Will Trump's Immigration Crackdown Be a "Cash Machine" for Military & Private Prison Contractors?

Democracy Now

By now, global markets have rebounded after plummeting upon the news of Trump’s victory. Stocks of some companies surged, including the largest private prison contractor, Corrections Corporation of America—which recently changed its name to CoreCivic—whose shares are up 43 percent since Trump’s victory. GEO Group, another private prison contractor, is up 21 percent. Meanwhile, stocks also surged for many military contractors, including Raytheon, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Boeing. We speak with William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, and Seth Freed Wessler, reporter with The Investigative Fund who has been following private detention centers.

CNN’s Final Humiliation: Corey Lewandowski Quits To Work For Trump

Media Matters

Corey Lewandowski, former campaign manager for President-elect Donald Trump turned professional Trump propagandist for CNN, has resigned from the network amid reports that he is seeking a job in the new administration. His resignation just days after Trump’s win underlines the farcical nature of his employment as a “political commentator” for CNN during the election. And the nature of his exit -- proactively resigning to potentially go back to officially working for Trump rather than being fired by CNN for obvious ethical reasons -- should humiliate the network.

CNN hired Lewandowski shortly after he was fired by the campaign in June. His hiring was immediately and widely criticized, both due to his history of open hostility toward -- and even physical altercations with -- the press, and the fact that he was likely prevented from criticizing Trump due to a non-disparagement agreement. The New York Times reported Friday that Lewandowski “has been frequently spotted this week at Trump Tower in Manhattan, chatting with senior aides and attending meetings,” and that he is seeking a senior adviser role in the administration and is in consideration for a leadership role with the Republican National Committee.

CNN president Jeff Zucker repeatedly defended Lewandowski’s hiring, even as it became clear that he was still drawing large “severance” checks from the campaign, advising Trump on strategy, helping to prep him for the debates, and flying on the candidate’s plane while working for the network.

Zucker’s defense for hiring Lewandowski is that he provided needed pro-Trump balance to CNN’s airwaves while supposedly being able to offer expert information from someone who had been inside the campaign apparatus. But CNN’s airwaves were already filled with Trump apologists, and Lewandowski’s reported non-disclosure agreement essentially prevented him from sharing any unique insight into the campaign. So what CNN viewers got instead was a lot of dishonest shilling on Trump’s behalf -- and given the nature of Trump’s campaign, there was no shortage of scandals for Lewandowski to spin to CNN’s audience.

When video of Trump boasting about sexually assaulting women emerged in October, Lewandowski downplayed the seriousness of the comments by telling CNN viewers that “we’re not electing a Sunday School teacher” and stressing Trump’s leadership ability. (In a separate appearance a few days later, Lewandowski announced that “nobody cares” about Trump’s comments before pivoting to talking about Hillary Clinton’s emails.)

When women came forward alleging that Trump had assaulted them, Lewandowski cast doubt on the veracity of the claims, suggesting it was suspicious that they had waited until so close to the election to come forward.

When The New York Times published tax documents suggesting Trump had been able to avoid paying federal income tax for years, Lewandowski tried to obscure the nature of the report by accusing the Times of a “felony” for publishing its article and encouraging the candidate to sue the paper “into oblivion.”

When a fellow panelist questioned Trump's years-long racist crusade questioning President Obama’s birthplace, Lewandowski questioned (to the horror of dozens of journalists) why Obama hadn’t released his college records, asking, “Did he get in as a U.S. citizen, or was he brought into Harvard University as a citizen who wasn't from this country?”

There are plenty of other lowlights from Lewandowski's CNN tenure, but you get the idea.

Lewandowski’s resignation essentially confirms what was already an open secret: he never really stopped working for Trump -- his role just changed. Media Matters had for months been calling for CNN to cut ties with Lewandowski over ethical concerns, but now that he’s resigned, CNN can’t even salvage a small bit of journalistic responsibility over the Lewandowski debacle.

In effect, CNN just paid Trump’s close ally for five months to spin on Trump’s behalf while auditioning for a job in the Trump administration. The network’s journalists should be embarrassed that their executives had so little regard for CNN’s credibility.

CA grants voting rights to people serving felony sentences in jail

Sentencing Project

Despite opposition from some law enforcement officials, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill into law that will restore voting rights to as many as 50,000 people serving felony sentences in county jails. The legislation is an outgrowth of the state’s Realignment policy, which has diverted many individuals convicted of non-violent felonies from incarceration in state prison to local jails or community supervision. The bill also reaffirms the right for people with felony convictions on probation to vote. Some Republican lawmakers opposed the bill, saying it will compromise the integrity of elections and reward people for bad behavior. Assemblywoman Shirley Brown (D-San Diego), one of the authors of AB2466, said civic participation is critical to reducing recidivism, and this bill will “send a message to the nation that California will not stand for discrimination in voting.” The law goes into effect in 2017.

Federal lawsuit seeks to overturn voting ban for people in Alabama with felony convictions

The Greater Birmingham Ministries and 10 Alabamians with felony convictions filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming the state’s felony disenfranchisement law is an unconstitutional infringement on the right to vote, racist in its origins, disproportionately impacts people of color, and unfairly punishes people after they have completed their sentence. Alabama law strips people of their right to vote if they commit a “felony involving moral turpitude,” but the state doesn’t provide a definitive list of such felonies. The decision of who gets to vote varies from county to county and is essentially left up to the local registrars. In 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court considered a case of two individuals barred from voting because of misdemeanor convictions involving moral turpitude. The Court ruled unanimously that the arbitrary language of “moral turpitude” was purposely included in the state Constitution as a way to keep blacks from voting. However, a decade after the ruling, the Alabama legislature voted to put the category of moral turpitude back into the Constitution, but only relating to felony offenses.

Alabamians convicted of certain felony convictions can apply to have their voting rights restored after they have completed their prison, parole and probation sentence and have paid all fines and fees associated with their case. Some of the plaintiffs in the suit have applied to have their voting rights restored, while others cannot afford to pay all the fines or have convictions that make them ineligible for restoration. Earlier this year, Republican Governor Robert Bentley signed legislation to speed up the voting rights restoration process, but the process remains “overly burdensome,” the lawsuit argues.

Secretary of state flags thousand of voters in Arkansas for removal from voting polls

In June 2016, Secretary of State Mark Martin’s office sent a faulty list of people to be removed from voting polls due to felony convictions to every county clerk’s office in the state. The list contained a large number of people who had previously had their voting rights restored, and another 4,000 voters who had never been convicted of a felony. Secretary Martin’s office sent a letter in July to the county offices, acknowledging that there may be potential errors in the data, and that it was the responsibility of the county offices to “proceed with caution” before removing voters. However, The Arkansas Times reported that the response to the faulty data has varied drastically from county to county. “Some clerks have reinstated every canceled registration and are now carefully vetting every case. Others, though, have automatically canceled everyone on their list and simply plan to reinstate voters on a case-by-case basis whenever individuals complain of the issue.” It is unclear how many eligible voters will be barred from voting in the upcoming election.

Virginia Supreme Court clears path for governor to continue restoring voting rights

In a unanimous vote, the Supreme Court of Virginia recently rejected a request from state Republicans to find Governor Terry McAuliffe in contempt of court over his ongoing efforts to restore voting rights to people who have completed their felony sentences. In July, the Supreme Court agreed with Republican leadership that Gov. McAuliffe had exceeded his authority under the state Constitution when he restored voting rights en masse to over 200,000 people instead of individually. Republicans then took Gov. McAuliffe back to court after he announced that he had individually restored voting rights to 13,000 people, and stated he would continue to similarly restore voting rights to the rest of the 200,000 Virginians who have completed their felony sentence. “It is my hope that the court’s validation of the process we are using will convince Republicans to drop their divisive efforts to prevent Virginians from regaining their voting rights and focus their energy and resources on making Virginia a better place to live for the people who elected all of us to lead,” said Gov. McAuliffe.

Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr., one of the Republicans who sued Gov. McAuliffe, recently proposed a constitutional amendment to automatically restore voting rights to people convicted of nonviolent felony offenses who have finished their sentences. The amendment would strip the governor’s power to restore rights, meaning that people convicted of violent felony offenses would no longer have a path to regain their voting rights. Some Democratic lawmakers have also proposed a constitutional amendment to completely end all forms of the state’s felony disenfranchisement law, which would align Virginia with Maine and Vermont as the only states that have no restrictions on voting for people in prison.

In U.S., 84% Accept Trump as Legitimate President [same as bush]

Gallup

Eighty-four percent of Americans accept Donald Trump as the legitimate president, about the same percentage who accepted George W. Bush as legitimate in December 2000.

Trump’s Victory Was Built on Unique Coalition of Racist Voters

NY Times

Donald J. Trump’s America flowered through the old union strongholds of the Midwest, along rivers and rail lines that once moved coal from southern Ohio and the hollows of West Virginia to the smelters of Pennsylvania.

It flowed south along the Mississippi River, through the rural Iowa counties that gave Barack Obama more votes than any Democrat in decades, and to the Northeast, through a corner of Connecticut and deep into Maine.

And it extended through the suburbs of Cleveland and Minneapolis, of Manchester, N.H., and the sprawl north of Tampa, Fla., where middle-class white voters chose Mr. Trump over Hillary Clinton.

One of the biggest upsets in American political history was built on a coalition of white voters unlike that of any other previous Republican candidate, according to election results and interviews with voters and demographic experts.

Mr. Trump’s coalition comprised not just staunchly conservative Republicans in the South and West. They were joined by millions of voters in the onetime heartlands of 20th-century liberal populism — the Upper and Lower Midwest — where white Americans without a college degree voted decisively to reject the more diverse, educated and cosmopolitan Democratic Party of the 21st century, making Republicans the country’s dominant political party at every level of government. [MORE]

After Trump’s election, reports of anti-Islam attacks spike

ThinkProgress

Less than 48 hours since Donald Trump became the president-elect, reports of Islamophobia are already on the rise.

Attacks on Muslim Americans were already high before Trump clinched enough electoral college delegates to win the presidency on Tuesday night, with hate group experts attributing the uptick to his candidacy. But the situation appears to have worsened since his win.

Here are just a few examples of Muslim American reporting instances of harassment and assault this week.

• A San Diego State University says she was robbed and may have had her car stolen by two men who “made comments about President-elect Donald Trump and the Muslim community,” according to a statement from campus police. Officials are calling the attack a hate crime.
• At New York University, Muslim students reportedly awoke to discover that the door to their prayer room had been defaced with the word “Trump!”

•  At San Jose State University, a campus-wide alert sent to students reported that a woman had her hijab forcibly removed by a “fair skinned male” with such force that it “caused the victim to lose her balance and choked her.”

• A Muslim woman in Albuquerque, New Mexico claimed on Twitter that a Trump supporter tried to pull off her hijab at her university. She said school officials are now investigating the incident.

• A Muslim woman reported that a woman verbally and physically attacked her at a Walmart, tugging at her hijab while saying that such headwear “is not allowed anymore.” She then reportedly suggested the woman hang herself. Walmart is working to corroborate the story. [MORE]

Universities struggle with racially charged incidents from Racist Whites after Trump victory

CBS News

A student at the University of Oklahoma has been temporarily suspended and police are investigating a threat against a Muslim student near the University of Michigan amid racially charged outbursts at schools and universities across the country following Donald Trump’s presidential election.

The Associated Press and other local media outlets identified several reports of racist incidents at schools since Tuesday, including a group chat that the Oklahoma student got involved with aimed at black freshmen at the University of Pennsylvania, Trump’s alma mater. 

The chat contained “violent, racist and thoroughly disgusting images and messages,” and Penn is “appalled” its students were added to the GroupMe account,” UPenn President Amy Gutmann said. Gutmann said UPenn police have been working with the FBI. She earlier said officials had increased campus safety and were “reaching out to support the affected students.” 

One of the students on the group text told CBS Philadelphia that “it’s sad that in this day that we’re still dealing with racism in this type of way, and out of all places I didn’t think my school would be the school to have to go through it.” [MORE]

Republicans will soon control the White House, both chambers of Congress, the tilt of the Supreme Court, more state legislative chambers and more governor’s offices

NY Times

It is the stunning paradox of American politics. In a bitterly divided nation, where Tuesday’s vote once again showed a country almost evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, one party now dominates almost everything in American governance.

With Donald J. Trump’s win, Republicans will soon control the White House, both chambers of Congress, the tilt of the Supreme Court, more state legislative chambers than any time in history, and more governor’s offices than they have held in nearly a century.

Republican leaders say that shift — to a level of one-party control that some historians said the Republicans have not seen since the 1920s — will finally end gridlock in now-divided Washington. They say it will allow the party to charge forward on pledges to change policies on health care, immigration and taxes, and expedite changes that have long been sought in the states. Democrats say the change has the potential to undo years of legislation meant to ensure a more equitable America, upend progress fighting climate change, leave millions stranded without health insurance and usher in harsh laws against immigrants.

Experts said that no one thing handed the Republicans so much power, even in places like this that were once reliably blue. The current power balance reflects, among other things, the extraordinary dynamics of a race featuring a television-savvy outsider against the first female major party nominee, the vagaries of turnout in a nation where roughly half of registered voters cast ballots, the systematic redrawing of political maps in ways that favored Republicans, and frustration among voters over lost jobs, low wages and the nation’s changing racial and ethnic mix. [MORE]

Data Shows declines in Democratic votes in African American neighborhoods reflect Clinton's inability to excite Black Votary

Washington Post

One of Hillary Clinton’s early warning signs came out of West Philadelphia.

When results started pouring in from the predominately black Democratic stronghold, her numbers were good — her vote share north of 95 percent — but not good enough. She would need to turn out more voters there to counteract the flood of Republican votes coming from other parts of the largely rural state, especially in the face of growing evidence that Donald Trump was seeing a Republican surge.

Among the city’s wards that are more than 75 percent African American, Trump got about 1,300 — or 31 percent — more votes than Romney. Clinton saw a mild decline, earning 7 percent — about 16,000 — fewer votes than President Obama did in 2012.

These neighborhoods — and Philadelphia as a whole — are without a doubt significant for Democrats. Pennsylvania is a large swing state, holding 20 electoral votes. Philadelphia, alongside a few other Democratic pockets such as central Pittsburgh, needed to deliver the party enough votes to counter the vast conservative population across the state. Since 1992, these areas had been enough for Democrats — until Tuesday.

However, Clinton’s small losses and Trump’s modest gains in Philadelphia did not decide the election. Had Clinton done as well as Obama there, she still would not have won Pennsylvania, which she lost by about 65,000 votes. And even if Clinton had won Pennsylvania, Trump would have still passed the 270-electoral-vote threshold to win the presidency.

But this pattern of decreased turnout within minority areas and a surge of Trump support across the boards reflects what was happening elsewhere in the country.

In most of the counties nationwide with a nonwhite majority — such as Philadelphia County — Clinton saw a decline in vote totals of 10 percent or more (what we’ll call “significant”) from Obama’s performance in 2012. In most of these counties, Republican votes stayed steady, so the Democratic vote decline reflected a decline in turnout. In a fifth of these counties, Republicans saw small gains in the  total number of votes, but since these areas are almost entirely Democratic, that translated into significant percentage gains.

Unsurprisingly, in whiter (and almost always, more conservative) areas, these changes were even more drastic. In nearly half of these counties, Trump saw a significant increase in votes over 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, and in three-quarters of them, Clinton saw a significant decrease. A good number of votes — three times more than in 2012 — also went to third-party candidates.

Putting these effects — declining Democratic turnout and increasing Republican persuasion — together, the pattern is clear: In left-leaning counties, Clinton performed worse than Obama, and in right-leaning counties, Trump performed better than Romney.

In face of this evidence, it’s hard to pin Clinton’s defeat on a single factor. There was a turnout problem — the declines in Democratic votes in African American neighborhoods reflect her inability to excite that portion of her base, not a swing toward Trump — a fact that’s reinforced by exit polling among that group.

But it certainly wasn’t only a turnout problem. Exit polls show Clinton losing badly among less-educated, working-class whites — a large swath of the American population with whom Obama did much better. As a result, states in the upper Midwest that Obama carried and were expected to go to Clinton fell to Trump.

Now that the election has left the Democratic Party without the presidency, without the Senate and without the House, the party’s focus will soon shift to its path moving forward — which of these groups they’ll attempt to reenergize and win back.

Hate wins: Donald Trump is the next president of the United States.

ThinkProgress

On Tuesday night, with the electoral stakes higher than they’ve been in generations, the citizens of the United States of America elected fear and hate.

Donald Trump — widely considered to be the least qualified presidential candidate in history, and a figure who prompts alarm and disgust around the world — didn’t run a politically savvy or well-financed campaign. Political analysts predicted that he had a very narrow path to victory.

But a surge of support for Trump in mostly rural and white areas of country ensured that an unhinged narcissist, who ran on a platform of stoking racial division and economic anxiety, will be our next president.

After launching his bid for the presidency by calling Latino immigrants rapists, drug dealers, and criminals, Trump ran a brazenly racist campaign that invigorated neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Trump called for a total ban on Muslim immigration, equated refugees to terrorists, insulted African Americans’ education, stoked anti-Semitism, pledged to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and promised to implement an ideological test for immigrants.

Over the course of the campaign, more than a dozen women came forward to say that Trump has sexually assaulted them. The accusers described nonconsensual activity that tracks very closely with behavior that Trump himself has bragged about. Trump responded by insulting and threatening them.

Trump shocked political observers by flouting the fundamental principles of democracy, including freedom of the press and freedom of religion. He has repeatedly suggested that he might not accept the results of this election, and that he may jail his political opponent Hillary Clinton.

As president, Trump will bring unprecedented conflicts of interest into office. He is embroiled a number of ongoing legal battles, some of which have court dates set for right after the election. Unlike every party nominee since 1977, he refused to release his tax returns, perhaps to obscure the fact that he may have used illegal schemes to avoid paying taxes.

None of this was persuasive to nearly 60 million people in the United States, who cast their ballots to ensure Donald Trump secured enough electoral votes to become the next leader of our nation.

Seattle Race Soldier Cop got two years of paid vacation after Punching Black Woman in the Face

BlackmattersUS

Seattle Police Officer, Adley Shepherd enjoyed two long years of paid vacation after he was involved in a police brutality case.

Seattle, WA – You’ve heard the old adage, “Justice is swift,” but when it comes to justice in cases where police are the perpetrators, often times, it’s “justice delayed,” The Free Thought Project stated. Oregon’s KATU 4 reported Wednesday the Seattle Police Department has fired Officer Adley Shepherd over his involvement in an incident of police brutality which took place in 2014. He’s been on paid vacation ever since.

On June 22nd, 2014, Officer Shepherd responded to a domestic disturbance involving Miyekko Durden-Bosley, then 23, and another man. The decision was made by Shepherd to arrest Durden-Bosley, whom he placed in handcuffs, and walked to his cruiser. As Shepherd was attempting to seat Durden-Bosley into the back of his patrol car, she resisted arrest, and kicked the officer. Shepherd exclaimed, “You kicked me!” then, in what appeared to be a full-force right hook blow, the officer punched the defenseless woman in the face.

Durden-Bosley and her lawyers sued the police department for the officer’s violent actions against a handcuffed subject while in police custody. Three separate investigations took place into the incident, and all the while, Shepherd was placed on paid leave from his duties on the force.

Police abuses are nothing new. The Free Thought Project is committed to bringing awareness to these stories. But what seems to be outrageous to some was the length of time Officer Shepherd was allowed to remain on paid leave, a full 24 months! From the outside looking in, it seems to be an egregious waste of taxpayer funds. All of which leaves us scratching our heads and asking questions.

Is there another profession on earth where a worker can violently strike a customer and receive compensation for it? We don’t think so. After all, police officers are supposed to protect and to serve, right? So how is it this officer, who may never have done something like that before, could be rewarded for doing so?

And why did it take so long for him to be fired? Imagine if a convenience store clerk hit a customer or a cashier at Walmart struck a shopper. Would they get a paid vacation from their place of employment? Outrageous and inexcusable! Certainly, if the officer were found not guilty of abusing his badge, he should be reinstated, but Officer Shepherd appears to have lost his cool, and waylayed a woman who dared to kick him as he was attempting to place her in his squad car. The video is clear to see. So why did the investigation take so long and why did the department delay in finding him culpable? [MORE]

Greg Palast in Ohio on GOP Effort to Remove African Americans from Voter Rolls in Battleground State

Democracy Now

In an on-the-ground report from the battleground state of Ohio, investigative reporter Greg Palast has uncovered the latest in vote suppression tactics led by Republicans that could threaten the integrity of the vote in Ohio and North Carolina. On some polling machines, audit protection functions have been shut off, and African Americans and Hispanics are being scrubbed from the voter rolls through a system called Crosscheck. "It’s a brand-new Jim Crow," Palast says. "Today, on Election Day, they’re not going to use white sheets to keep way black voters. Today, they’re using spreadsheets."

Cleveland Indians Logo Promoting the Ongoing Smiling Snigger Face & White Supremacy at World Series

In Racist System All Non-whites are Niggers From [HERE] The Cleveland Indians are returning to the World Series for the first time in 19 years on Tuesday, and with that will come renewed protests over the team’s name and Chief Wahoo logo, a depiction some consider a highly offensive caricature.

Opposition to the name and the logo was renewed last week during the American League Championship Series in Toronto when Douglas Cardinal, an indigenous Canadian activist, sought a last-minute court injunction to prevent the team from using uniforms depicting the Indians’ name or the Chief Wahoo logo while in Toronto.

Judge Tom McEwan declined the petition, but a Native American advocacy group in Cleveland was taking note. Along with its planned protests outside all the upcoming World Series games in Cleveland, the group is thinking about Cardinal’s legal strategy.

“I really loved the way he went about bringing forth the case, that it is a human rights violation in opposition to Canadian laws on human rights,” said Philip Yenyo, the executive director of the American Indian Movement of Ohio. “We never thought about that before. I believe it could be something we can pursue ourselves.”

Yenyo, who is from Cleveland, was part of the protests at the 1997 World Series, in which the Indians played the Florida Marlins, and he has helped organize protests on opening day in Cleveland for the last two decades.

He said the goal was to educate fans, many of whom cherish the Indians’ name and the Chief Wahoo logo. Chief Wahoo has been around in different forms since 1947, the year before Cleveland won its last World Series. The Cleveland team itself had numerous names in its early history, including the Blues, the Bronchos and the Naps. But before the 1915 season, the club became the Indians, according to Baseball-Reference.com, and it has been Indians ever since.

That puts the team into the middle of a sustained and often emotional debate. Many people vigorously oppose the use of Native North American names and images as mascots and logos, saying they are demeaning and worse. The Chief Wahoo logo in particular stands out because it is a caricature.

“It is racist — that is all there is to it,” Cardinal said in a telephone interview from China, where he was attending a conference. “I had been thinking about the problems we have as a community with the issue of suicide, and I think there is a direct correlation between these kinds of depictions of our people as inferior and as caricatures to be mocked. It is wrong and it must stop.”

Cardinal still has claims about the Cleveland Indians’ name pending in two other arenas — the Ontario Human Rights Commission and the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal — and he said that he hoped to achieve some sort of success with his efforts before the Indians return to Toronto for the 2017 regular season.

Canada itself is not immune to this issue. Some of its sports teams have used names, nicknames and logos that refer to indigenous people in that country. There are, for instance, the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League, whose name has drawn protests. In 2013, Ian Campeau, an Ojibwe man, turned to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal to bring suit against the Nepean Redskins, an amateur football team near Ottawa. The team subsequently changed its name to the Eagles.

Another case was brought by Brad Gallant in Mississauga, Ontario, to prevent the use of public funds for teams using indigenous nicknames or mascots.

“I just want my kids to be able to go play hockey without having to feel like they are inferior,” he said.

Monique Jilesen, one of the lawyers for Cardinal, said the main platform for their case against the Cleveland Indians was most likely to be human rights organizations. The lawyers are seeking to establish that the name Indians is discriminatory.

“The reason we brought an injunction was because here was the unprecedented platform of Cleveland playing Toronto in the playoffs, which they had never done before,” she said.

In connection with the injunction attempt, Major League Baseball issued a statement saying it was open to dialogue about the issue outside the realm of the courthouse, and the condensed timetable of a playoff series. Cardinal said he was eager to engage in that process immediately.

In Cleveland, the Chief Wahoo logo has been the target of some critical commentary in the news media, and the Indians themselves have made efforts in recent years to reduce the prominence of the logo, giving more visibility to an alternate “C” as a block-letter insignia on Cleveland caps.

Mark Shapiro, who was a longtime front office executive with the Indians and the team president before going to work for the Blue Jays, has stated that the Chief Wahoo logo personally bothered him. [MORE]

Racist Maine Governor sits on millions in federal welfare dollars, yet poverty rises

PressHerald

Since 2012, when Gov. Paul LePage and his allies successfully established a 60-month lifetime cap on federal welfare benefits, Maine has drastically reduced both its caseload and its spending. In September, LePage claimed that that heroin dealers arrested in Maine are overwhelmingly black or Hispanic, even though statistics don’t support that contention. [MORE]

The state still gets the same amount every year under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant program – about $78 million – but instead of shifting that extra money to other areas designed to assist low-income families with children, Maine has mostly sat on it.

In less than five years, the LePage administration has quietly stockpiled $155 million in unspent TANF funds, according to state budget data, an unused balance that has grown at a rate higher than any other state in that time. Maine’s total as a percentage of annual grant funding is among the highest in the country as well.

Meanwhile, extreme childhood poverty – defined as families making less than 50 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $10,000 – has increased in Maine during that time.

In 2011, the year before the administration’s major welfare reform push, there were an estimated 18,000 Maine children in extreme poverty. The number increased to 23,000 in 2014 before dropping back down to 19,000 last year, according to Kids Count, an annual report published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Samantha Edwards, in an email this month, said the drastic reduction in caseload – from 13,300 in May 2012 to 5,200 this May – has indeed allowed the state to build significant TANF reserves. But she expects that will plateau this year and then be depleted gradually going forward as the state spends funds in other areas allowed under the program.

However, Edwards said even as the state begins directing its unused funds to other programs, it will still work to keep a solid reserve in case an economic downturn adds significantly to the TANF caseload, something that is less likely under the new restrictions.

“It is shortsighted to spend every dollar when there is a 4 (percent) unemployment rate,” she wrote.

As the state looks to use its federal funds in creative ways, it could face increased scrutiny. Just last week, DHHS was cited by the state auditor for improperly managing its TANF funds by trying to transfer $13.4 million over two years to another block grant, which is allowed, and use it to provide care for the elderly, which is not.

Poverty advocates said the need for public assistance remains great and the state’s measure of success should not be the number of people kicked off TANF.

“Maine is the poster child for just cutting people off and not connecting them with jobs or other prospects, and that gets billed as success,” said Liz Schott, a senior fellow with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a national left-leaning organization, and an expert on the TANF program. “How can you call it success when poverty hasn’t gone down?” [MORE]

A Black Church Burned in the Name of Trump

The Atlantic

A black church in Greenville, Mississippi, was set on fire on Tuesday night. Fire fighters arrived to find Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church “heavily engulfed in flames,” Mayor Errick Simmons said in an interview;  the fire took nearly an hour to contain. No one was in the church at the time, and no one was injured. On the side of the church, beneath the blackened windows and roof, the words “Vote Trump” have been spray painted.

The fire is being investigated as a hate crime, Simmons said. Federal authorities, including the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and Explosives, are helping local authorities with the investigation, which is part of the standard procedure for church fires. “We’re very cautious in this climate, in this day and time, to make sure we’re very deliberate in investigating matters like this,” Simmons said. This fire was “a direct assault on people’s right to free worship,” he said, and later added during a press conference, “I see this as an attack on the black church and the black community.”

In September, Simmons said, city officials found the word “nigger” painted on a boat front down by Greenville’s levee on the Mississippi River. The 34,000-person city is predominantly black, and while there is “a concerted, intentional effort for racial reconciliation among the races” in Greenville, he said, there have also been “cowardly acts of folks doing something.” In the days leading up to the election, the city will be placing additional patrols around all places of worship.

By and large, Simmons said, he expects the people of Greenville and the surrounding county of Washington will support Hillary Clinton. [MORE]

White Man Arrested in ‘Ambush’ Killings of 2 Officers

New York Times

Two police officers were shot and killed early Wednesday while sitting in their patrol cars in the Des Moines area, and the authorities later arrested a 46-year-old Iowa man, who had a history of confrontations with the police, in connection with the “ambush-style attacks.”

The man, identified as Scott Michael Greene, surrendered and was taken into custody in Dallas County, just west of Des Moines, said Sgt. Paul Parizek, a spokesman for the Des Moines Police Department.

“There’s nothing to indicate right now that there’s anybody else involved,” Sergeant Parizek said.

Officials did not explain how investigators had identified Mr. Greene, of Urbandale, Iowa, as a suspect, but said he had already been familiar to the police. “Most of our officers have some understanding of Mr. Greene,” Ross McCarty, the Urbandale police chief, said at a news conference. He did not elaborate.

The two officers who were killed, in separate attacks a few miles apart, were identified as Officer Justin Martin of the Urbandale police and Sgt. Anthony Beminio of the Des Moines police. Both men were apparently caught by surprise and had no chance to defend themselves or return fire, the authorities said. [MORE]

Latina Hotel Workers Harness Force of Labor and Politics in Las Vegas

NyTimes

The 57,000-member Culinary Union, which is 56 percent Latino and includes guest room attendants, is a powerful supporter of Nevada Democrats.

When Trump Spoke on Deporting Immigrants - He Meant Just the Non-White Ones [Bimbo wife worked in U.S. without proper permit]

WashPost

Melania Trump, the wife of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and an immigrant from Slovenia, was paid for 10 modeling jobs in 1996 before she received legal authorization to work in the United States, the Associated Press reported Friday night.

The AP cited detailed ledgers from Melania Trump’s modeling agency as well as a contract she signed with the firm, concluding that she was paid more than $20,000 for the work over seven weeks.

The finding contradicts repeated statements from both Melania and Donald Trump, who have insisted that she scrupulously followed U.S. immigration law when she came to the United States as a striving model.

It also creates a potential political embarrassment for the Republican nominee, who has based much of his campaign on a vow to crack down on illegal immigration — including deporting people who have violated the terms of their immigration status.

The Trump campaign has said that Melania Trump came to the United States in 1996 and then met and began dating Donald Trump in 1998. In 2001, she received a green card that allowed permanent residency, the campaign has said, and became a U.S. citizen in 2006, the year after she and Trump were married.

“I am pleased to enclose a letter from my immigration attorney which states that, with 100% certainty, I correctly went through the legal process when arriving in the USA,” Melania Trump tweeted in September, when she released a lawyer’s letter outlining the history. The campaign provided no documentation of the narrative at the time.

The new information involves Melania Trump’s activities in her first weeks after arriving in the United States. The Trump campaign has indicated that she arrived on Aug. 27, 1996, holding a B1/B2 visitor’s visa. She then received a work permit on Oct. 18, 1996.

It is illegal to perform work for money while holding a visitor’s visa. However, the AP located records showing that she was paid for multiple jobs during the weeks that she held the visitor’s permit, including for Fitness magazine and the Bergdorf Goodman department store.

During that time, she also signed what appeared to be a standard management agreement with her agency, Metropolitan International Management, that appeared to have been executed on Sept. 4, 1996. [MORE]

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President Obama grants 72 more commutations to federal inmates

WashPost

President Obama granted clemency to 72 more federal inmates Friday, boosting the total number of inmates he has given commutations to 944, including 324 prisoners who were serving life sentences.

“What President Obama has done for commutations is unprecedented in the modern era,” said White House Counsel Neil Eggleston, who has to approve the commutations before they are sent to the president.

At least 469 of the total clemency petitions that have been signed by Obama were prepared by Clemency Project 2014, a group of about 4,000 volunteer lawyers from across the country who signed up over the last two years in what has become one of the largest pro bono efforts in the history of the American legal profession.

“We are thrilled to see more frequent grants of clemency,” said Cynthia W. Roseberry, project manager for Clemency Project 2014. “These grants represent 72 reunited families. They also represent hope to others who have applied. We are grateful that President Obama is keeping his word to grant more clemency.”

The White House and Justice Department were criticized earlier this year by sentencing reform advocates for moving too slowly in granting commutations to inmates serving harsh sentences who met the criteria set out by Justice officials to be released early. But the administration has significantly picked up the pace.

“The department is moving full steam ahead,” said Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates.