Tag: libraries

China sanctions US organizations for hosting Taiwan leader during stopover | CNN

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CNN
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China has slapped sanctions on two American organizations that hosted Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen during her recent travel in the United States, which Beijing had fiercely condemned.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Friday the Washington-headquartered think tank Hudson Institute and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California would be banned from any cooperation, exchange or transaction with institutions and individuals in China.

Key leaders of the organizations would also be barred from visiting China, unable to transact or cooperate with organizations or individuals there, and have any assets in the country frozen, the statement said.

“The Hudson Institute and the Reagan Library have provided a platform and facilitated Tsai’s separatist activities… which seriously undermines China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the ministry said, using a term often used to criticize the actions of Taiwan’s leader.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was the site of a meeting between Tsai and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday – the first time a Taiwan president had met a US Speaker on American soil.

And last week, the Hudson Institute presented a Global Leadership Award to Tsai in New York City.

Both occurred during stopovers in the course of the Taiwan President’s 10-day international tour, which included official visits to Central America.

CNN has reached out for comment to the Hudson Institute and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. It’s unclear if either organization or its leaders have assets or cooperation in China that would be impacted.

China had repeatedly said it would take “resolute and strong measures” in response to Tsai’s meeting with McCarthy.

China’s Communist Party claims the self-governing democracy of Taiwan as its own despite never having controlled it, and has vowed to take the island, by force if necessary.

China also imposed sanctions on two Taiwanese organizations, The Prospect Foundation and Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats, on Friday, according to the Taiwan Affairs Office.

A spokesperson accused the groups of promoting Taiwan independence and said they could not cooperate with mainland organizations and individuals. Their directors were also barred from entering the mainland.

Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan representative to the US, was also hit with sanctions on Friday, according to Chinese state media. Hsiao was previously sanctioned by China last August, following a visit from then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the island. On her Twitter account on Friday, Hsiao reacted to the sanctions saying, “Wow, the PRC just sanctions me again, for the second time.”

Taiwan’s foreign ministry responded later Friday calling China’s decision to impose new sanctions over Tsai’s meeting with McCarthy “irrational and absurd.”

It was Taiwan’s “fundamental right” to conduct diplomatic activities overseas, and “coercion and suppression” from Beijing would only boost its “insistence on freedom and democracy,” the statement said.

Beijing’s overall response to the latest meeting has appeared muted so far compared with its actions following Pelosi’s visit.

Then, Beijing launched extensive military drills around the island following the Speaker’s departure and suspended several lines of communication with Washington.

This time there has been little clear military response toward the island, which sees regular incursions into its air defense identification zone and patrols in surrounding waters by the Chinese military.

Ahead of the meeting between Tsai and McCarthy, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had tracked a Chinese aircraft carrier group, led by the carrier Shandong, passing through waters southeast of Taiwan for training in the Western Pacific.

China’s retaliation against the US organizations comes at a tense time between the two powers, which have struggled to stabilize their relationship amid friction over a range of issues.

Among those is bolstered American support of Taiwan in the face of increased military, economic and diplomatic pressure on the island democracy from Beijing.

On Friday, US Republican congressman Michael McCaul, who is currently visiting Taiwan, said that speeding up the delivery of weapons to the island was “critically important” in building deterrence against China.

The chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee told reporters that “we are doing everything in our power to expedite [weapon delivery],” and that the bipartisan congressional delegation he is leading is “in broad agreement that this absolutely needs to be done, to provide the deterrence for Taiwan to promote peace in the region.”

McCaul said that potential ways to do so included reprioritizing weapon sales to Taiwan or through third-party sales.

The US maintains an unofficial relationship with Taiwan and Tsai’s transit in the country was therefore not an official visit in order to keep Washington aligned with its longstanding “One China” policy.

Under the policy, the US acknowledges China’s position that Taiwan is part of China, but has never officially recognized Beijing’s claim to the island of 23 million.

Tsai is expected to return to Taiwan Friday.

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April 7, 2023
Missouri Republicans Take A Draconian Step That Would Hurt Libraries

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While negotiating the state budget last week, Missouri House Republicans voted to defund all of the state’s public libraries. As the proposal moves to the Missouri Senate, public librarians are worried about how the draconian move would hurt the communities they serve.

The attempt to completely defund public libraries actually began with Senate Bill 775, legislation that was intended to provide more rights to sexual assault survivors.

Republican state Sen. Rick Brattin hijacked the bill and included an amendment that banned educators from “providing sexually explicit material” to students. Like many similar proposals, the wording was broad and unclear. The bill became law, and just a few months later, conservative parents began using it to target books with LGBTQ themes, smearing books about gender or sexual identity as “pornography.”

The new law led to 300 books being removed from schools across the state between last August and November, according to PEN America.

In February, the ACLU of Missouri, the Missouri Association of School Librarians and the Missouri Library Association filed a lawsuit against the state, arguing that the ban violated the First Amendment.

Republicans decided to retaliate against MLA, a nonprofit organization of professional librarians, for joining the lawsuit. Their proposal: cut the $4.5 million allocated to public libraries each year.

“I don’t think we should subsidize that effort,” Republican House Budget Chairman Cody Smith said. “We are going to take out the funding and that is why.”

But neither professional organizations named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit receive state aid, which goes directly to the libraries, and the ACLU of Missouri is paying for the lawsuit.

“They’re choosing to punish librarians for exercising their right to question their government,” Katie Hill Earnhart, the executive director of the Cape Girardeau Public Library, told HuffPost.

“There’s job assistance, access to computers, passport applications, free tax help, warming and cooling centers for houseless folks. We’re doing way more than just checking out books.”

– Otter Bowman, president of the Missouri Library Association

Books have become the target of conservatives’ ire over the last few years. As racial justice protests swept the nation after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Republicans whipped up fear among white parents over what their kids were learning about race in their classrooms. Over the last few months, conservative attention has shifted to books with LGBTQ characters and themes.

The Missouri state government is constitutionally required to provide aid to public libraries, so it’s unlikely that Republicans will successfully strip away all funding. But librarians are still worried there could still be drastic cuts that would require some libraries to curtail services or close their doors.

“I think it’s more of a political statement to completely zero it out, but there is a valid fear that there would still be a significant cut,” Otter Bowman, the president of the Missouri Library Association, told HuffPost. “There’s a greater sense of urgency that this could be real.”

The amount of funding each library receives from the state varies, but no library would be immune from defunding or drastic cuts.

“My library would’ve received around $26,000, which is about 20% of our buying budget,” Earnhart said. “We’d either have to find excess funds somewhere … or we’d have to reduce the number of items we can buy.”

Earnhart said her library is lucky to have other funding sources — if the state pulls its funding, it won’t have to close its doors. Libraries in rural areas wouldn’t be as fortunate.

“They don’t have the tax base that cities do,” Bowman said. “Rural libraries would have to cut hours, and staffing and their collections — which are already minuscule.”

Libraries in these areas are often community hubs that offer a variety of resources to residents — not just “woke” children’s books, as conservatives tend to argue.

“There’s job assistance, access to computers, passport applications, free tax help, warming and cooling centers for houseless folks. We’re doing way more than just checking out books,” Bowman said.

Bowman said she’s concerned about the long-term impact of anti-library policies: The rush to pass new laws restricting what materials librarians can provide to patrons has led to a decline of people who even want to join the profession.

“We like to serve people and were obviously not in it for the money, but attacking us is making it really hard to keep people,” she said.

It’s unclear how the Republican-controlled Senate will vote on the budget. In the past, such extreme bills used to be seen as wishful thinking for far-right legislators. But in recent months, the culture wars have become top priorities for Republican lawmakers — defunding the entire public library system is now a mainstream proposal.

Across the state, librarians are ready for whatever comes next.

“If we’re gonna get cut,” Bowman said, “we’re not gonna go quietly.”

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April 3, 2023
This CNN Hero paid tribute to her late father by transforming a library into a center for feeding, teaching, and nurturing her community | CNN

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CNN
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During Guatemala’s violent, decades-long civil war, an estimated 200,000 people were killed. Among them was Brenda Lemus’s father, Bernardo Lemus Mendoza, a prominent academic and intellectual who spoke out against the government.

“There were many people who were fighting for their rights, who were being repressed,” Brenda Lemus said. “My father (fought for) … their right to an education and access to work. He was persecuted, he was exiled from the country many times, and he was ultimately assassinated.”

Lemus’s father grew up in poverty in the small rural town of Purulhá, several hours outside of Guatemala City. Despite the odds, she said he managed to graduate school and eventually become the financial director at the San Carlos de Guatemala University.

During the peace process, the Guatemalan government wanted to dignify the memory of those killed by the state. To commemorate Bernardo and his love of literature, the government donated 180 books to his family to start a library in his hometown. In 2011, the Bernardo Lemus Mendoza Library opened in Purulhá.

Lemus relocated her family there and dedicated herself to getting the library off the ground. Today, it serves as a beacon of hope and a center of learning for young people living in extreme poverty.

From the start, Lemus saw how the community was struggling in many ways.

“The community’s youth had a lot of needs, especially in education,” Lemus said. “But all the books that were given to us … were about the armed conflict. None of them were for kids or young people, and there were no schoolbooks at all.”

Children would arrive at the library looking for books so they could attend school and do their homework. Many families couldn’t afford school supplies. So, Lemus got schools to agree to donate books, and she started giving them to children in the community.

She also saw that students needed notebooks for class. Some were writing on crumpled, old, torn pieces of paper.

“It made me think about when I was younger, going to school and hiding my notebooks because I didn’t want to do my homework. I had everything. And yet here were a bunch of kids who had nothing, holding on to a rotten piece of paper to be able to take notes,” Lemus said. “That filled me with compassion for these kids. I wanted to help them as much as I could.”

Realizing that young people in Purulhá were growing up under similar conditions as her father had, Lemus wanted not only to address their needs but to help them break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

In 2012, she co-founded Yo’o Guatemala, a nonprofit whose name means “together we go.”

She began providing after-school programming and noticed many students had trouble focusing.

“I had to repeat the subjects often until one of the kids said to me, ‘Please, don’t repeat it to me again. I just can’t concentrate because I’m so hungry,’” Lemus said. “We realized that many of our kids were malnourished, some chronically, and it was impossible for them to focus on anything else.”

Her organization started a nutrition program for more than 40 families suffering from chronic malnutrition and has since expanded, providing extensive literacy, health, and community building programs.

“My goal with all of this is to make sure the kids in this community get a proper education, eat well, and get ahead with the same opportunities as if they were my own kids or yours,” Lemus said. “We are dignifying the memory of my father, and we are dignifying the lives of the children of Purulha.”

CNN spoke with Lemus about her efforts. Below is an edited and translated version of their conversation.

CNN: The assistance you provide is constantly evolving, depending on the community’s needs. How are you helping girls to access education?

Brenda Lemus: In Purulhá, girls stop studying very early, get pregnant, get married, and the cycle repeats itself. It’s a cycle of poverty that seems endless; it’s like a spiral that takes them to the bottom. We want to break (that) through education.

Parents usually reject sending their daughters to school because they help mom at home. The girls don’t perform the same as boys in school because it’s different: The boy goes to school, and when he leaves, he goes to play soccer. The girl goes to school, and comes home to cook, take care of siblings, wash clothes. And so she drops out of school because she doesn’t do her homework. Of course she doesn’t do her homework because she has too much of a burden at home. The girls have the entire burden, and it isn’t easy.

We currently have 10 girls in our residency. The girls come on Mondays, leaving on Fridays. They spend weekends at home. We are in charge of everything with respect to them during that time. And we give the opportunity to the girls who are much more vulnerable when it comes to dropping out of school. I’m convinced that by giving the girls an integral educational opportunity, with quality, we can break the cycle of poverty.

CNN: What is your focus with the “Mi Nino Bonito” program?

Lemus: We began a daycare program for children. We receive them very early because most of their mothers work in the local market. We give them a warm breakfast. We give them all the stimulation that they should have according to their age, but we teach the children to be independent.

They are usually the youngest in their house and the last in the food chain, so they have to fight for a piece of bread. We teach them to wash their dishes, to clean up if they spilled. We give them pediatric check-ups with vitamins, taking care that they don’t get sick. They become very independent children who then excel.

CNN: How does your eco-brick program work and what’s its significance?

Lemus: The eco-brick program has a special magic because it is the education of the children, by the children, through garbage. Children whose parents are unable to buy them school supplies have the opportunity to recycle materials such as non-recyclable aluminum or single-use plastics, encapsulating them in PET bottles forever.

The children collect garbage, clean the environment, recycle, and they receive school supplies as the tradeoff – for 10 eco-bricks, they have their full list of school supplies. If they deliver five more bricks, they get to take a brand-new backpack. With (the eco-bricks), schools are built in other parts of Guatemala by volunteers who come from the United States.

The value and dignity of the hard work they do is instilled in all the children. They provide their community with cleanliness and sanitation through recycling; this gives them dignity. The children come here in hopes of being able to finish their studies without dropping out. But they earn it with pure, hard work. This has allowed youth to have better opportunities for more dignified paid jobs.

Want to get involved? Check out the Yo’o Guatemala website and see how to help

To donate to Yo’o Guatemala via GoFundMe, click here

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March 17, 2023
It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a Superman comic under the Constitution for this congressman | CNN Politics

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CNN
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California’s Robert Garcia will be sworn into office with the Constitution – and a priceless vintage Superman comic.

The comic is one of several sentimental items that will be underneath the Constitution when Garcia takes his ceremonial oath. The copy of “Superman” #1 will be joined by a photo of Garcia’s parents, who died of Covid-19, and his citizenship certificate, according to a Thursday tweet from Garcia.

“I’m looking forward to being sworn-in on the U.S. Constitution,” the Democrat wrote. “Underneath the Constitution will be 3 items that mean a lot to me personally. A photo of my parents who passed due to covid, my citizenship certificate & a Superman #1 from the @librarycongress.”

Garcia was officially sworn into office early Saturday morning alongside other House members. It is presently unclear when the ceremonial swearing in, at which Garcia will use the comic, will take place.

In a statement emailed to CNN, Garcia explained that comics are especially significant to him because they helped him learn English after coming to the US from Peru.

“I came to America at the age of 5 as a Spanish-speaker,” said the politician via email. “As a kid, I would pick up comics at old thrift shops and pharmacies and that’s how I learned to read and write in English.”

Additionally, Superman is a poignant symbol for Garcia’s values. The superhero represents “truth and justice, an immigrant that was different, was raised by good people that welcomed them,” he added in his statement. “If you look at Superman values, and caucus values, it’s about justice, it’s about honesty, it’s doing the right thing, standing up for people that need support.”

The exceptionally rare comic, released in 1939, belongs to the Library of Congress.

“Members of Congress are able to borrow many of our materials, but due to the value and rarity of the Superman 1 comic, it is among the materials that we do not lend to anyone,” said the library in a statement emailed to CNN. “We are pleased, however, to have been able to offer to bring it to Congressman-elect Robert Garcia in a protective Mylar covering, and give it to him to hold underneath a copy of the U.S. Constitution during his ceremonial swearing in.”

After Garcia is ceremonially sworn in, he’ll hand the Mylar-protected comic back to a library employee, who will return it to the facility with a Capitol Police escort, according to the library.

The Library of Congress added that they usually provide a variety of Bibles and other religious texts for lawmakers to use when being sworn into office. In the past, special requests have included President Barack Obama’s request to use President Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s request to use the Biblia Hebraica, the first complete Hebrew Bible published in America. Politicians have also used the US Constitution and state constitutions to take their oaths.

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January 7, 2023
Half-empty Idaho campus full of fear, grief after killings

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BOISE, Idaho — In a normal year, University of Idaho students would be bustling between classes and the library, readying for the pre-finals cramming period known as “dead week.”

On Wednesday, however, a little under half the students appeared to be gone, choosing to stay home and take classes online rather than return to the town where the killings of four classmates remain unsolved, said Blaine Eckles, the university’s dean of students. Some students who were in attendance were relying on university-hired security staffers to drive them to class because they didn’t want to walk across campus alone.

The Moscow Police Department has yet to name a person of interest in the stabbing deaths of Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Post Falls, Idaho; Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho; and Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, of Mount Vernon, Washington. The three women lived together in a rental home across the street from campus, and Chapin was there staying that night.

A county coroner said they were likely asleep when they were attacked. Two weeks later investigators have yet to find a weapon used in the killings — believed to be a military-style knife — or elaborate on why they think the killings were “targeted.”

The killings have left the university and the small farming community that contains it shell-shocked.

“When we lose any students, especially under these circumstances, my heart is absolutely broken,” Eckles said. “It shakes you to your core a little bit, knowing that in this community, which is incredibly safe in general, can have something this horrific happen.”

Now, as students and faculty members try to navigate a quagmire of grief and fear, government agencies and community members are searching for answers and trying to help lessen the damage.

Gov. Brad Little announced last week that he was directing up to $1 million in state emergency funds for the investigation. The FBI has assigned 44 people to the case — half of them stationed in Moscow — and the Idaho State Police has 15 troopers helping with community patrols and another 20 investigators working the case.

Some community members started online fundraising campaigns to support family members and friends of the slain students. A university alum began raising money to equip women on campus with handheld personal safety alarms. By last week, Kerry Uhlorn had brought in more than $18,000, ordered more than 700 of the alarms and had plans to buy 900 more, Boise television station KTVB reported.

Thousands of people were expected to join the university community in mourning Wednesday evening, with several simultaneous candlelight vigils scheduled across the state. The school districts in Boise and Meridian announced plans to light up their athletic fields at the same time in solidarity.

Still, the question for faculty members and students remains: How do they focus on learning with four friends gone and a killer on the loose? Staffers are talking directly to students about how to handle the challenge, Eckles said.

“It’s the elephant in the room, right? It’s hard to do that,” Eckles said. “Our faculty are also really understanding that it’s going to be a hard time for students to kind of focus and concentrate at this time. So they’re being very patient and leading with a lot of grace. And quite frankly, I think our students are doing that with our employees as well.”

Local law enforcement agencies have seen an uptick in calls reporting suspicious behavior.

“We understand there is a sense of fear in our community,” the Moscow Police Department wrote on Nov. 27. Since the killings, the number of people requesting welfare checks, in which an officer is sent to check on a person’s wellbeing, has doubled.

The university has also seen an increase in people calling its “Vandal Care” phone line to report that they were struggling or worried someone else was struggling with an issue, Eckles said.

“While I personally am very confident that the police will resolve (the deaths), until that happens, no one is resting easy,” he said. “There’s someone out there that took the lives of four of our Vandals, and we don’t know who they are. We don’t know where they are.”

Eckes added he hopes the vigils will offer some temporary comfort, but the community will not “ultimately be able to heal until someone is brought to justice for this crime.”

Some of the victims’ family members were expected to attend the vigils.

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November 30, 2022
4 wounded in shooting outside Atlanta university library

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Authorities say four people were shot, including three students, during Clark Atlanta University’s homecoming outside a campus library early Sunday

ATLANTA — Four people were shot, including three students, during Clark Atlanta University’s homecoming outside a campus library early Sunday, authorities said.

A large group of people were listening to a DJ near Atlanta University Center’s Robert W. Woodruff Library around 12:30 a.m. when officers on patrol in the area heard gunshots, Atlanta police said.

A preliminary investigation found three students and another person were wounded when shots were fired from a vehicle, Clark Atlanta University said.

One of the victims was grazed and refused medical attention, Atlanta police said. Three others were taken to a hospital, though they were conscious and alert.

Clark Atlanta is part of Atlanta University Center’s consortium of historically Black colleges.

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October 16, 2022
A failed truce renewal in Yemen could further complicate US-Saudi relations | CNN
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Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.

Abu Dhabi, UAE
CNN
—

After a rare six months of relative calm, Yemen’s warring sides last week failed to renew a truce deal, with calls from the United Nations for an extension falling on deaf ears.

With one side backed by Iran and the other by Saudi Arabia, it remains to be seen whether the US will support its Middle Eastern ally after last week’s whopping oil cut – seen as a snub from the oil-rich kingdom to the Biden administration ahead of the US midterm elections.

The country’s Iran-backed Houthis and their rival Saudi-led coalition had agreed on a nationwide truce in April, the first since 2016. The two-month truce was renewed twice but came to an end last week over eleventh-hour demands put forward by the Houthis with regards to public sector wages.

At the last minute, the Houthis imposed “maximalist and impossible demands that the parties simply could not reach, certainly in the time that was available,” said US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking in a statement, adding that diplomatic efforts by the US and the UN continue.

“The unannounced reasons [for not renewing the truce] are speculated to be that the Iranians asked the Houthis, directly, to help escalate things in the region,” said Maged Almadhaji, director of the Sanaa Center for Strategic Studies.

“Iranians and Houthis are in a difficult political position,” Almadhaji told CNN, adding that Iranians are under immense pressure amid raging protests at home and might be trying to keep Gulf rivals at bay by keeping them occupied with Yemen’s conflict.

The few months of ceasefire were a breath of fresh air for millions of Yemenis who, in the last seven years of conflict, were driven to “acute need,” the UN said. The peace period saw the monthly rate of people displaced internally dip by 76%, and the number of civilians killed or injured by fighting lowered by 54%, said the UN last week.

Yemen has been described by the UN as the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.

Lenderking said that some aspects of the initial truce are still being upheld, such as relatively low violence, continued fuel shipments that can still offload into the Houthi-held Hodeidah port as well as resumed civilian-commercial flights from Sanaa airport. But the risks are very high.

The Houthis have already warned investors to steer clear of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as they are “fraught with risks” – a message seen as a direct threat that the Iran-backed group is ready to strike once again.

“With the Houthis, it is always risky not to take their threats seriously,” Peter Salisbury, consultant at International Crisis Group, told CNN.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis have previously launched attacks on the oil-rich countries, mainly targeting oil fields and key airports. In March, Houthis claimed responsibility for an attack on an Aramco oil storage facility in Jeddah. And in January, they said they were behind a drone strike on fuel trucks near the airport in Abu Dhabi.

Saudi Arabia has previously sounded alarms to its powerful US security ally over these attacks, criticizing the Biden administration over what it perceived as waning US security presence in the volatile Middle East.

Security agitation among Gulf monarchies was exacerbated by US nuclear talks with Iran earlier this year, where the possibility of lifted economic sanctions posed the risk of an emboldened Tehran that, it was feared, would, in turn, further empower and arm its regional proxies – predominantly the Houthis.

But the Houthis are already arguably emboldened, said Gregory Johnsen, a former member of the United Nations’ Panel of Experts on Yemen.

“I think Iran would like nothing better than to leave the Houthis in Sanaa on Saudi’s border as check against future Saudi behavior,” Johnsen told CNN.

Saudi Arabia’s strongest security ally has been the US, and traditionally the two countries’ unwritten agreement has been oil in exchange for security – namely against Iranian hostility.

But now, as Saudi Arabia defies the US with its latest OPEC oil cut, the two countries’ friendship is under increased strain. And with already existing reluctance in congressional politics to increase military support to Saudi Arabia, it remains unclear whether the US will respond with swift support to its Middle Eastern ally should violence flare, said Salisbury.

A number of US Democratic politicians have accused Saudi Arabia of siding with Russia, saying the oil cut should be seen as a “hostile act” against the US.

The threats made by certain US senators against Saudi Arabia after Wednesday’s OPEC oil cut – some of whom have called on US President Joe Biden to “retaliate” – are not credible, said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political science professor in the UAE, adding that the response from the Biden administration “has been more restrained.”

It is in America’s interest to protect Middle Eastern oil producers, Abdulla told CNN, especially as supply tightens amid the Ukraine war and stalled nuclear talks with Iran.

“At this moment in history, America needs Saudi Arabia, needs the UAE, just as much as we need them for security purposes,” Abdulla said.

US policy toward Yemen has in recent years been in disarray, analysts say. The Obama administration first backed the Saudi-led coalition in 2016, but levels of support later changed as evidence emerged of civilian casualties in the Saudi-led air campaign.

Saudi Arabia enjoyed extensive support for its Yemen policy during the Trump administration. In late 2019, Biden promised to make the kingdom a pariah and, a little over a year later, he slashed US support for Saudi Arabia’s offensive operations in Yemen, “including relevant arms sales.”

The US continues, however, to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia through the loophole of “defense.”

The Biden administration last August approved and notified Congress of possible multibillion-dollar weapons sales to both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, citing defense against Houthi attacks as a legitimate cause for concern.

“Now, the US is frustrated with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, while it has no leverage with the Houthis,” said Johnsen. “The US has been lost at sea for the past year and a half when it comes to a Yemen policy,” he added, labelling it a situation largely “of its own making.”

While there is pressure within the US to sternly react to Saudi Arabia’s energy policies, it is yet to be seen how the US will respond to the developments in Yemen, where some say Washington would be wise to uphold its security guarantees.

“I don’t think it is in the best interest of America to reduce their military assistance to Saudi Arabia,” said Abdulla. “If they do, it will backfire on America more than many of these senators would imagine.”

At least 185 people, including at least 19 children, have been killed in nationwide protests across Iran since September, said Iran Human Rights (IHR), an Iran-focused human rights group based in Norway, on Saturday.

CNN cannot independently verify death toll claims. Human Rights Watch said that, as of September 30, Iranian state-affiliated media placed the number of deaths at 60.

Now in their third week, protests have swept across Iranian cities following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by morality police and taken to a “re-education center” for not abiding by the country’s conservative dress code.

Here is the latest on this developing story:
Iranian police on Sunday dispersed high school girls who gathered to protest in southwestern Tehran. Meanwhile, an eyewitness told CNN that in the southeastern part of the city, girls took to the street shouting “woman, life, freedom” and “death to the dictator.”
The death toll from the crackdown on Saturday’s protests in Iran’s Kurdish city of Sanandaj has increased to at least four, according to the Iranian human rights group Hengaw on Sunday.
Iran’s state broadcaster IRINN (Islamic Republic of Iran News Network) was allegedly hacked during its nightly news program on Saturday, according to the pro-reform IranWire outlet, which shared a clip of the hacking. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported on the hacking, saying that IRIB/IRINN’s 9 p.m. newscast was hacked for a few moments by anti-revolutionary elements.
The internet connectivity monitoring service NetBlocks on Saturday said that Iran had shut off the internet in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj in an attempt to curb a growing protest movement amid reports of new killings.
Violent weekend as four Palestinians killed in West Bank, Israeli soldier killed in Jerusalem shooting

An Israeli soldier has died following a rare shooting at a military checkpoint in East Jerusalem on Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces said. The attack comes after a violent two days in the occupied West Bank where Israeli forces killed four Palestinians, Palestinian authorities said.
Background: The shooting happened at a checkpoint of the normally quiet area near the Shuafat Refugee Camp in northeast Jerusalem, an area considered occupied territory by most of the international community. Video of the incident shows a man coming up to a group of soldiers and shooting them point blank before running away. Noa Lazar, an 18-year-old female soldier, was killed, and a 30-year-old guard was critically injured. In a statement, Prime Minister Yair Lapid called the attacker a “vile terrorist” and said Israel will “not rest until we bring these heinous murderers to justice.” Prior to the checkpoint attack, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank over two days, according to Palestinian authorities. Two were killed in the Jenin Refugee Camp on Saturday when, the IDF said, clashes broke out as they came to arrest an “Islamic Jihad operative” that the IDF claimed was “involved in terrorist activities, planning and carrying out shooting attacks towards IDF soldiers in the area.” Another two, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed in separate incidents elsewhere in the territories. The occupied West Bank, especially the areas of Jenin and Nablus, is in an increasingly volatile and dangerous situation, as near-daily clashes take place between the Israeli military and increasingly armed Palestinians.

Why it matters: More than 105 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces so far this year, making it the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied territories since 2015, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israel says most Palestinians killed were engaging violently with soldiers during military operations, although dozens of unarmed civilians have been killed as well, human rights groups including B’Tselem have said. Some 21 civilians and soldiers have been killed so far this year in attacks targeting Israelis.
US says a failed rocket attack targeted US and partnered forces in Syria

One rocket was launched at a base housing US and coalition troops in Syria on Saturday night, according to US Central Command. No US or coalition forces were injured in the attack, and no facilities or equipment were damaged, CENTCOM said in a statement.
Background: The rocket was a 107mm rocket, and additional rockets were found at the launch site, CENTCOM said. The attack is under investigation. On September 18, a similar rocket attack using 107mm rockets was launched against Green Village in Syria, a base housing US troops. Three 107mm rockets were launched and a fourth was found at the launch site.

Why it matters: The attack comes two days after US forces killed two top ISIS leaders in an airstrike in northern Syria, and three days after a US raid killed an ISIS smuggler. Although there is no attribution for the attack, such rocket launches are frequently used by Iranian-backed militias in Syria.
UAE president to meet with Putin during visit to Russia on Tuesday

UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Russia on Tuesday, UAE state-run news agency WAM said.
Background: “During his visit, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed will discuss with President Putin the friendly relations between the UAE and Russia along with a number of regional and international issues and developments of common interest,” WAM said.

Why it matters: The visit comes less than a week after OPEC+, the international cartel of oil producers, announced a significant cut to output in an effort to raise oil prices. The UAE is a member of the organization led by Saudi Arabia and Russia. CNN has reached out to the UAE government for comment.
Before clicking enter on your Google search today, take a minute to check out today’s ‘Google Doodle.’ Standing by a library and a lighthouse is prominent Egyptian historian Mostafa El-Abbadi, who would have turned 94 today.

Hailed as “champion of Alexandria’s Resurrected Library” by the New York Times, he was the key player in resurrecting the Great Library of Alexandria.

The son of the founder of the College of Letters and Arts at the University of Alexandria, El-Abbadi’s love for academia came at a very young age.

The intellectual went on to graduate from the University of Cambridge and returned home as a professor of Greco-Roman studies at the University of Alexandria, where his love for the Library of Alexandria grew.

El-Abbadi sought to restore the glory of the “Great Library” which disappeared between 270 and 250 A.D. – and he succeeded.

Combined efforts by the Egyptian government, UNESCO, and other organizations led to the opening of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on October 16, 2002.

Despite being the main driver of the project, El-Abbadi was not invited to the ceremony after he became a critic of how the scheme was handled by the authorities.

“It became the project of the presidents, of the people who cut the rope, the people who stood on the front stage, and not of Mostafa El-Abbadi,” said Prof. Mona Haggag, a former student of El-Abbadi and head of the department of Greek and Roman archaeology at the University of Alexandria, according to the New York Times.

By Mohammed Abdelbary
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October 10, 2022
2 Men Targeted A School Librarian Who Spoke Out Against Censorship. They’re Not Facing Any Consequences.

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At a July public library board meeting in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, middle school librarian Amanda Jones spoke out against book censorship. Conservatives in a neighboring town had been successful in taking away some resources for school libraries, and Jones didn’t want to see something similar happen in her town.

“While book challenges are often done with the best intentions, and in the name of age appropriateness, they often target marginalized communities such as BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color] and the LBGTQ community. They also target books on sexual health and reproduction,” Jones said at the meeting, according to her own transcription.

“Once you start relocating and banning one topic, it becomes a slippery slope and where does it end?”

By the next day, conservatives had decided that her quest to keep books with LGBTQ themes in the library meant that she was trying to provide sexually explicit materials to children.

Michael Lunsford, the executive director of right-wing nonprofit Citizens for a New Louisiana, and Ryan Thames, who runs a politically conservative Facebook page called Bayou State of Mind, each spoke out against Jones on Facebook. They claimed in a series of posts that Jones was advocating for libraries to contain pornography and books that teach kids how to perform sexual acts, according to court documents.

Public school educators have long faced disagreement from parents and other community members. But this type of vitriol was new to Jones, who has been a teacher for two decades and is the president of the state’s public school librarian association.

“I’ve had some books questioned and challenged at my school, maybe once or twice in the 22 years I’ve been teaching,” she told HuffPost this week. “But this is personal. These people are posting online that I’m advocating for teaching anal sex to children.”

Like many other librarians across the country, Jones also received an explicit death threat via email, and her friends and family have received harassing messages as well. The email, which was sent by a man in Texas about a month after the library meeting, accused her of indoctrinating children and being a pedophile, and it stated that the writer knew where Jones lived and worked. Jones said it ended with words meant to imitate a gun: “Click, click see you soon.” Police are trying to extradite the person who wrote the email.

In August, Jones filed a lawsuit against Lunsford and Thames, seeking damages and asking a judge to bar them from posting about her on Facebook.

“Nobody stands up to these people,” she told NBC News at the time. “They just say what they want and there are no repercussions and they ruin people’s reputations and there’s no consequences.”

But last week, Judge Erika Sledge dismissed the lawsuit, saying that Jones was a limited public figure and that the bar to meet the definition of defamation was higher. Sledge also ruled that Lunsford and Thames were merely stating their opinion.

“It’s a dangerous ruling,” Jones’ lawyer, Ellyn Clevenger, told Louisiana newspaper The Advocate. “It sets a dangerous precedent.”

The posts attacking Jones and insisting that she had a secret harmful agenda are straight out of the right-wing playbook. For the past year, conservatives have used the same rhetoric in an attempt to defund and dismantle both school and public libraries.

“This time last year it was CRT,” Jones said, referring to critical race theory, the college-level academic framework that conservatives have insisted educators are teaching children in public schools. “Now, they’re insisting there’s porn in the library.”

Right-wing extremists have protested libraries over Drag Queen Story Hour events, where drag queens read to children, and parents have moved to censor LGBTQ authors. A record number of books have been challenged this year. Libraries around the country have received bomb threats, which so far have turned out to be hoaxes.

And school librarians are not the only ones facing this kind of backlash. A nationwide teacher shortage — approximately 300,000 jobs are open for educators and support staff — is partly fueled by the right’s culture war. Gay teachers have resigned, and others have retired earlier than planned.

“This is a disservice to educators everywhere,” Jones said.

Despite the threats and the dismissal of the lawsuit, Jones has found some room for optimism. After all, no books have been removed from her library. “Technically, I feel like I won,” she said.

Jones also said that she is lucky to have received an overwhelming amount of support, with hundreds of people reaching out to tell her to keep fighting and that she’s doing the right thing. But the attacks have taken a toll on her.

“I started therapy, I had to start taking anxiety medication and my hair is falling out,” Jones said. And she’s still worried about what the lawsuit dismissal means for the future — and for other librarians who face the same kind of harassment.

“I’ve lost all faith in the judicial system,” Jones said. “The judge’s ruling has opened the door. People are definitely going to feel more empowered to harass educators online.”

CORRECTION: A prior version of this story mischaracterized the July meeting where Jones spoke as a school board meeting when it was a public library board meeting.

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October 1, 2022
Lizzo played James Madison’s 200-year-old crystal flute at her Washington, DC concert | CNN

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CNN
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Ever the pioneer, Lizzo crossed off another first during the Washington, DC stop of her tour – playing an approximately 200-year-old crystal flute that belonged to a former US president.

The “About Damn Time” singer and accomplished flutist carefully played the delicate woodwind, which was sent as a gift to James Madison in 1813 by the French flute maker Claude Laurent. The Library of Congress has maintained the flute in its vault for decades before allowing Lizzo to play it onstage.

In footage shared by concertgoers, Lizzo excitedly and delicately handled the flute under the careful watch of Library staff and Capitol Police. She briefly shared the history of the flute with her audience and said she was “the first person to ever play it.”

“B***h, I’m scared,” she said to the audience’s laughter. “It’s crystal. It’s like playing out of a wine glass, b***h, so be patient.”

She played a note on the crystal flute, pausing excitedly after it made a sound, according to a video Lizzo shared on social media. Then, she blew a few more fluttery notes on it, cautiously twerking as she played, as is her signature. After a few seconds, she held the flute high in the air, victorious, and carefully returned it to the staff waiting a few feet away.

“B,***h, I just twerked and played James Madison’s crystal flute from the 1800s,” she said incredulously. “We just made history tonight!”

Lizzo then thanked the library for “preserving our history” and reminded her fans that “history is freaking cool.”

Earlier this week, the Library of Congress invited Lizzo to visit its collection of 1,700 flutes, the largest in the world, per the Library. She carefully played the flute there first before she “serenaded employees and a few researchers” with a “more practical” woodwind, the Library said.

Lizzo asked the Library if she could play the famed flute for a few moments during her Washington show, and the Library obliged, though it sent Capitol Police and several other staffers in charge of security along with the flute to ensure its safety.

The recent Emmy winner regularly plays the flute during her concerts and has experimented with other rare and valuable flutes, including an 18k-gold instrument, though she’s partial to one woodwind named Sasha Flute.

The flute is exceptionally rare: the Library of Congress has 20 Laurent-made flutes in its vault, but it’s only one of two made of crystal, according to the Library. Madison’s custom-made flute contained a silver joint, engraved with his name.

But its journey to the Library’s collection was circuitous and took over 100 years. The flute may have been saved by first lady Dolley Madison during the White House fire in 1814, the Library said. It came into the possession of Dolley Madison’s son from her first marriage, John Payne Todd, who bequeathed it to Washington-based Dr. Cornelius Boyle.

Boyle’s descendents allowed the flute to be displayed in 1903 at the US National Museum, an original part of the Smithsonian Institution, until Dayton C. Miller, another physician and woodwind enthusiast, purchased it. He later donated the crystal flute, along with 1,700 instruments, to the Library in 1941, where the flute has remained until its stage debut with Lizzo.

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September 29, 2022
Global On-Ramp to Media Literacy, the Center for Media Literacy’s New Free Online Media Literacy Training Launches Feb. 2

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Evaluating today’s media messages can be complex, and the information landscape is rapidly changing. CML’s 90-minute course makes evidence-based media literacy education available to everyone with internet access, everywhere in the world

MALIBU, Calif., February 2, 2022 (Newswire.com)
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The Center for Media Literacy (CML), a leader in media literacy research, program design and evidence-based frameworks since 1989, has launched Global On-ramp to Media Literacy, a 90-minute, self-guided course that can introduce the concepts of media literacy education to anyone with access to the internet, anywhere in the world. The interactive course uses texts, videos, quizzes and infographics to cover topics that range from CML’s long-proven Five Key Questions and Core Concepts and Empowerment Spiral, to information about copyright, to CML’s MediaLit Kit – a collection of core ideas and tools that are fundamental to media literacy’s inquiry-based pedagogy. The course was developed by Linda M. Wiley, an experienced instructional designer, along with CML President Tessa Jolls and Monika Hanley, a CML associate, to guide users through the articulation of media literacy theory, practice and implementation.

“Now is the time for media literacy to take a more prominent seat at the education table, as well as around family dinner tables,” said Jolls. “Media literacy educators and practitioners have long known that there are countless applications of media literacy, but the current epidemic of harmful disinformation has shone a spotlight on what makes CML’s work more important now than ever before. We are proud to offer Global On-ramp to Media Literacy as a public service to anyone around the globe who is interested in learning more about becoming a wiser and more informed media consumer and producer. Our nations’ security, our local communities, our families and our health depend upon it.”

The initial launch of Global On-ramp to Media Literacy is supported by the US State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund (CDAF). The CDAF grant, which is provided to alumni of the Fulbright Scholars Program, enables CML to make global citizens and educators aware of the course in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. CML’s affiliates in Singapore; Lima, Peru (Medios Claros); Los Angeles, CA (Ignite Global Good, LLC) and Kaunas, Lithuania (Vytautus Magnus University) will undertake communications campaigns through social media, email, media relations and other outreach activities. The course is now available in English. Versions in Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Russian and Chinese will launch very soon.

Like a map for a journey, the Center for Media Literacy provides a vision and a guide for navigating today’s complex, global media culture. For more information about CML’s Global On-ramp to Media Literacy, please visit www.medialit.org, or follow CML on Facebook.

Contact: Michele Johnsen-(818) 618-1314 michele@igniteglobalgood.com

Source: Center for Media Literacy

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February 2, 2022
New Iowa law restricts gender identity education, bans books with sexual content | CNN Politics

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Washington
CNN
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Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a sweeping bill into law Friday that will restrict education about gender identity and sexual orientation and ban books with certain sexual content from school libraries, as well as require schools to notify parents if their child asks to use a new name or pronoun.

Iowa is just one of several Republican-led states to pass laws strengthening what advocates often describe as “parental rights” over the past few years.

The controversial movement, which critics argue is aimed at limiting the rights of LGBTQ and other marginalized students, emerged as a top issue for the national Republican Party during the Covid-19 pandemic and is expected to play a key role during the 2024 election cycle.

The Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights organization, likened Iowa’s parental rights law to legislation enacted in Florida last year that opponents dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.” The Florida law banned certain instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom and set off a social and political firestorm.

Iowa state Sen. Ken Rozenboom, chair of the education committee, has said that the parental rights bill “matches up with what most schools are doing now.”

“But we need to rein in those schools that believe that ‘the purpose of public education is to teach [students] what society needs them to know.’ We must put parents back in charge of their children’s education,” he wrote in his newsletter in March.

Iowa has passed several new laws this year addressing parents’ rights. In March, Reynolds signed into law a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, as well as a law that makes it easier for families to use taxpayer dollars to send their children to private K-12 schools regardless of their income.

The new Iowa law, also known as SF 496, touches on a range of education-related issues.

It prohibits instruction relating to gender identity or sexual orientation to students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

The law also requires school administrators to notify parents if their child “requests an accommodation” related to their gender identity, including using a name or pronoun that is different than the one “assigned to the student in the school district’s registration forms or records.”

When it comes to books, the law puts restrictions on school libraries for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The libraries can only have books deemed “age-appropriate,” which, according to the law, excludes any materials with “descriptions or visual depictions of a sex act.”

School employees found to be in repeated violation of some of these provisions could face disciplinary action, according to the law.

Similar laws restricting what books are allowed in libraries have recently gone into effect in other states, including Florida, Missouri and Utah.

“Vague language in the laws regarding how they should be implemented, as well as the inclusion of potential punishments for educators who violate them, have combined to yield a chilling effect,” according to a report published in April by PEN America, a nonprofit that works to defend free expression and tracks book bans.

Laws like the one in Florida give incentives to teachers, media specialists and school administrators to proactively remove books from shelves, the report said.

There were more book bans across the country during the fall 2022 semester than in each of the prior two semesters, according to PEN America. The bans were most prevalent in Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah and South Carolina.

About one-third of the titles banned are books about race or racism or feature characters of color. About 26% of the titles have LGBTQ+ characters or themes.

“Those children tell us all the time that finding books that reflect their experiences and answer questions they would never ask adults is lifesaving for them,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and executive director of the Freedom to Read Foundation.

The past year has brought an escalation to the book ban movement, with many state lawmakers introducing legislation that could have an impact on what’s available at public and school libraries.

“We’re looking at over 31 bills that oppose some kind of restriction on the ability of librarians to create collections that serve the needs of every student or attempt to censor books based on one group’s opinion,” Caldwell-Stone added.

There are at least 62 “parental rights” bills that have been introduced in 24 states this year, according to FutureEd, a think tank at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

Most have yet to become law. But last year, six bills were signed by governors – two in Florida, two in Arizona and one each in Georgia and Louisiana.

Many of the bills focus on parents’ right to know what their children are learning in classrooms, particularly around issues of race and gender.

The Republican-controlled US House passed its own “Parents Bill of Rights” bill in March, though the Senate is not expected to take up the legislation.

Overall, a record number of anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced this year. Some focus on education, but others concern health care, bathroom access and drag performances.

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April 12, 2021
Judge blocks Arkansas law criminalizing libraries and bookstores for providing ‘harmful’ books to minors | CNN Politics

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CNN
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A federal judge on Saturday temporarily blocked portions of an Arkansas law that would have made it a crime for librarians and bookstores to provide minors with materials deemed “harmful” to them.

The law, signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in March, would have held librarians and book vendors criminally liable for knowingly making available to minors material that would appeal “to a prurient interest in sex.” Under the law, the material would also have to lack “serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic, or political value” and be “patently offensive” under community standards.

The law, known as Act 372, would have taken effect Tuesday but will now remain blocked while the case plays out.

A group of libraries, librarians, several bookstores and publishing groups – including the Arkansas Library Association and the Central Arkansas Library System – filed a lawsuit last month arguing that a section of the law violated the First Amendment. The plaintiffs also challenged another section of the law that would have allowed individuals to challenge libraries over a material’s “appropriateness.”

The plaintiffs argued that the law could make way for the removal of libraries’ “young-adult” and “general” collections with sexual content. They also said it could even lead to a ban of all persons under the age of 18 from entering public libraries and bookstores, due to “the risk of endless criminal prosecution.”

Providing banned materials under the law to a minor would be a Class A misdemeanor and punishable by up to a year of jail or a $2,500 fine.

US District Judge Timothy L. Brooks of the Western District of Arkansas, an Obama appointee, ultimately agreed in his preliminary injunction, citing concerns about potential violations of the First and 14th amendments.

He described the law’s definition of “appropriateness” as “fatally vague,” arguing that it would be too challenging to enforce the law without infringing on constitutionally protected speech. Material deemed “harmful” for the youngest minors may be appropriate for the oldest minors or adults, Brooks said.

A spokeswoman for Sanders said the governor continues to support the law despite the ruling.

“The governor supports laws that protects kids from having access to obscene content and the idea that Democrats want kids to receive material that is literally censored in Congressional testimony is absurd and only appropriate in the radical left’s liberal utopia,” Sanders communications director Alexa Henning said in a statement to CNN.

The ruling is subject to appeal. CNN has reached out to Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, a Republican, regarding potential next steps.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, which represented some of the plaintiffs, welcomed the judge’s injunction.

“It’s regrettable that we even have to question whether our constitutional rights are still respected today. The question we had to ask was – do Arkansans still legally have access to reading materials?” Holly Dickson, the executive director of ACLU Arkansas, said in a statement. “Luckily, the judicial system has once again defended our highly valued liberties. We are committed to maintaining the fight to safeguard everyone’s right to access information and ideas.”

Dickson previously called Act 372 “an Arctic breeze on librarians across Arkansas.”

The plaintiffs included 17-year-old Hayden Kirby, who said in a statement that the law would limit her ability to “explore diverse perspectives.” Kirby said she spent time in the library every day throughout middle school.

“To restrict the spaces I’ve accessed freely throughout my life is outrageous to me,” she previously said in a statement. “I want to fight for our rights to intellectual freedom and ensure that libraries remain spaces where young Arkansans can explore diverse perspectives.”

The American Library Association said in a report earlier this year that there were 1,269 demands to censor library books and resources across the country in 2022, marking the highest number of attempted book bans since the association began compiling the data more than 20 years ago.

Free speech organization PEN America found book bans rose during the first half of the 2022-2023 school year, in large part due to state laws in Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah and South Carolina – which accounted for almost a third of the bans, according to the report from April.

A new law signed in Texas last month banning books containing sexual content that is “patently offensive” was decried by opponents as potentially harmful to childrens’ education.

Last month, President Joe Biden announced he plans to appoint a new federal coordinator to address the increase in book bans enacted across different states.

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April 12, 2021
Tacoma Public Library Expands 3 Branches to Six-Day Schedule Starting January 6

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Press Release
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updated: Dec 13, 2018

Tacoma, Washington, December 13, 2018 (Newswire.com)
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3 Tacoma Public Library branches, Moore, Wheelock, and Kobetich will be open six days per week during the public school year, beginning Sunday, January 6. The Moore and Wheelock branches are the system’s “regional” libraries and busiest locations, while Kobetich geographically triangulates library services that will available in Tacoma on Sundays. All 3 locations will be open from 1-5 p.m.

The Tacoma City Council approved Library Director Kate Larsen’s proposal for instituting the six-day schedule as part of the City’s biennial budget, in November. Since then, the Library has been making arrangements to expand service from the current schedule that has branches open only 40 hours per week.

“Our residents know how critical libraries are to keeping neighborhoods safe and expanding access to the quality of life opportunities Tacoma offers. The new schedule ensures children can access critical learning resources,” Larsen said. “We know from usage data at our neighboring library systems that the community wants its public libraries to be open on Sundays, so we’re thrilled to start the new schedule.”

Kate Larsen, Library Director

Tacoma closed 2 branch libraries and reduced overall library operating hours in 2011 as part of the city’s overall budget-balancing efforts during the Great Recession.

Funding for the new six-day schedule comes from the City’s General Fund.

Based on current daily usage, Tacoma Public Library expects the additional days of service will create significant weekly benefits for the community including: more customers being able to use the Library; additional youth homework needs served; more library items borrowed or renewed; more uses of public computers; and potentially more engagement programs offered across the 3 branches for patrons of all ages.

About Tacoma Public Library

Tacoma Public Library (TPL) was formed in 1889, with its main library opening 1903. The Library now operates 8 branches and serves a culturally diverse population of just over 200,000. TPL focuses its efforts on knowledge access, community learning and public technology. Staff strives to ensure that every library customer’s experience is exceptional. For more information, visit tacomalibrary.org

Source: Tacoma Public Library

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December 13, 2018
Raggs Re-Releases Kid-Friendly Santa Paws Christmas Album

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‘Santa Paws’ Album Drops to Multimedia Outlets and Library Distributors on Nov. 10

Press Release
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updated: Nov 13, 2017

CHARLOTTE, N.C., November 13, 2017 (Newswire.com)
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The Raggs Band, the effervescent, musically talented characters from the Emmy Award-winning Raggs preschool TV series, dropped a re-mastered version of its popular Santa Paws Christmas album on Monday, Nov. 13, to online multimedia outlets and to schools and public libraries in the U.S. and Canada.

Produced at Concentrix Music and Sound Design in Charlotte, N.C., the 14-song album features classics such as “Jingle Bells” and “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer,” plus covers “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “Up on the Housetop” and “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.” Also included are Raggs’ original “Santa Paws,” a fun tale about Santa’s clever dog, and “I’d Rather Be an Elf,” a high-energy, sing-along song with overtures about self-respect and confidence.

The authentic, toe-tapping pop sound of Raggs’ music appeals to both kids and their parents. Santa Paws is a ‘must add’ album for family holiday playlists!

Ken Kaganovitch, president of Childish Records

“The authentic, toe-tapping pop sound of Raggs’ music appeals to both kids and their parents,” Ken Kaganovitch, president of Childish Records, commented. “Santa Paws is a ‘must add’ album for family holiday playlists!”

While the classic jewel-cased CDs are fading from retail shelves, Raggs’ vast music library of over 200 songs, including those on Santa Paws, has found a new market for these discs with thousands of school and public libraries across North America. Several distributors including Ohio-based MidWest Tape, which also offers Raggs videos via its online library application hoopla digital, have ordered the Santa Paws CD for traditional library cardholders.

The original Santa Paws has been an iTunes store staple for several years. The re-mastered version will be replacing the existing tracks and will also be available for streaming and/or purchase via Pandora, YouTube, Amazon Music and Spotify.

“With more online and alternative outlets than ever before, we’ve seen the demand for Raggs’ music grow exponentially worldwide,” Toni Steedman, president of Blue Socks Media, owner of the Raggs brand, said, “and songs like ‘Santa Paws’ and ‘I’d Rather be an Elf’ have already become kids classics!”

For more information, go to Raggs.com.

About Raggs

Raggs is an Emmy Award-winning, musical preschool series about five colorful pups who learn life lessons through an innovative mix of live-action stories, music videos, concerts, cartoons and interviews with real kids. With over 200 episodes, 300 original songs and animated new media music videos, Raggs is available worldwide in English, Spanish and Portuguese and has begun dubbing in 15 additional languages for distribution in 100 countries in 2017. The Raggs brand includes CDs, DVDs, toys, books and live shows, including a partnership called “Play at Palladium with Raggs” with the Palladium Hotel Group at resorts in Mexico, the Caribbean and Brazil. The original characters were created by Toni Steedman, a Charlotte, North Carolina, advertising executive, for her then six‐year‐old daughter Alison. Raggs and all rights are owned by Blue Socks Media LLC, Charlotte, North Carolina. For more info, go to www.raggs.com.

Source: Blue Socks Media

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November 13, 2017