Tag: discrimination

In country with world’s lowest fertility rate, doubts creep in about wisdom of ‘no-kids zones’ | CNN

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Seoul
CNN
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For a country with the world’s lowest fertility rate – one that has spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to encourage women to have more babies – the idea of barring children from places like cafes and restaurants might seem a little counterproductive.

But in South Korea, “no-kids zones” have become remarkably popular in recent years. Hundreds have sprung up across the country, aimed largely at ensuring disturbance-free environments for the grown-ups.

There are nearly 80 such zones on the holiday island of Jeju alone, according to a local think tank, and more than four hundred in the rest of the country, according to activist groups.

Doubts, though, are beginning to creep in about the wisdom of restricting children from so many places, fueled by concerns over the country’s growing demographic problems.

In addition to the world’s lowest birthrate, South Korea has one of the world’s fastest aging populations. That has left it with a problem familiar to graying nations across the world, namely: how to fund the pension and health care needs of a growing pool of retirees on the tax income generated by a slowly vanishing pool of workers.

And South Korea’s problem is more acute than most.

Last year, its fertility rate dropped to a record low of 0.78 – not even half the 2.1 needed for a stable population and far below even that of Japan (1.3), currently the world’s grayest nation. (And even further below the United States, which at 1.6 faces aging problems of its own).

With young South Koreans already facing pressure on multiple fronts – from sky-high real estate costs and long working weeks to rising economic anxiety – critics of the zones say the last thing the country needs is yet one more thing to make them think twice about starting a family.

The government, they point out, should know this better than anyone. After all, it’s spent more than $200 billion over the past 16 years trying to encourage more people to have children. Critics suggest that, rather than throwing more money at the problem, it needs to work on changing society’s attitudes towards the young.

With polls suggesting a majority of South Koreans support no-kids zones, shifting those mindsets won’t be easy. But there are signs opinions may be shifting.

In recent weeks, a pushback against the zones has gained momentum thanks to Yong Hye-in, a mother and a lawmaker for the Basic Income Party who, in a show of defiance to mark Children’s Day, took her 2-year-old son to a meeting of the National Assembly – where babies are not usually allowed.

“Everyday life with children is not easy,” she told the assembled lawmakers in an impassioned speech, during which she was pictured both cuddling her son and letting him wander around the podium. “Our society must be reborn into one where children are included.”

That speech gained media coverage across the world, but it is not the only sign attitudes may slowly be changing.

Jeju island – a tourist hotspot off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula – recently debated the country’s first-ever bill aimed at making such zones illegal (though if passed it would apply only to the island).

The move by its provincial council comes amid growing concerns that the age limits imposed by many guesthouses and campsites on the tourism-dependent island may be damaging its reputation for hospitality.

As Bonnie Tilland, a university lecturer who specializes in South Korean culture, puts it: “Families with children who travel to Jeju on holiday are disgruntled if they drive to a scenic café only to be told that their children are not allowed.”

Other critics say the problem goes deeper than lost business opportunities. Some see no-kids zones as an unjustifiable act of age discrimination that runs contrary to the Korean constitution.

In 2017, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea judged that no-kids zones violated the right to equality and called for businesses to end the practice in what was the first official statement on the matter by a state institution. It cited clause 11 of the constitution, which bans discrimination on the basis of gender, religion or social status, and pointed to a UN convention stipulating that “No child should be treated unfairly on any basis.”

The ruling came in response to a petition by a father of three who was turned away from an Italian restaurant on Jeju. But it is not legally binding and critics say the ongoing popularity of no-kids zones highlights how hard it will be to change people’s mindsets.

South Korea’s embrace of no-kids zones is widely thought to date back to an incident in 2012, in which a restaurant diner carrying hot broth accidentally scalded a child.

The incident caused a stir online, after the child’s mother made a series of posts on social media attacking the diner.

Initially, there was much public sympathy for the mother as the case appeared to have parallels to other incidents in which establishments had been forced to pay compensation following accidents involving children.

But the public’s mood began to change after security camera footage emerged showing the child running around moments beforehand, Tilland said. Many began to blame the mother for not reining in her child’s behavior.

“Then discussion unfolded over the next few years on social media about the rights and responsibilities of parents and guardians of young children in public spaces and private businesses,” said Tilland, who used to teach at Yonsei University in Seoul but is now with Leiden University in the Netherlands.

By 2014, she says, no-kids zones had become a familiar sight, “most commonly in cafes but also in some restaurants and other businesses.”

Over the years, the zones have grown in popularity, with a survey in 2021 by Hankook Research finding that more than 7 in 10 adults were in favor, and fewer than 2 in 10 against (the rest were undecided).

And it is not only childless adults who back them. In South Korea, so widely acknowledged is the right to some peace and quiet that even many parents see the zones as reasonable and justified.

“When I’m out with my child, I see a lot of situations that may make me frown,” said Lee Yi-rang, a mother of a two-year-old boy.

“It’s not difficult to find parents who don’t control their children, causing damage to facilities and other people. That makes me understand why there are no-kids zones,” she said.

Mother-of-two Lee Ji-eun from Seoul agrees. She thinks it’s a decision best left “to the business owners” – and if a parent “doesn’t like that, then they can seek a kids-allowed zone.”

Not all parents are so understanding. Kim Se-hee, also from Seoul, said she feels “attacked when I see a blatant no-kids sign like that posted at a shop.”

“There’s so much hatred against mothers already in Korea with terms like ‘mom-choong’ (‘mother bug,’ a derogatory term for mothers who care only about their children to the disregard of others) and I think no-kids zones validate that kind of negative sentiment toward moms,” she said.

Meanwhile, it would be wrong to suggest that it is only the youngest in society who are subject to such “zoning” requirements.

On Jeju, it’s not unusual to see signs at camping grounds or guest houses stipulating both lower and upper age limits for would-be guests. There are “no-teenager zones” and “no-senior zones”, for example, and even plenty of zones targeting those somewhere in between.

So numerous have the “no-middle-aged zones” become that they have collectively been dubbed “no-ajae zones,” in reference to a slang term for “uncle.”

One restaurant in Seoul rose to notoriety after “politely declining” people over 49 (on the basis men of that age might harass female staff), while in 2021, a camping ground in Jeju sparked heated debate with a notice saying it did not accept reservations from people aged 40 or above. Citing a desire to keep noise and alcohol use to a minimum, it stated a preference for women in their 20s and 30s.

Other zones are even more niche.

Among those to have caused a stir on social media are a cafe in Seoul that in 2018 declared itself a “no-rapper zone,” a “no-YouTuber zone” and even a “no-professor zone”.

But most such zones follow a similar logic – that of preventing disturbance to other customers. For instance, no-YouTuber zones became popular in response to a trend known as “mukbang” (based on words for “eating” and “broadcast”) in which some livestreamers would show up at restaurants without prior consent to film themselves eating.

Tilland says the appeal of such zones is complex, but derives in part from the strong pro-business sentiment in the country. A common mindset is that it is only natural that business owners should have a say on who they accept as clientele, she says.

As for no-kids zones specifically, she has another theory.

“Koreans in their 20s and 30s, in particular, tend to have a strong concept of personal space, and are increasingly less tolerant of both noisy children in their midst and noisy older people,” Tilland said.

But such mindsets need to be re-examined if the country is to get a grip on its population problems, Tilland says, arguing they “reflect a worrying intolerance for anyone existing in public places who is different from oneself.”

“Deep-rooted attitudes that every category of people belongs in ‘their place’ – and for mothers this is home with children, not out participating in public life – are one of the reasons young women are reluctant to have children,” she said.

See why South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate

Lawmaker Yong came to a similar realization after giving birth in 2021.

She had suffered postpartum depression and stayed at home for the first nearly 100 days of her child’s life. When she finally felt well enough to take her child for a walk the experience was alienating.

“When we tried to go into a cafe nearby, we were immediately denied entry because it was a no-kids zone,” she recalled in an interview with CNN. “I was helplessly in tears. It felt like society didn’t want people like me.”

She says many new mothers feel this way, citing a case being investigated by the labor ministry in which a working mother, a computer programmer at a leading tech firm, killed herself and left a suicide note asking, “Is a working mom a sinner?”

“I am doing politics to create a society where working working moms don’t have to (feel like) a sinner,” Yong said.

Her ultimate aim is to make childcare the “responsibility of society as a whole, not of individual caregivers and parents,” which she believes is the only way to overcome the population crisis.

One way she hopes to bring about this change is by pushing for an equality bill that would outlaw discrimination based on age.

But legislation isn’t the only way, she says. She thinks the government and local authorities can achieve much simply by guiding businesses away from no-kids zones and learning from other countries where families with young children are fast-tracked through queues at public places like museums and zoos.

There may be other ways to compromise too.

Barista Ahn Hee-yul says he has faced situations in a cafe he once worked for where parents appeared unable to keep their children from causing a nuisance, yet he appreciates the need to strike a balance between the needs of parents and non-parents.

“I suggest no-kids times, instead of no-kids zones,” he said, suggesting that venues for instance allow children until 5 p.m., after which it’s adults only.

“In the end, they’re just kids. It’s the best middle ground I could think of.”

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June 24, 2023
Thousands of Americans are leaving homes in flood-risk areas. But where are they moving to? | CNN

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CNN
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For more than four decades, the US government has been paying cities and states to move homeowners away from areas that are at high risk of severe flooding.

When a hurricane or major flooding event devastates an area, a neighborhood can send a request for the local or state government to buy the impacted land and give residents money to start over someplace else.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s buyout program is a form of so-called “managed retreat” – a long process that relocates people, businesses, homes and infrastructure to an area that’s safer from the impacts of climate change-fueled weather events. But until recently, little was known about where people ultimately moved and whether their new location actually reduced their flood risk.

A new study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters — which coincides with a managed retreat conference unfolding in New York City this week — provides a clearer picture of these home buyouts.

Data from thousands of home buyouts shows people aren’t moving that far from their original homes — and often they are moving within the same floodplain. But overall, their risk of flooding decreased after the move, a nod to the program’s success. Researchers also found that race has played a role in who is moving and where they’re relocating to.

“As climate change and rising insurance costs increase the pressures to retreat from the coast and flooded areas, we need to pay more attention to where people are going,” James Elliott, a professor of sociology at Rice University and a co-author on the study, told CNN.

The findings “point to how the program plays out differently in different types of communities and neighborhoods across the country,” he said.

Using flood risk estimates, housing values, race and income data from the US Census Bureau, and FEMA relocation data between 1990 and 2017, researchers from Rice University built a nationwide database to map out where nearly 10,000 Americans sold their flood-prone homes and where they moved.

They found people who have taken advantage of the FEMA buyouts typically did not move that far to reduce their risk, and usually stayed within the same floodplain.

On average, buyout participants reduced their future flood risk by up to 65%, Elliott said. The average driving distance between their former homes and their new ones was around seven miles, with almost 74% of homeowners remaining within 20 miles of their old, flood-damaged homes.

The findings were also racially segmented, Elliot said. About 96% of homeowners who relocated from a predominantly White neighborhood ended up moving to another majority White community.

In contrast, residents of predominantly Black and Hispanic communities were far more likely to relocate to a new neighborhood with a different demographic: Only 48 percent of Black homeowners who go through the buyout moved to predominantly Black neighborhoods.

The study also found that buyout areas with predominantly White homeowners had a nearly 90% chance of flooding by 2050, while majority-Black buyout areas had a roughly 50% chance, suggesting that White residents tend to only participate in buyouts when flood risk is much more intense.

Though the data suggests that homeowners in White neighborhoods have a higher tolerance for flood risk, 80% of the people who took advantage of the FEMA program previously lived in majority-White neighborhoods. This could be because White communities “are more successful at winning the opportunity and money to participate” in the FEMA program, Elliott said.

The home buyout program, which is the largest managed-retreat initiative in the country so far, is “disproportionately targeted toward Whiter residential areas,” Elliott said.

“Communities of color and lower income areas just have fewer options to move nearby, so they are less likely to participate in the managed buyout,” Elliott said. In Houston, he found in a previous study that most of the people participating in buyouts in racially diverse communities tend to be White homeowners.

“It’s sort of the last wave of White flight in those neighborhoods,” he added. And when “flood risks come, the final White residents begin to pull up stakes through the buyout program and move further out.”

Alexander de Sherbinin, a senior research scientist at the Columbia Climate School and deputy manager of NASA’s Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center, said it’s not clear from the study that White homeowners are reluctant to move to racially diverse neighborhoods, and noted that there is evidence to the contrary.

De Sherbinin pointed out that there is a process of “climate gentrification” playing out in areas that have experienced climate disasters, “whereby more affluent households are moving into ethnically diverse neighborhoods that are less at risk of flooding, and are even displacing local residents.”

He pointed to Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood as an example of this phenomenon, where higher ground helps protect the neighborhood from sea level rise and higher storm surges.

“The research findings make sense in one regard, which is that whiter, more affluent neighborhoods are more likely to have the insurance coverage and resources to stay in place, despite rising risks,” de Sherbinin told CNN. “In other words, they’re able to rebuild, and possibly accommodate risks by raising their houses above flood lines.”

As the climate crisis advances, more homeowners and businesses will be forced to relocate, adding stress and vulnerability to new regions. Previous research has shown that climate migration will become more likely as the planet warms and people seek places they consider safer and more stable.

“We really need to think about how people relocate locally, what the options are, and how the ongoing racial segregation, especially in urban environments, is affecting those local retreats and people’s decisions and abilities not to retreat, because all we see are the people who actually say yes to the program,” Elliott said.

“That’s the classic thing with climate change — it’s not about ‘if’ people have to move from these places, but ‘when and how’.”

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June 21, 2023
Why Japan is rethinking its rape laws and raising the age of consent from 13 | CNN

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Tokyo, Japan
CNN
—

When Kaneko Miyuki reported her sexual assault as a seven-year-old in Japan, she remembers the police laughing at her. “I was already confused and scared,” she said. “They wouldn’t take me seriously as a child.”

The following investigation made things worse. After being questioned, she was taken back to the scene of her assault without a guardian present, against all modern guidelines.

The police never did bring her attacker to justice. The whole experience was so traumatizing for Kaneko that she repressed her memory of it until she began having flashbacks in her twenties, and didn’t come to terms with the fact she had been sexually assaulted until her 40s.

Kaneko is among countless Japanese women who say their experiences of sexual assault and abuse were ignored because they “didn’t fit the criteria” of a victim. About 95% of survivors never report their assault to police, and nearly 60% never tell anyone at all, according to a 2020 government survey.

But that could be about to change. On Friday, the Japanese parliament passed a raft of bills overhauling the country’s sex crime laws, long criticized as outdated and restrictive, reflecting conservative social attitudes that often stigmatize and cast doubt on victims.

The new laws expand the definition of rape to place greater emphasis on the concept of consent; introduce national legislation against taking explicit photos with hidden cameras; and raise the age of consent to 16. The previous age of consent, at 13, had been among the lowest in the developed world.

It marks a major victory for sexual assault survivors and activists, some of whom have spent decades lobbying for these changes.

“We … would like to express our deepest gratitude to all the victims of sexual violence who have raised their voices together with us,” Spring, a survivor advocacy group, said on Friday.

While cautioning there was still more work to be done, such as extending the statute of limitations and in recognizing power imbalances in cases involving authority figures, it said the bills were nonetheless a sign of progress.

“Our earnest wish is that those who have been victims of sexual violence will find hope in their lives, and that sexual violence will disappear from Japanese society,” it said.

One of the biggest reforms passed on Friday is to change the language used to define rape to include a greater emphasis on the concept of consent.

Rape had previously been defined as “forcible sexual intercourse” committed “through assault or intimidation,” including by taking advantage of a victim’s “unconscious state or inability to resist.”

The law had also previously required evidence of “intent to resist.”

But activists had argued this is too hard to prove in many cases, such as when a victim experiences the common “freeze” response, or is too afraid to resist physically.

Tadokoro Yuu, a representative of Spring, said the law had discouraged victims from coming forward due to “a fear of acquittal” if courts found insufficient evidence of resistance.

The new law replaces “forcible sexual intercourse” with “non-consensual sexual intercourse,” and expands the definition of assault to include victims under the influence of alcohol or drugs, those with mental or physical disorders, and those intimidated through their attacker’s economic or social status. It also includes those unable to voice resistance due to shock or other “psychological reactions.”

Other major changes include raising the age of consent to 16 years old except for when both parties are underage – on par with many US states and European nations including the United Kingdom, Finland and Norway.

The amendments also expand protections for minors, establishing grooming as a crime for the first time. They further criminalize activity like asking those under 16 for sexual images, or asking to visit a minor for sexual purposes.

It also makes it easier to prosecute people accused of taking or distributing photos of a sexual nature without the subject’s knowledge or consent – a hot button issue in Japan where upskirting and hidden cameras taking explicit photos of women has long been a problem.

A survey last year found that nearly 9% of more than 38,000 respondents across Japan had experienced this kind of “voyeurism,” according to public broadcaster NHK. Victims described having photos taken up their skirt and shared on social media; others had photos secretly taken in changing rooms and bathrooms.

They also described the long-term impact on their mental health, with many feeling unsafe in public spaces including trains and schools. Reporting the issue rarely helped: often, peers and even police officers would place the blame on their clothing, arguing that they had placed themselves at risk by wearing skirts, NHK reported.

Until now, laws against voyeurism have been enforced only by local governments, and can vary across prefectures, complicating matters.

In one notorious incident in 2012, a plane passenger took an upskirt photo of a flight attendant, was caught with several images on his phone, and admitted guilt – but was ultimately never charged, according to NHK. The problem? The crime had taken place midair on a moving plane – so it was impossible to know which prefecture they had been traveling over at the time, thus which location’s law should be applied.

These amendments build on the work of an entire generation of activists who have tried with little success to push forth change, said Nakayama Junko, a lawyer and member of the non-profit Human Rights Now.

“It’s been a long time … It’s not just a movement that has been going on for 50 years, it’s a voice that has been heard for decades,” she said.

These previous attempts were blocked by governmental inertia and sometimes outright opposition from parliament members who believed the changes unnecessary, she said. Many people, including Japanese media, had a limited understanding of consent and believed “the crime of rape was being properly punished,” meaning little attention was paid to the issue.

Things began to change in 2019 when the country was gripped by several high-profile rape acquittals, handed down within the span of a few weeks.

In the most controversial case, a father was acquitted of raping his 19-year-old daughter in the central Japanese city of Nagoya. The court recognized that the sex was non-consensual, that the father had used force, and that he had physically and sexually abused his daughter – but judges argued she could have resisted, according to Reuters, which reviewed the verdict.

The father’s acquittal prompted nationwide protests, with women from Tokyo to Fukuoka taking to the streets for months and calling for legal change. Demonstrators held flowers as a sign of protest, and signs with slogans against sexual violence, including #MeToo.

In the Nagoya case, the father’s acquittal was eventually overturned by Japan’s high court. But the spark had been lit, finally setting into motion the proposed reforms that have for years failed to take hold.

The protests “conveyed (that) the reality of the damage was very significant,” Nakayama said, calling it a “main driving force that led to this amendment.”

Both nonprofit organizations CNN interviewed praised the bills as an important step forward – but cautioned that much work remains to be done.

Japan still lags far behind other developed nations in its ideas toward sex and consent, Nakayama said. Other countries have already begun amending their laws to reflect a “Yes means yes” mentality – meaning sexual partners should seek clear affirmative consent, rather than assuming consent unless told otherwise. Meanwhile, “in Japan, it seems that (the concept of) ‘No means no’ has just been communicated,” she said.

Tadokoro, the Spring representative, echoed this point, saying it was important to recognize that consent isn’t inherently or permanently granted between couples, and can be withdrawn; that “it’s wrong to assume it’s a ‘yes’ even if they come over, or do not say no clearly.”

There are other legal reforms they want to tackle in future amendments: better laws protecting people with disability from sexual abuse, and outlining the ways they can give consent, and extending the statute of limitations since many survivors go decades before coming to terms with what happened to them – as in Kaneko’s case.

Others spend most of their life dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health consequences, before reaching a point where they have healed enough to consider pursuing justice.

But perhaps the biggest obstacle is the Japanese public itself, and the harmful views on sexual abuse and victimhood that are still widespread.

“When I talk to other people about (my assault), I get avoided, and am not accepted,” said Kaneko, recalling people who told her she would “forget with time” or that that’s just life.

Sometimes their responses are far crueler. “I get ruthless reactions like, ‘You got done?’” she said.

There are some positive signs of change, she said, pointing to public awareness campaigns by the government and increasing sexual education in schools. But there is still a gaping lack of systemic support for survivors like counseling, therapy, and public services to help them re-enter society.

“Survivors of sexual assault like myself cannot even work, or go about your life – you become mentally ill, and you can’t take care of yourself,” she said.

Authorities also need to introduce trauma-informed training for law enforcement and other workers dealing with survivors, said Tadokoro, adding that “some police investigators understand (how to approach the situation), while others do not understand at all.”

For Kaneko, who went on to become the general secretary of Spring, the damage done at the police station when she was seven years old compounded the trauma from her assault – leaving scars that took decades to untangle.

“I was implanted with a distrust of people when I experienced that kind of thing in an institution that is supposed to protect citizens, such as the adults and the police,” she said.

“For many years, despite a lot of pain, I had no idea what (the source) was for many years … Having PTSD is not easy to heal on your own.”

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June 17, 2023
A Utah city violated the First Amendment in denying a drag show permit, judge rules

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SALT LAKE CITY — The city of St. George must issue a permit for a Utah-based group that organizes drag performances to host an all-ages drag show in a public park, a federal judge ruled, calling the city’s attempt to stop the show unconstitutional discrimination.

“Public spaces are public spaces. Public spaces are not private spaces. Public spaces are not majority spaces,” U.S. District Judge David Nuffer wrote in a Friday ruling granting the preliminary injunction requested by the group. “The First Amendment of the United States Constitution ensures that all citizens, popular or not, majority or minority, conventional or unconventional, have access to public spaces for public expression.”

Southern Utah Drag Stars and its CEO, Mitski Avalōx, sued the city of St. George in May after the city denied the group permits for an all-ages show it aimed to host in a public park in April. A complaint filed in federal court accused city officials of “flagrant and ongoing violations of their free speech, due process, and equal protection rights,” and asked for St. George to reverse its decision and authorize a drag show at the end of June.

The permit denial, Nuffer wrote in his ruling, was a pretext for discrimination.

“Public officials take an oath to ‘support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Utah,’” Nuffer wrote. “They do not merely serve the citizens who elect them, the majority of citizens in the community, or a vocal minority in the community.”

In a statement, the city of St. George said it is committed to ensuring public parks and facilities remain viable and open to residents and those who want to hold special events.

“Our intent is always to follow the law both when we enact laws and when we enforce laws, and we will continue to do so,” the statement said. “We have read Judge Nuffer’s opinion and while we are disappointed in the result, we are currently evaluating our options in light of the ruling.”

The lawsuit marked the most recent development in a fight over drag shows in St. George, Utah, a conservative city 111 miles (179 kilometers) northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. Since HBO filmed a drag show in a public park last year for an episode of its series “We’re Here,” the city has emerged as a flashpoint in the nationwide battle over drag performances as they’ve garnered newfound political scrutiny in Republican-controlled cities and states.

Public events like drag queen story hours and the all-ages event that Avalōx intended to put together have been increasingly targeted in legislatures throughout the country. In May, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a ban on minors attending drag shows, and Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a ban on people dressed in drag from reading books to children at public schools and libraries.

In Utah, a proposal from a St. George Republican to require warning notices for events like drag shows or pride parades in public places stalled after advancing through the state House of Representatives in March. The proposal stemmed from the pushback that resulted from the HBO-produced drag show in St. George.

City officials issued permits for the show over the objection from some council members and community activists. City Manager Adam Lenhard resigned months later after writing councilmembers to say that he could not legally deny the show permits, according to emails obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.

Avalōx, who uses she and they pronouns, founded Southern Utah Drag Stars after the fallout, hoping to showcase drag for members of the LGBTQ+ community in a rural place where such forms of entertainment are often lacking.

“I made it my mission to continue to do these events and not just one month out of the year, but to do so people that were like me when I was little … can see that there are queer adults that get to live a long and fulfilled life,” Avalōx said in an interview with The Associated Press. “My biggest ambition was to provide a public space where people can go to a park and enjoy a show that’s meant for everyone.”

A city events coordinator told Drag Stars, Avalōx said, that the group could start advertising for the April show before obtaining a permit. The city council later denied the permit, citing an ordinance that forbids advertising before permit approval.

The city now may not enforce any new advertising prohibitions against the group or its show, Nuffer ruled, ordering that the performance must “take scheduling precedence over any other event.”

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June 17, 2023
Takeaways from the scathing report on Minneapolis police after George Floyd’s killing

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The Justice Department on Friday issued a scathing assessment of Minneapolis police, alleging that racial discrimination and excessive force went unchecked before George Floyd’s killing because of inadequate oversight and an unwieldy process for investigating complaints.

The probe began in April 2021, a day after former officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, was convicted of murder and manslaughter in the May 25, 2020, killing of Floyd, a Black man. Floyd, who was in handcuffs, repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe before going limp as Chauvin knelt on his neck for 9 1/2 minutes. The killing was recorded by a bystander and sparked months of mass protests as part of a broader national reckoning over racial injustice.

Here are six takeaways from the report:

WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF THE INVESTIGATION?

The focus of the probe was to examine whether there has been a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing in the Minneapolis Police Department. It examined the use of force by officers, including during protests, and whether the department engages in discriminatory practices. It also looked at the handling of misconduct allegations, treatment of people with behavioral health issues and systems of accountability.

WHAT WERE THE KEY FINDINGS?

Investigators found numerous examples of excessive force, unlawful discrimination and First Amendment violations. They reviewed 19 police shootings and determined that officers sometimes fired without first determining whether there was an immediate threat of harm to the officers or others.

In 2017, for example, an officer fatally shot Justine Ruszczyk Damond, an unarmed white Australian-born woman who “spooked” him when she approached his squad car, according to the report. She had called 911 to report a possible rape behind her house. The city paid $20 million to settle with her family.

In another case, officers shot a suspect after he started stabbing himself in the neck in a police station interview room.

Officers also used neck restraints like the one Chauvin used on Floyd 198 times between Jan. 1, 2016, and Aug. 16, 2022, including 44 instances that didn’t require an arrest. Some officers continued to use neck restraints even after they were banned in the wake of Floyd’s killing, the report said.

At protests, it found, people were sometimes shot with rubber bullets when they were committing no crime or were dispersing. According to the report, one journalist was hit by a rubber bullet and lost her eye, while another was shoved to the pavement while filming and pepper-sprayed in the face. One protester was shoved so hard that she fell backward, hit the pavement and lay unconscious for three minutes.

WHAT DID INVESTIGATORS FIND ABOUT RACIAL BIAS IN POLICING?

The report documented rampant racism and racial profiling in the department, with Black drivers more than six times more likely to be stopped than white ones.

The racism also extended to arrests.

When one Black teen was held at gunpoint for allegedly stealing a $5 burrito, the teen asked the plainclothes officer if he was indeed police. “Really?” the officer responded, according to a video recording. “How many white people in the city of Minneapolis have you run up against with a gun?”

In another case, a woman reported that an officer said to her that the Black Lives Matter movement was a “terrorist” organization. “We are going to make sure you and all of the Black Lives supporters are wiped off the face of the Earth,” she recalled him saying. Her complaint against the officer was closed by the department with a finding of “no merit.”

HOW DID THE DEPARTMENT TREAT THE MENTALLY ILL?

Mental health crises often were made worse when police responded, investigators found.

In 2017, for instance, officers encountered an unarmed man in the midst of what neighbors described as a mental health episode. He initially paced around his yard, yelling. After complying with orders to sit on his front steps, an officer fired his taser without warning.

In another case, a mother called 911 to report that her adult daughter, a Black woman with bipolar disorder, was attempting to hurt herself by lying in the road. By the time officers got there, the woman was calmly walking through a park. The officers nevertheless grabbed her, and she began yelling and pulled away. The woman was then put in a neck restraint as her mother pleaded, “Don’t choke her like that!”

HOW DID OFFICERS GET AWAY WITH MISCONDUCT?

Investigations into police misconduct took months and sometimes years, according to the report. And those conducting the inquiries frequently failed to view video corroborating public complaints.

Supervisors also were quick to back their subordinates. In one case, an officer tased a man eight times without pausing even as the man protested that he was doing “exactly” what he was told. The supervisor found no policy violations and told the man after the fact that if he hadn’t been resisting, “they wouldn’t have had to strike you.”

The report also highlighted the case of John Pope, who was just 14 when Chauvin struck him in the head with a flashlight multiple times and pinned him to a wall by his throat. He then knelt on the Black teen, as his mother pleaded, “Please do not kill my son.” Chauvin, the report found, kept his knee on the teen’s neck or back for over 15 minutes.

But due to poor supervision and a failed internal investigation, commanders did not learn what had happened to Pope until three years later, after Chauvin killed Floyd, the report said. The city ultimately agreed to settle a lawsuit in the case for $7.5 million.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

The report noted that the department has made some improvements, such as banning chokeholds and no-knock warrants, training officers on the duty to intervene and sending mental health workers to some incidents. But it said there is still work to be done.

As a result of the investigation, the city and the police department agreed to a deal known as a federal consent decree, which will require reforms to be overseen by an independent monitor and approved by a federal judge. That arrangement is similar to previous interventions in cities such as Seattle, New Orleans, Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri.

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June 17, 2023
FBI arrests 19-year-old suspected of making antisemitic threats and planning violence against Michigan Jewish community | CNN

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A 19-year-old from Pickford, Michigan, was arrested by the FBI on Friday for allegedly making antisemitic threats on Instagram.

Seann Pietila was charged in a criminal complaint with “transmitting a communication containing a threat to injure another,” US Attorney Mark Totten announced Friday in a news release.

“Antisemitic threats and violence against our Jewish communities – or any other group for that matter – will not be tolerated in the Western District of Michigan,” Totten said.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Pietila had conversations with another Instagram user about committing a mass casualty or mass killing. Pietila told investigators that he didn’t plan on following through with the mass killings he discussed, the affidavit says.

Investigators found the name of an East Lansing synagogue, a date and a list of weapons – including bombs, Molotov cocktails and guns – in the notes app of Pietila’s phone, according to the affidavit.

His home was searched on Friday and among the items found were ammunition, magazines, a shotgun, rifle, various knives and a Nazi flag, Totten said.

Beth Lacosse, Pietila’s public defender, declined to comment, saying she had just been appointed to the case.

Pietila made his first court appearance on Friday and his detention hearing is set for June 22, according to court documents.

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June 16, 2023
Celebrate Juneteenth by promoting Black health, wealth and joy | CNN

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June 19, 2023 is the third annual observance of Juneteenth. The federal holiday commemorates June 19, 1865, when the enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their emancipation two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Although Juneteenth has recently become more widely recognized, the date has long been a deeply spiritual time of remembrance and celebration for the Black community.

Across the country, African Americans have rejoiced with fireworks and cookouts, sipping red drinks – a nod to ancestors’ bloodshed and endurance.

“We know the horrors that we went through,” explained Kleaver Cruz, writer of the forthcoming book “The Black Joy Project” and creator of a digital initiative of the same name. “It’s always concurrent: the joy and the pain. We use one to get through the other.”

On a particularly joyous note, this June 19, CNN and OWN (both properties of Warner Bros. Discovery) will simulcast Juneteenth: A Global Celebration for Freedom at 8 PM Eastern time. The concert will feature artists across multiple genres including Charlie Wilson, Miguel, Kirk Franklin, Nelly, SWV, Davido, Coi Leray, Jodeci and Mike Phillips. CNN will kick off pre-show coverage at 7 PM Eastern time, highlighting Black advocates, trailblazers, and creators.

“We get to celebrate our freedoms; we get to celebrate the dismantling of things and lean into what we want in the future,” Cruz said of Juneteenth observance. “We want more of that space and less of the one that harms us.”

The Black community still struggles with pain and inequity. Impact Your World has gathered ways you can help reject the pathology of racism and thoughtfully celebrate Juneteenth through non-profits that support Black health, wealth, joy, and overall empowerment. You can donate to those charities here.

For Black Americans, the end of slavery was just the beginning of a 158-year quest for equality. Along the way, the cumulative effect of institutional and systemic racism fomented stark disparities in income, health, education, and opportunity.

“Those that came before us were physically free but were unable to earn livable wages or receive an education without its share of defeating challenges,” said Marsha Barnes, Founder of The Finance Bar.

Data collected by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System shows that in the fourth quarter of 2022, the average Black household’s net worth was about one-fourth that of the average White household.

“Taking the time to address the racial wealth gap highlights many of the roadblocks we as Black Americans currently face,” explained Barnes, a certified financial therapist. She sees the well-documented connection between financial literacy and financial wellness as a key to enhancing wealth in the Black community.

“We still are at a disadvantage, but it’s important we become comfortable with having to learn while playing the game,” Barnes told CNN.

HomeFree-USA is a non-profit aiming to close the racial wealth gap by improving financial education, homeownership, and opportunities. Their Center for Financial Advancement (CFA) recruits, trains, and places Historically Black College and University students into internships and careers with mortgage and real estate companies. The goal is to enhance diversity in the financial sector, expose students to credit and money management and help them become savvy consumers and future homeowners.

The African American Alliance for Homeownership is a non-profit counseling agency that helps families obtain, retain, maintain, and sustain their homes. The organization offers HUD-certified counselors who support first-time homebuyers and foreclosure prevention. The group recently expanded its services to help homeowners with estate plans, resource navigation, home repairs, and energy-efficiency upgrades.

Former NFL Player Warrick Dunn started Warrick Dunn Charities in 1997 to help single parents buy homes by providing $5,000 down payments and home furnishings.

“The more I learned, we wanted to get into the business of giving people the potential to break their cycle of poverty,” Dunn explained in a 2021 interview with CNN.

The non-profit has expanded its priorities to include financial literacy, health and wellness, education attainment, workforce development, and entrepreneurship support.

The National Urban League is committed to the advancement of African Americans through economic empowerment, equality, and social justice. The organization champions education, job training, workforce development, and civic engagement through community and national initiatives.

The legacy of racism in America continues to fuel health and healthcare inequities for Black people.

“We’re seeing diseases that, when I was in medical school, I thought to be diseases that would start to develop in people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies. I’m seeing these diseases sometimes in teenage years,” said Dr. Barbara Joy Jones, an Atlanta-based family medicine physician.

According to the CDC, five health conditions particularly affect the Black community at higher rates: cardiovascular disease, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), metabolic syndrome, colon cancer, and mental health conditions.

“I consider hypertension, Diabetes, and obesity the triad,” said Jones.

The leading contributor to that triad is what you eat.

“Diet is 80% of health, and just access to quality food and education about food has been very hard,” Jones explained.

“When you go back and look at slavery, the foods we had to eat were the last scraps, so through the passing down of culture, you’re eating foods that are not the healthiest because it was simply for survival,” said Jones.

According to Feeding America, eight of the ten US counties with the highest food insecurity rates are at least 60% Black and one in every four Black American children is affected by hunger.

Addressing food insecurity, nutrition education, and better food access can make a difference.

Feeding America runs a network of food banks in those mostly Black hard-hit counties.

Share Our Strength runs a program called Cooking Matters offering cooking classes, grocery store tours, and digital content to help marginalized families across the country shop and cook with an eye towards health and budget.

The African American Diabetes Association uses targeted outreach projects to help Black people prevent or delay type 2 diabetes.

Despite progress over the years, racism continues to impact the mental health of African American people.

“The stress and microaggressions that happen daily for a person of color in the work environment and everyday life add up, and unmitigated stress can lead to disease,” Jones told CNN.

The Black Mental Health Alliance and the Trevor Project, provide training and networks of mental health providers specifically supportive of the Black and Black LGBTQ communities.

In 2019, the CDC found that Black people comprised 41% of the new HIV infections in the US. The Black AIDS Institute was founded in 1999 to mobilize and educate Black Americans about HIV/AIDS treatment and care. The Black AIDS Institute advances research, support groups, and education and runs a clinic catering to BIPOC and underserved communities.

As recently as the 1990’s, unethical medical research was conducted on Black Americans. The Tuskegee Study is one of the most widely recognized examples of the racist practice that led many Black people to distrust the healthcare system and avoid doctors altogether.

Beyond investing in cultural sensitivity training and prioritizing preventative care, Jones said, “For anti-doctor people, find someone that looks like you; representation matters.”

“Half of the getting to know your part of medicine is to know why psychosocial and economically you are where you are, and having a doctor that looks like you can support that.”

Only about 5.7% of US physicians identify as Black or African American, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The White Coats Black Doctors Foundation is working to increase diversity in the medical profession, supporting educational preparation to become a doctor and helping offset the costs associated with applying and transitioning to residencies.

Black joy has been essential for survival, resistance, and self-development for centuries. But these days, it’s often exploited and misunderstood.

“I see the ways that Black joy at this moment is being commercialized or co-opted to make it feel like it’s Black people smiling,” lamented Cruz. “It’s much, much deeper than that.”

Cruz launched the Black Joy Project as a photo essay on social media in 2015 following the deaths of Michael Brown and Sandra Bland to help the Black community process its collective pain.

“I posted it on Facebook in the stream of consciousness and said, ‘Let us bombard the internet that joy is important too, and as people are sharing these traumatic videos, we have to make space for joy.’ And it was an invitation for anybody else that wanted to do that.”

Enslaved Black people knew they weren’t free but still hoped their future generations would be. That empowering optimism gave them the will to press forward, no matter the circumstance.

“This (joy) is just a continuation of those practices,” Cruz said. “Joy is intrinsic. It’s something that can’t be taken from us because it comes within us; it’s always ours to have.”

Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom, culture, and history, and it’s important to uplift non-profits that positively nourish the arts, music, and all the things that foster Black joy.

The Robey Theatre Company was founded in 1994 by actors Danny Glover and Ben Guillory to tell the complex stories of the Black experience. The theater showcases and develops up-and-coming actors and playwrights to sustain Black theater.

The Debbie Allen Dance Academy uses dance, theater, and performance to enrich, inspire and transform students’ lives.

As some states are moving to block Critical Race Theory and Black history from public education, the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration gives visitors an interactive history lesson on the harsh repercussions of slavery and systemic racism in the US. The immersive exhibition carries visitors through the transatlantic slave trade up to the current mass incarceration of Black people. The museum occupies a site in Montgomery, Alabama where enslaved Black people were historically auctioned off.

“If we’re being serious about Black joy, that means we’re being serious about Black lives, period,” Cruz concluded.

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June 16, 2023
‘Systemic problems’ at Minneapolis Police Dept. led to George Floyd’s murder, Justice Department says | CNN Politics

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Three years after George Floyd was murdered by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the Justice Department issued a blistering report Friday of the city’s police department, detailing racial discrimination, excessive and unlawful use of force, First Amendment violations and a lack of accountability for officers.

“Our investigation found that the systemic problems in MPD made what happened to George Floyd possible,” the report states.

The Minneapolis Police Department has, for years, used dangerous “techniques and weapons” against people who had committed a petty offense or no offense at all, “including unjustified deadly force,” it adds.

“MPD used force to punish people who made officers angry or criticized the police,” the report says, and “patrolled neighborhoods differently based on their racial composition and discriminated based on race when searching, handcuffing, or using force against people during stops.”

In its investigation, the Justice Department reviewed hundreds of police body-worn camera videos, incident and police reports, hundreds of complaints filed against officers and dozens of interviews with city leaders, community leaders and police officials.

“As I told George Floyd’s family this morning, his death has had an irrevocable impact on the Minneapolis community, on our country and on the world,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference Friday.

“George Floyd should be alive today,” Garland added.

Chauvin was convicted in Floyd’s death and pleaded guilty for violating Floyd’s civil rights.

In a review of the 19 police shootings that took place between 2016 and the summer of 2022, the investigation found that “a significant portion of them were unconstitutional uses of deadly force” including officers shooting at individuals without determining any immediate threat and MPD officers using deadly force against “people who are a threat only to themselves,” the report says.

In one example cited by the report, a woman had been shot by an officer after she reportedly “spooked” him as she came to his police car.

On May 25, 2020, Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck and back for over nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and gasping for air. According to the DOJ’s report, at the time, neck restraints were used by Minneapolis police officers 197 times between 2016 and 2020. Nearly a fourth of those were used in cases where no arrest was made.

Three years on: reflections on the legacy of George Floyd

Officers would “frequently used neck restraints without warning” and used the restraints against individuals – including teenagers – accused of low-level offenses, passively resisted arrest, posed no threat or “had merely angered the officer.”

MPD officers, the investigation found, also used takedowns, strikes, tasers, chemical spray and other methods of force in ways that violated individuals’ rights.

The department now prohibits neck restraints, “no-knock” raids and requires approval for officers to use certain crowd control weapons without approval from the chief of police.

The investigation also found that MPD officers disproportionately stop and use force against Black and Native American people.

“During stops involving Black and Native American people, MPD conducts searches and uses force more often than it does during stops involving white people engaged in similar behavior,” the report, which reviewed data of roughly 187,000 pedestrian and traffic stops says.

“We estimate that MPD stops Black people at 6.5 times the rate at which it stops White people, given their shares of the population. Similarly, we estimate MPD stops Native American people at 7.9 times the rate at which it stops white people, given population shares.”

During these stops, the DOJ found that MPD officers unlawfully discriminated against Black and Native American people in both searches and use of force.

After Floyd’s murder in 2020, many police officers in the department stopped listing the race or gender of individuals in their reports in violation of the department’s policy, according to the investigation.

The report also found evidence of some officers, including those in leadership positions, have made racist or discriminatory comments to other officers.

During one of the protests following Floyd’s murder, an MPD lieutenant said a group of protesters were likely mostly White because “there’s not looting and fires.”

Other MPD employees told the Justice Department about similar discriminatory comments made by their colleagues, including comments about how “you don’t have to worry about Black people during the day ‘cuz they haven’t woken up—crime starts at night.”

The investigation found that officers were often only held accountable for biased conduct after public calls of outrage.

How the fatal arrest of George Floyd unfolded

Garland outlined several incidents where MPD officers were not held accountable for racist conduct until public outrage surfaced.

“For example,” Garland said Friday, “after MPD officers stopped a car carrying four Somalian-American teens, one officer told the teens, ‘Do you remember what happened in Black Hawk Down. When we killed a bunch of your folk? I’m proud of that. We didn’t finish the job over there. If we had, you guys wouldn’t be over here right now.’”

According to the Justice Department’s report, MPD officers also violated people’s First Amendment rights, including journalists, and found that officers “regularly retaliate against people for their speech or presence at protests – particularly when they criticize police.”

“MPD officers frequently use indiscriminate force, failing to distinguish between peaceful protesters and those committing crimes,” the report says. “For example, MPD officers regularly use 40 mm launchers – firearms that shoot impact projectiles, like rubber bullets – against protesters who are committing no crime or who are dispersing.”

The investigation found that in the protests following Floyd’s murder, officers had pepper sprayed a journalist in the face after pushing the reporter’s head to the pavement.

Other incidents cited in the report include police officers retaliating against individuals who were recording the officers by illegally grabbing phones, destroying recording equipment or using force – including pepper spray – against them.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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June 16, 2023
Montana man sentenced to 18 years in prison for shooting at and threatening LGBTQ residents in his town, officials say | CNN

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A Montana man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after his conviction on federal hate crime and firearm charges related to a “self-described mission to rid the town of Basin of its lesbian, queer and gay community,” officials said.

John Russell Howald was convicted in February for firing an AK-style rifle at the home of a woman who openly identified as a lesbian, the US Department of Justice said in a news release. The woman was inside the home during the March 2020 incident.

Howald was armed with two assault rifles, a hunting rifle, two pistols and multiple high-capacity magazines that were taped together for faster reloading, the release said.

“Hoping he had killed her, Howald set off toward other houses occupied by people who identify as lesbian, queer or gay,” the release said.

Some residents who knew Howald spotted him and stalled him long enough for a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputy to respond, prosecutors said.

Howald was recorded “yelling and firing more rounds with the same rifle, expressing his hatred toward the community’s gay and lesbian residents and his determination to ‘clean’ them from his town,” the release said.

Howald pointed his rifle at a responding deputy, “nearly starting a shootout in downtown Basin,” before running into surrounding hills, according to the release.

He was arrested the next day, armed with a loaded pistol and a knife. “In Howald’s car, officers found an AR-style rifle and a revolver. During a search of Howald’s camper, officers found an AK-style rifle, a hunting rifle, and ammunition,” prosecutors said.

“Motivated by hatred of the LGBTQI+ community and armed with multiple firearms and high-capacity magazines, this defendant sought to intimidate – even terrorize – an entire community by shooting into the victim’s home trying to kill her for no reason other than her sexual orientation,” ATF Director Steven Dettelbach said in the release.

Howald’s 18-year prison sentence, to be followed by five years of supervised release, was announced during Pride Month and comes as the Human Rights Campaign has declared a national state of emergency for the LGBTQ+ community in the US.

“The multiplying threats facing millions in our community are not just perceived – they are real, tangible and dangerous,” the group’s president, Kelley Robinson, said. “In many cases they are resulting in violence against LGBTQ+ people, forcing families to uproot their lives and flee their homes in search of safer states, and triggering a tidal wave of increased homophobia and transphobia that puts the safety of each and every one of us at risk.”

Howald hoped to inspire similar attacks around the country, said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

“The Justice Department will continue to vigorously defend the rights of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, to be free from hate-fueled violence,” Clarke said in the release. “This Pride Month, we affirm our commitment to using the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act to hold perpetrators of hate-fueled violence targeting the LGBTQI+ community accountable.”

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June 15, 2023
Uganda leader signs law imposing life sentence for same-sex acts and death for

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Johannesburg — Uganda’s president signed one of the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ bills into law Monday morning. The law signed by President Yoweri Museveni calls for life imprisonment for anyone found to have engaged in same-sex sexual acts.

Anyone convicted of something labeled “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as same-sex sexual acts with children, disabled individuals or anyone else deemed under threat, can now face the death penalty.

“His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Uganda, General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, has executed his constitutional mandate prescribed by Article 91 (3) (a) of the Constitution. He has assented to the Anti-Homosexuality Act,” announced Anita Among, speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, adding call for Uganda’s law enforcement agencies to “enforce the law in a fair, steadfast and firm manner.”

Uganda’s parliament passed legislation outlawing same sex relations in March, making it a criminal offence to even identify as LGBTQ, with a possible life jail sentence.

In a statement Monday, President Biden called for the law’s “immediate repeal,” denouncing it as “a tragic violation of universal human rights—one that is not worthy of the Ugandan people, and one that jeopardizes the prospects of critical economic growth for the entire country.”

Members of the Economic Freedom Fighters protest against Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill at the Uganda High Commission, April 4, 2023, in Pretoria, South Africa.

Alet Pretorius/Gallo Images/Getty

Last week, Deputy President of South Africa, Paul Mashatile, said his country’s government did not agree with Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ stance and promised to try to persuade Museveni’s administration to back down from the new legislation.

Mashatile joined a chorus of voices from Western countries and the United Nations imploring Museveni not to sign the bill, all of which the Ugandan leader and military commander appeared to have brushed off.

Homosexual acts are illegal in more than 30 other African nations and LGBTQ activists fear the new law in Uganda will embolden neighboring countries such as Kenya to consider stricter legislation.

Same sex relations were already banned in Uganda before Museveni signed the new law, but opponents say it goes further in targeting LGBTQ people. The law has instilled fear across the gay community in Uganda, prompting many to flee to neighboring countries or go underground.

The international organization Trans Rescue, which helps transgender people and others escape dangerous situations immediately tweeted a plea for financial support upon the bill’s passage, urging anyone to help save the lives of vulnerable Ugandans and warning that it was preparing for an “onslaught of requests” for help.

The group said it has been fundraising to secure warehouse space to store the personal items of people fleeing the country.

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni attends the state funeral of Kenya’s former president Daniel Arap Moi in Nairobi, Kenya Feb. 11, 2020.

John Muchucha/AP

Museveni, who’s been Uganda’s president for 37 years, ignored the calls from around the world to reject the new legislation and said in a televised address on state media in April that his “country had rejected the pressure from the imperials.”

Ugandan authorities have acknowledged that the new law could hurt the Ugandan economy, which receives billions of dollars in foreign aid every year.

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May 29, 2023
New York City mayor signs height, weight discrimination ban into law

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Adams signs height, weight discrimination ban into law

Adams signs height, weight discrimination ban into law

02:12

New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed into law a bill Friday which bans discrimination based on height and weight in employment, housing and public accommodations.

“It shouldn’t matter how tall you are, or how much you weigh, when you’re looking for a job, when you’re out on our town, or you are trying to get some form of accommodation or an apartment to rent, you should not be treated differently,” said Adams in a signing ceremony.

The law has an exemption for when a person’s weight or height would prevent them from performing a job’s essential requirements, the mayor said. The law is slated to take effect in 180 days, or on Nov. 22.

Six other cities — including San Francisco and Washington, D.C. — and the state of Michigan, also have similar bans on height and weight discrimination.

Weight discrimination is widespread, but reportedly hits women the hardest, especially women of color. A study by Vanderbilt University found overweight women earning $5.25 less per hour, a so-called wage penalty.

“It helps level the playing field for all New Yorkers,” Adams said.

Tigress Osborn, chair of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, said New York City’s new law could help spur similar legislation worldwide.

“We all know New York is the global city, and this will ripple across the globe in terms of showing to people, all over the world, that discrimination against people based on their body size is wrong and is something that we can change,” said Osborn, who led a rally earlier this year to push for the bill to become law. “We can’t legislate attitudes, but we can do everything that’s in our power to ensure that people are treated equally,”

New York City Council Member Shaun Abreu, who sponsored the legislation, said the first rallies to end height and weight discrimination took place over 50 years ago in Central Park.

“This is a new day in New York City and I couldn’t be more grateful,” said Abreu.

In addition to wage penalties, supporters of the new law say body discrimination can sometimes deny people life-saving medical treatment and cause mental health challenges.

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Marcia Kramer

Marcia Kramer joined CBS2 in 1990 as an investigative and political reporter. Prior to CBS2, she was the City Hall bureau chief at the New York Daily News.

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May 26, 2023
New York City outlaws discrimination on the basis of weight, height

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams has signed legislation that will ban discrimination based on body size by adding weight and height to the list of protected categories such as race, sex and religion

ByKAREN MATTHEWS Associated Press

FILE — Two women stand on Aug. 16, 2016, New York. New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed a bill Friday, May 26, 2023, that will prohibit discrimination based on body size by adding weight and height to the list of protected categories like race, sex and religion. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed legislation Friday that will ban discrimination based on body size by adding weight and height to the list of protected categories such as race, sex and religion.

“We all deserve the same access to employment, housing and public accommodation, regardless of our appearance, and it shouldn’t matter how tall you are or how much you weigh,” said the mayor, who joined other elected officials as well as fat-acceptance advocates at a City Hall bill-signing ceremony.

Adams, a Democrat who published a book about reversing his diabetes through a plant-based diet, said the ordinance “will help level the playing field for all New Yorkers, create more inclusive workplaces and living environments, and protect against discrimination.”

Exemptions under the ordinance, which the city council passed this month, include cases in which an individual’s height or weight could prevent them from performing essential functions of a job.

Some business leaders expressed opposition to the legislation when it was before the council, arguing that compliance could become an onerous burden.

“The extent of the impact and cost of this legislation has not been fully considered,” Kathy Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, said in a statement.

Several other U.S. cities have banned discrimination based on weight and physical appearance, including San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Madison, Wisconsin. And legislation to ban weight and height discrimination has been introduced in states including New Jersey and Massachusetts.

Tigress Osborn, the chair of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, said New York City’s weight discrimination ban should serve as a model for the nation and the world.

Osborn said the city’s adoption of the new ordinance “will ripple across the globe” and show that “discrimination against people based on their body size is wrong and is something that we can change.”

The ordinance will take effect in 180 days, on Nov. 22.

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May 26, 2023
Real Madrid player Vinícius Jr. racially abused during Spanish La Liga match | CNN

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Vinícius Jr., Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward, was subjected to racist chanting during his team’s defeat to Valencia at the Mestalla Stadium in Spain’s La Liga, according to club manager Carlo Ancelotti.

The flashpoint of the game came in the second half, where after a stoppage in play, an animated Vinicius Jr. pointed out a fan in the stands for the alleged abuse before engaging with the fans in the section of the crowd in question.

La Liga TV broadcasters said there was an announcement in the stadium calling on fans to not insult the players or throw objects onto the pitch.

The referee’s official report from the game described the incident.

“Racist insults: in the 73rd minute, a spectator from the southern ‘Mario Kempes’ tribune directed himself towards player No. 20 of Real Madrid CF Mr. Vinicius José De Oliveira Do Nascimiento, screaming at him: ‘Monkey, monkey’ which led to the activation of the racism protocol, notifying the pitch delegate so that a corresponding warning over the loudspeaker would be made. The match was halted until said announcement was aired over the loudspeaker of the stadium,” it reads.

Vinícius Jr. was sent off in the final minutes of the game for his involvement in an altercation with Valencia player Hugo Duro.

Ancelotti addressed the situation after the game to Movistar Plus, saying, “I don’t want to talk about football today … when a whole stadium is chanting ‘monkey’ at a player and the manager has to think about taking off a player because of it, there is something bad happening in this league.”

In a separate interview with reporters, Ancelotti suggested referees should call off matches in other instances of racism in the league. The Italian said, “I’m very sad because La Liga is a league with big teams with a good atmosphere. This we have to get rid of. We are in 2023, racism does not have to exist … the only way for me is to stop the game.”

On his personal Instagram account, Vinícius Jr. posted a story saying, “The prize that racists won was my expulsion! ‘This isn’t football, this is @LaLiga’”

The Real Madrid player then posted a longer statement on his Twitter. “It was not the first time, nor the second, nor the third,” it said. “Racism is normal in La Liga. The competition thinks it’s normal, the Federation does too and the opponents encourage it. I’m so sorry. The championship that once belonged to Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cristiano and Messi today belongs to racists.

“A beautiful nation, which welcomed me and which I love, but which agreed to export the image of a racist country to the world. I’m sorry for the Spaniards who don’t agree, but today, in Brazil, Spain is known as a country of racists.

“And unfortunately, for everything that happens each week, I have no defense. I agree. But I am strong and I will fight to the end against racists. Even if that is far from here.”

Real Madrid quoted Ancelotti on its official social media but offered no official statement immediately in the wake of the match.

Valencia issued a statement shortly after the conclusion of the match on its website.

“Valencia CF wishes to publicly condemn any type of insult, attack or downgrading in football,” it reads. “The club, in its dedication to the values of respect and sportsmanship, reaffirms publicly its position against physical and verbal violence in stadiums and regrets the events which occurred during the game of Matchday 35 of La Liga against Real Madrid.

“Although it is an isolated incident, insults towards any footballer of the rival team have no place in football and do not fit with the values and identity of Valencia CF. The club is investigating the events and will take the most severe measures. In the same vein, Valencia CF condemns whichever offense and asks for the maximum respect towards our own fans.”

Despite other Real Madrid players also saying that monkey chants were made towards Vinícius Jr., including goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, Valencia rejected Ancelotti’s claim that the stadium was chanting ‘monkey’. “Valencia CF can’t tolerate someone accusing our fans of being racist, we strongly reject Ancelotti’s comments,” the post said.

La Liga issued a statement of their own, announcing an investigation into events at the Mestalla.

“In the face of the incidents which took place during Valencia CF vs Real Madrid CF in the Estadio de Mestalla, LaLiga wishes to inform that it has requested all the available images to investigate what happened,” it said. “LaLiga will also investigate the images in which racist insults were allegedly uttered towards Vinicius Jr. outside of the grounds of Mestalla.”

Vinícius Jr. has been subjected to racism repeatedly this season, as noted by the La Liga statement. The league’s authorities told CNN in March they do not have the power to punish fans or clubs for racist abuse. Instead, La Liga can only pass on any incidents of abuse to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) or regional prosecutors, who deal with them as legal cases before sporting punishments are handed out.

“LaLiga has been proactive against all racist incidents against the Real Madrid CF player Vinicius Jr,” the league’s statement continued, before listing nine separate incidents from the past two seasons it had reported to the Competition Committee of RFEF, the State Commission against Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sport, the hate crimes prosecutors and the courts.

Several prominent names in football offered their support to Vinícius Jr. Former England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand said on his Instagram, “Bro you need protecting….who is protecting @vinijr in Spain?

“How many times do we need to see this young man subjected to this s***?? I see pain, I see disgust, I see him needing help…and the authorities don’t do s*** to help him. People need to stand together and demand more from the authorities that run our game. No one deserves this, yet you are allowing it. There needs to be a unified approach to this otherwise it will be swept under the carpet AGAIN.”

Milan forward Rafael Leão tweeted, “When will it end?” in response to the incident.

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May 22, 2023
Adidas to start selling stockpile of Yeezy sneakers later this month

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Adidas says it will begin selling its more than $1 billion worth of unsold Yeezy sneakers later this month

ByANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer

FILE – A sign advertises Yeezy shoes made by Adidas at Kickclusive, a sneaker resale store, in Paramus, N.J., on Oct. 25, 2022. Adidas said Friday, May 19, 2023, that it will begin selling its more than $1 billion worth of leftover Yeezy sneakers later this month, with the proceeds to be donated to various anti-racism groups. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

The Associated Press

NEW YORK — Adidas said Friday that it will begin selling its more than $1 billion worth of leftover Yeezy sneakers later this month, with the proceeds to be donated to various anti-racism groups.

The German sportswear brand said recipients will include the Anti-Defamation League, which fights antisemitism and other forms of discrimination, and the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change, run by social justice advocate Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd.

“After careful consideration, we have decided to begin releasing some of the remaining Adidas Yeezy products,” said Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden in a statement. “Selling and donating was the preferred option among all organizations and stakeholders we spoke to. There is no place in sport or society for hate of any kind and we remain committed to fighting against it.”

Yeezy products have been unavailable to shoppers since Adidas terminated its partnership with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, in October 2022 following his antisemitic comments on social media and in interviews.

The items to be sold include existing designs as well as designs that were in the works in 2022 for sale this year, Adidas said.

At Adidas’ annual shareholders meeting earlier this month, Gulden said the company had spent months trying to find solutions before deciding against destroying the items and to rather sell them to benefit various charities that were harmed by what Ye said.

The company said Friday that the move has no immediate impact on the company’s current financial guidance for 2023.

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May 19, 2023
Adidas to start selling stockpile of Yeezy sneakers later this month

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Adidas will begin selling its more than $1 billion in unsold Yeezy sneakers later this month

ByANNE D’INNOCENZIO AP Retail Writer

NEW YORK — Adidas said Friday that it will begin selling its more than $1 billion worth of leftover Yeezy sneakers later this month, with the proceeds to be donated to various anti-racism groups.

The German sportswear brand said recipients will include the Anti-Defamation League, which fights antisemitism and other forms of discrimination, and the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change, run by Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd who became a social justice advocate.

“After careful consideration, we have decided to begin releasing some of the remaining Adidas Yeezy products, “ said Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden in a statement. ”Selling and donating was the preferred option among all organizations and stakeholders we spoke to. There is no place in sport or society for hate of any kind and we remain committed to fighting against it. “

Yeezy products have been unavailable to shoppers since Adidas terminated its partnership with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, in October 2022 following his antisemitic comments on social media and in interviews.

The items to be sold include existing designs as well as designs that were in the works in 2022 for sale this year, Adidas said.

At Adidas’ annual shareholders meeting earlier this month, Gulden said the company had spent months trying to find solutions before deciding against destroying the items and to rather sell them to benefit various charities that were harmed by what Ye said.

The company said Friday that the move has no immediate impact on the company’s current financial guidance for 2023.

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May 19, 2023
3 Tips to Ensure Your HR Department is Properly Empowered to Protect Your Employees and Business | Entrepreneur

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Too many founders have learned the hard way that weak people practices can expose their employees to risk, their company to costly legal jeopardy and leave their reputations indelibly stained.

Today’s employees are seeking values-driven companies and come with a deeper understanding of their rights. If your HR shop isn’t screening applicants with an eye toward culture or speaking frankly with you about the impacts of key hires, your ability to shepherd your organization toward future success will be impaired.

Worse, if your HR head has not been trained to act impartially or empowered to intercede quickly, it can result in systemic problems that prevent victims from finding justice. This pushes victims to seek other remedies, which show up daily in viral callouts and highly publicized court cases.

Beyond unflattering headlines, many startups can see their financial value decimated just as they were taking off. If it’s not attorneys’ fees and settlement costs, it’s lost customers and potential partners due to the negative coverage. Even if a lawsuit exonerates your company, the mere accusation can come at a price, and extended court battles can expose sensitive internal company dealings.

Related: This Entrepreneur Has Solutions for HR Problems You Didn’t Know You Had

To prevent this, you must focus on how to set up a respected and experienced HR team that is empowered to handle misconduct allegations from the start, even if it involves someone from your executive team. It is on you to create a culture that supports calling out, investigating, and punishing workplace misconduct — be it harassment or discrimination, bullying or any other unlawful action.

When setting up your HR department, here are three steps to help you avoid misconduct from arising in the first place — or, if it does arise, to ensure it is dealt with quickly and consistently.

1: Hire experienced HR leaders who share your company’s values

It can be difficult for HR staff to discern which aspects of a grievance are true and which ones aren’t. Add in a power imbalance like those that occurs between a manager and a subordinate, and HR may find itself not only caught between two employees but between higher-ranking staff who want the problem to simply go away. If you have not hired HR professionals with the experience to navigate the necessary conversations and evenly enforce the rules, you may be held liable for any wrongful acts that follow.

As a founder, you must prioritize hiring HR executives who are strong and principled leaders. When interviewing potential candidates, ask them how they would handle tough allegations and what processes they would utilize to ensure fair outcomes for all parties. Based on their answers, you want to ensure they see eye to eye with your company’s values. You may also want to seek out experienced HR chiefs who have handled tough employee accusations before.

After hiring the right talent, you need to make clear that they have the authority and the responsibility to handle all misconduct allegations equally, no matter who is accused — even if it’s someone on your executive team.

Related: Here’s How Companies Are Ensuring Women’s Workplace Safety

2. Create protocols that protect victims and your company, not the accused

A National Women’s Law Center study found that as many as 70% of those who report harassment face some form of retaliation. And 37% noted that nothing happened to the harasser after the complaint. But even when the company is engaged, many will still farm out the process to outside investigators and attorneys. This, too, lends itself to a predictable pattern and usually concludes with a benign acknowledgment of the complaint followed by language indicating that the company took all steps required by law to resolve the complaint. What this really means is that they took as little action as possible to avoid liability.

Unfortunately for these companies, there are many experienced attorneys watching and waiting for this. They know that there is likely to be damaging information in investigative reports and will use the discovery process to gain leverage for their client. This can be prevented if the company takes appropriate action from the beginning.

This requires, first, conducting a fair and neutral investigation. This doesn’t require hiring an outside firm. A victim’s claims can often be verified by interviewing key staff and reviewing written communications and other records.

Second, if the accusations are deemed to be true and serious, take swift action to hold the offender accountable. In many instances, that means terminating his or her employment.

To ensure your process of investigating and ruling on a case is respected by all parties, it should be based on protocols that treat all accusations equally. This will ensure everyone involved — from the HR team to the executives, to the accuser, to the accused — has the same rights and responsibilities.

3: Empower HR to let go of toxic employees, even if they are high-performing

Proper handling of an allegation is rarely an issue when a low-level employee commits an offense. If an hourly worker engages in misconduct, companies can often be counted on to take appropriate action. But when it’s a highly-valued officer, decisions may be weighed against the perceived value the employee brings to the company. This reflects a misunderstanding of the true costs of these individuals.

An abusive person in a management position can cost more than many realize through high employee turnover and productivity problems. Half of employees who leave their jobs do so, at least in part, because of bad managers, and replacing employees costs a company as much as 50% of the person’s salary. In terms of productivity, one study found that teams with toxic managers yielded 27% less revenue per employee than well-managed teams.

A similar effect can be measured for public companies. When a high-level official of a publicly traded company gets called out for wrongdoing, the hit to the company’s stock price can cause the rapid loss of millions or even billions of dollars in market cap.

Protecting these abusive employees isn’t just wrong. It’s costly and potentially fatal to your business. This is why it’s important to make clear to your HR department that it has the power to terminate employment for any employee based on the results of a fair investigation, even if they are high-ranking or high-performing.

You may think none of this applies to you or that accusations will never occur in your company, but the numbers tell a different story. 60% of U.S. workers have experienced or witnessed workplace discrimination and, unfortunately, 40% reported being retaliated against after speaking up.

In every one of these cases, the company has exposed itself to potential liability. Increasingly, law firms are looking out for opportunities to step in on behalf of these victims. You can protect your company and your employees by doing exactly that — protecting them, not the accused.

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Kim Williams

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May 8, 2023
Tiger Woods is accused of sexual harassment by ex-girlfriend, according to court document | CNN

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CNN
—

Erica Herman, who was a longtime girlfriend of professional golfer Tiger Woods, has accused the 15-time major champion of sexual harassment, according to a court filing by Herman’s attorney in Florida on Friday.

Woods is accused of pursuing a sexual relationship with Herman while she worked for him and then forcing her to sign a non-disclosure agreement or she’d be fired from her job, according to the document.

Herman was an employee at his South Florida restaurant, The Woods Jupiter, at the time.

“Tiger Woods, the internationally renowned athlete and one of the most powerful figures in global sports, decided to pursue a sexual relationship with his employee, then – according to him – forced her to sign an NDA about it or else be fired from her job,” the Friday court document said. “And, when he became disgruntled with their sexual relationship, he tricked her into leaving her home, locked her out, took her cash, pets, and personal possessions, and tried to strong-arm her into signing a different NDA.”

“A boss imposing different work conditions on his employee because of their sexual relationship is sexual harassment,” Herman’s attorney Benjamin Hobas states in the filing.

CNN reached out to Woods’ representatives for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

The document also alleges a “scheme” used against Herman last year where Woods asked her to pack for a weekend getaway to the Bahamas. She was allegedly driven to the airport and then was asked to speak to Woods’ attorney.

“Then, Mr. Woods’s California lawyer, out of the blue, told her that she was not going anywhere, would never see Mr. Woods again, had been locked out of the house, and could not return,” the document said. “She would not even be able to see the children or her pets again.”

Herman was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which she refused to do, according to the document.

Herman has brought two separate complaints involving Woods in the past year.

The first, filed in October 2022, alleges a trust owned and created by the golf star violated the Florida Residential Landlord Tenant Act by breaking her oral tenancy agreement to continue living in Woods’ home.

As part of that suit, a trustee of Woods’ trust, Christopher Hubman, has asked the court to order Herman to arbitrate her claims pursuant to an arbitration provision in a non-disclosure agreement she signed in 2017.

In an earlier briefing, Herman cited a statute that says plaintiffs in sexual harassment or assault disputes cannot be compelled to arbitrate those claims.

The most recent suit, filed in March, Herman argues the 2017 agreement is not enforceable in part because of a new federal law invalidating arbitration clauses in sexual assault or sexual harassment cases.

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May 7, 2023
California reparations task force to vote on formal apology

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OAKLAND, Calif. — California’s reparations task force is set to wrap up its first-in-the-nation work Saturday, voting on recommendations for a formal apology for the state’s role in perpetuating a legacy of slavery and discrimination that has thwarted Black residents from living freely for decades.

The nine-member committee, which first convened nearly two years ago, is expected to give final approval at a meeting in Oakland to a hefty list of ambitious proposals that will then be in the hands of state lawmakers.

The recommendations range from the creation of a new agency to provide services to descendants of enslaved people to tailored calculations of what the state owes residents for decades of harms such as overpolicing and housing discrimination.

“An apology and an admission of wrongdoing just by itself is not going to be satisfactory for reparations,” said Chris Lodgson, an organizer with the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California, a reparations advocacy group.

The apology crafted by the Legislature must “include a censure of the gravest barbarities” carried out on behalf of the state, according to the draft recommendation to be voted on.

Such a list could include a censure of former California Gov. Peter Hardeman Burnett, the state’s first elected leader and a white supremacist who encouraged laws to exclude Black people from California.

Though California entered the union as a free state, it did not enact laws to enforce such freedom, the draft states. The state Supreme Court enforced the federal Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed for the capture and return of runaway enslaved people, until the official end of enslavement in 1865, according to the draft.

“By participating in these horrors, California further perpetuated the harms African Americans faced, imbuing racial prejudice throughout society through segregation, public and private discrimination, and unequal disbursal of state and federal funding,” the draft states.

The task force could vote for the state to apologize publicly and acknowledge responsibility for past wrongs in the presence of people whose ancestors were enslaved. The acknowledgement could be informed by the descendants recounting injustices they have faced and include a promise that California will not repeat the same mistakes.

The statement would follow apologies by the state for placing Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II and perpetuating violence against and mistreatment of Native Americans.

Saturday’s meeting marks a crucial moment in a long fight for local, state and federal governments to offer recompense for policies that have driven overpolicing of Black neighborhoods, housing discrimination, health disparities and other harms. But the proposals are far from implementation by the state.

“There’s no way in the world that many of these recommendations are going to get through because of the inflationary impact,” said Roy L. Brooks, a professor and reparations scholar at the University of San Diego School of Law.

Documents outlining recommendations to the task force by economists previously showed the state could owe upwards of $800 billion, or more than 2.5 times its annual budget, for overpolicing, disproportionate incarceration and housing discrimination against Black people.

The estimate has dramatically decreased in the latest draft report released by the task force, which has not responded to email and phone requests seeking comment on the reduction.

Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a former Democratic assemblymember, authored legislation in 2020 creating the task force. The goal was to study proposals for how California can offer recompense for harms perpetuated against descendants of enslaved people, according to the bill. It was not to recommend reparations in lieu of proposals from the federal government.

The task force previously voted to limit reparations to descendants of enslaved or formerly enslaved Black people who were in the country by the end of the 19th century.

The California group’s work has garnered nationwide attention, with reparations efforts elsewhere experiencing mixed results.

Evanston, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, offered housing vouchers to Black residents but few have benefited from the program. New York state’s latest bill to study reparations passed the state Assembly but the state Senate has not yet voted on the measure. In Congress, a decades-old proposal to create a commission studying federal reparations for African Americans has stalled.

Mary Frances Berry, a University of Pennsylvania history professor who wrote a book about a formerly enslaved woman’s fight for reparations, said the California task force’s efforts “should be encouraging.”

“The fact that California was able to move this far in order to come up with a positive answer to the question of reparations is something that should … have influence on people in other parts of the country,” she said.

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Sophie Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on Twitter: @sophieadanna

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May 5, 2023
New York, California probing workplace discrimination at NFL

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NEW YORK — The attorneys general of New York and California announced Thursday that they are investigating allegations of workplace discrimination at the NFL, citing lawsuits filed by employees that describe sex, racial and age bias, sexual harassment, and a hostile work environment.

Attorneys General Letitia James, of New York, and Rob Bonta, of California, said they have issued subpoenas to NFL executives as part of an examination into the workplace culture at the the league’s corporate offices in both states.

The officials, both Democrats, said they are exercising their legal authority to seek information from the NFL regarding allegations of gender pay disparities, harassment, and gender and racial discrimination.

The investigation focuses on the league’s corporate offices, not specific teams or players.

“No person should ever have to endure harassment, discrimination, or objectification in the workplace,” James said in a statement. Bonta said he and James have “serious concerns about the NFL’s role in creating an extremely hostile and detrimental work environment.”

The league said it would cooperate with the investigation but called the allegations “entirely inconsistent with the NFL’s values and practices.”

“The NFL offices are places where employees of all genders, races and backgrounds thrive. We do not tolerate discrimination in any form,” league officials said in a statement.

James and Bonta cited a 2022 New York Times story that detailed allegations of gender discrimination by more than 30 former female NFL employees.

The women described a sexist culture at the NFL that they said persisted despite promises of reform that Commissioner Roger Goodell made after the 2014 release of a video that showed Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his fiancee.

One former NFL executive, Theresa Locklear, who held the position of director of business intelligence and optimization, told the Times that after the Rice video became public, managers were told to speak to their staffs about the video and the league’s response to it.

Locklear said that when she met with her team, a male employee, Aaron Jones, argued that Rice’s fiancée was partly at fault because she had egged Rice on, and other men on the call seemed to agree.

Jones told the Times that he had never spoken to Locklear about Rice and would never have argued that a woman was to blame for her assault.

The attorneys general also cited a lawsuit filed this year in Los Angeles Superior Court by Jennifer Love, a former director for NFL Enterprises, who attributed her 2022 layoff to retaliation for her complaints of “pervasive sexism” and a “boys’ club” mentality.

NFL spokesperson Alex Riethmiller said the league had no comment on the Love’s lawsuit.

The wide-ranging investigation by New York and California officials into employment practices at the NFL appears to be unprecedented, although complaints of race and sex discrimination have dogged the league and individual teams.

The Washington Commanders, owner Dan Snyder, the NFL and Goodell were sued by the attorney general for the District of Columbia in November for colluding to deceive fans by lying about an inquiry into “sexual misconduct and a persistently hostile work environment” within the team. D.C. and Maryland also investigated and settled with the team over withholding fans’ season-ticket deposit money.

Fired Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed a federal lawsuit against the NFL and three teams last year over alleged racist hiring practices for coaches and general managers, saying the league remains “rife with racism.”

The NFL has said Flores’ claims are without merit.

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Associated Press writers Rob Maaddi and Stephen Whyno contributed.

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May 4, 2023
Adidas sued by shareholders over its failed Ye partnership | CNN Business

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New York
CNN
—

Adidas shareholders filed a class-action lawsuit against the brand, accusing it of failing to warn investors about the antisemitism and “extreme behavior” exhibited by the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, before their partnership ended last year.

In the lawsuit, filed Friday in a federal court, shareholders allege that Adidas “routinely ignored” his behavior as early as 2018. They claim that senior executives “ignored serious issues” affecting the Yeezy partnership, namely his antisemitic remarks and troubling public comments about slavery.

In a report from that year, Adidas was “generally alluding” to the risks “rather than stating that the company had actually considered ending the partnership as a result of West’s personal behavior,” according to the lawsuit. During that time, Ye said that slavery was a “choice” in a TMZ interview.

The lawsuit said that Adidas was aware of his behavior and that the company “failed to take meaningful precautionary measures to limit negative financial exposure” if the partnership ended.

The lawsuit doesn’t name the rapper, who now goes by Ye. Adidas’ Chief Financial Officer Harm Ohlmeyer and former CEO Kasper Rørsted are named as defendants. The suit covers anyone who bought an Adidas share from May 3, 2018 (when Ye made the slavery remark) until 2023.

“We outright reject these unfounded claims and will take all necessary measures to vigorously defend ourselves against them,” Adidas said in a comment to CNN.

Adidas

(ADDDF) ended its almost decade-long partnership in October 2022 after Ye wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt in public. The Anti-Defamation League categorizes the phrase as a hate slogan used by White supremacist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan. Days later, Ye said “I can say antisemitic s*** and Adidas

(ADDDF) cannot drop me” during a podcast taping.

Adidas said that its partnership with Ye ended because it “does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech” and said his comments were “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous.” It also said they violated the company’s “values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”

The company said in February that it was expected to lose $1.3 billion in revenue this year because it’s unable to sell the designer’s Yeezy clothing and shoes. In a statement, Adidas said its financial guidance for 2023 “accounts for the significant adverse impact from not selling the existing stock.” If the company can’t repurpose any of the remaining Ye clothing, Adidas said that could cost the company $534 million in operating profit this year.

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May 1, 2023