Robert Reich | The American Fascist 
Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog Reich writes: "I've been reluctant to use the 'f' word to describe Donald Trump because it's especially harsh, and it's too often used carelessly. But Trump has finally reached a point where parallels between his presidential campaign and the fascists of the first half of the 20th century are too evident to overlook." READ MORE
Half the Victims of Police Brutality Are People With Disabilities, Study Finds Alex Zielinski, Think Progress Zielinski writes: "Researchers have uncovered a commonly missing factor in police brutality stories: A victim's disability. According to an in-depth study published this week by the Ruderman Family Foundation, a disabled advocacy group, up to half of all people killed by law enforcement are living with a disability." READ MORE
Mounted police officer block protestors as they march, chant, shout and block
intersections and stores along Michigan Avenue's Magnificent Mile' shopping area. (photo: EPA)
esearchers have uncovered a commonly missing factor in police brutality stories: A victim’s disability. According to an in-depth study published this week by the Ruderman Family Foundation, a disabled advocacy group,
up to half of all people killed by law enforcement are living with a disability.
This is the case for the majority of the high-profile incidents in the last few years, many of which have become the face of the Black Lives Matter movement, the study finds.
The disabilities featured in these prominent cases, along with many others mentioned in the study, are not always detectable by law enforcement. But others, as with
Brian Sterner, who was thrown from his wheelchair by police who though he was faking his disability, and a
Houston double amputee shot for threatening an officer with a pen, are impossible to miss.
“Training is a necessary first step. Reforming the system follows closely behind,” said Jay Ruderman, president of the foundation. “The rights of people with disabilities must be respected just like any other American citizen.”
However, researchers say the bigger problem lies in the hands of the reporters covering these cases. The way the media often relays this information limits the public’s comprehensive understanding of disability issues, which could inform necessary change in how law enforcement officials interact with people with disabilities.
The researchers reviewed thousands of media reports of disability and police use of force between 2013 and 2015, focusing on the coverage of eight prominent cases, to compile the study’s results.
“When reporters acknowledge the presence of disability in a use-of-force incident, they routinely deploy it to generate empathy (generally good) or pity (generally a mistake) for the victims of police violence,” the report reads. “The best reporting needs to look at all the ways in which police misunderstandings about disability — and the ways those misunderstandings intensify the likelihood of an encounter — turn violent.”
People with disabilities who’ve rallied for recognition by presidential and congressional candidates this year have said that the overlap of police brutality and disability issues could give them a needed voice in the election process.
“Safe encounters with the police is a much more prominent issue now,” said Andrew Pulrang, a member of the online
disability rights campaign #cripthevote. “A lot of people wounded by police have disabilities — it’s often part of the confusion that leads to police shooting them. Hopefully this focus can have more politicians thinking about police training.”
Jenna McLaughlin | Snowden: FBI Claim That Only Apple Can Unlock Phone Is "Bullshit" Jenna McLaughlin, The Intercept McLaughlin writes: "NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden says the FBI's ostensibly last-ditch attempt to unlock San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook's iPhone is a sham." READ MORE
Bernie Sanders Wins Big With Michigan Muslims - and Political Pundits Can't Quite Believe It Ismat Sarah Mangla, International Business Times Mangla writes: "Sanders has spoken out against anti-Muslim rhetoric for months, likening such prejudice to the conditions his Jewish parents faced preceding the Holocaust." READ MORE
After Epic 39-Hour Filibuster, Missouri Senate Passes Bill Criticized as Anti-Gay Sandhya Somashekhar, The Washington Post Somashekhar writes: "It was a record for the state: For 39 hours, seven Democrats in the Missouri Senate kept up a filibuster aimed at drawing attention to, and ultimately killing, a religious freedom bill that critics called anti-gay." READ MORE
Slovenia Closes Its Border, Stranding Tens of Thousands of Migrants Laura Wagner, NPR News Wagner writes: "Slovenia said on Tuesday it would place new border restrictions on the entry of migrants, effectively blocking the way of those trying to reach western Europe through the Balkans." READ MORE
Miami's Oceanfront Nuclear Power Plant Is Leaking Rob Wile, Fusion Wile writes: "The University of Miami has found that the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant, located just south of Miami, has caused levels of tritium, a radioactive isotope, in Biscayne Bay to spike to 200-times higher than normal levels." READ MORE
Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant, located just south of Miami. (photo: Reuters)
hat is arguably America’s least-well-placed nuclear power plant is leaking radiation into the sea.
The University of Miami
has found that the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant, located just south of Miami, has caused levels of tritium, a radioactive isotope, in Biscayne Bay to spike to 200-times higher than normal levels.
“This is one of several things we were very worried about,” South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard, who is also a biological sciences professor at Florida International University,
told the Miami New Times.
“You would have to work hard to find a worse place to put a nuclear plant, right between two national parks and subject to hurricanes and storm surge.”
Turkey Point came online in the early 1970s; it supplies power to more than one million homes in South Florida. The new study blames the leaks on the reactor’s cooling canals, which were recently found to have caused a massive underground saltwater plume to migrate west, threatening a wellfield that supplies drinking water to the Florida Keys.
Mayor Stoddard argues the new study might point to violations of the federal Clean Water Act, and says only two solutions are viable: Building new cooling towers to replace the canals or shutting down the plant, the New Times reports.
“There’s a certain validation to critics in seeing this result in the study,” he says, “but more importantly, it’s now crossed the threshold of federal law here.”
FPL is not responding to requests for comment.
