Tag: Social affairs

Uvalde sues local prosecutor over school shooting records

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AUSTIN, Texas — The city of Uvalde sued the local prosecutor’s office Thursday seeking access to records and other investigative materials on the May shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 children and two teachers dead, a move that highlights ongoing tensions over the slow police response and information flow on the rampage.

The lawsuit filed in Uvalde County against District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee says the lack of access on the May 24 massacre is affecting an independent investigator’s ability to look for policy violations by local responding officers and determine whether internal disciplinary actions are needed. Busbee is conducting a criminal investigation into the shooting, which will include examining a report she is awaiting from the Texas Department of Public Safety. The state’s police chief said it would come by the end of the year.

“The Uvalde community has waited entirely too long for answers and transparency with regard to the Robb Elementary shooting incident,” Uvalde city officials said in a statement.

An employee at the Uvalde District Attorney’s Office declined to comment Thursday when reached by phone.

The only information that has been available to an independent investigation agency for the city’s review is from city witnesses, “much of which was provided to the City subject to a non-disclosure agreement and criminal investigation privilege,” the lawsuit says. Busbee has cited the criminal investigation — which she told city officials would be done by November — when asked for additional records, the lawsuit says.

The independent investigator, Jesse Prado, would be subject to a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement if provided the information, which the lawsuit says has already been handed over to other agencies conducting similar reviews and would not be available to anyone from the city, according to a statement by city officials.

Nearly 400 law enforcement officials rushed to the school the day of the shooting, according to a legislative investigate report, but all of them waited more than 70 minutes to enter a fourth-grade classroom to confront the gunman.

Two officers have been fired because of their actions at the scene and others have resigned or been placed on leave. In October, Col. Steve McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, acknowledged mistakes by officers when confronted for the first time by families of the Uvalde victims over false and shifting accounts from law enforcement and lack of transparency in the available information. McCraw defended his agency, and said they “did not fail” Uvalde.

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin has previously lashed out at the response to the shooting by state officers and expressed frustration at the lack of information available regarding one of the worst school shootings in state history.

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Follow AP’s full coverage of the Uvalde school shooting: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting

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December 1, 2022
10 Los Angeles students appear to OD on cannabis edibles

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LOS ANGELES — Ten Los Angeles students appear to have overdosed on cannabis edibles Thursday at their middle school in the San Fernando Valley, officials said.

The students, between 13 and 14 years old, were in mild to moderate distress at Van Nuys Middle School around 10:30 a.m., according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. At least six were taken to hospitals.

LAFD Capt. Erik Scott say the overdoses were possibly from edible cannabis products and investigators are trying to determine whether all 10 students got the substances from the same source.

He said firefighters searched the campus to make sure there were no other ill students.

Crews were able to determine that the substance was not related to fentanyl, a highly addictive and potentially lethal drug, and paramedics did not administer the opioid overdose-reversing drug naloxone, officials said.

No other information was immediately available, and the Los Angeles Unified School District did not immediately return a request for comment.

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December 1, 2022
Q&A: Jacob Harold creates philanthropist ‘toolbox,’ guide

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Jacob Harold believes philanthropy needs more “strategic promiscuity” – battling the world’s problems using a variety of approaches.

It’s an idea that mirrors his wide-ranging career. Harold was president and CEO of GuideStar before it merged with Foundation Center to form the even larger nonprofit information source Candid, which he co-founded. He worked with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to make its giving more effective and with The Bridgespan Group, he helped philanthropists and foundations donate more intentionally. As a strategist for Greenpeace USA and Rainforest Action Network, he deployed those donations.

“We can’t afford as a field and as a species to leave great ideas on the table right now,” Harold said. “If that great idea is born in some small organization, we have to figure out what is its pathway into government policy. What is its pathway into the marketplace? We can’t predict that, but we can equip people to have a better chance of getting there.”

To boost those chances, Harold wrote “The Toolbox: Strategies for Crafting Social Impact,” which hit bookshelves Thursday. “The Toolbox” offers nine strategies, or tools, philanthropists can use on a problem – from storytelling to behavioral economics to community organizing.

“I hope people who have only one lens — all they have is a hammer, so the whole world looks like a nail – read this and just sort of pause and see that there’s other stuff out there,” Harold said. “And I want people feeling discouraged and hopeless in this strange moment to be reminded of the abundance of options and the abundance of learning and resources that are out there.”

Harold, 45, recently spoke with The Associated Press about his new book and how he hopes it helps nonprofits reach more donors. The interview was edited for clarity and length.

Q: Why did you want to write this book?

A: It goes back to my time at the Hewlett Foundation a decade ago where I’m sitting there in the fancy office of a $10 billion dollar foundation and the smartest social entrepreneurs in the world are coming to us pitching big ideas. Then, for lunch, we’ll have a great philosopher or a brilliant psychologist come in and give a talk. Or we’ll go across the street to Stanford and hang out at the design school. We were just so privileged to see all these different ways of thinking about social change. And I realized no one else had that level of privilege. So the first point of the book is “Let’s just share that abundance of ways of thinking about social good.” Over the centuries, people have put so much thought and time into figuring out how to do it and we’ve actually learned a lot.

Q: You said that’s your hopeful reason. What’s the less hopeful reason?

A: Part of me was kind of angry because so many people are so convinced that their one approach was the only way to succeed. So many of the failures we’ve seen in the social sector over the last 20 years come from people so obsessed with a particular framework that they don’t acknowledge the complexity of the world.

Q: How do you want readers to use this book?

A: I think most everyone is going to come to this with one of these tools as a framework that they’re already using. Maybe they come from the business world and use a market mindset. Or they come from journalism and they bring a storytelling mindset. I hope first they would see some affirmation in what they already have, but then seed their mind with these other ways of thinking… I would also expect that someone will read this book and say, “Seven of these tools make sense to me and two of them made no sense at all.” That is OK. It’s not that everyone has to master every way of thinking. It’s just that we have to recognize that the world’s too complicated for any one way to be enough.

Q: Why is it important for this book to come out now?

A: Right now, so many of us feel emotionally overwhelmed. There’s a lot of anxiety. We need to act in the face of all these challenges, but we also need to have confidence that we actually can succeed.

Q: To what extent can philanthropy get things done when compared to governments, especially in a global issue like climate change?

A: That’s one thing that I struggled with in this book that the classic reader of this book would be a nonprofit manager or a foundation staffer. But there are lots of people in the business world and in government working full time to make a better world. And they need tools too. The people in government trying to figure out the right policies to address climate change need to have frameworks in their minds as well. And we actually need every sector applying every lesson to address a question like climate change. Climate change, to me, is the perfect example of a problem that can’t be solved with a single solution.

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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December 1, 2022
Tough Oregon gun law faces legal challenge, could be delayed

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PORTLAND, Ore. — Midterm voters in Oregon narrowly passed one of the toughest gun control laws in the nation, buoying the hopes of gun control supporters, but the new permit-to-purchase mandate and ban on high-capacity magazines now faces a lawsuit that could put it on ice just days before it’s set to take effect.

A federal judge in Portland will hear oral arguments Friday on whether Measure 114, which is scheduled to go into law Dec. 8, violates Americans’ constitutionally protected right to bear arms. Depending on the outcome, the groundbreaking law could be delayed for months or longer as it works its way through the courts, legal experts said.

The Oregon ballot measure is part of a national trend of gun policy being decided by voters because “significant reform is stalled and that has put all the battles over gun control and gun safety at the state level,” said Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor and expert in gun policy at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.

“Ballot measures are one way for people to seize the reins of policy-making. People can act for themselves to change the law and on an issue like gun safety there is a really growing and active gun safety movement in America,” he said. “That’s not something we probably would have said 20 years ago.”

Measure 114, which passed by a slim majority in November, was born out of concern about the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida and gained public momentum last spring following massacres at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y. and at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, said Mark Knutson, chairman of the interfaith Lift Every Voice Oregon campaign and pastor at Portland’s Augustana Lutheran Church.

“The arc of the moral universe is bending towards justice, and justice today is going to be ending gun violence in this country,” he said. “That’s why I trust this process will work … and a year and a half, two years from now, it’ll be 70% of the population saying this was the right thing to do — not the 51% that passed it.”

The biggest legal flash point is a ban on magazines over 10 rounds unless they are owned by law enforcement or a military member or were owned before the measure’s passage. Those who already own high-capacity magazines can only possess them in their homes or use them at a firing range, in shooting competitions or for hunting as allowed by state law after the measure takes effect.

The law also requires gun buyers to obtain a permit to purchase a new gun. Permit applicants must take a state-approved, hands-on gun safety training course with live or dry rounds, submit a photo ID and undergo fingerprinting and a criminal background check. The state will keep a list of permit-holders that’s exempt from public disclosure; the $65 permits will be good for five years and can be used to buy multiple guns in that five-year period with a fresh background check.

The lawsuit filed by the Oregon Firearms Federation, a local sheriff and a gun store owner asks the court to declare the law unconstitutional and issue an injunction to prevent it from going into effect next week. Alternatively, the plaintiffs seek a partial order on the high-capacity magazine ban.

John Kaempf, attorney for the plaintiffs, declined to comment before Friday’s hearing.

His filing cites a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June which struck down a New York law that placed limits on carrying guns outside the home. That 6-3 ruling indicated a shift in the way the nation’s high court will evaluate Second Amendment infringement claims and resulted in the court sending a similar ban on high-capacity magazines in California back to a lower court for review.

Legal experts say Oregon’s ban on high-capacity magazines will face the same scrutiny and the court will also take a close look at Oregon’s “permit to purchase” mandate to determine if the additional steps now required to gain access to firearms are also a Second Amendment violation, said Norman Williams, a constitutional law professor at Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon.

While supporters of Measure 114 have cited the recent mass shootings in Colorado and Virginia as further evidence the law is needed and timely, Williams says that likely won’t have much bearing on the courts’ rulings in this case.

“It’s going to take the federal courts months, if not years, to sort out what parts of Measure 114 are constitutional and what parts, if any, aren’t … and I think this is the type of measure that the U.S. Supreme Court itself might have some interest in reviewing,” he said.

“Proponents of gun safety regulations, in emphasizing the continuing gun violence in our society, are in some sense making an argument that doesn’t resonate with the federal judges considering the constitutionality of these measures.”

Details about the permit process and hands-on training are still being worked out and some local agencies have complained they don’t have the budget or staff necessary to enforce the law’s provisions. Several local sheriffs have said publicly they won’t enforce the law in their jurisdictions.

State lawmakers are likely to advance legislation to aid the law’s implementation and provide funding in the upcoming session, said Elizabeth McKanna, chair of the Measure 114 legislative committee.

The uncertainty around Measure 114’s future has driven a surge in firearms sales that began after it passed as gun owners worry they might not be able to obtain a new permit for weeks or months if some or all of it goes into effect.

As of this week, Oregon State Police had more than 35,000 pending background check transactions for gun purchases and was averaging 3,000 requests a day compared to less than 900 a day the week before Measure 114 passed, according to agency data. On Black Friday, the agency received 6,000 background check requests alone, OSP Capt. Kyle Kennedy said in an email.

Shaun Lacasse, vice president of The Gun Room Inc., said the increase in background checks reflects the increase in gun sales he’s seen at his store in response to anxiety about the impacts of the new law.

“How long is it going to take for all of that system to get started and be implemented? It’s going to be months — many many months — before the first permits are even going to be able to be issued,” said Lacasse, who said sales at his Portland business have at least quadrupled since the law passed.

“We don’t how long we’re going to have to be in purgatory until this is all sorted out.”

Meanwhile, OSP is “working diligently” with local law enforcement agencies to implement the law next week, Kennedy said.

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Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter here.

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November 30, 2022
Prosecutor: Weinstein a ‘degenerate rapist’ and ‘predator’

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LOS ANGELES — Harvey Weinstein was a “predator” with unmistakable patterns who used his Hollywood power to lure women into meetings, sexually assault them and escape the consequences, a prosecutor said in closing arguments Wednesday at the former movie mogul’s Los Angeles trial.

Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez said the accusers who testified during the trial entered Weinstein’s hotel suites or let him into their hotel rooms with no idea what awaited them.

“Who would suspect that such an entertainment industry titan would be a degenerate rapist?” Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez said to jurors.

She constantly emphasized the similarity of the testimony of the four women Weinstein is charged with raping or sexually assaulting and the four other accusers who testified to show his propensity for such acts.

“These are eight women who do not know each other,” Martinez said, showing the jury a composite image of all of them on a screen. “They all describe the same conduct by the same man.”

Weinstein’s attorneys have said, and are likely to argue in their own closing Thursday, that two of the women had consensual sex for career advancement with the movie producer. His attorneys have said the encounters with the other two women didn’t happen at all.

After more than five weeks of testimony, jurors, who are expected to get the case Thursday, will be tasked with deciding on two counts of rape and five other counts of sexual assault dating from 2005 to 2013. Weinstein, 70, has pleaded not guilty.

In her closing, Martinez outlined what she said were Weinstein’s consistent tactics across decades. He would arrange to meet with a woman at a hotel. Then he would find a way to bring her into his suite. He would then go from “charming and complimentary to aggressive and demanding,” she said, either masturbating in front of them, groping them or raping them, often finding ways to prevent them from leaving.

“For this predator, hotels were his trap,” Martinez said. “Confined within those walls victims were not able to run from his hulking mass. People were not able to hear their screams, they were not able to see them cower.”

She noted that many of the women before their assaults were reassured by the presence of other women who worked with Weinstein. Those women would suddenly and unexpectedly leave the victims alone and isolated with him, Martinez said.

“He used women to make these women feel comfortable,” Martinez said, “to get their guard down.”

Three such women testified during the trial. All said they had little memory of the accusers or the meetings they had allegedly led them to, which Martinez called “convenient,” suggesting they had betrayed their fellow women.

“Isn’t there a girl code?” Martinez said. “Apparently, if you know the defendant, there is no girl code.”

She said that during the encounters, Weinstein ignored clear and repeated signs of lack of consent.

She frequently harkened back to a line from a witness who seemed of minimal importance when he was on the stand, Weinstein’s LA limo driver Freddy Baroth, who testified that he was often ordered to run red lights when Weinstein was in a hurry, saying “when Harvey wants to go, you go.”

“He didn’t care about ‘no’s,” Martinez said. ”He didn’t care about red lights.”

She used variations of the image throughout her argument.

Weinstein, sitting at the defense table, did not look across the courtroom at Martinez during her presentation, staring forward, looking at the screen she was projecting images on, and occasionally looking down to make notes.

During their cross-examinations of the women, defense attorneys often challenged them over continued associations with Weinstein after their alleged assaults. Some met with him or emailed him again. Others attended parties and premieres at his invitation. A massage therapist who alleged he assaulted her after one treatment twice agreed to treat him again.

Martinez urged jurors not to make too much of such choices by the women, saying they were the result of deliberate attempts by Weinstein to cover up what he had done to them.

“If his victims were photographed at these parties,” she said, “if they took these meetings, how could they accuse him of sexual assault?”

She said he used his power as much after the assaults as he did before and during them.

“He used that power to live his life without the repercussions of his predatory behavior,” Martinez said.

The proceedings have coincided with several trials on both coasts of Hollywood men with #MeToo implications, including the rape trial just down the hall of Danny Masterson, which was declared a mistrial while Martinez was giving her closing argument.

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: twitter.com/andyjamesdalton

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For more on the Harvey Weinstein trial, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/harvey-weinstein

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November 30, 2022
Report: California gun data breach was unintentional

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s Department of Justice mistakenly posted the names, addresses and birthdays of nearly 200,000 gun owners on the internet because officials didn’t follow policies or understand how to operate their website, according to an investigation released Wednesday.

The investigation, conducted by an outside law firm hired by the California Department of Justice, found that personal information for 192,000 people was downloaded 2,734 times by 507 unique IP addresses during a roughly 12-hour period in late June. All of those people had applied for a permit to carry a concealed gun.

The data was exposed just days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people have a right to carry guns in public. The decision invalidated a California law that said people must give a reason for wanting to carry a concealed weapon, such as a threat to their safety. Lawmakers then tried to pass new restrictions for concealed carry permits, but failed.

Investigators said they “did not uncover any evidence that the timing of the (data breach) was driven by a nefarious intent or was personally or politically motivated in any way.” Instead, they said state officials planned to publish what they thought was anonymous data “to meet anticipated heightened public interest in firearms-related data” following the court ruling.

An intentional breach of personal information carries more stiff fines and penalties under California law, according to Chuck Michel, an attorney and president of the California Rifle & Pistol Association. Michel said his group is preparing a class action lawsuit against the state. He noted the leaked data likely included information from people in sensitive positions — including judges, law enforcement personnel and domestic violence victims — who had sought gun permits.

“There is a lot of gaps and unanswered questions, perhaps deliberately so, and some spin on this whole notion of whether this was an intentional release or not,” he said. “This is not the end of the inquiry.”

The Department of Justice contracted with the Morrison Foerster law firm to investigate the data exposure. The firm said it had “the mandate and autonomy to conduct an independent investigation that followed the facts and evidence wherever they led.”

Officials at the California Department of Justice did not know about the breach until someone sent Attorney General Rob Bonta a private message on Twitter that included screenshots of the personal information that was available to download from the state’s website, the investigation said.

State officials at first thought the report was a hoax. Two unnamed employees — identified only as “Data Analyst 1″ and “Research Center Director” — investigated and mistakenly assured everyone that no personal information was publicly available.

Meanwhile, the website crashed because so many people were trying to download the data. Another group of state officials worked to bring the website back online, unaware of the breach. They got the website working again at about 9:30 p.m.

State officials would not disable the website until about noon the next day. By then the information had already been downloaded thousands of times.

State officials thought they were providing anonymous information in the aggregate for research and media requests about the use of guns in California. But the employee who created the website included several datasets that contained personal information.

Investigators found that no one — neither the employee who compiled the data nor the officials that supervised the employee — knew the proper security settings to prevent the data from being available for public download.

“This was more than an exposure of data, it was a breach of trust that falls far short of my expectations and the expectations Californians have of our department,” Bonta, the attorney general, said in a news release. “I remain deeply angered that this incident occurred and extend my deepest apologies on behalf of the Department of Justice to those who were affected.”

Other information was also mistakenly released, including data from firearms safety certificates, dealer record of sale and the state’s assault weapons registry. That data included dates of birth, gender and driver’s license numbers for more than 2 million people and 8.7 million gun transactions. But investigators said there wasn’t enough information in those datasets to identify anyone.

Investigators recommended more training and planning for state officials, including a review and update of policies and procedures.

“This failure requires immediate correction, which is why we are implementing all of the recommendations from this independent report,” Bonta said.

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November 30, 2022
GivingTuesday raises $3.1B for charities in tough economy

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NEW YORK — GivingTuesday raised a record $3.1 billion in 24 hours for charitable causes in the U.S. earlier this week, as the event that started as a hashtag in 2012 celebrated its 10th anniversary and its status as a staple of fundraising for nonprofits.

Despite the difficult economic year that many households have experienced, with inflation in the costs of basic goods, gas and housing, people were still willing to give, said Asha Curran the CEO of GivingTuesday.

“That’s really what we saw yesterday,” she said Wednesday night. “That whatever it is that people are experiencing, they were as generous as they had the capacity to be.”

GivingTuesday estimated that giving increased about 15% from 2021′s $2.7 billion, outpacing inflation. Donations were tallied using an array of data sources that includes major community foundations, companies that offer fundraising software, the payment processor PayPal and large grantmakers like Fidelity Charitable and Vanguard Charitable. Their methodology for compiling the estimate seeks to eliminate duplicate data points, Curran said.

In another measure of the resilience of donations, Fidelity Charitable said Tuesday that for the first time since 2018, the value of grants from its donor advised funds exceeds the value of investments going into the funds.

The organization said this year was the largest amount donated on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving as long as they’ve tracked it.

The hashtag to promote fundraising on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving started in 2012 as a project of the 92nd Street Y and the organization GivingTuesday became an independent nonprofit in 2020. The organization has also launched a campaign to raise $26 million over five years to expand their database of giving.

In the tenth year of nonprofits and donors marking the day, Curran said, people continue to show incredible generosity.

“They give in a multitude of ways. It does not always have to do with money. It often has to do with community. It is very collective. It has a lot to do with people feeling like they are a fractal of a larger whole,” Curran said. “And yesterday was just one more reaffirmation of that.”

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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November 30, 2022
US Virgin Islands reach $105M settlement with Epstein estate

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The U.S. Virgin Islands announced Wednesday that it reached a settlement of more than $105 million in a sex trafficking case against the estate of financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The settlement ends a nearly three-year legal saga for officials in the U.S. territory, which sought to hold Epstein accountable after he was accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls and of causing environmental damage on the two tiny islands he owned in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The islands will be sold as part of the agreement.

“This settlement restores the faith of the people of the Virgin Islands that its laws will be enforced, without fear or favor, against those who break them,” Attorney General Denise George said.

Epstein’s estate agreed to pay the territorial government $105 million in cash and half of the proceeds from the sale of Little St. James island where Epstein owned a home and authorities allege many of his crimes took place.

The estate also will pay $450,000 to repair environmental damage on Great St. James, another island Epstein owned where authorities say he removed the ruins of colonial-era historical structures of slaves.

The money from the sale of Little St. James island will be placed in a government trust to finance projects, organizations, counseling and other activities to help residents who have been sexually abused, officials said.

“We owe it to those who were so profoundly hurt to make changes that will help avoid the next set of victims,” said George, who added that she met with three alleged victims who were trafficked and sexually exploited on Little St. James island.

A real estate company is listing the island for $55 million, noting that its features include three beaches, a helipad, a gas station and more than 70 acres (28 hectares) of land that offer “an array of subdivision possibilities” and “a comprehensive, discreetly located, infrastructure support system.”

The company also is offering Great St. James for $55 million, an island of more than 160 acres (65 hectares) with three beaches.

In addition, the estate will return more than $80 million in economic tax benefits that U.S. Virgin Islands officials say Epstein and his co-defendants “fraudulently obtained to fuel his criminal enterprise.”

The government previously accused an Epstein-owned business known as Southern Trust Co. of making fraudulent misrepresentations to qualify for the benefits.

Daniel Weiner, an Epstein estate attorney, sent a statement to The Associated Press saying that the settlement does not include any admission or concession of liability or fault by the estate or anyone else.

“The co-executors deny any allegations of wrongdoing on their part,” he wrote. “The co-executors ultimately concluded that the settlement is in the best interest of the estate.”

Weiner also noted that the estate has paid more than $121 million to 136 individuals via a victims’ compensation fund.

Epstein killed himself at a federal jail in New York in August 2019 while awaiting trial. He had pleaded not guilty to charges of sexually abusing dozens of girls, some as young as 14 years old.

Several had sued Epstein and accused him and his longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, of pressuring them into sexual trysts with powerful men.

Maxwell, who was convicted on sex trafficking and other charges, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June.

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November 30, 2022
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
US Medal of Honor recipient Hiroshi Miyamura dies at 97

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PHOENIX, Ariz. — Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura, the son of Japanese immigrants who was awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor for holding off an attack to allow an American squad to withdraw during the Korean War, has died.

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society announced that Miyamura died Tuesday at his home in Phoenix. He was 97.

Born in Gallup, New Mexico, Miyamura’s parents operated a 24-hour diner near the Navajo Nation where the family interacted with the diverse population of miners and travelers who passed along Route 66.

Miyamura’s mother died when he was 11 and his father never talked about Japan, Miyamura said in later interviews. He would earn the nickname “Hershey” because a teacher couldn’t pronounce his first name.

Miyamura worked as an auto mechanic during high school. He joined the U.S. Army late in World War II after the federal government lifted restrictions on Japanese Americans serving. Miyamura was allowed to join the 442nd Infantry Regiment, composed almost entirely of “nisei” — those born in the U.S. to parents who were Japanese immigrants.

After the war, Miyamura met Terry Tsuchimori, a woman from a family who had been forced to live at the Poston internment camp in southwestern Arizona following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. They married in 1948 and had three children.

Miyamura continued to serve in the Army Reserves and was called into action during the Korean War.

On the night of April 24, 1951, near Taejon-ni, Miyamura’s company came under attack by an invading Chinese force. Miyamura ordered his squad to retreat while he stayed behind and continued to fight, giving his men enough time to evacuate.

Miyamura and fellow squad leader Joseph Lawrence Annello, of Castle Rock, Colorado, were captured. Though wounded, Miyamura carried the injured Annello for miles until Chinese soldiers ordered him at gunpoint to leave Annello by the side of a road. Miyamura refused the orders until Annello convinced him to put him down.

Annello was later picked up by another Chinese unit and taken to a POW camp, from which he escaped.

Miyamura was held as a prisoner for two years and four months.

Upon his release, he was presented the Medal of Honor by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It had been awarded in secret while he was still a prisoner of war.

“I never ever thought I would receive the Medal of Honor for doing my duty, which I thought that’s all I was doing, was my duty,” Miyamura said in the 2018 Netflix documentary “Medal of Honor.”

Miyamura and Annello later met up and remained lifelong friends. Annello died in 2018.

After the Korean War, Miyamura returned to Gallup as a hero. More than 5,000 people came to meet his train. He spent much of the rest of his life working in town as an auto mechanic.

In his Living History documentary in the Congressional Medal of Honor Society library, Miyamura reflected on the soldiers who deserved recognition but never received it.

“There are so many Americans who don’t know what the Medal represents or what any soldier or servicewoman or man does for his country. And I believe one of these days — I hope one of these days — they will learn of the sacrifices that a lot of the men and women have made for this country,” he said.

Miyamura remained active in veterans’ issues and gave annual summer lectures to military members in Gallup, New Mexico. The talks drew hundreds of servicemen and servicewomen over the years.

In 2019, an aide announced that Miyamura had likely given his last public talk due to declining health.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer both called Miyamura a hero, saying he will be missed by many who are forever grateful for his service.

Miyamura is survived by numerous family members. Funeral arrangements are pending.

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November 30, 2022
World population at 8 billion — by the numbers

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It’s getting crowded in here.

Last month, the global population reached 8 billion for the first time, according to the United Nations. While the number of humans on the planet is expected to keep growing — peaking at around 10.4 billion by the end of the century — its demographic profile is changing. Fertility rates are gradually decreasing and several countries — most of them in Europe and Southeast Asia — will experience population declines in the next 30 years.

Thanks to better health care and improving economic conditions, people across the planet now live longer and healthier lives, though significant regional inequalities still exist.

Greater life expectancy, combined with lower fertility rates, also means that the world’s population is aging. The old-age dependency ratio — the number of people over 65 as a share of the working-age population — is projected to double in the next 30 years. This means the working-age population will need to sustain a growing number of retired people — a big challenge for social security, pension and health care systems.

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Giovanna Coi

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November 30, 2022
Colorado governor visits shooting site as community heals

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — In a crowded brewery, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis embraced Richard Fierro, the veteran hailed as a hero after tackling a shooter who killed five people and injured 17 others at the LGBTQ enclave Club Q last week.

There was a festive atmosphere Tuesday at Atrevida Beer, owned by Fierro, where patrons clutched pints of beer, a long line stretched across the room to the door, and above the bar was printed a message: “Diversity, it’s on tap.”

Fierro’s event, where Polis and the Colorado Springs mayor both made an appearance, was the paradigm of a catchphrase Fierro has repeated since the shooting: “Be nice, hug each other, take care of your neighbor.”

The hugs seemed contagious. Fierro squeezed Wyatt Kent, a drag queen whose 23rd birthday was being celebrated the night of the shooting, and chatted with his family.

Kent, who’s drag name is Potted Plant, was still reeling from the horrific night. Kent remembered shots, then collapsing below Kelly Loving, who had been shot in the chest. Squeezing her hand as they asked Siri to call 911, Kent then held Loving’s head, repeating “one more breath, just one more breath” before paramedics arrived.

The bleeding from Loving’s chest, was “like a hole in an air mattress,” said Kent, pausing and looking away. Loving was among the five dead, along with Daniel Aston, who Kent was in a relationship with. Aston had left strawberries, roses and a card for Kent’s birthday before he was killed.

Kent, who’d written 119 poems about Aston, went completely numb in the days afterward. Then, they began connecting with Aston’s family and friends, those “who loved him, it’s really healing,” they said.

Club Q’s community had been a steadfast support network, said Kent, one which has continued to undergird the community’s healing since the tragedy.

“If I pour myself out into others they will pour themselves out back into me,” said Kent, “and that’s what this community has always done.”

The broader Colorado Springs community is pouring out support for the survivors, too. At his brewery, Fierro was honored with $50,000 from a local credit union.

“I’ve never had that much money in my life,” said an astonished Fierro, who reiterated that “everyone in (Club Q) was a hero.”

Matt Gendron, chief engagement officer at Ent Credit Union and who’s employee had been in Club Q that night, said that Fierro “saved the lives of many people, including one of our family members.”

Earlier that day, Polis solemnly walked along a line of flowers, crosses and signs bearing the photos and names of the victims outside Club Q in Colorado Springs.

When he reached the end, he picked up a piece of pink chalk and drew a heart and wrote “We remember” on the pavement in front of the memorial, which had been covered with tarps to protect it from snow until his arrival.

“Five people are lost forever. We celebrate their lives. We mourn them,” Polis said while speaking to reporters afterward at the site.

Polis, who spoke earlier in the day to relatives of those killed as well as the injured, wore a gay pride ribbon pinned to the zipper of his puffy jacket. The Democrat, who became the first openly gay man elected governor in the U.S. in 2018, said he was concerned about rhetoric associating mainly transgender people with grooming and pedophilia and feared it could “inspire acts against the LGBTQ community.”

But he was also optimistic about the future of the club, a sanctuary for the LGBTQ community in the mostly conservative city of 480,000, located about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Denver.

“Club Q will be back and the community will be back,” he said.

The attacker opened fire Nov. 19 with a semiautomatic rifle inside the gay nightclub before being subdued by patrons and arrested by police who arrived within minutes, authorities have said.

The motive remains under investigation and one person is in custody.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, was being held without bond on suspicion of murder and hate crimes. Aldrich was arrested at the club after being stopped and beaten by patrons.

Hate crime charges would require proving that the shooter was motivated by bias, such as against the victims’ actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

Prosecutors have not yet filed formal charges against Aldrich, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, according to court filings by his lawyers.

Aldrich was arrested last year after a relative reported Aldrich was threatening her with a homemade bomb and other weapons, according to authorities.

Ring doorbell video obtained by The Associated Press shows Aldrich arriving at their mother’s front door with a big black bag the day of the 2021 bomb threat, telling her the police were nearby and adding, “This is where I stand. Today I die.”

Authorities at the time said no explosives were found.

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November 29, 2022
Twitter ends enforcement of COVID misinformation policy

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Twitter will no longer enforce its policy against COVID-19 misinformation, raising concerns among public health experts and social media researchers that the change could have serious consequences if it discourages vaccination and other efforts to combat the still-spreading virus.

Eagle-eyed users spotted the change Monday night, noting that a one-sentence update had been made to Twitter‘s online rules: “Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy.”

By Tuesday, some Twitter accounts were testing the new boundaries and celebrating the platform’s hands-off approach, which comes after Twitter was purchased by Elon Musk.

“This policy was used to silence people across the world who questioned the media narrative surrounding the virus and treatment options,” tweeted Dr. Simone Gold, a physician and leading purveyor of COVID-19 misinformation. “A win for free speech and medical freedom!”

Twitter’s decision to no longer remove false claims about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines disappointed public health officials, however, who said it could lead to more false claims about the virus, or the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

“Bad news,” tweeted epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding, who urged people not to flee Twitter but to keep up the fight against bad information about the virus. “Stay folks — do NOT cede the town square to them!”

While Twitter’s efforts to stop false claims about COVID weren’t perfect, the company’s decision to reverse course is an abdication of its duty to its users, said Paul Russo, a social media researcher and dean of the Katz School of Science and Health at Yeshiva University in New York.

Russo added that it’s the latest of several recent moves by Twitter that could ultimately scare away some users and even advertisers. Some big names in business have already paused their ads on Twitter over questions about its direction under Musk.

“It is 100% the responsibility of the platform to protect its users from harmful content,” Russo said. “This is absolutely unacceptable.”

The virus, meanwhile, continues to spread. Nationally, new COVID cases averaged nearly 38,800 a day as of Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University — far lower than last winter but a vast undercount because of reduced testing and reporting. About 28,100 people with COVID were hospitalized daily and about 313 died, according to the most recent federal daily averages.

Cases and deaths were up from two weeks earlier. Yet a fifth of the U.S. population hasn’t been vaccinated, most Americans haven’t gotten the latest boosters, and many have stopped wearing masks.

Musk, who has himself spread COVID misinformation on Twitter, has signaled an interest in rolling back many of the platform’s previous rules meant to combat misinformation.

Last week, Musk said he would grant “amnesty” to account holders who had been kicked off Twitter. He’s also reinstated the accounts for several people who spread COVID misinformation, including that of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose personal account was suspended this year for repeatedly violating Twitter’s COVID rules.

Greene’s most recent tweets include ones questioning the effectiveness of masks and making baseless claims about the safety of COVID vaccines.

Since the pandemic began, platforms like Twitter and Facebook have struggled to respond to a torrent of misinformation about the virus, its origins and the response to it.

Under the policy enacted in January 2020, Twitter prohibited false claims about COVID-19 that the platform determined could lead to real-world harms. More than 11,000 accounts were suspended for violating the rules, and nearly 100,000 pieces of content were removed from the platform, according to Twitter’s latest numbers.

Despite its rules prohibiting COVID misinformation, Twitter has struggled with enforcement. Posts making bogus claims about home remedies or vaccines could still be found, and it was difficult on Tuesday to identify exactly how the platform’s rules may have changed.

Messages left with San Francisco-based Twitter seeking more information about its policy on COVID-19 misinformation were not immediately returned Tuesday.

A search for common terms associated with COVID misinformation on Tuesday yielded lots of misleading content, but also automatic links to helpful resources about the virus as well as authoritative sources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 coordinator, said Tuesday that the problem of COVID-19 misinformation is far larger than one platform, and that policies prohibiting COVID misinformation weren’t the best solution anyway.

Speaking at a Knight Foundation forum Tuesday, Jha said misinformation about the virus spread for a number of reasons, including legitimate uncertainty about a deadly illness. Simply prohibiting certain kinds of content isn’t going to help people find good information, or make them feel more confident about what they’re hearing from their medical providers, he said.

“I think we all have a collective responsibility,” Jha said of combating misinformation about COVID. “The consequences of not getting this right — of spreading that misinformation — is literally tens of thousands of people dying unnecessarily.”

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November 29, 2022
Some University of California striking workers reach deal

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LOS ANGELES — Postdoctoral scholars and academic researchers on Tuesday reached a tentative labor agreement with the University of California but will remain on strike in solidarity with thousands of graduate student workers at all 10 of the university system’s campuses.

The union representing the scholars and researchers hailed the deal as a major victory and said it would provide “substantial wage increases that address cost of living.”

In addition to pay hikes of up to 29%, the agreement would provide increased family leave, childcare subsidies and lengthened appointments to ensure job security, according to a statement from United Auto Workers Local 5810.

The agreement must be ratified in a vote by members.

Letitia Silas, executive director of UC’s labor relations, said the university system was pleased to have reached a deal that honors the workers’ contributions.

“These agreements also uphold our tradition of supporting these employees with compensation and benefits packages that are among the best in the country,” Silas said in a statement.

The postdoctoral employees and academic researchers make up about 12,000 of the 48,000 union members who walked off the job and onto picket lines three weeks ago. About 36,000 graduate student teaching assistants, tutors and researchers are bargaining separately and remain on strike, calling for increased pay and benefits.

Union leaders have said the strike could be the largest work stoppage the prestigious public university system has ever faced.

The academic workers say with their current salaries they can’t afford to live in cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego and Berkeley, where housing costs are soaring.

Organizers from the United Auto Workers, which represents the employees involved, have said there is no end date for the strike.

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November 29, 2022
Virginia Walmart mass shooting survivor files $50M lawsuit

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NORFOLK, Va. — A Walmart employee who survived last week’s mass shooting at a store in Virginia has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the company for allegedly continuing to employ the shooter — a store supervisor — “who had known propensities for violence, threats and strange behavior.”

The lawsuit, which appears to be the first to stem from the shooting, was filed Tuesday in Chesapeake Circuit Court by Donya Prioleau.

Walmart, which is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, said in a statement that it was reviewing the complaint and will respond “as appropriate with the court.”

“The entire Walmart family is heartbroken by the loss of the valued members of our team,” the company said. “Our deepest sympathies go out to our associates and everyone impacted, including those who were injured. We are focused on supporting all our associates with significant resources, including counseling.”

Prioleau’s suit alleges that she has experienced post-traumatic stress disorder, including physical and emotional distress, from witnessing the rampage in the store’s breakroom on Nov. 22. Her lawsuit offers fresh details of the terrifying attack and provides a long list of troubling signs displayed by the shooter that she claims managers failed to address.

“Bullets whizzed by Plaintiff Donya Prioleau’s face and left side, barely missing her,” the lawsuit states. “She witnessed several of her coworkers being brutally murdered on either side of her.”

The lawsuit adds: “Ms. Prioleau looked at one of her coworkers in the eyes right after she had been shot in the neck. Ms. Prioleau saw the bullet wound in her coworker’s neck, the blood rushing out of it, and the shocked look on her coworker’s helpless face.”

Store supervisor Andre Bing, 31, fatally shot six employees and wounded several others before he died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot, police said.

The lawsuit alleges that Bing “had a personal vendetta against several Walmart employees and kept a ‘kill list’ of potential targets prior to the shooting.”

The list is in reference to a “death note” found on Bing’s phone and released Friday by authorities. The note appeared to contain specific references to people he worked with, but authorities redacted their names.

Bing was a Walmart team leader who had worked for the company since 2010. He was responsible for managing the overnight stocking crew, including Prioleau, who started her job in May 2021, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit claims management knew or should have known about Bing’s disturbing behavior and lists several instances of alarming conduct.

“Prior to the shooting, Mr. Bing repeatedly asked coworkers if they had received their active shooter training,” the suit states. “When coworkers responded that they had, Mr. Bing just smiled and walked away without saying anything.”

Bing “made comments to other Walmart employees and managers suggesting that he would be violent if fired or disciplined,” according to the suit, which also says Bing “was disciplined leading up to the shooting, making his violent outburst predictable.”

In another instance, Bing told co-workers “he ran over a turtle with a lawnmower just to see its (guts) spray out, which made him hungry and reminded him of ramen noodles,” the lawsuit says.

Bing was previously disciplined for bad behavior and harassing employees, but Walmart “kept employing him anyway,” the suit says.

In her court filing, Prioleau states that she and her mother attempted to take action against Bing.

Prioleau had submitted a formal complaint on a Walmart Global Ethics Statement Form indicating that Bing had “bizarrely and inappropriately commented on Ms. Prioleau’s age,” the lawsuit stated.

The lawsuit alleges that Bing told her: “Isn’t your lady clock ticking? Shouldn’t you be having kids?”

Prioleau also complained that Bing had harassed her for “being poor and being short,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit states that she also informed Walmart that Bing called her a “bitch” under his breath.

In September, Prioleau’s mother expressed concerns to a Walmart manager about her daughter’s safety “because it appeared their concerns were falling on deaf ears,” the lawsuit states.

The manager said “there was nothing that could be done about Mr. Bing because he was liked by management,” according to the suit.

Before the shooting, Bing told co-workers that “the government was watching him,” the suit says. “He kept black tape on his phone camera so no one could spy on him.”

In the note left on his phone, Bing claimed he was harassed and said he was pushed to the brink by a perception that his phone was hacked. The note also accused colleagues of mocking him.

Bing’s death note rambles at times through 11 paragraphs, with references to nontraditional cancer treatments and songwriting. He says people unfairly compared him to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Jessica Wilczewski, a Walmart employee who witnessed the shooting, told The Associated Press last week that Bing seemed to target certain people.

“The way he was acting — he was going hunting,” she said.

In a note to employees on Tuesday, Walmart president and CEO John Furner wrote that the people who were killed were “amazing, irreplaceable members of our family.”

“The Walmart Foundation also intends to contribute $1 million to the United Way of South Hampton Roads’ Hope & Healing Fund, which will support those impacted by the shooting and the broader Chesapeake community,” Furner wrote.

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November 29, 2022
Survivor of Virginia Walmart mass shooting files $50M suit

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NORFOLK, Va. — A Walmart employee who survived last week’s mass shooting at a store in Virginia has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the company for allegedly continuing to employ the shooter — a store supervisor — “who had known propensities for violence, threats and strange behavior.”

The lawsuit, which appears to be the first to stem from the shooting, was filed Tuesday in Chesapeake Circuit Court by Donya Prioleau. Walmart, which is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, did not immediately respond to a written request seeking comment on the litigation.

Prioleau’s suit alleges that she has experienced post-traumatic stress disorder, including physical and emotional distress, from witnessing the rampage in the store’s breakroom on Nov. 22.

“Bullets whizzed by Plaintiff Donya Prioleau’s face and left side, barely missing her,” the lawsuit states. “She witnessed several of her coworkers being brutally murdered on either side of her.”

The lawsuit adds: “Ms. Prioleau looked at one of her coworkers in the eyes right after she had been shot in the neck. Ms. Prioleau saw the bullet wound in her coworker’s neck, the blood rushing out of it, and the shocked look on her coworker’s helpless face.”

Store supervisor Andre Bing, 31, fatally shot six employees and wounded several others before he died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot, police said.

The lawsuit alleges that Bing “had a personal vendetta against several Walmart employees and kept a ‘kill list’ of potential targets prior to the shooting.”

The lawsuit also states that Prioleau had submitted a formal complaint on a Walmart Global Ethics Statement Form indicating that Bing had “bizarrely and inappropriately commented on Ms. Prioleau’s age.”

The lawsuit alleges that Bing told her: “Isn’t your lady clock ticking? Shouldn’t you be having kids?”

Prioleau also complained that Bing had harassed her for “being poor and being short,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit states that she also informed Walmart that Bing called her a “bitch” under his breath.

“Despite Mr. Bing’s long-standing pattern of disturbing and threatening behavior, Walmart knew or should have known about Mr. Bing’s disturbing and threatening behavior, but failed to terminate Mr. Bing, restrict his access to common areas, conduct a thorough background investigation, or subject him to a mental health examination,” the lawsuit states.

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November 29, 2022
$10M settlement announced in heat death of Georgia student

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ATLANTA — The parents of a Georgia high school basketball player who collapsed while practicing outdoors in sweltering heat and later died announced Tuesday that they have agreed to a $10 million settlement with the school district.

As part of the settlement, the Clayton County school system agreed to rename the gymnasium at Elite Scholars Academy for Imani Bell, who was a 16-year-old junior at the school when she died. A ceremony was set to be held Tuesday afternoon to commemorate that renaming, the family’s lawyers said.

Imani’s father, Eric Bell, called the renaming of the gym a “great honor,” but said the settlement is “bittersweet.”

“We’d trade everything to have her back here with us,” he said in a phone interview.

Imani collapsed on Aug. 13, 2019, after running up the football stadium steps during required conditioning drills for the girls’ basketball team, her family said in the wrongful death lawsuit filed against administrators at the school. The temperature was in the high 90s Fahrenheit (more than 35 degrees Celsius) at the time and the area was under a heat advisory.

Imani died later that day from heat-related cardiac arrest and kidney failure, the lawsuit said. An autopsy done by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation found that she had no preexisting conditions and her death was due solely to heatstroke caused by strenuous physical exertion in extreme temperatures, the family’s lawyers said.

Two coaches, Larosa Walker-Asekere and Dwight Palmer, were indicted in July 2021 on charges including murder and child cruelty in Imani’s death. That criminal case is ongoing.

Imani’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit in February 2021. Online court records show that suit was settled last month. An attorney for the family, L. Chris Stewart, said the significant settlement amount sends a message to other school districts.

“It sends a nationwide message to every school district and every athletic program … that the lives of our children matter over athletics, and every district needs to realize that no child should die from heat exhaustion,” he said. “We salute Clayton County for sending that message nationwide.”

The family has started the Keep Imani Foundation, which their lawyers said will be funded in part by funds from the settlement. Eric Bell said it will offer scholarships for students and will help schools get cold tubs to help prevent heat stroke deaths.

Bell said he wants to send a message to school officials: “Keep educating coaches, keep educating students about the dangers of heat and humidity, and try to be prepared for a situation like this.”

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November 29, 2022
Oxford school shooting trial delayed by appeal by parents

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DETROIT — The Michigan Supreme Court on Tuesday postponed the January trial for the parents of the teenager who killed four students at his high school, a victory for defense lawyers who argue that involuntary manslaughter charges don’t fit.

The court ordered the state appeals court to hear an appeal from James and Jennifer Crumbley.

The order coincidentally emerged a day before the one-year anniversary of the shooting at Oxford High School. Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time, killed four students and injured six more plus a teacher.

The now 16-year-old recently pleaded guilty to murder and terrorism.

The teen’s parents are accused of ignoring his mental health needs and making a gun accessible at home. Defense lawyers argue that the Crumbleys can’t be held criminally responsible for Ethan Crumbley’s independent acts.

The Supreme Court said the appeal is limited to whether there was “sufficient evidence of causation” to send the Crumbleys to trial.

Jury selection in Oakland County court had been scheduled for Jan. 17.

“The Crumbleys did not counsel EC in the commission of the school shooting or act jointly with EC in any way,” attorney Shannon Smith said in a court filing, using Ethan Crumbley’s initials. “To the contrary, the Crumbleys had no knowledge that their son intended to commit multiple homicides.”

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November 29, 2022
Fidelity Charitable: New grants to surpass deposits in 2022

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Fidelity Charitable, the nation’s largest grantmaker, expects 2022 will be the first year since 2018 that the value of grants from its donor advised funds exceeds the value of investments going into the funds.

Jacob Pruitt, Fidelity Charitable’s president, told The Associated Press that donations this year are on track to set a record, even before counting gifts from GivingTuesday, which has grown into a major fundraising day for charities since its launch 10 years ago. In 2021, Fidelity Charitable donated more than $10.3 billion in donor-recommended grants to more than 187,000 organizations.

“It’s kind of amazing when you think about the generosity,” Pruitt said. “Even in spite of inflation and all kinds of noise in the marketplace, our donors are truly engaging and getting money to the right places.”

Pruitt cautioned that December generally brings plenty of investments into donor advised funds — or DAFs — as people move money around for tax purposes. However, he also expects strong end-of-the-year donations as well.

“With the situation in Ukraine and all these natural disasters, our donors are ready,” Pruitt said. “That’s what these accounts are designed for. Individuals put money in and they grow. Then, when there’s a scenario where it’s needed, it can flow out in a thoughtful way. And so I think that the platform is doing what it is there to do.”

The strength of Fidelity Charitable grants comes at a time when donor advised funds are under fire for what critics call loopholes that allow donors to receive tax benefits immediately, while grants can be delayed indefinitely. The bipartisan Accelerating Charitable Efforts Act to require funds invested in donor advised funds to be granted to nonprofits within 15 years is under consideration in Congress.

Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies, said the growth of donor advised funds remains troubling because loopholes in their oversight allow billions of dollars to be parked in the funds instead of going to communities in taxes or directly to charities.

“It’s great that more money is flowing out,” Collins said. “But we want to know more. We want to know that it’s reaching charities instead of being shuffled around from DAF to DAF.”

In “ Gilded Giving 2022,” a study Collins co-authored, he found that the popularity of DAFs is speeding a shift in philanthropic donations from community-building to legacy-building gifts to universities and museums.

However, Pruitt said donor advised funds can help reverse the ongoing drop in the number of individual donors in America. He said Fidelity Charitable removed the $10,000 minimum requirement to open a donor advised fund, making it available to everyone.

“It’s simple, effective and it allowed individuals from all walks of life to have an opportunity to participate in this amazing product,” he said. “What we’re focusing on next is expanding the education and awareness in the marketplace.”

Fidelity Charitable recently began offering NFTs in an effort to reach younger investors. And Pruitt said it is also working on improving its smartphone apps.

“We want to make sure that these tools are where the next generation of investors are,” he said. “We want to continue to make this simple and effective from a digital perspective so people can engage in a comfortable way.”

However, Collins said the issue with the declining number of individual donors isn’t due to a lack of technology. It’s due to a lack of money.

“Fewer middle class and lower middle class people are donating and it has nothing to do with tax laws,” he said. “It has to do with economic insecurity. They have less money and less of a cushion for donations.”

Rather than opening more donor advised funds, Collins suggests that people simply donate directly to charities in their communities, much like many nonprofits on GivingTuesday suggest.

GivingTuesday CEO Asha Curran said the day raised $2.7 billion in 2021 and offers people many ways to show their generosity.

“The relatively small act of giving something invests a person in their community in ways that have powerful knock on effects,” she said. “Once a person is a giver and really feels like ‘I have the capacity to make a difference in the world,’ there are many, many wonderful things that happen in terms of their place in their community as a result.”

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Associated Press reporter Thalia Beaty contributed to this report from New York.

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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November 29, 2022
Israeli filmmaker comments on Kashmir film stoke controversy

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NEW DELHI — Israel’s envoy to India on Tuesday denounced a filmmaker from his country after he called a blockbuster Bollywood film on disputed Kashmir a “propaganda” and “vulgar movie” at a film festival, stoking a debate about recent history that fuels the ongoing conflict.

Naor Gilon, Israel’s ambassador to India, said he was “extremely hurt” by comments made by filmmaker Nadav Lapid in which he said the movie “The Kashmir Files” was unworthy of being screened at the highly acclaimed International Film Festival of India. The event, organized by the Indian government in western Goa state, ended Monday.

“The Kashmir Files” was released in March to a roaring success and is largely set in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, when attacks and threats by militants led to the migration of most Kashmiri Hindus from the Muslim-majority disputed region. Many film critics and Kashmiri Muslims have called the film hateful propaganda, while its fans and proponents, including India’s many federal government ministers, see it as essential viewing of the plight of Kashmiri Hindus, locally called Pandits.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both claim the territory in full. In 1989, tens of thousands of mostly Kashmiri Muslims rose up against Indian rule, leading to a protracted armed conflict in the region.

On Tuesday, Gilon tweeted at Lapid, saying: “YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED.”

“I’m no film expert but I do know that it’s insensitive and presumptuous to speak about historic events before deeply studying them and which are an open wound in India because many of the involved are still around and still paying a price,” Gilon tweeted. He also accused Lapid of inflicting damage on the growing relationship between India and Israel.

The festival jury has distanced itself from Lapid’s remarks and called them his “personal opinion.” An internationally acclaimed director, Lapid’s movies “Synonyms” and “Ahad’s Knee” have won awards at major festivals.

At the time of its release, “The Kashmir Files” was endorsed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and promoted by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party by offering it tax breaks in some states governed by it.

The film, however, set off heated debates. Its supporters praised it for speaking the truth about Kashmiri Hindus, while critics said the film was aimed to stoke anti-Muslim sentiments at a time when calls for violence against India’s minority Muslims have increased.

Nonetheless, the film was a blockbuster. Made on a budget of $2 million, it has earned more than $43 million so far, making it one of India’s highest-grossing films this year.

The filmmakers of “The Kashmir Files” have repeatedly said it exposes what they call the “genocide” inflicted on the region’s Hindus and likened it to Hollywood’s ″Schindler’s List″ that tells the story of the Holocaust. But many critics, including some of Bollywood’s top directors, have called it divisive, full of factual inaccuracies and provocative.

Hindus lived mostly peacefully alongside Muslims for centuries across the Himalayan region of Kashmir. In the late 1980s, when Kashmir turned into a battleground, attacks and threats by militants led to the departure of most Kashmiri Hindus, who identified with India’s rule, Many believed that the rebellion was also aimed at wiping them out. It reduced the Hindus from an estimated 200,000 to a tiny minority of about 5,000 in the Kashmir Valley.

Most of the region’s Muslims, long resentful of Indian rule, deny that Hindus were systematically targeted, and say India helped them to move out in order to cast Kashmir’s freedom struggle as Islamic extremism.

According to official data, over 200 Kashmiri Hindus were killed in the last three decades of the region’s conflict. Some Hindu groups put the number much higher.

Tensions in Kashmir returned in 2019, when India’s Hindu nationalist government stripped the region’s semi-autonomy, split it into two federal territories administered by New Delhi and imposed a clampdown on free speech accompanied by widespread arrests. Kashmir has since witnessed a spate of targeted killings, including that of Hindus. Police blame anti-India rebels for the killings.

On Tuesday, “The Kashmir Files” actor Anupam Kher, who plays a protagonist, called the criticism of the film “preplanned.”

“If the Holocaust is right, then the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits is also right,” Kher said in a video posted on Twitter.

“The Kashmir Files” is directed by Vivek Agnihotri, whose previous film “The Tashkent Files” alleged a conspiracy in the death of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. The film was heavily criticized for presenting unproven conspiracy theories as facts.

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November 29, 2022