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  • Penn State Scandal Fast Facts | CNN

    Penn State Scandal Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the Penn State sexual abuse scandal. On November 4, 2011, a grand jury report was released containing testimony that former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky sexually abused eight young boys over a period of at least 15 years. Officials at Penn State purportedly failed to notify law enforcement after learning about some of these incidents. On December 7, 2011, the number of victims increased to 10. Sandusky was found guilty in 2012.

    Included is a timeline of accusations, lists of the charges against Sandusky, a list of involved parties, a post grand jury report timeline, information about The Second Mile charity and Sandusky with links to the grand jury investigation.

    Jerry Sandusky

    Birth date: January 26, 1944

    Birth place: Washington, Pennsylvania

    Birth name: Gerald Arthur Sandusky

    Marriage: Dorothy “Dottie” (Gross) Sandusky (1966-present)

    Children: (all adopted) E.J., Kara, Jon, Jeff, Ray and Matt. The Sanduskys also fostered several children.

    Occupation: Assistant football coach at Penn State for 32 years before his retirement, including 23 years as defensive coordinator.

    Initially founded by Sandusky in 1977 as a group foster home for troubled boys, but grew into a non-profit organization that “helps young people to achieve their potential as individuals and community members.”

    May 25, 2012 – The Second Mile requests court approval in Centre County, Pennsylvania, to transfer its programs to Arrow Child & Family Ministries and shut down.

    August 27, 2012 – The Second Mile requests a stay in their petition to transfer its programs to Arrow Child & Family Ministries saying, “this action will allow any pending or future claims filed by Sandusky’s victims to be resolved before key programs or assets are considered for transfer.”

    March 2016 – After years of dismantling and distributing assets to Arrow Child & Family Ministries and any remaining funds to the Pennsylvania Attorney General to hold in escrow, the organization is dissolved.

    Source: Grand Jury Report

    1994-1997 – Sandusky engages in inappropriate conduct with different boys he met separately through The Second Mile program.

    1998 – Penn State police and the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare investigate an incident in which the mother of an 11-year-old boy reported that Sandusky showered with her son.

    1998 – Psychologist Alycia Chambers tells Penn State police that Sandusky acted the way a pedophile might in her assessment of a case in which the mother of a young boy reported that Sandusky showered with her son and may have had inappropriate contact with him. A second psychologist, John Seasock, reported he found no indication of child abuse.

    June 1, 1998 – In an interview, Sandusky admits to showering naked with the boy, saying it was wrong and promising not to do it again. The district attorney advises investigators that no charges will be filed, and the university police chief instructs that the case be closed.

    June 1999 – Sandusky retires from Penn State after coaching there for 32 years, but receives emeritus status, with full access to the campus and football facilities.

    2000 – James Calhoun, a janitor at Penn State, tells his supervisor and another janitor that he saw Sandusky sexually abusing a young boy in the Lasch Building showers. No one reports the incident to university officials or law enforcement.

    March 2, 2002 – Graduate Assistant Mike McQueary tells Coach Joe Paterno that on March 1, he witnessed Sandusky sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy in the Lasch Building showers. On May 7, 2012, prosecutors file court documents to change the date of the assault to on or around February 9, 2001.

    March 3, 2002 – Paterno reports the incident to Athletic Director Tim Curley. Later, McQueary meets with Curley and Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz. McQueary testifies that he told Curley and Schultz that he saw Sandusky and the boy engage in anal sex; Curley and Schultz testify they were not told of any such allegation. No law enforcement investigation is launched.

    2005 or 2006 – Sandusky befriends another Second Mile participant whose allegations would form the foundation of the multi-year grand jury investigation.

    2006 or 2007 – Sandusky begins to spend more time with the boy, taking him to sporting events and giving him gifts. During this period, Sandusky performs oral sex on the boy more than 20 times and the boy performs oral sex on him once.

    2008 – The boy breaks off contact with Sandusky. Later, his mother calls the boy’s high school to report her son had been sexually assaulted and the principal bans Sandusky from campus and reports the incident to police. The ensuing investigation reveals 118 calls from Sandusky’s home and cell phone numbers to the boy’s home.

    November 2008 – Sandusky informs The Second Mile that he is under investigation. He is removed from all program activities involving children, according to the group.

    November 4, 2011 – The grand jury report is released.

    November 5, 2011 – Sandusky is arraigned on 40 criminal counts. He is released on $100,000 bail. Curley and Schultz are each charged with one count of felony perjury and one count of failure to report abuse allegations.

    November 7, 2011 – Curley and Schultz are both arraigned and resign from their positions.

    November 9, 2011 – Paterno announces that he intends to retire at the end of the 2011 football season. Hours later, university trustees announce that President Graham Spanier and Coach Paterno are fired, effective immediately.

    November 11, 2011 – McQueary, now a Penn State receivers’ coach, is placed on indefinite administrative leave.

    November 14, 2011 – In a phone interview with NBC’s Bob Costas, Sandusky states that he is “innocent” of the charges and claims that the only thing he did wrong was “showering with those kids.”

    November 15, 2011 – The Morning Call reports that in a November 8, 2011, email to a former classmate, McQueary says he did stop the 2002 assault he witnessed and talked with police about it.

    November 16, 2011 – Representatives of Penn State’s campus police and State College police say they have no record of having received any report from McQueary about his having witnessed the rape of a boy by Sandusky.

    November 16, 2011 – A new judge is assigned to the Sandusky case after it is discovered that Leslie Dutchcot, the judge who freed Sandusky on $100,000 bail, volunteered at The Second Mile charity.

    November 21, 2011 – It is announced that former FBI Director Louis Freeh will lead an independent inquiry for Penn State into the school’s response to allegations of child sex abuse.

    November 22, 2011 – The Patriot-News reports that Children and Youth Services in Pennsylvania has two open cases of child sex abuse against Sandusky. The cases were reported less than two months ago and are in the initial stages of investigation.

    November 22, 2011 – The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts announces that all Centre County Common Pleas Court judges have recused themselves from the Sandusky case. This is to avoid any conflicts of interest due to connections with Sandusky, The Second Mile charity, or Penn State.

    November 30, 2011 – The first lawsuit is filed on behalf of a person listed in the complaint as “John Doe,” who says he was 10 years-old when he met Sandusky through The Second Mile charity. His attorneys say Sandusky sexually abused the victim “over one hundred times” and threatened to harm the victim and his family if he alerted anyone to the abuse.

    December 2, 2011 – A victim’s attorneys say they have reached a settlement with The Second Mile that allows it to stay in operation but requires it to obtain court approval before transferring assets or closing.

    December 3, 2011 – In an interview with The New York Times, Sandusky says, “If I say, ‘No, I’m not attracted to young boys,’ that’s not the truth. Because I’m attracted to young people – boys, girls – I …” His lawyer speaks up at that point to note that Sandusky is not “sexually” attracted to them.

    December 7, 2011 – Sandusky is arrested on additional child rape charges, which raises the number of victims from eight to 10 people. He is charged with four counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and two counts of unlawful contact with a minor. He also faces one new count of indecent assault and two counts of endangering a child’s welfare, in addition to a single new count of indecent assault and two counts of corruption of minors.

    December 8, 2011 – Sandusky is released on $250,000 bail. He is placed under house arrest and is required to wear an electronic monitoring device. He is also restricted from contacting the victims and possible witnesses, and he must be supervised during any interactions with minors.

    December 13, 2011 – Sandusky enters a plea of not guilty and waives his right to a preliminary hearing.

    December 16, 2011 – A hearing is held for Curley and Schultz. McQueary testifies he told university officials that he saw Sandusky possibly sexually assaulting a boy in 2002. Following the testimony, the judge rules that the perjury case against Curley and Schultz will go to trial. The incident is later said to have happened in 2001.

    January 13, 2012 – Curley and Schultz enter pleas of not guilty for their failure to report child sex abuse.

    January 22, 2012 – Paterno dies at the age of 85.

    February 14, 2012 – Penn State says that the Sandusky case has cost the university $3.2 million thus far in combined legal, consultant and public relations fees.

    June 11, 2012 – The Sandusky trial begins. On June 22, Sandusky is found guilty on 45 counts after jurors deliberate for almost 21 hours. His bail is immediately revoked, and he is taken to jail.

    June 30, 2012 – McQueary’s contract as assistant football coach ends.

    July 12, 2012 – Freeh announces the findings of the investigation into Penn State’s actions concerning Sandusky. The report accuses the former leaders at Penn State of showing “total and consistent disregard” for child sex abuse victims, while covering up the attacks of a longtime sexual predator.

    July 23, 2012 – The NCAA announces a $60 million fine against Penn State and bans the team from the postseason for four years. Additionally, the school must vacate all wins from 1998-2011 and will lose 20 football scholarships a year for four seasons.
    – The Big Ten Conference rules that Penn State’s share of bowl revenues for the next four seasons – roughly $13 million will be donated to charities working to prevent child abuse.

    August 24, 2012 – “Victim 1” files a lawsuit against Penn State.

    September 20, 2012 – Penn State hires Feinberg Rozen LLP (headed by Kenneth Feinberg who oversaw the 9/11 and BP oil spill victim funds).

    October 2, 2012 – McQueary files a whistleblower lawsuit against Penn State.

    October 8, 2012 – An audio statement from Sandusky airs in which he protests his innocence and says he is falsely accused.

    October 9, 2012 – Sandusky is sentenced to no less than 30 years and no more than 60 years in prison. During the hearing, Sandusky is designated a violent sexual offender.

    October 15, 2012 – Plaintiff “John Doe,” a 21-year-old male, files a lawsuit against Sandusky, Penn State, The Second Mile, Spanier, Curley and Schultz. Doe alleges that he would not have been assaulted by Sandusky if officials, who were aware he was molesting boys, had not covered up his misconduct.

    November 1, 2012 – The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania files eight charges against former Penn State President Spanier. The charges include perjury and endangering the welfare of a child. Former university Vice President Schultz and former Athletic Director Curley face the same charges, according to Attorney General Linda Kelly.

    November 15, 2012 – The Middle States Commission on Higher Education lifts its warning and reaffirms Penn State’s accreditation.

    January 30, 2013 – Judge John M. Cleland denies Sandusky’s appeal for a new trial.

    July 30, 2013 – A judge rules that Spanier, Curley and Schultz will face trial on obstruction of justice and other charges.

    August 26, 2013 – Attorneys announce Sandusky’s adopted son and six other victims have finalized settlement agreements.

    October 2, 2013 – The Superior Court of Pennsylvania denies Sandusky’s appeal.

    October 28, 2013 – Penn State announces it has reached settlements with 26 victims of Sandusky. The amount paid by the university totals $59.7 million.

    April 2, 2014 – The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania also denies Sandusky’s appeal.

    September 8, 2014 – NCAA ends Penn State’s postseason ban and scholarship limits. The $60 million fine and the 13 years of vacated wins for Paterno remain in place.

    January 16, 2015 – The NCAA agrees to restore 111 of Paterno’s wins as part of a settlement of the lawsuit brought by State Senator Jake Corman and Treasurer Rob McCord. Also, as part of the settlement, Penn State agrees to commit $60 million to the prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse.

    December 23, 2015 – A spokeswoman for the State of Pennsylvania employee retirement system says Sandusky will receive $211,000 in back payments and his regular pension payments will resume. This is the result of a November 13 court ruling that reversed a 2012 decision to terminate Sandusky’s pension under a state law that allows the termination of pensions of public employees convicted of a “disqualifying crime.” The judge said in his ruling that Sandusky was not employed at the time of the crimes he was convicted of committing.

    January 22, 2016 – A three-judge panel reverses the obstruction of justice and conspiracy charges against Spanier, Curley and Schultz, and the perjury charges against Spanier and Curley.

    May 4, 2016 – A new allegation purports Paterno knew that his assistant coach Sandusky was sexually abusing a child as early as 1976, according to a new court filing. The ongoing lawsuit, filed in 2013, seeks to determine whether Penn State or its insurance policy is liable for paying Sandusky’s victims. At least 30 men were involved in a civil settlement with Penn State, and the number of victims could be higher.

    May 6, 2016 – CNN reports the story of another alleged victim who explains how he was a troubled young kid in 1971 when Sandusky raped him in a Penn State bathroom. He says his complaint about it was ignored by Paterno.

    July 12, 2016 – Newly unsealed court documents allege that Paterno knew about Sandusky’s abuse and that he dismissed a victim’s complaint.

    August 12, 2016 – In a bid for a new trial, Sandusky testifies at a post-conviction hearing claiming his lawyers bungled his 2012 trial. On the stand, Sandusky describes what he said as bad media and legal advice given to him by his former lawyer, Joseph Amendola.

    November 3, 2016 – The Department of Education fines Penn State $2.4 million for violating the Clery Act, a law that requires universities to report crime on campuses. It’s the largest fine in the history of the act.

    March 13, 2017 – Curley and Schultz plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of children in exchange for the dismissal of felony charges.

    March 24, 2017 – Spanier is found guilty on one misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child. Spanier was acquitted of more serious allegations, including conspiracy charges and a felony count of child endangerment.

    June 2, 2017 – Spanier and two other former administrators are sentenced to jail terms for failing to report a 2001 allegation that Sandusky was molesting young boys. Spanier whose total sentence is four to 12 months incarceration, will be on probation for two years and must pay a $7,500 fine, according to Joe Grace, a spokesman for Pennsylvania’s attorney general’s office.

    – Curley is sentenced to seven to 23 months’ incarceration and two years’ probation, Grace said. He will serve three months in jail followed by house arrest and pay a $5,000 fine.

    – Schultz is sentenced to six to 23 months’ incarceration and two years’ probation. He will serve two months in jail, followed by house arrest and pay a $5,000 fine, according to Grace.

    January 9, 2018 – Penn State reports that the total amount of settlement awards paid to Sandusky’s victims is now over $109 million.

    February 5, 2019 – In response to an appeal for a new trial that also questions the validity of mandatory minimum sentencing, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania orders Sandusky to be re-sentenced. The request for a new trial is denied.

    April 30, 2019 – US Magistrate Judge Karoline Mehalchick vacates Spanier’s 2017 conviction for endangering the welfare of a child. Spanier was set to be sentenced on the one count conviction, instead, the court ordered the conviction be vacated because it was based on a criminal statute that did not go into effect until after the conduct in question. The state has 90 days to retry him, according to court documents. The following month, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro appeals the judge’s decision to throw out the conviction.

    November 22, 2019 – Sandusky is resentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison, the same penalty that was previously overturned. The initial sentence of at least 30 years in prison was overturned by the Pennsylvania Superior Court, which found that mandatory minimum sentences were illegally imposed.

    March 26, 2020 – The US Office for Civil Rights finds that Penn State failed to protect students who filed sexual harassment complaints. OCR completed the compliance review after it was initially launched in 2014, and found that the University violated Title IX for several years, in various ways. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announces that the US Department of Education and the university have entered into a resolution agreement that compels Penn State to address deficiencies in their complaint process, reporting policy requirements, record keeping, and training of staff, university police and other persons who work with students.

    December 1, 2020 – Spanier’s conviction is restored by a federal appeals court.

    May 26, 2021 – A judge rules that Spanier will start his two month prison sentence on July 9. Spanier reports to jail early and is released on August 4 after serving 58 days.

    Sandusky Verdict

    Victim 1
    Count 1 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 2 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 3 – guilty: Indecent Assault (Felony 3)
    Count 4 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 1)
    Count 5 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 6 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Felony 3)

    Victim 2
    Count 7 – not guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 8 – guilty: Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 2)
    Count 9 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 1)
    Count 10 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 11 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Misdemeanor 1)

    Victim 3
    Count 12 – guilty: Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 2)
    Count 13 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 3)
    Count 14 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 15 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Felony 3)

    Victim 4
    Count 16 – ****DROPPED****: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 17 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 18 – ****DROPPED*****: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 19 – ****DROPPED*****: Aggravated Indecent Assault (Felony 2)
    Count 20 – guilty: Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 2)
    Count 21 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 1)
    Count 22 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 23 – guilty” Endangering Welfare of Children (Felony 3)

    Victim 5
    Count 24 – not guilty: Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 25 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 3)
    Count 26 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 27 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Felony 3)

    Victim 6
    Count 28 – not guilty: Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 29 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 3)
    Count 30 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 31 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Misdemeanor 1)

    Victim 7
    Count 32 – guilty: Criminal Attempt to Commit Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 2)
    Count 33 – ****DROPPED****: WITHDRAWN BY PROSECUTORS (unlawful contact with minors)
    Count 34 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 35 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Misdemeanor 1)

    Victim 8
    Count 36 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 37 – guilty: Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 2)
    Count 38 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 1)
    Count 39 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 40 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Misdemeanor 1)

    (Due to 2nd indictment, counts start over with Victims 9 and 10)

    Victim 9
    Count 1 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 2 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 3 – guilty: Indecent Assault (Felony 3)
    Count 4 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 1)
    Count 5 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 6 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Felony 3)

    Victim 10
    Count 7 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 8 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 9 – guilty: Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 10 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 1)
    Count 11 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 12 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Felony 3)

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  • David Geffen Fast Facts | CNN

    David Geffen Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here is a look at the life of David Geffen, producer, studio executive and philanthropist.

    Birth date: February 21, 1943

    Birth place: Brooklyn, New York

    Birth name: David Lawrence Geffen

    Father: Abraham Geffen, pattern maker

    Mother: Batya (Volovskaya) Geffen, shopkeeper

    Education: Attended University of Texas, Austin; Brooklyn College, City University of New York; and Santa Monica City College.

    He dropped out of Santa Monica City College, Brooklyn College and the University of Texas.

    Lied on his William Morris Agency job application, saying that he graduated from UCLA.

    Under Geffen’s tenure, Geffen Records was home to popular artists such as Cher, Donna Summer, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Elton John and Guns ‘N’ Roses.

    During the 1990s, Geffen was a top fundraiser for the Democratic party. He was rewarded with an overnight stay at the White House during Bill Clinton’s presidency.

    Prior to the 2008 presidential election, Geffen threw his support behind Senator Barack Obama, rather than Hillary Clinton. Geffen was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “Everybody in politics lies, but they (Bill and Hillary Clinton) do it with such ease, it’s troubling.”

    1964-1968 – Works as a mail room clerk and an agent at the William Morris Agency.

    1968 – Talent agent for Ashley Famous Agency.

    1969 – Executive vice president and talent agent for Creative Management Associates.

    1970 – Co-founds Asylum Records with Elliot Roberts.

    1971 – Sells Asylum Records to Warner Communications for $7 million.

    1975 – Becomes vice chairman of Warner Brothers Pictures.

    1976 – Is misdiagnosed with bladder cancer.

    1981 – Produces “Dreamgirls” on Broadway.

    1982 – Produces “Cats” and “Little Shop of Horrors” on Broadway.

    1982 – Founds Geffen Film Company.

    1983 – Geffen Film Company releases “Risky Business.”

    1990 – Sells Geffen Records to Music Corporation of America (MCA) for $550 million.

    1990 – Wins a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program, “Beetlejuice.”

    1994 – Co-founds Dreamworks Studio with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

    1995 – Dreamworks signs a $100 million deal with ABC.

    May 2002 – Donates $200 million to UCLA in what is considered the largest single donation to a US medical school in history at that time. The David Geffen Medical School is named in his honor after this donation.

    January 2006 – Dreamworks is sold to Paramount Pictures.

    2008 – Leaves Dreamworks.

    March 5, 2010 – Is inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a “non-performer.”

    February 12, 2011 – Receives the Grammys President’s Merit Award.

    2012 – Donates $100 million to UCLA’s David Geffen Medical School.

    March 4, 2015 – Lincoln Center announces it will rename Avery Fisher Hall – best known as the home of the New York Philharmonic – David Geffen Hall in gratitude for the movie mogul’s $100 million gift.

    September 2015 – The David Geffen Foundation sells two paintings for $500 million to billionaire Ken Griffin in one of the world’s largest contemporary art deals.

    February 7, 2020 – The Motion Picture Academy unveils the David Geffen Theater at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

    February 12, 2020 – The Wall Street Journal reports that Geffen has sold his Beverly Hills estate to Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos for $165 million, a price believed to be the highest ever paid for a home in a California real estate transaction.

    June 30, 2021 – In a statement, Yale University’s drama school announces a $150 million donation from Geffen, making tuition free for all current and future students. The gift is the largest donation in the history of American theater, according to Yale.

    December 12, 2023 – Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center announces Geffen and Ken Griffin will donate $400 million. This is the largest single donation in the hospital’s history.



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  • Here are 5 ways to do good on MLK Day | CNN

    Here are 5 ways to do good on MLK Day | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    January 15 is Martin Luther King Day. But any day is a great time to do good for the community. Dr. King’s holiday celebrates the civil rights leader’s life by encouraging public service. Here are a few creative ways people of all ages can help the world around them in honor of Dr. King.

    The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center) is once again offering up lessons plans for grades K-12 as part of their global “Teach-In.” The lesson plans include resources and activities exploring the work, teachings and philosophies of Dr. King and his wife, Coretta Scott King. The King Center’s theme for this year’s holiday is “Cultivating a Beloved Community Mindset to Transform Unjust Systems.”

    Kelisha B. Graves, the King Center’s Chief Research, Education, and Programs Officer, says the lessons will help “translate the overarching theme into concrete examples and demonstrations that students can absorb.”

    “One of the things that Mrs. King used to always talk about was being your best self and that’s the essence of all of the learning content that we produce through the King Center, helping to encourage students to be their best selves,” Graves told CNN.

    The lesson plans include English and language arts activities, character building objectives and even ways to help students identify and interrupt injustices. Graves says that last year over 700,000 students in 22 countries accessed the lessons plans and they are hoping to continue to spread Dr. King’s and Mrs. King’s philosophies across the globe.

    MLK Day is a national day of service; “a day on, not a day off.” Tim Adkins, of Hands On Atlanta, hopes for an uptick of in-person volunteers compared to the last few Covid-affected years.

    “This year’s days of service really allows for people to get back and do what they’ve done for years and that is to go on site and actually be able to do something physically with their hands.”

    Hands On Atlanta is partnering with the King Center and many others on a number of volunteer community projects, but there will be ways to get involved in almost every major city. AmeriCorps has a searchable database of MLK Day volunteer opportunities available around the country. Simply put in your zip code and click on the “MLK Day” box to find the projects available in your area.

    If you’re looking for something to do from your home, help rewrite history. The Smithsonian Institution and Library of Congress are both looking for volunteers to digitally transcribe historical documents. The projects range from African American history and women’s suffrage to the personal letters and journals of historical figures. The digital transcriptions will help make the documents more widely available to the public and more accessible by people with vision impairments.

    If volunteering is not an option this year, consider donating to organizations working year-round to support the social justice Dr. King dedicated his life to.

    The Equal Justice Initiative works to end mass incarceration, excessive punishment, and racial inequality. The organization provides legal representation and promotes criminal justice reform. It is also heavily involved in public education about racial injustice in America. In 2018, EJI opened the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. The Museum and the Memorial will both be open on Monday and offering free admission.

    The National Urban League has been fighting for African Americans and others for more than 100 years. The organization advances civil rights and economic empowerment by providing education, job training and community development.

    Volunteers pitch in during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service project on Monday, Jan. 17, 2022 near Olympia, Washington.

    If time is an issue, much like digitally transcribing historical documents, there are plenty of altruistic apps and websites available that allow anyone to volunteer and help others any time they can. “On-demand volunteering” apps and websites are available to help those with vision impairments, those who need help with language translation or those looking for career or mentoring advice.

    Tim Adkins from Hands on Atlanta believes volunteering is a way you can better your community and yourself at the same time.

    “I’m a pretty strong believer that volunteering is a potential solution to a lot of mental health issues that have sprawled over the last couple of years,” Adkins said. “I don’t really think it matters what you do as long as you get out there and the intention is, for lack of better phrase, to go do something good.”

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  • Ted Turner Fast Facts | CNN

    Ted Turner Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at philanthropist and environmentalist Ted Turner, founder of CNN and Turner Broadcasting System (TBS).

    Birth date: November 19, 1938

    Birth place: Cincinnati, Ohio

    Birth name: Robert Edward Turner III

    Father: Robert Edward Turner

    Mother: Florence (Rooney) Turner

    Marriages: Jane Fonda (1991-2001, divorced); Jane (Smith) Turner (1964-1987, divorced. Some sources have 1988 for the divorce.); Judy (Nye) Turner (1960-early 1960s, divorced).

    Children: with Jane (Smith) Turner: Beau, Rhett, Jennie; with Judy (Nye) Turner: Laura Lee and Robert Edward IV

    Education: Attended Brown University, 1957-1960

    Military: US Coast Guard

    Won the America’s Cup with the yacht “Courageous” in 1977.

    Has received two honorary Emmy Awards.

    Nicknames: Mouth of the South, Terrible Ted, Captain Outrageous.

    Claims his secret to success is “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.”

    Former owner of the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks.

    March 1963 – Takes over the family’s business, Turner Advertising Co., after his father’s suicide.

    1970 – After turning the family business around and renaming it the Turner Communications Group, Turner purchases two independent UHF stations, in Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina, and names them WTCG and WRET, after his company and himself.

    1976 – TBS becomes the nation’s first “superstation” using satellite technology to carry its signal nationwide.

    June 1, 1980 – Launches CNN, the first 24-hour all-news cable network.

    January 1, 1982 – CNN Headline News begins broadcasting.

    August 1985 – Acquires MGM-UA Entertainment, including its library of thousands of classic films.

    September 1985 – CNNI is first launched.

    1986 – Creates the Goodwill Games. They are held five times, until 2000.

    October 3, 1988 – TNT is launched.

    1990 – Establishes the Turner Foundation with a vision toward the preservation and conservation of the environment throughout the world.

    1991 – Time Magazine names Turner “Man of the Year.”

    August 30, 1992 – Receives the Governor’s Award at the 44th Primetime Emmy Awards.

    October 1, 1992 – The Cartoon Network goes on the air for the first time.

    October 3, 1992 – Is inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.

    April 1994 – Launch of Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

    October 1996 – Sells Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. to Time Warner, Inc., for $7.34 billion; becomes vice chairman.

    1996-2001 – Member of the Time Warner Board of Directors.

    1996 – Buys the 578,000 acre Vermejo Park Ranch in New Mexico that stretches into Colorado. The ranch reportedly is one of the largest privately owned ranches in the country.

    1997 – Pledges $1 billion to the United Nations to be paid out in increments over the next 10 years.

    March 17, 1997 – CNN en Español is launched.

    1999 – “Ted Turner Speaks: Insights from the World’s Greatest Maverick,” is published, co-written with Janet Lowe.

    January 2001 – Establishes the Nuclear Threat Initiative with former Senator Sam Nunn.

    January 11, 2001 – The AOL and Time Warner, Inc., merger is completed.

    2001-2003 – Vice Chairman of AOL Time Warner, Inc.

    2001-2006 – Member of the AOL Time Warner Inc., Board of Directors.

    2002 – Launches the restaurant chain Ted’s Montana Grill with business partner George McKerrow Jr.

    November 30, 2004 – In recognition of the 24 years Turner owned the NBA team, the Atlanta Hawks retire a number 17 jersey to honor him.

    February 24, 2006 – Announces he will not seek reelection to the board of Time Warner. He receives a standing ovation on his last day, May 19.

    January 10, 2007 – Partners with New Jersey-based Dome Tech Solar to create DT Solar, a renewable energy company focusing on solar power. The company is later renamed Turner Renewable Energy (TRE).

    November 10, 2008 – His autobiography, “Call Me Ted,” is published.

    August 2010 – Is named among 40 billionaires pledging half or more of their fortune to charity through “The Giving Pledge” campaign.

    October 2011 – After four years in a row as number one, Turner slips to number two on the list of largest landowners. John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media, is now the largest landowner.

    2015 – Turner makes his final payment to the United Nations and fulfills the $1 billion pledge he made in 1997.

    August 23, 2016 – Turner officially transfers (after selling) ownership of his 43,000-acre property, Bluestem Ranch in Oklahoma, to the Osage Nation led by Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear. Turner writes a letter to the tribe stating, “I know that I am leaving Bluestem in the right hands, and I am grateful for the relationship we’ve been able to build with the Osage Nation.”

    September 30, 2018 – Turner reveals that he has Lewy body dementia in an interview for “CBS Sunday Morning.”

    April 11, 2019 – Turner is honored on the opening night of the TCM Classic Film Festival.

    July 1, 2021 – Launches the Turner Institute of Ecoagriculture, Inc, a public charity and agricultural research organization. Turner also announces that he is turning over the nearly 80,000 acre McGinley Ranch to the nonprofit.

    March 2022 – Armendaris Ranch, owned by Turner, is permanently protected land after an agreement is made between the federal government and the New Mexico Land Conservancy. The 315,000 acres ranch houses some 500 vertebrate species, approximately 230 desert bighorn sheep and close to a million bats. The deal will be one of the largest conservation easements in the country.

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  • A nonprofit is racing to get its portable baby incubators into Israel and Gaza as crisis deepens | CNN Business

    A nonprofit is racing to get its portable baby incubators into Israel and Gaza as crisis deepens | CNN Business


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Jane Chen is racing against the clock, again. She knows well how every minute that passes is crucial for a new life that emerges prematurely into the world in the most vulnerable of circumstances — in the midst of war, in the aftermath of a natural disaster or in a remote village far away from a medical center.

    Acutely aware of the deepening crisis between Israel and Gaza, Chen is mobilizing her team at Embrace Global, a nonprofit she co-founded to help save babies’ lives, in a way that’s become second nature to her.

    Embrace, based in San Francisco, California, makes low-cost portable baby incubators that don’t require a stable electricity supply.

    The Embrace incubator resembles a sleeping bag, but for a baby. It’s a three-part system consisting of an infant sleeping bag, a removable and reusable pouch filled with a wax-like phase-change material which maintains a constant temperature of 98 degrees F for up to eight hours at a stretch when heated, and a heater to reheat the pouch when it cools.

    Chen said the pouch requires just a 30-minute charge to be fully ready for reuse. “This is really ideal for settings that have intermittent access to electricity, which is a lot of places where we work in the world,” she said.

    According to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), an estimated 50,000 pregnant women currently reside in Gaza, 5,500 of whom are due to give birth in the coming month.

    The stats are startling to Chen, who is bracing for a swell of need there. She’s learned how access to incubators becomes critical in conflict areas through the organization’s efforts to donate 3,000 Embrace incubators with the help of UNICEF to doctors and hospitals in Ukraine where a war with Russia rages on. The nonprofit also sent the devices to Turkey and Syria after devastating earthquakes there earlier this year.

    Medical experts point to elevated stress as a potentially serious factor that could trigger preterm deliveries in these situations.

    “There’s been plenty of data that show stress not only causes preterm birth but also low-birth-weight,” said Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell, an obstetrician-gynecologist and associate professor with Ochsner Health in New Orleans, Louisiana

    In general, babies born preterm or before 37 weeks, have difficulty maintaining their body temperature, said Bell. “Specifically, if we are speaking of disasters…. in my own experience of being here during [Hurricane] Katrina, in those very stressful situations, we have seen an uptick during those times in preterm birth and low birth weight,” she said.

    Because preterm and low-birth-weight babies don’t have as much body fat, it’s harder for them to maintain their body temperature, which for a healthy baby is between 96.8 and 99.5 degrees F, she said. “The lower it is below that, the more oxygen and energy they need to stay warm. So they would have use even more energy.”

    In both cases of preterm and low-birth-weight infants, quick and constant access to an incubator is vital.

    In Ukraine, Chen said doctors have indicated that preterm births are on the rise across the country at the same time that intermittent power outages have made the use of conventional incubators very challenging. Several doctors and nurses, she said, also must consistently take babies and mothers to basement shelters as bombings continue.

    Dr. Halyna Masiura, a general practitioner, is experiencing this first hand at the Berezivka Primary Healthcare Center in the Odesa region of Ukraine.

    Embrace Global donated its incubators to hospitals in Ukraine through its partner Project HOPE, including to the Sumy Regional Perinatal center in Northeastern Ukraine in 2022. Seen here is a nurse at Sumy Perinatal center secures an infant into an Embrace incubator.

    “Half of the babies being born in this area need more care,” Masiura told CNN. “They are being born early and with low birth weight. When air raids happen, we all have to go into shelters.” Masiura said her staff members have been relying on donated Embrace incubators for babies born with a birth weight of 2 kg (4 lbs) and up.

    In the Palestinian exclave of Gaza, Israel has instructed more than half of the more than 2 million residents in the north to evacuate to the southern region ahead of an anticipated ground operation in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in response to Hamas’ deadly October 7 attack on Israel.

    That attack killed more than 1,400 people.

    In Gaza, where half of the overall population are children, access to medical aid, food, water, fuel, electricity and other normal daily necessities of life have evaporated in recent days amid sustained Israeli bombardment.

    Over the weekend, after days of a complete siege of the exclave by Israel, the first trucks reported to be carrying medicine and medical supplies, food and water entered Gaza on Saturday.

    Palestinians search under the rubble of a building destroyed by Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 17, 2023.

    For Chen, the most pressing problem is to figure out how to get the incubators to where they are most needed on the ground there. “As we did for Ukraine, we’re looking for partnerships with organizations that can get into the region effectively and also for funding,” she said. As a nonprofit, Chen said donations are sought through GoFundMe and a mix of individual donors, foundations and corporate donations.

    Her team is working on a partnership with a humanitarian relief organization to respond in Gaza. “We’re also reaching out to organizations in Israel to assess the need for our incubators there,” she added.

    A couple of hundred incubators are ready to immediately be sent to Israel and Gaza. Said Chen, “Depending on the need, we would go into production for more. But the big question is, can we get into those areas? We don’t want to ship products and then have them sit there.”

    Linus Liang, along with Chen, was among the original team of graduate students at Stanford University who, as part of a class assignment in 2007, were given a challenge to develop a low-cost infant incubator for use in developing countries.

    Liang, a software engineer who had already created and sold two gaming companies by then, was intrigued. “This class deliberately brought together people from different disciplines – law, business, medical school, engineers – to collaborate to solve world problems,” he said.

    “Our challenge was that about 20 million premature and low-birth-weight babies are born globally every year,” he said. “Many of them don’t survive, or if they do, they live with terrible health conditions.”

    Embrace Global founder Jane Chen at SVYM hospital in Karnataka, India, in 2013.

    The reasons why came down to factors such as a shortage of expensive conventional incubators or families living far away from medical centers to access quickly for their newborns.

    The team formed their company in 2008 and then took a few years to engineer and produce the solution, with Liang and Chen both moving to India for a few years to get it off the ground and market test it there. Chen said the incubators, made in India, underwent rigorous testing and are CE certified, a regulatory standard that a device must meet to be approved for use in the European market and in Asia and Africa.

    “We chose that route instead of seeking FDA approval because the need really is outside of the US,” said Liang. The cost per incubator is about $500, including cost of the product, training, distribution, shipping, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, said Chen. That compares to as much as $30,000 or more per conventional incubators, she said.

    Chen estimates some 15,000 babies benefited from Embrace incubators in 2022.

    Dr. Leah Seaman has been using Embrace incubators for three years in Zambia. Seaman is a doctor working in pediatrics for the last 12 years, including six years focusing on neonatal care at the Kapiri Mposhi District Hospital in the Central Province of Zambia.

    Seaman has also been busy setting up a new specialized neonatal ward in the rural district hospital. “When I first came to Zambia, we had one old incubator that would draw a lot of power,” she said. “We often struggle with power cuts here, so even the voltage can be too low for the incubator to function well. Having enough space to set up conventional incubator was an issue as well.”

    So she reached out to Chen in late 2020 after researching solutions that would work for the specific conditions in Zambia.

    Ambulance midwives after being trained in how to use the Embrace incubators at the Kapiri Mposhi District Hospital in Zambia in 2022.

    “In Zambia, 13% of births are premature, and that’s not even including low-birth-weight babies born at term,” she said. “We needed an effective solution.”

    Embrace Global donated 15 incubators to the hospital. The new neonatal ward, set to open this month, is built around the Embrace incubator stations with Kangaroo mother care, or skin to skin contact between mother and baby.

    “Last year we had 800 babies through the ward and maybe half of them used the Embrace incubator,” said Seaman. “This year we’ve had over 800 already. We haven’t asked for any conventional incubators because from 1 kg (2.2 lbs) and above, the Embrace incubator does the work.”

    Because of their heavy use, Seaman said the main challenge with the incubators is making sure that the heating pad is kept warm and reheated in a timely manner. “We’ve built a mattress station where we will be teaching the new mothers how to do that,” she said.

    “Why do we keep babies warm? It’s not just a nice thing. It literally does save lives,” Seaman said.

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  • Why is Japan seeking the dissolution of the controversial Unification Church? | CNN

    Why is Japan seeking the dissolution of the controversial Unification Church? | CNN


    Tokyo, Japan
    CNN
     — 

    Japan’s government on Friday asked a court to order the dissolution of the Unification Church branch in Japan following the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022.

    The government’s move comes after a months-long probe into the church, formally known in Japan as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

    The investigation followed claims by the suspected shooter, Tetsuya Yamagami, that he fatally shot Abe because he believed the leader was associated with the church, which Yamagami blamed for bankrupting his family through the excessive donations of his mother, a member.

    Earlier in January, Japanese prosecutors indicted Yamagami on murder and firearm charges.

    The government’s investigation concluded that the group’s practices – including fund-raising activities that allegedly pressured followers to make exorbitant donations – violated the 1951 Religious Corporations Act.

    That law allows Japanese courts to order the dissolution of a religious group if it has committed an act “clearly found to harm public welfare substantially.”

    The Tokyo District Court will now make a judgment based on the evidence submitted by the government, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.

    This is the third time the Japanese government has sought a dissolution order for a religious group accused of violating the act.

    It also sought to dissolve the Aum Shinrikyo cult, after some of its members carried out a deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, which left dozens dead and thousands injured, and Myokaku-ji Temple, whose priests defrauded people by charging them for exorcisms. The courts ruled with the government on both orders.

    The Unification Church in Japan has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, pledging reform and labeling the news coverage against it as “biased” and “fake.”

    On Thursday, it issued a statement, saying it was “very regrettable” that the government was seeking the dissolution order, particularly as it had been “working on reforming the church” since 2009. It added that it would make legal counterarguments against the order in court.

    If disbanded, the Unification Church, founded by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon in South Korea in 1954, would lose its status as a religious corporation in Japan and be deprived of tax benefits. However, it could still operate as a corporate entity.

    Experts argue that an order to disband the group completely could take years to process and could even risk pushing the entity’s activities underground.

    Police have theory about what motivated Shinzo Abe murder suspect

    The Unification Church became known worldwide for mass weddings, in which thousands of couples get married simultaneously, with some brides and grooms meeting their betrothed for the first time on their wedding day.

    Public scrutiny of the church in Japan increased after Abe was fatally shot during an election campaign speech last July.

    Abe’s alleged assailant told police that his family had been ruined because of the huge donations his mother made to a religious group, which he alleged had close ties to the late former prime minister, according to NHK.

    A spokesperson for the Unification Church confirmed to reporters in Tokyo that the suspect’s mother was a member, Reuters reported, but said neither Abe nor the suspected killer were members.

    Following Abe’s death local media carried a series of reports claiming various other lawmakers of the country’s ruling party had links to the church, prompting Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to order an investigation.

    Kishida told reporters Thursday that ruling party lawmakers had cut ties with the religious group, amid concerns that the Unification Church had been trying to wield political influence.

    Since last November, Japan’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs has questioned and sought to obtain documents from the Unification Church while also collecting testimonies from around 170 people who say they were pressured into making massive donations known in Japan as “spiritual sales.”

    The practice involves asking followers to buy objects like urns and amulets on the grounds that doing so will appease their ancestors and save future generations, according to Yoshihide Sakurai, a religious studies expert at Hokkaido University.

    CNN has contacted the Unification Church for an official comment but has not yet heard back.

    This is not the first time the Unification Church has been at the center of a controversy.

    Naomi Honma, a former Unification Church member, told CNN that between 1991 and 2003, she worked on a legal case called “Give Us Back Our Youth,” a lawsuit that alleged the Unification Church had used deceptive and manipulative techniques to recruit unsuspecting members of the public.

    This, they argued, had the potential to violate the freedom of thought and conscience upheld by Article 20 of Japan’s constitution.

    After a 14-year trial, multiple plaintiff testimonies and a 999-page report outlining the “mind control” process of the group, the trial had its moment.

    The Sapporo District Court made a landmark ruling in favor of 20 former Unification Church members who had sued the group as part of the case. It ordered the Unification Church to pay roughly 29.5 million yen ($200,000) in damages for recruiting and indoctrinating people “while hiding the church’s true identity” and for “coercing some former members into purchasing expensive items and donating large amounts of money.”

    In a separate controversy, between 1987 and 2021, the Unification Church in Japan incurred claims for damages over the sale of amulets and urns that totaled around $1 billion, according to the National Lawyers Network against Spiritual Sales – a group established in 1987 specifically to oppose the Unification Church.

    Nobutaka Inoue, an expert on contemporary Japanese religion at Kokugakuin University, is critical of the techniques used by the church to recruit and raise funds. However, he also notes that some of its members felt happy and at peace after making donations to the Unification Church.

    Some critics of the Unification Church say the government’s actions don’t go far enough as it could still operate as a non-religious group. One option for the government would be to seek a court order stripping the church of its corporate status, too, but experts say that could take up to two years to process.

    Sakurai, the religious studies expert, cautioned that if the Unification Church loses its status as a religious corporation, it would no longer be under the control of Japan’s Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs, making it harder to regulate its activities.

    Sakurai pointed to the case of Aum, noting that after the sarin gas attack the Japanese government revoked recognition of the group as a religious organization but continued to regulate it through a new law passed in 1999 that authorized continued police surveillance of its activities.

    But making a new law that would allow the government to continue to watch over the Unification Church’s activities – even if one could be passed – would not work as well, Sakurai warned.

    “(Aum) only numbers over 1,200 members or so; however, the Unification Church has penetrated many layers of Japan’s society – some members are housewives, some work in factories, others are teachers, so the police cannot watch all the movements or activities of the Unification Church,” Sakurai said.

    Some experts say Japan needs to do more to educate the public about non-traditional religions, which some see as having a rising influence in society.

    Kimiaki Nishida, a social psychologist and chairman of the Japan Society for Cult Prevention and Recovery (JSCPR), pointed out that state and religion were separated in Japan following World War II, and the new constitution forbade teaching religious studies at school.

    This made religion essentially a taboo topic, Nishida said, and to this day, religious education is not provided at elementary, junior, or high schools in Japan, unlike in most EU member states.

    This, according to Toshiyuki Tachikake, a professor at Osaka University specializing in cult countermeasures since 2009, has left students – particularly at university campuses – vulnerable to being pressured into recruitment.

    He and other experts say more should be done to educate young Japanese about religion.

    “We need religious education in schools. Giving someone a broad understanding of different religions and their teachings allows them to make an informed decision on whether they want to join a certain group if a recruiter ever approached them,” said Tachikake.

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  • Memorial from broken headstones to mark desecrated Jewish cemetery in Belarus | CNN

    Memorial from broken headstones to mark desecrated Jewish cemetery in Belarus | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    When a large Jewish cemetery was paved over last century to create a sports ground in Belarus, the headstones were used to make roads and buildings.

    Decades later, the desecrated stone slabs began to emerge during renovation works. Now, thanks to the hard work of a charity based in Belarus and the United Kingdom, the headstones will be given the respect they deserve as part of a new memorial on the site.

    The haunting structure will be erected at the site of the former cemetery in Brest, crafted from broken bits of headstones that have resurfaced over the past two decades in the city and the surrounding area.

    Brest, also known as Brest-Litovsk, had been a hub of Jewish life before World War II, with Jewish residents first recorded there in the 14th century. It was home to more than 20,000 Jews before the war. After the Holocaust, only about 10 remained, according to Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial center.

    Tens of thousands of people are believed to have been buried in the cemetery, among them famous rabbis and talmudic sages, but today there is little evidence their graves ever existed.

    The first stage of the desecration began during the war, when the Nazis tried to destroy the cemetery by selling off the headstones. That destruction continued under the Soviets in the post-war era, when they proceeded to use the religious markers for paving slabs and building works – before later covering the whole site in asphalt to create a running track and football stadium, according to representatives of the Jewish community in Belarus today. The sports facilities, although run down, still exist on the site and are open to the public.

    All traces of the once-sprawling cemetery had been lost until the late 1990s, when parts of the broken stones began to resurface during construction work in and around the city.

    “Currently there’s nothing there to say it’s a cemetery,” said Debra Brunner, chief executive and co-founder of The Together Plan, a charity spearheading the memorial project.

    Over the past few years, hundreds of remnants of matzevot – the Hebrew word for headstones – have been collected and stored in a warehouse, where they have been photographed, cataloged and added to a detailed and searchable database. They will now form part of a large memorial at the site.

    Artur Livshyts and The Together Plan team work to photograph and catalog the salvaged headstones in 2021.

    “There are 1,287 pieces with any sign of writing and probably between 2,000 and 2,500 more pieces but with no signs of writing,” said Artur Livshyts, co-director of The Together Plan, whose US partner organization is called The Jewish Tapestry Project.

    Earlier this year, Livshyts, one of around 20,000 Jewish people living in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, was contacted by a young couple who had just bought a dilapidated house in Brest which had stood empty for more than 20 years.

    Brunner said: “It was in very bad condition but they bought it to renovate it. During their building works they discovered that the basement was constructed out of matzevot. It turns out that after the war the family who lived in this house had used the matzevot as building materials.”

    After that family suffered a series of misfortunes, people said this was “a curse from the headstones,” Brunner said.

    “When this new couple discovered the headstones they felt compelled to do the right thing and so they reached out to the Jewish community in Brest to ask what to do.”

    Artur Livshyts (center) helps to load some of the headstones collected from a house in Brest earlier this year.

    The memorial, which Brunner and Livshyts hope will be in situ by the end of 2024, aims to “acknowledge and honor the community that was so brutally extinguished, and educate visitors about Brest’s vibrant Jewish community of today,” according to the charity.

    The memorial will be located on a corner of the site, away from the sports facilities. It will feature a black granite plaque with writing in English, Russian and Hebrew, while the surrounding area will be landscaped with trees, grass and wild flowers. The Brest municipality is supportive of the concept and has pledged to maintain its upkeep once it opens, according to The Together Plan.

    The office of the mayor of Brest has not yet responded to CNN’s request for comment on the project. Belarus, under President Alexander Lukashenko, has come under international pressure over its role in Russia’s war in Ukraine and repression of civil society.

    The charity estimates that it must raise around $325,000 for the memorial – a third of which has been pledged by a donor, Stephen Grynberg, with a close connection to Brest’s Jewish past.

    Grynberg’s late father, Jack, was one of the handful of Brest’s Jewish residents to survive the Holocaust. The Los Angeles-based film maker told CNN that dozens of his relatives were killed by the Nazis.

    The cemetery was covered with tarmac and transformed into a sports stadium and running track, which remains in use today.

    In the 1990s, Grynberg worked as an interviewer for the Shoah Foundation, an initiative set up by Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg to record the testimonies of Holocaust survivors. Inspired by its work, he persuaded his father to try to open up about his wartime experiences and together they traveled back to Brest.

    “That trip was really profound for me,” Grynberg, 60, told CNN. “What I came to learn was that there were 70 to 100 family members in this town and they all perished. Dad’s grandparents on both sides, uncles, aunts, cousins. His whole family other than his nuclear family was murdered.”

    He added: “In 1997 there were no signs of the cemetery. We were taken there and our guide said ‘this is where the cemetery was.’ Like so many things with the Holocaust, you can’t really understand them, you just have these complicated visceral feelings. I was just trying to compute the idea of them bulldozing a cemetery and building on it. That was the empty feeling I had.”

    In 2015, Grynberg returned to Brest, where he heard about the instances of headstones resurfacing during construction work, and met with Brunner and Livshyts.

    Embracing their vision for a memorial at the former cemetery site, Grynberg commissioned Texas-based designer Brad Goldberg – whose family had taken in Grynberg’s father when he first arrived in the United States and knew him well – to come up with a plan for it.

    Stephen Grynberg is pictured with his late father, Jack.

    “I’m not sure but I don’t think I had any relatives in this cemetery because my family came to Brest,” said Grynberg, who explained that his grandparents had moved to Brest, so his ancestors are likely to have been buried elsewhere in Belarus. “These are all people buried there before the war. It really feels more about my connection to what this town is.”

    The intention, he said, is not to replicate a cemetery, but to bring “dignity back to the people who are buried in this place.”

    In a telephone interview with CNN, Goldberg said his design comprises two large arcs enclosing a large space on the site, which will feature some of the broken stones.

    “I call it an embrace,” he said. “This embrace is meant to house those headstones that are still intact.

    “It isn’t a cemetery,” he added. “They are all facing in different directions as if they are having a conversation with each other.

    “One rabbi that we have consulted has described it as being about life rather than about death.”

    Livshyts told CNN: “This will lay the stones to rest, back where they belong. I call it historical justice.”

    He added: “Of course we can’t locate the actual bodies to the stones that are there but at least we can bring back the stones and have them standing where the cemetery used to be.”

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  • Going to food banks. Canceling after-school activities. How federal workers will manage a government shutdown | CNN Politics

    Going to food banks. Canceling after-school activities. How federal workers will manage a government shutdown | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    The last time the federal government shut down five years ago, Jesse Santiago found himself standing in line at his local food bank, rationing medication and falling behind on his mortgage payments, which ultimately cost him his home.

    Santiago, who has worked as a Transportation Security Administration officer at Houston’s airport since 2002, likes his job and takes pride in keeping Americans safe when they fly. But he’s outraged that Congress once again is on the brink of letting the federal government shut down, throwing him and his fellow federal workers into financial and emotional chaos.

    “Imagine serving the American people only to have to beg for food,” said Santiago, who lives with his husband in Cleveland, Texas, and has started stocking up on canned beans and other nonperishable food in case this impasse drags out. “I refuse to stand in food lines again while working for the federal government.”

    Santiago is among several million federal employees who will stop being paid if lawmakers cannot agree on funding the federal agencies by the start of the coming fiscal year on October 1. Some, like Santiago, are considered essential workers and have to go to work regardless. Others will be furloughed until Congress passes a spending package, which took more than a month during the 2018-19 shutdown.

    Hundreds of people wrote to CNN to express their views about the looming shutdown. Several said they were concerned about taking trips to national parks, including a bride-to-be who is holding her wedding at one in mid-October, while many senior citizens said they were terrified they wouldn’t get their monthly Social Security checks. (In fact, Social Security payments continue during shutdowns.)

    Some charitable organizations are already offering to help federal workers get through their payless period. Earlier this week, chef Jose Andres said his World Central Kitchen restaurants in Washington, DC, would provide food to federal employees during a shutdown, as they did during the previous impasse.

    Among the hardest hit by government shutdowns are federal employees, who won’t get paid until Congress funds their agencies, and federal contractors, who don’t receive back pay. Many wrote of the toll the last shutdown – the longest on record – took on them and their concerns that they and their families will likely have to go through this again.

    For Carrie Martin, who works in the finance department of the National Institutes of Health, potentially losing her paycheck comes at a tough time. Not only is she shelling out more for groceries, rent and other essentials because of inflation, but she’ll have to start making student loan payments of a little more than $700 a month in October.

    “Not knowing when I will get my next paycheck is very stressful considering I am living paycheck to paycheck,” said Martin, who earned a master’s in health administration degree from George Washington University this spring. “Adding student loans back into my bills is making it 10 times worse.”

    Plus, she said it’s difficult to work under such uncertain conditions. She and her colleagues have been putting in extra hours preparing for the end of the current fiscal year and the start of the next one.

    “Preparing for something that may not happen takes a lot of energy out of you,” said Martin, who is also still adjusting to living on one income after her wife passed away last year.

    Other federal workers are already planning to cut back their spending.

    Nicole, a federal law enforcement officer in southern Missouri, said she won’t be able to throw a party for her 6-year-old son whose birthday is in early October. She had hoped to invite a dozen or so children since he just entered kindergarten and is starting to make friends. Instead, her son will just have cake and presents at home with his parents, grandparents and younger brother.

    “I’ll probably feel more sad than he will,” said Nicole, who did not want her last name used because of the nature of her job. “I don’t want to tap into my savings and not pay my bills.”

    Even though her husband will continue to be paid since he works in the restaurant industry, Nicole said the family will have to make sacrifices, including not signing up her older son for after-school activities, such as basketball and painting. And they’ll skip going to fall festivals in their area.

    During the last shutdown, they bought fewer groceries, reduced their cable plan and paid a decent amount of late fees on bills. Plus, they had to take out a loan from their local credit union, though at least they didn’t have to pay interest on it.

    “That was probably one of the worst things we’ve been through,” said Nicole, who still has to report to work during a shutdown.

    The stress from the 2013 impasse prompted Rob, who was a federal police officer in Washington, DC, at the time, to leave federal service. He had to work long shifts without knowing when he’d see his next paycheck.

    A decade later, Rob decided to return to the federal workforce so he could get a better-paying job than the one he has working security at a local retailer. He is currently behind on his rent and car payments and depends on food stamps to feed his family, including his 4-year-old daughter.

    Just last week, he accepted a position as a police officer at a Veterans Health Administration hospital with a tentative start date of November 5. But if the government shuts down, he fears his paperwork and medical reviews will be delayed so he’ll have to wait longer to begin the job he desperately needs.

    “This was a light at the end of the tunnel for us,” said Rob, who now lives outside of Boston and did not want his last name used for fear of losing his job offer. “I just want to work. I just want to serve my country, do my job.”

    Many federal contractors, meanwhile, are gearing up to give up their paychecks completely until Congress resolves the impasse.

    Theresa Springer of Pittsburgh is a senior consultant for a small management consulting firm that works with various federal agencies. During the last shutdown, she and her coworkers were able to take paid time off, so her income didn’t suffer even though it cost her employer hundreds of thousands of dollars. The company is making the same offer again this year, giving her around two weeks of breathing room before she stops being paid.

    Though Springer said she has the savings to get her through, she will have to watch her spending and may have to delay some purchases if there is a shutdown. Regardless, she’s irritated at lawmakers’ inability to govern and thinks they should forgo their paychecks.

    “My emergency fund is for emergencies, not for the federal government not being able to get their act together,” she said.

    The situation is also tough for small businesses that depend on federal employees, like Sue Doyle’s Home Sweet Home Cleaning Services in Columbia, Maryland. Between 10% and 20% of her clients work for the government, and many cancel their appointments during shutdowns.

    During shutdowns, Sue Doyle temporarily loses many of her clients who work for the federal government.

    Not only does that hurt her income, it cuts into the earnings of her seven employees. Doyle tries not to lay anyone off, opting instead to reduce all of their schedules. While most understand, they are frustrated because they also have bills to pay, she said.

    “A shutdown has a trickle-down consequence,” said Doyle, who is already talking to a bank about a business loan so she can cover her expenses during the impasse. “Hopefully, my employees won’t have more than one day off a week.”

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  • Trump bets, again, on legal troubles yielding big donations | CNN Politics

    Trump bets, again, on legal troubles yielding big donations | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    Donald Trump followed a predictable pattern this week.

    The former president announced Tuesday a new set of legal troubles, this time a letter from special counsel Jack Smith that said he is the target of a criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. By day’s end, he was asking his supporters for campaign donations to help him fend off what he called “another vicious act of Election Interference on behalf of the Deep State.”

    Recent disclosures with the Federal Election Commission underscore how much these criminal cases – and Trump’s fundraising around them – have boosted his campaign finances as he mounts a third White House bid.

    A CNN analysis of itemized donations – those larger than $200 – to Trump’s campaign shows his day-by-day contributions over the first six months of this year spiked following the indictment news. In the first half of March, for instance, Trump’s principal campaign committee reported taking in an average of less than $80,000 a day in itemized contributions, according to the analysis

    But roughly $4 million landed in his campaign coffers into the days surrounding his March 30 indictment by a Manhattan grand jury in connection with an alleged hush-money scheme and his April 4 arraignment in the case. He pleaded not guilty.

    (The CNN analysis looked at contributions larger than $200 because that’s a threshold for candidates to disclose details about contributions, including the date they were received.)

    Political donations soared again in June when US Justice Department filed criminal charges against Trump, alleging he mishandled classified documents he retained after leaving the White House and obstructed the government’s efforts to get them back. He, again, pleaded not guilty.

    Trump’s campaign made multiple pleas for money around the federal case. Hours after pleading not guilty in a Miami courtroom, Trump sent an email to his supporters, calling the Biden administration “corrupt” and claiming that the charges amounted to interference with his campaign.

    In another fundraising pitch that day, Trump sought to cast the charges against him as an attack on his supporters, writing, “They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after YOU – I’m just standing in their way.”

    The indictments “match perfectly with that his messaging is: ‘The system is rigged against me and it’s rigged against you,’ ” said Doug Heye, a Republican strategist and former Republican National Committee communications director. “These are flashpoints that speak to that.”

    And the flood of financial support around his legal woes, Heye added, underscores that “the base has never left Trump.”

    “It’s one of the reasons that so many Republicans have been so hesitant to go after Trump, especially those running against him,” he said.

    Asked about the most recent fundraising solicitation, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in an email: “Americans are sick and tired of a weaponized Justice department, under the direction of Crooked Joe Biden, using these witch-hunts to go after his main political opponent, President Trump.”

    The donations also stand to help Trump directly as his legal troubles mount. Currently, 10% of the money Trump raises through his main political funding vehicle – the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee – goes to a leadership PAC, Save America, that has paid his legal expenses in the past.

    Details on Save America’s spending in the first half of this year will be disclosed to election regulators and the public later this month.

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  • Amid rounds of dueling backlash, Dodgers apologize to drag charity group after uninviting them from Pride Night event | CNN

    Amid rounds of dueling backlash, Dodgers apologize to drag charity group after uninviting them from Pride Night event | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The Los Angeles Dodgers have apologized and extended a new invitation to a drag group after earlier disinviting them from the team’s upcoming Pride Night at Dodger Stadium.

    The Dodgers had initially intended to honor the Los Angeles Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag group that leads charity and activism efforts in the city, with a Community Hero Award at their Pride event on June 16. But after a wave of conservative backlash against the drag group’s use of Catholic imagery and other religious garb, the team removed the Sisters from their list of honorees last week.

    The decision to rescind the invitation prompted another round of criticism – this time from LGBTQ advocates, fans and allies who expressed disappointment that the team had acquiesced to pressure from anti-LGBTQ critics.

    On Monday, the Dodgers reversed course again, announcing in a statement that they will include the Sisters, after all.

    “After much thoughtful feedback from our diverse communities, honest conversations within the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and generous discussions with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Los Angeles Dodgers would like to offer our sincerest apologies to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, members of the LGBTQ+ community and their friends and families,” the MLB team said.

    The drag group confirmed that they will accept the Community Hero Award.

    On Monday, two board members of the organization met with Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten as well as heads of Los Angeles LGBTQ community organizations and local government officials, where a “full apology and explanation was given to us by the Dodgers staff which we accept,” the Sisters said in a statement.

    The Sisters said they believe the apology is sincere. “In the future, if similar pressures from outside our community arise, our two organizations will consult and assist each other in responding” alongside other LGBTQ community members, the group’s statement said.

    Among those who balked at the Sisters’ recognition were Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio and Bill Donahue, the president of the Catholic League, an organization that says it protects religious and civil rights.

    Donahue in a statement called the Sisters an “obscene anti-Catholic group” and dismissed the Pride event as “rewarding hate speech.”

    The Sisters said the ordeal has been “an opportunity for learning with a silver lining.”

    “Our group has been strengthened, protected and uplifted to a position where we may now offer our message of hope and joy to far more people than before. With great love and respect, we thank each person and each organization that have spoken up for us,” their statement said.

    The Dodgers said they “will continue to work with our LGBTQ+ partners to better educate ourselves, find ways to strengthen the ties that bind and use our platform to support all of our fans who make up the diversity of the Dodgers family.”

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  • New York lawmaker connected to nonprofit accused of lying about homeless vets being pushed out of hotel for migrants says he’s no longer affiliated with foundation | CNN

    New York lawmaker connected to nonprofit accused of lying about homeless vets being pushed out of hotel for migrants says he’s no longer affiliated with foundation | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A New York state assemblyman and former volunteer spokesperson for the nonprofit accused of lying about homeless veterans being pushed out of a hotel to make room for migrants is no longer affiliated with the foundation, he told CNN.

    Republican State Assemblyman Brian Maher said in a statement to CNN he was devastated and disheartened” to learn claims homeless veterans were pushed out of the hotel to make room for migrants were false.

    On Friday, CNN reported two homeless men said they were part of a group of 15 who were offered money to pose as veterans and say they were asked to leave the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, New York. They claimed Sharon Toney-Finch, a nonprofit leader who houses the homeless, was the person who allegedly offered the money and never paid up.

    Toney-Finch is the founder and chairman of the Yerik Israel Toney Foundation, which helps veterans in need of living assistance. On Friday, she denied the allegations to CNN, saying she never offered money to homeless men to say they had to leave the hotel.

    CNN reached out to Toney-Finch on Saturday regarding Maher’s statement and did not receive an immediate response.

    The situation elevated tensions between the area and New York City, as earlier this week a New York state Supreme Court judge granted a temporary restraining order blocking New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to send asylum seekers to Orange County, where Newburgh is located.

    Maher said in his statement Saturday, “I am devastated and disheartened upon a conversation with Sharon Toney-Finch at approximately 3:15 p.m. Thursday, May 18, where I learned that the information regarding the YIT Foundation about homeless veterans being displaced is false. Their gross misrepresentation of the facts surrounding our homeless veterans is appalling.”

    “The YIT Foundation purports to protect and support veterans, but the dishonest claims and fabrication of the facts by YIT does enormous harm to our homeless veterans by creating mistrust,” the statement continued.

    On Friday, Toney-Finch said, “I never promised to pay anybody,” adding that she only told Maher that she had homeless veterans who were displaced, not that it was because of asylum seekers.

    Maher, who was a volunteer spokesperson for the nonprofit, said he is “no longer affiliated in any capacity with YIT nor offering it any more of my help.”

    The state assemblyman called for an investigation into the nonprofit by the New York State Attorney General’s office and the Orange County District Attorney “based on the new information that came to light today,” his statement said.

    A spokeswoman for New York State Attorney General Letitia James told CNN Friday the office is reviewing the details of the incident to determine whether they will open a formal investigation.

    “While I believed Sharon was telling the truth, I do want to apologize for those that have been negatively impacted since this news broke,” Maher wrote in the statement.

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  • At least 78 killed in Yemen crowd surge during packed Ramadan charity event | CNN

    At least 78 killed in Yemen crowd surge during packed Ramadan charity event | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Dozens of people were killed in a crowd surge in Yemen’s capital on Wednesday as needy residents flocked to receive charity handouts from local merchants during the holy month of Ramadan, officials have confirmed.

    Video of the tragedy in Sanaa showed a chaotic scene with dozens of people packed tightly together, unable to move and shouting for help.

    Those trapped form a wall of bodies with some desperately stretching out their arms for help. A couple of men who are free can be seen attempting to pull others out of the crush.

    “What happened tonight is a tragic and painful accident, as dozens of people were killed due to a large stampede of a number of citizens caused by a random distribution of sums of money by some merchants and without coordination with the Ministry of Interior,” the spokesman of the Houthi-run Ministry of Interior, Abdul-Khaleq al-Ajri, said in the statement.

    At least 78 people were killed in the crush and dozens injured, Mutahar al-Marouni, the director of the Houthi-run Health office in Sanaa, told the Houthi-run Al-Masirah news agency.

    According to Reuters, hundreds of people had crowded into a school to receive donations of 5,000 Yemeni Riyal (about $9).

    The incident came just a few days ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. During this time of the month, people start giving away Zakat al-Fitr, or the Zakat of Breaking the Fast of Ramadan, to people who are in need.

    Police and rescue teams rushed to the scene, according to the Interior Ministry statement.

    “The dead and injured people were transferred to hospitals, and two merchants in charge of the matter were arrested,” the statement added.

    The head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, Mahdi Al-Mashat, ordered an investigation into the incident on Thursday.

    The Houthi-run General Authority for Zakat announced in a statement it would give one million Yemeni Riyal ( about $4,000) to each family of the crowd surge victims.

    It also said it would take care of the treatment of those injured and pay 200,000 Yemeni Riyal ( about $800) to each injured person.

    This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

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  • 13 killed in crush while waiting for food donations in Pakistan’s Karachi | CNN

    13 killed in crush while waiting for food donations in Pakistan’s Karachi | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    At least 13 people were killed and 10 others injured Friday in a crush among people waiting for Ramadan food donations in Pakistan’s largest city Karachi, local police said.

    The crowd crush is the latest in a string of deadly incidents at food distribution centers across Pakistan as citizens struggle with soaring inflation and rising costs of basic necessities.

    The victims from Friday’s crush were all women and minors, police said. Among the dead were two boys aged seven and 16, and a 9-year-old girl, according to Summaiya Syed Tariq, a surgeon with the local police force.

    An 80-year-old woman, the oldest among the casualties, also died, Tariq said.

    Images from the aftermath of the crush show personal items, including shoes, strewn on the ground.

    Among the 10 injured on Friday was a five-year-old girl and two boys, who were hospitalized, according to police.

    The crush happened in an industrial area of Karachi, where the FK Dyeing company was distributing alms for Ramadan, according to another police official Fida Husain Janwari.

    Around 400 women gathered to receive the food aid, said Janwari.

    Authorities arrested several company employees at the scene, accusing them of failing to put in place safety protocols for queuing, according to Janwari.

    The deadly crush comes at a difficult time for many in Pakistan, which has been wracked with political instability, economic woes and an energy crisis. Last year’s record flooding left millions of people reliant on aid, while record inflation has caused food prices to shoot up.

    A nationwide power outage in January left nearly 220 million people without electricity.

    Former Prime Minister Imran Khan was ousted last year after accusations of economic mismanagement as the crisis deepened. He recently appeared in court over allegations of illegally selling gifts given to him by foreign dignitaries while he was in office, which he has rejected as “biased.”

    Friday’s crush is one of several similar incidents at food distribution centers in Pakistan.

    Two people were killed and 16 injured over the past week, across two government run flour distribution sites in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

    In a statement on Friday, Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission said it was “deeply concerned” at a lack of proper management at aid centers, calling on the government to improve safety.

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  • After their university’s president canceled a charity drag show, students found a new venue | CNN

    After their university’s president canceled a charity drag show, students found a new venue | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A group of students at West Texas A&M University have announced a new venue for their charity drag show, which was initially set to take place on campus before it was canceled by the school’s president.

    The performance, titled “A Fool’s Drag Race,” will occur at the Sam Houston Park in Amarillo, according to a flyer posted by Spectrum WT, the university’s student-led LGBT+ organization. It is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. local time Friday, according to the post.

    Proceeds from the show will support The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ young people, the student group said.

    West Texas A&M University President Walter V. Wendler announced the cancellation of the student drag show in an email earlier this month. In that email, Wendler said drag shows “discriminate against womanhood,” compared them to blackface and said there was “no such thing” as a harmless drag show, angering both students and free speech advocates and prompting a federal lawsuit.

    But the organization putting together the performance was determined to make it a reality, and it began a GoFundMe page which helped them secure the new venue, a group member said. The GoFundMe had raised more than $5,700 as of Thursday evening.

    “Despite the pushback we’ve gotten from the university, we’re holding this show no matter what. It doesn’t matter if we have to be off-campus or not, our primary goal is to raise money for a good cause and celebrate our identity at the same time,” K Klein, the secretary of Spectrum WT, told CNN in a statement. “The show must go on.”

    Last week, Spectrum WT and two of its student leaders sued Wendler and other officials.

    “We are upset and disappointed that President Wendler does not respect the First Amendment and that the Texas A&M System would not lift a finger to protect our First Amendment rights,” Barrett “Bear” Bright, the Spectrum WT president, said in a statement. “We will be seeing President Wendler in court.”

    CNN has reached out to Wendler, the university’s vice president, chancellor and members of the Board of Regents of the Texas A&M University System for comment.

    The students are represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which said the president’s decision to ban the show on campus violated students’ First Amendment rights.

    That lawsuit is ongoing and “will proceed until the First Amendment is restored at West Texas A&M,” a FIRE spokesperson said in an email to CNN.

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  • Price hikes are double whammy for pet owners who are crushed by inflation | CNN Business

    Price hikes are double whammy for pet owners who are crushed by inflation | CNN Business


    Minneapolis
    CNN
     — 

    As head of PAWS Atlanta, Joe Labriola can get a good sense of the region’s economic well-being from the day-to-day activity of the city’s oldest no-kill animal shelter.

    Through the course of the past year, it’s become increasingly clear to him that people in the area are struggling under the weight of inflation and economic uncertainty.

    Practically the entirety of the daily call volume consists of requests to rehome pets. The shelter’s “surrender queue” is full, awaiting adoptions to free up space in the main shelter. And the shelves at PAWS Atlanta’s Pet Food Pantry quickly go bare.

    But perhaps the most heartbreaking indicator is something this particular shelter never had to track before 2022. Last year, 166 pets were found abandoned at the shelter’s front gate.

    “A number of animals are being abandoned that have serious medical issues,” Labriola told CNN. “The only thing we can guess is that people just can’t afford those expenses, and they’re hoping by dropping off [their pets] at our facility that we’re going to be able to pick up the slack. And we do as best we can, but it’s really putting a strain on our resources.”

    Overall inflation remains high across the United States, but has slowly and methodically stepped down since setting a fresh 40-year record of 9.1% in June 2022, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. However, during the past eight months, inflation in pet-related products and services has only worsened, rising in some cases to record-setting levels.

    In February, when annual CPI declined to 6%, the catch-all “pets, pet products and services” index rose to 10.9%, veterinary services jumped nearly 2 percentage points to 10.3% and pet food increased to 15.2%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

    Those price increases are a double whammy for pet owners whose household finances have been weakened by persistently high inflation and for those who fear for rising instances of “economic euthanasia,” when animals are humanely put to death for financial reasons.

    The recent pet-specific price spikes also are compounding pressures facing organizations tasked with providing a safety net for animals in need.

    Nationwide, shelters are not seeing increases in pets being surrendered, said Kitty Block, chief executive officer and president of the Humane Society of the United States. However, when there are certain communities seeing spikes in abandoned or surrendered pets, that’s a sign of broader societal hardship, she said.

    “When people are having to surrender their animals for economic reasons or because they’re in the middle of a horrible disaster or war zone area, that’s a people problem; this is not some issue that is not relevant to people,” Block said. “This is bigger than dogs or cats in shelters. It’s about the people who love them.”

    At the store level, many pet products saw double-digit average unit price increases during the past year, with several items — including pet food, non-clumping cat litter and bird grooming items — seeing year-over-year price hikes north of 20%, according to Nielsen IQ data for the 52-week period ended January 28, 2023.

    “Throughout 2022, price increases were pretty extensive — all the way up to 20% and almost 30% price hikes versus the year prior — across the pet department,” said Andrea Binder, vice president of NielsenIQ North America. “In early 2023, we have started to see those start to taper off a little bit. Prices are still increasing but at a lower rate than they were in 2022.”

    The price hikes have been attributed to rising input and ingredient costs, she added.

    “The cost of chicken, the cost of beef, the cost of aluminum to make a wet cat food can … a lot of those commodity prices have been rising pretty dramatically throughout 2021 and 2022, which has caused manufacturers to increase their costs, and then therefore a lot of retailers follow suit,” she said.

    Linda Harding's dogs, Lola and Phoebe.

    Pet products, services and food have become “exponentially” more expensive, said Linda Harding, who lives in San Diego with two dogs. She said her pet food costs for Lola, her Australian Shepherd mix, and for Phoebe, her Golden Retriever, have doubled to $250 per month.

    Harding has cut back on her own expenses. She hasn’t turned on the heat much all winter, she’s limited electricity use and she has stopped buying items like clothes and eggs.

    “When you take on a pet, you take on a big responsibility,” she said. “It’s almost like when you buy a car, you’re going to have a lot of responsibility with that car. That car is going to break down, that car’s going to need repairs. It’s an investment.”

    She added: “And they’re our furbabies. We love them to pieces. So it’s not really even a question. I need to find the money to keep them as healthy as possible so we can love them as long as possible.”

    Mary Avila, a disabled veteran who lives on a fixed income, keeps things simple.

    She doesn’t go clothes shopping anymore, she buys cheaper cuts of meat, and she does try to sock away money in case her pets need a small medical procedure.

    “They always give,” said Avila, who lives in Bakersfield, California, with her cat, Jack, and two dogs, Domino and Squirt. “The cat doesn’t give as much, because cats. But the dogs, they always give, they’re always happy, they always want you around. They always are there for you.”

    Patricia Kelvin of Poland, Ohio, said her Social Security benefits and pension can only go so far, so when the cost of utilities, food or trash collection go up, she has to cut back.

    But not for her cat, Jesse.

    Patricia Kelvin's cat, Jesse.

    “If he had some major medical concern, there are a lot of things I would give up so he would get care,” she said. “There’s just no question in my mind. If my diet was going to be more beans than something else, I wouldn’t hesitate. If I had to sell my sterling silver, which I’ve had for 60 years, that would go before my little ‘Whiskers’ would be deprived.”

    The Animal Rescue League of Iowa is the largest nonprofit rescue organization in the Hawkeye State and adopted out 8,400 dogs, cats and small farm animals throughout last year.

    As pet support services manager, Josh Fiala’s role at ARL is to help keep animals out of the shelter by offering programs — such as a pet food pantry, vaccine clinics, veterinary assistance and crisis care — to help keep pets with their people.

    “We definitely, without question, have seen a dramatic increase in pretty much every one of those services,” he said, noting that the pet food pantry in particular has seen spikes in demand.

    Josh Fiala, Animal Rescue League of Iowa's Pet Support Services Manager, helps load pet food into a vehicle during a Pet Food Pantry in January 2022.

    ARL gave out about 40,000 pounds of pet food in both 2020 and 2021. Last year, it distributed 146,000 pounds of food.

    Waggle, a pet-dedicated crowdfunding platform for medical expenses and emergencies, has seen recent spikes in the volume of postings on its website — with some of the biggest increases coming from pet owners in rural communities and areas with high costs of living, said Steven Mornelli, chief executive officer and founder. Additionally, Waggle has also seen a 30% increase in posting for help with medical bills $250 and under, he told CNN.

    “We have taken that as a correlation with the stresses of inflation,” he said.

    In 2022, 4% more animals entered shelters than left, according to Shelter Animals Count, a national database of animal shelter statistics launched by some of the largest animal welfare organizations in the United States.

    That’s the largest gap seen in the past four years and is the result of fewer pets leaving shelters, not increases in surrenders, said Christa Chadwick, vice president of shelter services at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

    Adoption levels have remained essentially flat, but there has been a large decline in animals being transferred to other shelters because of staffing and driver shortages, she added.

    Joey, a shelter dog at Baypath Humane Society in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, on April 9, 2021.

    But she also highlighted the economic pressures affecting current and prospective pet owners.

    “It’s heartbreaking to know that there are situations where pet owners are being put in a position where they are making a decision about their pet, whether it’s to surrender that pet to an animal shelter or they have to make a decision about euthanasia because they can’t afford care, she said.

    “People tend to get angry at the pet owner when they [abandon or surrender their pet] but our experience has shown that when pet owners get to that point, it’s the only option they see available to them,” Chadwick. “And that’s real, and that’s hard for everybody involved, and that’s really hard for the animal who’s at the center of that.”

    Chadwick sees a role for shelters and other organizations to provide a safe and welcoming place for owners who may feel like they have no other option.

    Despite the broader economic challenges occurring within the US, PAWS Atlanta’s Labriola has had its share of feel-good success stories this year.

    PAWS Atlanta's staff members take care of pets during a public vaccine clinic on February 23.

    Donations have remained strong as has the volunteer program, he said. The low-cost public vaccination and spay and neuter clinics are sold out, indicating that people are taking advantage of inexpensive ways to care for their pets, he added.

    And just recently, the shelter’s focus of working with dogs who have been there for more than a year, or “long-term guests,” is starting to pay off, he said.

    “We’ve been able to place three long-termers into forever homes recently, freeing up space to rescue more homeless dogs,” he said.

    • Shelters, veterinarians and local rescue groups can serve as first points of contact.
    • The Humane Society of the United States’ website has a variety of resources for people facing financial challenges and need vet care, food, boarding, supplies and information to help keep pets with their families. The website has a list of national, state and local organizations.
    • Inquire if veterinarians accept Care Credit, ScratchPay or a similar service but be sure to carefully review the terms of repayment and how interest rates would be applied.
    • Ask if your veterinarian has a client-driven donation fund to help other clients in need; consider fundraising platforms such as Waggle and GoFundMe
    • Consider purchasing pet health insurance.

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  • London is handing out free meals for all primary school children | CNN Business

    London is handing out free meals for all primary school children | CNN Business


    London
    CNN
     — 

    London’s mayor has announced an emergency program to provide free meals for all children attending state primary schools in the capital, adding to a string of fresh evidence that Brits are struggling to afford necessities.

    “The cost-of-living crisis means families and children across our city are in desperate need of additional support,” Sadiq Khan, who himself received free school meals as a child, said in a statement Monday.

    The £130 million ($156 million) program will run for the academic year starting in September and save families around £440 ($529) per child. It will also help reduce the “stigma that can be associated with being singled out as low income,” the statement added.

    It is expected to help around 270,000 pupils who, according to estimates by researchers for the city government, would benefit from free school meals but are not currently eligible under national criteria, which are broadly based on household income. On this basis, a quarter of all London pupils, including those in high school, qualify for free school meals, according to official data.

    This number tallies with an estimate by the Child Poverty Action Group that about 210,000 children living in poverty in London don’t qualify for free school meals because the eligibility criteria are “so restrictive.”

    There was further evidence Monday that more and more Brits are struggling to afford food and electricity as inflation, which is near its highest level in four decades, erodes wages and welfare payments.

    A survey of 85 food banks by the Independent Food Aid Network, an advocacy group, found that 89% saw demand increase in December and January, compared with the same period 12 months ago.

    More than 80% of food banks reported a significant number of people needing help for the first time, as well as an increase in the number of people needing ongoing support rather than occasional food parcels. Just over a third of organizations said they had served staff working for the National Health Service (NHS), which has been hit with successive strikes since December over pay and working conditions.

    “Our fastest-growing client group are working people on low wages who cannot make ends meet,” said Su Parrish from The Easter Team, a food bank in Crawley, south of London.

    Parrish added that the food bank had provided a “record” number of Christmas parcels and modified their usual contents as “clients told us they wouldn’t be able to afford to put ovens on, even on Christmas Day.”

    A survey of more than 2,700 UK adults, published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Monday, found that 51% were worried about keeping warm in their homes this winter.

    Some 60% of respondents, who were polled between January 25 and February 5, said they were using less gas or electricity at home to cope with the increased cost of food, fuel and energy bills.

    “We hear horror stories of people living in cold flats keeping their entire energy budget for keeping the fridge going,” said Andi Hofbauer of St Aidan’s FoodShare in Leeds.

    Also on Monday, a separate ONS survey of nearly 18,500 UK adults between September and January found that 34% of those aged 25 to 34 years reported borrowing more money or using more credit than usual compared with a year ago.

    And over half of adults living in rented accommodation said they would be unable to afford an unexpected, but necessary, expense of £850 ($1,000).

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  • Elon Musk donated $1.9 billion of Tesla stock to charity last year | CNN Business

    Elon Musk donated $1.9 billion of Tesla stock to charity last year | CNN Business


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave 11.5 million shares of his stake in the electric automaker to an undisclosed charity last year, shares worth about $1.9 billion at the time they were donated.

    The donation would make him the second largest charitable donor in 2022, according to a ranking of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which was compiled before Musk’s filing. The Chronicle’s ranking lists Bill Gates as No. 1 with $5.1 billion in donations, followed by Michael Bloomberg at $1.7 billion.

    Musk’s net worth at the end of 2022 stood at $137 billion, according to Forbes’ real time billionaire tracker, so the $1.9 billion represented about 1.4% of his net worth at that time.

    Musk’s 2022 donations are down from the estimated value of his donations reported for 2021, when he reported that he had given 5 million Tesla

    (TSLA)     shares, then worth an estimated $5.7 billion, at the end of that year. A three-for-one stock split in Tesla

    (TSLA)     shares in August of last year means the number of shares he donated in 2021 was also 30% greater than his 2022 donations, on a split-adjusted basis.

    Musk’s donations in 2021 also were to an undisclosed charity. They came at a time that he had been challenged by David Beasley, the UN food program director, to donate $6 billion to battle global hunger. Beasley had said a donation of that size could feed more than 40 million people across 43 countries that are “on the brink of famine.” Musk responded on Twitter at that time if the World Food Program “can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it.”

    Musk’s 2021 donation of Tesla shares came soon after that exchange, but there was never any confirmation as to where the shares went to.

    The most recent donation of shares represented 1.6% of Musk’s stake in the company at the end of last year when considering both shares he held outright and the vested options he holds to purchase additional shares.

    Since the end of the year he had another 25.3 million options vest when the company achieved certain financial goals, a grant the company had already said was probable to take place. So Musk made the donation knowing that he would soon receive options to buy twice a many shares at a nominal price.

    Musk did sell a far larger portion of his Tesla stake in the last 18 months than he has donated. First he sold $16.4 billion worth of Tesla stock in 2021, with most going to to pay a large income tax bill he faced for exercising options in 2021 before they expired. Then in 2022 he sold $22.9 billion worth of Tesla shares as he raised cash for his purchase of Twitter.

    Tesla shares had their worst year on record in 2022, losing 65% of their value. The drop in share price knocked him out of position as the world’s richest person. But after a rough start to this year, they’ve rebounded nicely in 2023, rising 70% year-to-date. Given Tuesday’s closing price, the 11.5 million shares that Musk donated last year are worth $2.4 billion.

    Musk is now the second richest person on the planet, behind Bernard Arnault, the chairman of French luxury goods giant LVMH, according to an estimate by Forbes’ real time billionaire tracker, with a net worth of about $196.5 billion.

    The typical US household has a net worth of about $121,700, according to the most recent estimate from the Federal Reserve. So the $2.4 billion current value of Musk’s donations last year, compared to his current net worth, is the equivalent of that typical family donating $1,500, or just less than $30 a week.

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  • American volunteer aid worker killed in Bakhmut while helping Ukrainian civilians | CNN

    American volunteer aid worker killed in Bakhmut while helping Ukrainian civilians | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    An American volunteer aid worker, Pete Reed, was killed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on Thursday while aiding civilians, according to a statement from Global Response Medicine, the humanitarian aid group he founded.

    Reed, a US Marine veteran, was listed as “killed while rendering aid” on a mission with another organization, GRM said in a statement posted on social media.

    “Yesterday, GRM founder Pete Reed was killed in Bakhmut, Ukraine. Pete was the bedrock of GRM, serving as Board President for 4 years. In January, Pete stepped away from GRM to work with Global Outreach Doctors on their Ukraine mission and was killed while rendering aid,” according to a post shared on Instagram.

    “This is a stark reminder of the perils rescue and aid workers face in conflict zones as they serve citizens caught in the crossfire. Pete was just 33 years old, but lived a life in service of others, first as a decorated US Marine and then in humanitarian aid. GRM will strive to honor his legacy and the selfless service he practiced,” the statement said.

    Reed was also listed as the Ukraine country director on the Global Outreach Doctors’ website.

    A US State Department spokesperson confirmed “the recent death of a US citizen in Ukraine” when asked for comment.

    “We are in touch with the family and providing all possible consular assistance,” the State Department spokesperson said. “Out of respect for the privacy of the family during this difficult time, we have nothing further to add.”

    Reed’s wife, Alex Kay Potter, wrote on Instagram that her husband not only lived for his duty but apparently died saving another team member’s life.

    “He was evacuating civilians and responding to those wounded when his ambulance was shelled. He died doing what he was great at, what gave him life, and what he loved, and apparently by saving a team member with his own body,” the post said.

    Reed started his humanitarian career working after Superstorm Sandy hit his home state of New Jersey, according to the biography pages on the Global Response Medicine and Global Outreach Doctors websites.

    Reed led medical teams during the Battle for Mosul in Iraq, treating over 10,000 trauma patients, according to the websites.

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  • Faucets in McCarthy’s district are running dry after years of drought. Constituents want him to do more | CNN Politics

    Faucets in McCarthy’s district are running dry after years of drought. Constituents want him to do more | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    Shortly after Benjamin Cuevas and his family moved into their new home three years ago in Tooleville, California, he realized something was horribly wrong.

    In the middle of the day, the water pressure would drop completely. Cranking up both hot and cold could only coax a little drip out of the faucet.

    Then there was the water itself, contaminated with chemicals from agriculture runoff and treated with so much chlorine that it turned his family’s black clothing gray in the wash. His daughter and her baby live in the house, and Cuevas’s wife only bathes her granddaughter in the bottled water they receive from the county for drinking.

    Cuevas is not alone; the entire town of under 300 people faces the same water crisis. In many rural parts of the state, faucets and community wells are running dry after years of drought and heavy agriculture use pulls more water from the same groundwater residents use.

    One local nonprofit told CNN that about 8,000 people in the San Joaquin Valley need thousands of gallons of hauled water just to keep their taps flowing – and that number is growing.

    Benjamin Cuevas stands next to a town water tank in Tooleville.

    Newly elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has represented Tooleville for the past decade – though the small town is just outside his newly redrawn congressional district. The Republican lawmaker has long represented Kern and Tulare counties, and his redrawn seat adds portions of Fresno County.

    Throughout his tenure, this region of California has spent more time than any other part of the country in exceptional drought – the US Drought Monitor’s most severe category – a drought scientists say has been made more intense by human-caused climate change. Recent rainfall has put a dent in the region’s surface drought, though experts have told CNN it will do little to solve the ongoing groundwater shortage.

    Tulare, Kern and Fresno counties have endured more than 200 weeks in exceptional drought over the past decade, according to Drought Monitor data.

    Multiple people CNN spoke to for this story said McCarthy and his office don’t often engage on this issue in the district, especially compared with neighboring members of Congress. And they wish he would do more with his power in Washington – especially now that he holds the speaker’s gavel.

    McCarthy proposed an amendment this past summer to set up a grant program to help connect small towns like Tooleville with larger cities that have better water systems. The measure passed the House but died in the Senate. But as more and more wells go dry, McCarthy has made a point to vote against other bills addressing climate change and drought, including the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law.

    “In my experience, he has never engaged with us on any of these kinds of emergencies,” said Jessi Snyder, the director of community development at local nonprofit Self-Help Enterprises, who focuses on getting hauled water to entire communities that have gone dry.

    Cuevas moved to Tooleville three years ago.

    In a statement to CNN, McCarthy’s office said he has been “a staunch advocate on water issues in the Central Valley and California” since he was first elected to the House. McCarthy has joined his colleagues to “introduce broad legislative solutions every Congress related to this topic since our water situation continues to worsen,” his spokesperson Brittany Martinez said.

    But McCarthy does not mention climate change when talking about his district’s drought, and his office did not respond to questions from CNN about whether he believes climate change is playing a role. Instead, he often blames the drought on state mismanagement of water and has called for new and larger dams and reservoirs to be built to capture rainwater during wet years.

    Water experts in California say that’s missing the new reality.

    “Part of what’s happening now is the reality that there is no more new water,” said Peter Gleick, co-founder and senior fellow of California-based water nonprofit Pacific Institute. “The knee-jerk response of politicians has always been build another dam; find more water. There is no new reservoir that’s going to magically solve these problems. It’s now a question of managing demand.”

    When a call comes in from yet another community whose well has run dry, it’s a race against time for the staff at Self-Help Enterprises.

    The Visalia, California-based nonprofit has a self-imposed deadline of just 24 hours to drive out to the impacted community with emergency tanks to keep water flowing for showers, laundry and cleaning, as well as with five-gallon jugs of higher-quality water for drinking.

    “The team goes all hands-on deck,” Tami McVay, Self-Help’s director of emergency services, told CNN. “Everybody knows what their role is, and they just go get it done. And we move forward to the next one.”

    A tanker truck makes a water delivery in Tooleville.

    Rick Jackpot Fernandez of Kyle Koontz Water Hauling hooks up a hose to one of the town's water storage tanks.

    These days, there’s always a next one. Snyder said the summer of 2022 marked “a new level of crisis” as entire small communities of 80 to 100 homes started running out of water, in addition to individual homes.

    “It’s been a real struggle because it’s hard to provide a backup source of water to a whole community instead of one household,” she said.

    More than 1,400 wells were reported dry last year, according to the state of California, a 40% increase over the same period in 2021. Self-Help staff see this in person on the ground. New families are flowing into their hauled water program, but none are leaving. During the dry, warm-weather months, McVay estimates her nonprofit fields around 100 calls a day, dropping down to about 30 per week in the winter months.

    The punishing multi-year drought is what Brad Rippey, a meteorologist at the US Department of Agriculture, calls California’s “latest misery.” California has spent eight of the last 11 years in drought, with the last three years being the driest such period on record, state officials said in October. Human-caused climate change – which is raising global temperatures and making much-needed rain and snow less frequent in the West – is contributing to the severity, Rippey said.

    “The impacts are multiplying. You have these droughts piling on top of droughts with cumulative impacts,” including wildfires, he added.

    To supplement the dwindling groundwater supply in Tooleville, officials in Tulare County and nonprofits like Self-Help deliver five-gallon water jugs to the residents for drinking and 16,000 gallons of hauled water into tanks for washing their clothes, doing dishes and taking showers.

    Six five-gallon jugs of water are delivered to a resident's home in Tooleville.

    There’s so much demand in the warm months for the hauled water that a 16,000-gallon delivery lasted some communities just a few hours before needing to be refilled, Snyder said.

    “We literally cannot pump the water out of the tanker trucks fast enough to fill the storage tanks,” she added. “We can’t ever get ahead of it; physics is against us. It’s nuts and really stressful.”

    California’s extreme heat wave this summer pushed water usage even higher as residents watered grass and farms pumped more for crops. In Tooleville, Cuevas watched as the orange and lemon trees in his yard withered and died. Outdoor watering restrictions meant he couldn’t save his trees, even as some of his neighbors flouted the restrictions with noticeably green lawns.

    “Everything just perished,” Cuevas said. “It’s not a good feeling to see other people enjoying [the water], while you’re doing your part.”

    Seeing the nearby Friant-Kern Canal every day – which carries melted snowpack water from Northern California to Central Valley farms – is a nagging reminder of what his family doesn’t have.

    “It’s terrible,” Cuevas told CNN. “Just joking, I’d say I’ll go out there and put a hose [in it] running right back to my house.”

    Tooleville resident Maria Olivera has lived in town since 1974.

    Olivera cooks with bottled water.

    As Cuevas’s own trees died, commercial farms in the area were still producing – although their future is also uncertain. Farms are also having to drill deeper wells to irrigate orange groves and acres of thirsty pecan and pistachio trees.

    With this rush on groundwater, shallow residential wells don’t stand a chance. In West Goshen, a small town that sits outside McCarthy’s district in Tulare County, resident Jesus Benitez told CNN he burned through three well pumps – costing $1,200 a piece – during the warmer months when his neighbor, a farmer who grows alfalfa and corn, started irrigating his crops.

    “They’ve got the money to go every time deeper and deeper in the ground; we don’t have that luxury,” Benitez said.

    Two town wells in nearby Seville nearly ran dry this summer, said Linda Gutierrez, a lifelong resident who sits on the town’s water board. Across the street from the town’s wells is a pistachio farm, and when they start irrigating, the groundwater level plummets, she said.

    But she doesn’t blame the farmers. Like many who live in the area, her husband is a farm worker. There’s a lot of pride in the region’s far-reaching agriculture, and many feel it should be sustained.

    “You can’t not have farmers because you need food, but we have to have water in order to survive,” Gutierrez said. “There’s a very tricky balance to establish. Right now, if they don’t irrigate, we have water, but also a year from now we have no food.”

    A water usage notice is posted on a fence surrounding the Yettem-Seville water storage tanks.

    As big of a societal problem as drought and water shortages are, they are also intensely personal. Self-Help’s McVay gets emotional when talking about school children in the area getting beat up because they don’t have clean clothes or ready access to a shower.

    “They don’t have water in their homes to take baths, or brush their teeth, or have clean laundry, and they’re getting bullied,” she said. “Being made fun of because they’re taking baths at the local gas station bathroom. It’s not fair – the stress that it causes the parents because [they] start to feel like they’re failing as a parent.”

    Multiple local and state elected officials and leaders of nonprofits focusing on water delivery in the San Joaquin Valley said McCarthy isn’t engaged enough on what they consider one of his district’s most dire crises.

    McVay said outreach from McCarthy’s office on dry residential wells is “slim to none, and I am not saying that to discredit them at all.”

    “I have had more conversations, more engagement and just more wanting to know how they can assist from Congressman Valadao and his office than probably any other on the federal side,” McVay added.

    Snyder said Rep. David Valadao, a Republican representing neighboring Kings County as well as portions of Tulare and Kern, and his staff “will show up in a community at the time of a crisis” and are actively engaged on how they can support efforts to get people water.

    Other members of Congress, including Democratic Rep. Jim Costa and Republican Connie Conway, who left office earlier this month, have also been more accessible and engaged on the issue, Snyder said.

    “Kevin McCarthy, no,” Snyder added.

    A sign reading

    Oranges grown on trees in a grove in Tulare County.

    While McCarthy is popular in his district and influential among California and Central Valley Republicans, California state Sen. Melissa Hurtado, a Democrat who represents parts of the San Joaquin Valley plagued by drought, told CNN there are concerns that McCarthy’s ambition for House speaker has superseded his district’s needs.

    “He’s focused on that leadership position instead of actually working on issues to address the impacts of his district,” Hurtado told CNN. “Quietly, the word out there is it’s been a while that he’s actually delivered something for the region, given his focus on the leadership position. Maybe that’s part of his greater vision for helping this region out.”

    McCarthy’s office did not respond to questions about how he’ll use his position as House speaker to address climate change-fueled droughts in California and around the nation. Nor did it respond to the critiques about his lack of engagement.

    “The Leader has consistently worked in a bipartisan, bicameral fashion to deliver this life-giving resource for the families, agriculture producers and workers, and communities in the Central Valley and throughout California, and our Republican congressional delegation heavily relies on his steadfast leadership and decades of expertise when crafting their own pieces of water legislation,” McCarthy’s spokesperson Martinez told CNN in a statement. “When Democrats have held the majority, they time and time again blocked the progress and innovation of their House GOP colleagues.”

    McCarthy delivers remarks to supporters alongside Ronna Romney McDaniel, Republican National Committee chair, and Rep. Tom Emmer on November 9.

    In July, McCarthy spoke on the House floor about Tooleville’s plight, seeking to set up a federal grant program to help connect it and other small towns to larger cities’ water supply.

    “In our district, the community of Tooleville has run out of water as the groundwater table drops and aging infrastructure fails or becomes obsolete,” McCarthy said at the time. “Tulare County advises me that if California’s droughts continue, more small and rural communities in our district with older infrastructure could meet the exact same fate.”

    McCarthy’s measure authorized a grant program but didn’t contain any funding. And even though the bill passed the House, it died in the Senate, and it’s unclear whether it will come up again in the new Congress.

    Connecting Tooleville’s water infrastructure with that of nearby Exeter has been a decadeslong pursuit that is finally close to happening thanks to a state mandate and funding. The project will mean more reliable and cleaner water for residents like Cuevas. But it’s expected to take eight years for the two systems to fully merge.

    The Friant-Kern Canal carries melted snowpack water from Northern California to Central Valley farms.

    McCarthy is also co-sponsoring a bill with Valadao that would enlarge certain reservoirs and kickstart construction on a new reservoir in the Sacramento Valley. But some nonprofit leaders and local officials say these solutions would prioritize agriculture over residents.

    “We need more solutions beyond storage and dams,” said Susana De Anda, executive director of the San Joaquin Valley-based environmental justice nonprofit Community Water Center. “[McCarthy] lacks understanding of the real critical problems we’re experiencing around the drought and our communities.”

    Seeking to attract younger voters concerned about climate change to the Republican Party, McCarthy last year convened a Climate, Energy and Conservation Task Force to develop the party’s messaging and policies around the issue. And House Republican delegations have attended the last two United Nations climate summits.

    Cars drive past a sign on the outskirts of Tooleville.

    But all indications suggest that addressing human-caused climate change is not going to be a focal point of McCarthy’s now that he has the speaker’s gavel. McCarthy and House Republicans have shown they don’t want to move away from planet-warming fossil fuels, and few in the party are willing to connect global temperature rise to worsening droughts and extreme weather.

    McCarthy dissolved Democrats’ Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, and he has vowed to investigate Department of Energy grants for electric vehicle components, as well as alleged “collusion” between environmental groups and China and Russia to “hurt American Energy,” according to a recent statement.

    “Our representatives don’t talk about climate change; it’s a real problem,” De Anda said. “Climate change is real. Our communities are the canaries in the coal mine. We get hit first.”

    It’s part of the reason Cuevas is hoping to move away in a couple years. He’s hopeful the water situation will improve by connecting Tooleville to a larger town’s water system; otherwise, he’s afraid he won’t be able to entice another buyer due to the water issues.

    “I’m happy I had a chance to buy it, but we are planning to move,” Cuevas told CNN. “Right now, if I try, I ain’t going to get nothing, not even what I paid for the home.”

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  • Amazon axes its charity donation program | CNN Business

    Amazon axes its charity donation program | CNN Business


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Amazon is shutting down its “Smile” charity donation program as the company cuts costs and rethinks its strategy.

    The Smile initiative will shut down by February 20, Amazon said in a statement Wednesday, explaining the “program has not grown to create the impact that we had originally hoped.”

    Amazon Smile donated a small percentage of sales made on eligible purchases to a charity that shoppers chose. In total, $500 million has been donated since its 2013 launch, with an average donation of less than $230 per charity, the company said.

    “With so many eligible organizations — more than 1 million globally — our ability to have an impact was often spread too thin,” Amazon

    (AMZN)     added. Charities enrolled in the program will get a one-time donation “equivalent to three months of what they earned in 2022,” Amazon

    (AMZN)     said, noting that charities will still be able to accrue donations until the program closes.

    The company isn’t completely shying away from donations, however. Amazon said it will continue to “pursue and invest in other areas where we’ve seen we can make meaningful change,” including charities that help with natural disaster relief and affordable housing.

    Amazon recently announced it would lay off roughly 18,000 employees. Several teams were affected, including the human resources department and Amazon Stores, according to a memo from CEO Andy Jassy shared with employees earlier this month.

    Amazon and other tech firms significantly ramped up hiring over the past couple of years as the pandemic shifted consumers’ habits toward e-commerce.

    Now, many of these seemingly untouchable tech companies are experiencing whiplash and laying off thousands of workers as consumers return to pre-pandemic habits and macroeconomic conditions deteriorate.

    Jassy, in his memo, said Amazon’s executives recently met to determine how to slim down the company and prioritize “what matters most to customers and the long-term health of our businesses.”

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