Why Are Homeowners Being Jailed for Demanding Wall Street Prosecutions?
A two-day long housing protest outside the Department of Justice this week has resulted in nearly 30 arrests and...
A two-day long housing protest outside the Department of Justice this week has resulted in nearly 30 arrests and several instances of law enforcement unnecessarily using tasers on activists, according to eye-witnesses. The action – which was organized by a coalition of housing advocacy groups, including the Home Defenders League and Occupy Our Homes – called for Attorney General Eric Holder to begin prosecutions against the bankers who created the foreclosure crisis.
"Everyone here is fed up with Holder acknowledging big banks did really bad stuff but [saying] they're too big to jail," says Greg Basta, deputy director of New York Communities for Change, who helped organize the event. Holder has previously suggested that prosecuting large banks would be difficult because it could destabilize the economy. The attorney general recently tried to walk those comments back – but the conspicuous lack of criminal prosecutions of bankers tells another story, one that Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi has written about extensively.
Alexis Goldstein, a former Wall Street employee and current Occupy Wall Street activist who was also at the event on Monday, agrees. "I want Eric Holder to uphold the rule of law, regardless of how much power the criminal has," says Goldstein. She says the lack of criminal prosecutions has created a "culture of immunity" that only gets further entrenched by the small settlements that banks now consider a cost of doing business. "There's no risk," she says, adding that the DOJ is effectively "incentivizing breaking the law."
Around 400 homeowners and 100 supporters took part in Monday's actions outside the DOJ, according to Basta. One of them was Vera Johnson, of Seattle. "I've been dealing with foreclosure issues for three years," says Johnson, just minutes after being released from the jail where she was held for over 24 hours for participating in this peaceful protest. Bank of America recently granted Johnson a loan modification after the media picked up on a Change.org petition that she started to save her home; this reprieve turned out to be a time bomb, as her rates were set to return to their original levels after four years. It's an all too common story, and Johnson went to Washington, D.C. to "join in solidarity" with others in similar situations.
Many of this week's protesters have been black and Latino homeowners, who were hit particularly hard by the foreclosure crisis. Mildred Garrison-Obi – a black woman from Stone Mountain, Georgia – was evicted from her home in 2012, though with the help of Occupy Our Homes she was able to return to it after four months of facing homelessness. "It was devastating," says Garrison-Obi, who was arrested today in a related action held outside of a law firm where Holder was once a partner. "But I'm not alone."
Activists note with dismay that the government has been significantly harder on people who stage nonviolent demonstrations against Wall Street than it has on the crooked bankers responsible for the housing crisis. Goldstein and Basta both say they witnessed law enforcement using tasers on multiple protesters this week. Johnson says that several hours before her arrest, as she and others sat on planter boxes outside the DOJ, a Department of Homeland Security officer asked, "Do you want to get arrested?" and then, "Do you want to get tased?" Later, when she refused to unlock her arms with another protester after three warnings – hardly a violent act or a threat to public safety – she says she was tased from behind on her left arm. She turned around to see the same officer, who she recalls telling her, "That's what you get."
Carmen Pittman, an activist with Occupy Our Homes in Atlanta, suffered similar treatment at this week's protests. In video footage of her arrest, Pittman appears to have her arms interlocked with another protester.
Lawyers familiar with police codes of conduct note that this kind of passive resistance generally does not meet the official standards for when an officer can use a taser. "In a study of regulations around tasers, the National Institute of Justice found that most police departments do not allow taser use against someone who 'nonviolently refuses' a police command," says NYU law professor Sarah Knuckey, who co-authored a report on the suppression of the rights of Occupy activists. "The incident needs to be thoroughly investigated, there must be a public accounting of what happened and why, and any wrong-doing must be punished."
A spokesperson for the Washington, D.C. police department directed requests for comment to the Federal Protective Service, part of the Department of Homeland Security. Scott McConnell, an FPS spokesperson, said that "a number of individuals" had "breached a security barricade after repeated warnings to leave the area" and that there had been 27 arrests as of Tuesday morning; he declined to comment on the video of Pittman getting tased or on FPS's taser policy generally.
Monday and Tuesday's actions came as the DOJ falls under increasing criticism for its investigations of journalists – first seizing records that cover dozens of Associated Press reporters, and now targeting Fox News' James Rosen. Many media observers have found the Rosen case especially troubling, due to the fact that he was investigated under the theory that he engaged in a conspiracy with Stephen Kim – his source – to leak government information. This is the same theory that U.S. officials have used to go after Wikileaks, and if applied more widely, it would effectively criminalize the basic act of investigative reporting. Some see the Obama DOJ's war on whistleblowers and leakers – and now journalists – less as a means of protecting national security than a way to crack down on who controls information.
As journalists start to get the feeling that their profession is under attack by Obama's DOJ, that department is saying something entirely different – though just as clearly – to the nation's financial elite. "The message," says Goldstein, "is that you can get away with anything."
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Pittsburgh officers on high alert for downtown equality march
Pittsburgh officers on high alert for downtown equality march
Community organizers have been planning the 2016 People’s March downtown for several weeks, but recent shootings in...
Community organizers have been planning the 2016 People’s March downtown for several weeks, but recent shootings in Louisiana, Minnesota and Texas have upped safety concerns for the gathering, meant to protest inequality and injustice.
More than 100 people have RSVP’d on Facebook to the “Still we Rise People’s March,” hosted by One Pittsburgh, a coalition of community organizers and activists. The march will begin outside the David L. Lawrence Convention Center at 2:30 p.m. on Friday at the same time as the People’s Convention inside the center.
In preparation for the march, the Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety released a statement Friday saying officers will “exercise extreme caution.”
The statement came amidst nationwide tension following the shooting of unarmed black men in several cities across the U.S. and sniper fire in Dallas, Texas Thursday night that left five police officers dead and several wounded.
“The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police is committed to keeping people safe during this afternoon’s planned [march],” the statement said. “There will be a visible presence of uniformed officers along with a not so visible presence of plain clothes officers.”
The statement also said the Public Safety Department is “in communication” with the FBI.
Organizers for the People’s March say it is a response to toxic messages from political candidates.
“We will march to rise up against Trumpism and the right’s politics of hate.” the description on the Facebook page for the march reads. “We will march to demand and win the radically different vision for the country that our families and communities deserve — the people’s vision.”
By Alexa Bakalarski
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New Report Alleges Charter School Fraud Could Be Costing IL Taxpayers $27 Million
Education Votes - February 2, 2015, by Brian Washington - Proven or suspected fraud in Illinois’ charter school...
Education Votes - February 2, 2015, by Brian Washington - Proven or suspected fraud in Illinois’ charter school industry is suspected of carrying a price tag for taxpayers as high as $27.7 million—that’s according to a new report that some say adds more credence to the argument that these schools need more oversight and accountability.
The report, Illinois’ Charter School Fraud Risk Problem, alleges three fundamental problems with charter school oversight in the state:
Oversight depends heavily on whistleblowers and reporting by the charters themselves; General auditing techniques commissioned by the charters are not specifically designed to uncover fraud, only inaccuracies and inefficiencies; and Government agencies in Illinois tasked with investigating fraud are severely understaffed.The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), which authored the report, also claims to have uncovered massive deficiencies which, at a minimum, reportedly total at least $13.1 million.
“Here is yet another state where lawmakers continue to dump massive amounts of public school funds into the charter industry, yet no one is held accountable at any stage of the funding pipeline,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García, who represents about 3-million educators nationwide.
Despite the alleged problems outlined by CPD, as well as what critics charge is the inability of charter schools to show real improvement in relation to student achievement, charter school enrollment in the state has grown by 680-percent.
In the Chicago Public Schools district, the state’s largest public school system, the budget for charter schools, which are considered public schools because they are taxpayer funded, is $616 million for fiscal year 2015—an increase of 15 percent compared to fiscal year 2014.
“Operators (of charter schools) continue to line their pockets unchecked while public schools are forced to slash programs due to lack of funding,” said Eskelsen Garcia. “Lawmakers need to stop treating education budgets like a slush fund for corporate charter school operators and hold them accountable to the students and communities they are supposed to be serving.”
For Illinois, CPD is recommending that the state make major changes to its current oversight structure, including the following:
Mandated audits designed to detect and prevent fraud; Increased transparency and accountability; and A state-imposed moratorium on new charter schools until the state oversight system has been reformed.“Illinois students, their families, and taxpayers cannot afford to keep losing millions of dollars in public funds at the hands of charter school operators, who essentially enforce their own rules,” said Eskelsen Garcia. “It’s time for the Illinois legislature, State Board of Education, and authorizers, like Chicago Public Schools, to step in and make sure these operators use the funds they are given to fulfill their own promises of a great education for their students. There should be a sound structure for oversight and accountability whenever taxpayer dollars are applied.”
CPD’s Illinois report follows two other state-specific reports–including one which focused on the state of Pennsylvania. That report, issued last month, charged that fraud and abuse of the state’s charter school industry amounted to a $30 million loss for state taxpayers.
Meanwhile, another recent report by CPD alleges that nationwide taxpayers have lost $100 million due to charter school fraud.
“It’s time Illinois and all states are able to assure taxpayers that their charter oversight systems are airtight and dedicated to quality and community,” said Eskelsen García.
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What Does Jeff Flake's Vote Mean? Brett Kavanaugh Is Still in the Running, For Now
What Does Jeff Flake's Vote Mean? Brett Kavanaugh Is Still in the Running, For Now
If you were tuned into the Judiciary Committee hearing on Friday afternoon, you may have witnessed a confusing moment:...
If you were tuned into the Judiciary Committee hearing on Friday afternoon, you may have witnessed a confusing moment: Hours after Senator Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, announced in a statement that he would vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, he showed up late to the vote and then asked for a delay on the Senate floor vote, pending an FBI investigation. A quick vote along the roll call occurred...and then the hearing was abruptly adjourned.
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Southern Cities Are Passing Paid Sick Leave—But Republicans Won’t Let Them Have It
Southern Cities Are Passing Paid Sick Leave—But Republicans Won’t Let Them Have It
Texas advocates for paid sick leave haven’t given up hope, however. They plan to wield the sheer amount of popular...
Texas advocates for paid sick leave haven’t given up hope, however. They plan to wield the sheer amount of popular support for these ordinances in their favor and against the state politicians who block them. “Our state leadership is out of touch with what the majority of Texans believe and want for their communities,” says Michelle Tremillo, executive director of the Texas Organizing Project, a community organizing group behind the paid sick leave ordinance.
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Fast-food Labor Expands Scope of Fight for $15
Chicago Tribune - March 31, 2015, by Alejandra Cancino - The group huddled in front of a...
Chicago Tribune - March 31, 2015, by Alejandra Cancino - The group huddled in front of a McDonald's in downtown Chicago, preparing to tell the 100 people who had gathered there how the Fight for $15 had taken on a broader fight on behalf of low-wage workers ranging from airport workers to adjunct college professors.
Many of the people who listened to the speeches were young, too young to recall the 1960s-era protests. But that clearly was the vibe of Tuesday's rally.
Participants in the Fight for $15 movement, who are planning protests on April 15, say they have taken on a broader fight on behalf of low-wage workers ranging from airport workers to adjunct college professors.
"This fight is a fight about racial justice and economic justice," Charlene Carruthers, national director of the Black Youth Project 100, told the crowd. Her organization is composed of black activists ranging in age from 18 to 35.
"For us, the Fight for 15 is also a fight for our lives," Carruthers said. "When we say 'black lives matter,' that includes black workers."
People in the audience held signs that said "Fight 4/15," a reference to April 15, when organizers of the campaign to increase minimum wages plan to bring together 60,000 protesters in major cities across America and in more than 40 countries and at more than 170 college campuses, including the University of Illinois at Chicago.Ed Shurna, executive director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, which is participating in the Fight for $15 campaign, said its strategy seems to borrow elements from eras of the 1930s and the 1960s.
"It has the feel of the civil rights movement, the feel of the labor movement, but it's 2015 so it's done in a different way," Shurna said. He said this campaign is trying to get corporations to take responsibility for the struggles of their workers and get them to increase wages, offer benefits and improve working conditions.
McDonald's and its franchisees have been the main target of the campaign. Workers have filed lawsuits and complaints at various federal agencies alleging labor law violations, wage theft and unsafe working conditions. Moreover, the campaign, backed by the Service Employees International Union, wants the National Labor Relations Board to declare that McDonald's and its franchisees share responsibility for working conditions, benefits and pay.
"We won't stop until these multibillion-dollar companies pay us a living wage of $15 per hour," said Douglas Hunter, a McDonald's worker.
In a statement, McDonald's said it respects people's right to peacefully protest. "Historically, very few McDonald's employees have participated in these organized events," Heidi Barker Sa Shekhem, a McDonald's spokeswoman, said in the statement.
Matt Hoffmann, an adjunct professor at Loyola University, said faculty members of colleges in Chicago and across the nation have drawn inspiration from fast-food workers and the Fight for $15.
He said adjuncts want to be paid $15,000 per course, a figure that would include wages and benefits. He said he currently is paid $4,500 per course and doesn't receive benefits.
Hoffmann, who spoke at Tuesday's rally, said, "We struggle with our bills; we receive no benefits and we have little job stability."
At an event announcing the actions in front of a McDonald's in New York City's Times Square, organizers said home health care aides, airport workers, adjunct professors, child care workers and Wal-Mart workers will be among those turning out in April.
Terrence Wise, a Burger King worker from Kansas City, Mo., and a national leader of the Fight for $15 push, said more than 2,000 groups including Jobs With Justice and the Center for Popular Democracy will show their support as well.
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Democracy for America Holds Solidarity Rallies Across the Nation
Democracy for America Holds Solidarity Rallies Across the Nation
Democracy for America (DFA) members joined Americans across the country to stand against white supremacy and against...
Democracy for America (DFA) members joined Americans across the country to stand against white supremacy and against the deadly violence committed by Nazi groups in Charlottesville.
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U.S. lawmakers urge Yellen to diversify the Fed
U.S. lawmakers including Senator Elizabeth Warren and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Thursday sent...
U.S. lawmakers including Senator Elizabeth Warren and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Thursday sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen urging more diversity at the U.S. central bank.
Ten of the Fed's 12 regional bank presidents are men; 11 of them are white, the letter noted.
"Given the critical linkage between monetary policy and the experiences of hardworking Americans, the importance of ensuring that such positions are filled by persons that reflect and represent the interests of our diverse country cannot be understated," said the letter, signed by 116 members of Congress and 11 Senators.
The Fed has come under fire in recent months from both Republicans and Democrats, including candidates for the 2016 presidential campaign, for a range of perceived failings, from its process to deciding monetary policy to its governance. Those calls have emboldened lawmakers who seek to limit the Fed's powers and are prompting some current and former Fed officials to call for steps to placate the bank's harshest critics.
A Federal Reserve Board spokesman said the U.S. central bank was committed to diversity and was already taking steps to bring more women and minorities into its leadership ranks.
Minorities now make up 24 percent of regional Fed bank boards, up from 16 percent in 2010; 46 percent of all directors are either non-white or a woman, the spokesman said, adding, "we are striving to continue that progress."
Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by James Dalgleish
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Charter School Fraud Has Cost Pennsylvania at Least $30 Million
Daily Kos - October 2, 2014, by Laura Clawson - Pennsylvania's charter schools are rife with fraud and mismanagement,...
Daily Kos - October 2, 2014, by Laura Clawson - Pennsylvania's charter schools are rife with fraud and mismanagement, as anyone who reads local newspapers knows. But a new report from the Center for Popular Democracy, "Integrity in Education, and Action United" details just how big the problem is. Pennsylvania charter school enrollment and funding is growing rapidly and without adequate oversight, and according to the report, there's been at least $30 million in fraud by charter school officials since 1997. For instance:
In 2012, the former CEO and founder of the New Media Technology Charter School in Philadelphia was sentenced to prison for stealing $522,000 in taxpayer money to prop up a restaurant, a health food store, and a private school. Media coverage of parent complaints of fiscal wrongdoing initially uncovered the fraud. Nicholas Tombetta, founder of the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, has been indicted for diverting $8 million of school funds for houses, a Florida condominium, and an airplane. In 2005, a former business associate of Tombetta surfaced allegations of fraud, which led to the investigation. Dorothy June Brown, founder of Laboratory, Ad Prima, Planet Abacus, and Agora Cyber charter schools, will be retried this year for allegedly defrauding the schools of $6.5 million and conspiring to conceal the fraud from 2007 to 2011. Two administrators plead guilty and testified against Brown in her first trial. In 2009, the Pennsylvania Department of Education conducted an audit of Agora after receiving complaints from parents of Agora students.You'll notice that in each of those cases, it was complaints from parents or a tip from a business associate that led to investigations. Pennsylvania should be doing more to uncover wrongdoing before it's so blatant that parents are screaming about it. In Philadelphia, there are 86 charter schools and only two auditors. What's more, charter school auditors in Pennsylvania don't actively look for fraud; the report calls for expanded local audit authority, fraud risk assessments for all charter schools in the state, and targeted fraud audits. The report's authors also call for a moratorium on new charter schools until these oversight goals are met.
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Seattle Scales Back Tax in Face of Amazon’s Revolt, but Tensions Linger
Seattle Scales Back Tax in Face of Amazon’s Revolt, but Tensions Linger
Ms. Kniech was one of more than 50 local lawmakers in the United States who sent an open letter to Seattle leaders and...
Ms. Kniech was one of more than 50 local lawmakers in the United States who sent an open letter to Seattle leaders and residents on Monday supporting the tax and criticizing Amazon’s resistance to it. “By threatening Seattle over this tax, Amazon is sending a message to all of our cities: we play by our own rules,” the letter said.
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