprano.
When asked if he thought organizations would refuse the aid based on its source, Soprano shrugged it off. "Charity's charity. Who's to judge who and where it comes from?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/06/lap-dances-for-haiti-ohio_n_452273.htmlMarilyn's On Monroe, a nude dance club in downtown Toledo, Ohio, is raising money... more
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lash and friends join forces to battle youth homelessness in Los Angeles during the Los Angeles Youth Network (LAYN) Rocks! benefit concert November 22 at the Avalon Hollywood.
Hosted by comedian George Lopez, LAYN Rocks! will unite musical talents Slash, Ozzy Osbourne, Perry Farrell, Tom Morello, Billy Idol, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, Travis Barker, Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother, Dave Navarro, and many others for a night of music and a step toward eradicating youth homelessness. Causecast's Brandon Deroche had the opportunity to talk with Slash about the night and get his take on the root of the problem.
http://www.causecast.org/news_items/9287-slash-on-youth-homelessness-and-the-layn-rocks-benefit-concertlash and friends join forces to battle youth homelessness in Los Angeles during the... more
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