Revisiting San Juan Hill, the neighborhood destroyed to make way for Lincoln Center
By Anastasia Tsioulcas
Published October 7, 2022 at 12:00 PM EDT
Lawrence Sumulong
Courtesy of Lincoln Center
Composer and trumpeter Etienne Charles, in a portrait taken inside the newly renovated David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.
Think back to the opening of the 2021 film version of the musical West Side Story. The very first thing we see is acres of rubble, and a sign: "This property purchased by the New York Housing Authority for slum clearance."
That's an allusion to a real neighborhood that was destroyed to make way for Lincoln Center. In the 1950s, San Juan Hill was mostly a community of Black and Puerto Rican residents. Their story — and even the name of their neighborhood — has been mostly scrubbed from history. Now, a new piece of music being premiered by the New York Philharmonic aims to acknowledge that past.
Long before Lincoln Center existed, San Juan Hill was a nexus for African American and Caribbean culture. It nurtured many jazz greats, who lived and played there — including alto saxophonist Benny Carter, who grew up in the neighborhood, and pianist Herbie Nichols, who was born there to parents from St. Kitts and Trinidad. Duke Ellington and cornet player Rex Stewart even co-wrote a tune named in tribute to this community, where dance halls and jazz clubs thrived.
But in the 1950s, the powerful urban planner Robert Moses led the effort to have San Juan Hill razed, with the intention of establishing a midtown campus for Fordham University and creating Lincoln Center. He displaced more than 7,000 families as well as some 800 businesses. In a 1977 interview with New York's public television station, WNET, Moses defended destroying San Juan Hill.
When the interviewer asked about San Juan Hill, Moses retorted: "Now I ask you, what was that neighborhood? It was a Puerto Rican slum. You remember it?" No, the host admitted.
"Yeah, well, I lived on one of those streets there for a number of years, and I know exactly what it was like," Moses responded. (There is no record of Moses residing in this neighborhood, according to Robert Caro's magisterial biography of Moses, The Power Broker.)
"It was the worst slum in New York," Moses insisted in the television interview. "You want to leave it there? Why? Out of account of neighborhood business? Christ, you never could have been there. That was the worst slum in New York," he bellowed, clapping his hands for emphasis. "And we cleared it out."
Professor Yarimar Bonilla is the director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College. She says Robert Moses intentionally used highly charged language about San Juan Hill.
"Robert Moses in particular," Bonilla says, "He used a lot of kind of medical language talking about the slums as these cancers that had to be eradicated and cleaned up, almost as if it was a disease that could spread."
Lawrence Sumulong / Courtesy of Lincoln Center
A mural depicting the history of San Juan Hill by graffiti and visual artist Wicked GF (Gary Fritz) and his graffiti crew The EX VANDALS, created in Brooklyn as part of the San Juan Hill: A New York Story project.
60 years after Lincoln Center's opening and a $550 million renovation later, the New York Philharmonic's home at Lincoln Center, David Geffen Hall, is reopening this weekend. Lincoln Center is taking this opportunity to readdress the narrative of its founding.
It invited Etienne Charles — a composer, trumpet player, percussionist and Guggenheim fellow — to think deeply about that complicated past, and create a piece of music that would acknowledge that hidden history. So Etienne Charles created a new work for the Philharmonic and his band, Creole Soul called San Juan Hill: A New York Story.
Charles is originally from Trinidad. He had never heard of San Juan Hill until he moved to New York to study for a master's degree at Juilliard, which is part of the Lincoln Center campus.
Charles eventually realized, however, that the razed neighborhood had significant Caribbean connections — and to jazz. Initially, Charles learned that pianist Herbie Nichols (whose roots were also in Trinidad) was from San Juan Hill. Not long after, the Jamaican pianist Monty Alexander told Charles that composer and pianist Thelonious Monk had also grown up in San Juan Hill.
"Monty Alexander came to my house," Charles recounts, "And we were working on some music for his concert. He started playing Monk's music and he's like, 'You realize Monk's music has a Caribbean bounce, right?' And I said, 'I never thought about it.' He started playing Green Chimneys — 'Boom, boom, boom, boom, ba-doo-boo, boom, boom, boom, boom, ba doo,'" Charles says, enunciating the Monk tune's rhythm. "Monk heard Caribbean music in San Jan Hill all around him."
Composer and trumpeter Etienne Charles, whose San Juan Hill: A New York Story inaugurates the newly renovated David Geffen Hall.
Charles notes that once Lincoln Center opened in 1962, even its physical campus felt literally exclusive to some. The institution's general shape, he says, is of the letter C, with a large plaza and impressive fountain facing Broadway. "And the C has its back to the neighborhood," he adds — an area that includes the Amsterdam Houses, a public housing project immediately behind Lincoln Center. "You can make huge statements with architecture," the musician observes. "It's body language with bricks."
Charles recalls an interview that he and one of his San Juan Hill collaborators, photographer Hollis King, did for this project. "Hollis asked somebody who still lives in the neighborhood, 'What was your most memorable musical event in the neighborhood?'"
"And he said," Charles continues, "My most memorable musical event was when Tito Puente played.' And then he added, 'But it wasn't in the neighborhood. It was at Lincoln Center.'" Charles pauses to let that exchange sink in. "There's sometimes that moment when somebody tells you what you see."
Charles' meditation on San Juan Hill will be the very first piece of music to be heard in the newly renovated David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. It's also the first time that Lincoln Center has ever commissioned music for the New York Philharmonic. Charles worked with a number of creative multi-discipline collaborators to make San Juan Hill come alive.
Shanta Thake is the chief artistic officer at Lincoln Center. She says commissioning Charles to write such a piece was a crucial moment of reckoning for the institution.
Michael Moran / Courtesy of Lincoln Center
The newly renovated interior of David Geffen Hall: the Wu Tsai theater.
"What an example, what a moment that would be, to open David Geffen Hall with this commission, with this story, and really confront our past head-on as we move into the future," Thake says. "Not kind of blank slate everything, but really make things more complicated for ourselves — and I think in a way actually allow us to make space for what's next."
Thake continues, "I think the cultural sector has even more of a responsibility to hold our histories and not to plaster over them. It matters whose stories we have historically told. It certainly matters that we tell our own story fully, and with all the complexity and the mistakes that we made. That's okay."
In his musical portrait of San Juan Hill, Etienne Charles wanted to move through many dimensions — chronological, stylistic, and demographic, from Gullah Geechee shipyard workers to recently arrived European communities, as well as historical moments and figures in the neighborhood.
"This piece is about showing the magic of the culture that was created when these people came together here," Charles says. "Gullah dance here, paseo rhythm there, Antillean waltz here, Sicilian folk chant there, Irish drunk song there — all of these different pieces together mixed up, the blues from the South. It created a vibe that fed not just American culture, but influenced everything that would happen and come out of New York for the next 50 years."
Charles' piece references lots of music made and heard in the neighborhood — including the Charleston dance. Although it's named after the South Carolina city, it was actually born right in San Juan Hill, thanks to composer and pianist James P. Johnson, who had grown up partly in the neighborhood and later frequently played at one of its clubs.
"Then from the Charleston, we get to the serious part," Charles explains, "Which is urban removal, with the 10 years from 1949 to 1959 when it went from the Housing Act to the groundbreaking of Lincoln Center. And then the last part is a piece called House Rent Party, where was you know, we could all come together."
Tickets for this world premiere are priced as pay-what-you-want, starting at $5 per seat, with some free tickets available the day of the performance — another way of making Lincoln Center a truly welcoming space for all New Yorkers.
San Juan Hill: A New York Story has its world premiere this Saturday.
Anastasia Tsioulcas
Anastasia Tsioulcas is a reporter on NPR's Arts desk. She is intensely interested in the arts at the intersection of culture, politics, economics and identity, and primarily reports on music. Recently, she has extensively covered gender issues and #MeToo in the music industry, including backstage tumult and alleged secret deals in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against megastar singer Plácido Domingo; gender inequity issues at the Grammy Awards and the myriad accusations of sexual misconduct against singer R. Kelly.
See stories by Anastasia Tsioulcas


Southern Alberta Institute of Technology Ensures Public Safety with Virtual Call-Back Queues
Timely Implementation of Call-Back Queue System Safely Manages Student Services
As a polytechnic institute, the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) experiences year-round enrollment dates, with programs starting throughout the year. With multiple campuses across Calgary, they have over 30,000 students enrolled at any time. Due to these rolling enrolment dates, they also have a constant influx of potential students. Consistently this year, potential students are looking for program information and want to connect with actual members of the academic departments.
A large university was experiencing long lines and unhappy students. They needed a way to manage the queue and give students their time back
SAIT turned to QLess to help manage their queues, give staff important insight into operational performance, and gave students a better way to wait.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, SAIT’s Office of the Registrar was experiencing between 100 and 150 calls per day from students and prospective students. When the pandemic hit, they realized that they would need to cancel all in-person classes and close their campuses. They also required an immediate solution to manage these calls. With campuses closed and many unknowns about the next few months of programs, the office experienced a 47 percent increase in calls from concerned students. They needed a way to help all these students efficiently.
That’s why, when they received an email about virtual call-back queues from QLess, they knew they needed to implement this system quickly. Within four days, the team was working remotely, and the virtual call-back queue was up and running.
“The experience has been fantastic. The staff love it, and the students are no longer complaining about the length of the wait times.”
— Scott Robinson
BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Colleges and universities around the globe began closing their campuses in mid-March to protect staff and students from the coronavirus. SAIT was preparing for the closure but was unsure how to transition to remote working, especially for those dealing directly with students and prospects. In addition, they knew that student calls would likely increase due to these unprecedented circumstances, as students would be worried and want to know what was happening with their education.
“The lines don’t stop during the day, especially during peak times,” said Scott Robinson, Associate Registrar. “Because of that, we’ve had to constantly monitor and manage how many employees are in the office, available to help. Lunch times, break time—they all have to be adjusted to help with these longer lines.”
Before the pandemic, students were unable to make appointments with the registrar's office. They would have to show up, join the queue and wait. Throughout the day, the lines wouldn’t stop. During peak times or periods of fewer staff, students could be waiting for hours to be seen. When preparing for the closure of campuses, SAIT knew that without face-to-face meetings, the number of calls they received, which was usually around 100 calls a day, could increase. They needed a digital solution that would let them help students efficiently, and that could be implemented immediately to prepare for the closure.
Virtual call-back queues by QLess represented the perfect solution for SAIT. After alerting the team at the registrar's office, a quick decision was made to implement the system. Within four days, staff were working remotely and the virtual system was in place. All that SAIT needed to do was to equip their employees with cell phones to manage the calls.
The solution has had many immediate benefits, including increased staff and student satisfaction. “The experience has been fantastic,” said Robinson. “The staff love it and the students are no longer complaining about the length of the wait times.”
Staff have also noticed an immediate increase in the quality of calls they were getting. Typically, they would receive many calls throughout the day that were for other departments. The QLess system helped them filter through the calls that were not for them. Now, the people entering the callback queue are real leads with specific needs. These included current or prospective students with questions or concerns that could be handled directly by the registrar’s office.
If there is a benefit to be seen from the pandemic, it could be how it has forced people and businesses to challenge traditional methods to achieve their goals. Before the pandemic, SAIT had looked into implementing a digital solution to leverage their call center system, but were worried about managing real-time calls alongside messages that needed to be returned. Their experience with QLess has shown them that virtual call-back queues have actually helped them. “Despite what we anticipated, the call-back queue doesn’t bog us down. It has actually helped us be more efficient,” said Robinson.
With call volumes increasing by over 47 percent, the call back queue has enabled the registrar’s office to serve a higher volume of students per day. By using a call-back queue, if someone does not answer or if that person hangs up, staff are no longer left waiting and can simply move onto the next person. The office has experienced a higher throughput of relevant calls, but has managed to increase the number of students served in a day from 97 students to 151. Staff have been impressed with the specific nature of the calls coming in.
Before implementing QLess, they would have many student requests come through that weren’t for their department. Having to field these calls and connect callers with the appropriate department would take up valuable time that could be spent on relevant requests. With QLess, they have noticed a steep drop in calls that are not specifically for their department, which has helped them serve students effectively. Students have adjusted to the call back service, citing that they’re happy to receive updates on their wait times and appreciative that they don’t have to wait on the line.
As the pandemic rapidly changes, plans for higher education institutes are constantly evolving. With QLess, SAIT is confident that they can manage the uncertainty, while helping concerned students and prospects efficiently. “We don’t know how the future will play out,” said Scott, “ But we do know that we will need to continue integrating these digital solutions into our everyday services in the future.”
Empower your customers to wait wherever they want with QLess.


Summer School for Women Workers in Industry
Students sitting for a group photograph in the Cloisters, 1930
Home » Browse All Collections » Summer School for Women Workers in Industry
The Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry, which ran from 1921 to 1938, was a residential summer school program that brought approximately 100 young working women—mostly factory workers with minimal education—to the Bryn Mawr College campus for eight weeks of liberal arts study. Conceived as part of the workers' education movement in the 1920s and 30s, the program was the first of its kind aimed at women in the United States. The School is also notable because in 1926, at the suggestion of students and against former College President and SSWWI founder M. Carey Thomas's wishes, Hilda Worthington Smith admitted five African-American students to the summer school at a time when Bryn Mawr College had no Black graduates. This collection includes photographs, mostly donated by SSWWI alumnae/i.
Students from the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry
Students walking down a path on the Bryn Mawr College campus.


Kicking the death penalty out of Illinois | Campaign to End the Death Penalty
By: Marlene Martin
Both the state House and Senate have passed legislation that will abolish the death penalty. As of mid-January, that bill sat on the desk of Gov. Pat Quinn. With his signature—and it was still not certain as the New Abolitionist was being produced that Quinn would sign the legislation—Illinois would become the 16th state without the death penalty.
Exonerated Illinois death row prisoners like Nathson Fields feel the significance of this moment, even before Quinn had announced his decision. “I feel elated, full of hope,” said Fields. “I spent eleven and a half years on death row for a crime I did not commit. Illinois being on the verge of tossing out the death penalty—this will affect other states. This will send the message that it can be done, it should be done.”
via nodeathpenalty.org
Feb 9, 2011 5:22:09 AM | ABOLITION, CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, ILLINOIS
“Irvine 11” charged with conspiracy | 89.3 KPCC The Orange County District Attorney has charged the so-called “Irvine 11” with conspiring to disrupt a speech by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren at UC Irvine last year. In a statement, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas defended the misdemeanor charges against the...
Court Unseals ACLU and EFF's Motions on Behalf of Twitter User Birgitta Jonsdottir Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union Today, a court unsealed three motions filed by the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) last month on behalf of Birgitta Jonsdottir, the Icelandic parliamentarian whose Twitter account records were targeted by the government in connection with its investigation related...


Exit Interview: Matt Carpenter
Last year, I spent the time immediately after the season examining each player that had made an appearance in St. Louis during the season. This series was well received and so I’m bringing this idea back for the 2013 offseason. More summaries than anything, I imagine the player coming into Mike Matheny‘s office and having a short conference before heading home for the winter. Stats are just the ones accumulated for the Cardinals during the regular season.
This year’s Exit Interview series is brought to you by Bonfyre. A large number of the United Cardinal Bloggers used Bonfyre all season long and found it a great way to interact and discuss things in a limited audience. No need to worry about some pseudo-fan crashing your Facebook conversation or trying to explain fine points in 140 characters on Twitter. Invite who you want to the group and get to talking. Share pictures as well–Bonfyre is a great way to document parties or other events, especially for folks that can’t be there. Sign up today and give it a try.
Player: Matt Carpenter
Season stats: 157 games, 717 PA, 126 R, 55 2B, 7 3B, 11 HR, 78 RBI, 72 BB, 98 K, .318/.392/.481
Hero/Goat: Hero 13, Goat 11
Overall grade: A+
Positives: If Carpenter had been able to play second base without an error a game and hit around .270 or so, this would have been a successful season for him. He did a little more than that. To break a Stan Musial record (most doubles by a lefty in Cardinal history) is an amazing symbol of what Carpenter brought to the team. He led the league in runs as well since he took to the leadoff slot like Bill Ivie to a promotional opportunity. I don’t think that you can say enough about Carpenter’s season and it’s a shame that he finished out of the top three in the MVP race.
Negatives: All that awesomeness took a toll on Carpenter. He reached 199 hits with a couple of days left in the season, but was unable to get that 200th knock. Then, in the postseason, he hit just .217 and his OBP was 100 points lower than it was during the regular schedule. Whether he just wore down or the pitching level of difficulty ramped up (it’s not like anyone else hit either), his slump in October made it difficult for the lineup to get going.
Outlook: We’ve likely seen Carpenter’s career year and he should come back to earth some next season. That said, he’s going to be an offensive plus for this team for a number of years to come. Whether that is at third base, second base, or both remains to be seen after the moves of this offseason. No matter where he plays, though, he’s likely to hit and be an asset to the team.
Next Post: Exit Interview: Adron Chambers
Previous Post: Exit Interview: Keith Butler


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Written By: Carol Roth
Article written by Carol Roth
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Carol Roth is a national media personality, ‘recovering’ investment banker, investor, speaker and author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Entrepreneur Equation. She is a judge on the Mark Burnett (Shark Tank, The Voice, Survivor, The Apprentice) produced technology competition series, America's Greatest Makers, airing on TBS and Host of Microsoft's Office Small Business Academy show. Previously, Carol was the host and co-producer of The Noon Show, a current events talk show on WGN Radio, one of the top stations in the country, and a contributor to CNBC, as well as a frequent guest on Fox News, CNN, Fox Business and other stations. Carol's multimedia commentary covers business and the economy, current events, politics and pop culture topics. Carol has helped her clients complete more than $2 billion in capital raising and M&A transactions. She is a Top 100 Small Business Influencer (2011-2015) and has her own action figure. Twitter: @CarolJSRoth


Ushering in a new era of computing | MIT News
December 21, 2022 by Rebecca
As a graduate student doing his master’s thesis on speech recognition at the MIT AI Lab (now the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory), Dan Huttenlocher worked closely with Professor Victor Zue. Well known for pioneering the development of systems that enable an user to interact with computers using spoken language, Zue traveled frequently to Asia — where much of the early research in speech recognition happened during the 1980s. Huttenlocher occasionally accompanied his professor on these trips, many of which involved interactions with members of MIT Industrial Liaison Program, as he recalls. “It was a tremendous opportunity,” according to Huttenlocher, “and it was a large part of what built my interest in engaging with companies and industry in addition to the academic side of research.”
Huttenlocher went on to earn his PhD in computer vision at the Institute and has since embarked on a career that encompasses academia, industry, and the philanthropic sector. In addition to solidifying his status as an esteemed researcher in the academic realm, he spent 12 years as a scientist at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center before leaving to co-found a financial technology company. He served on the board of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation from 2010-22 (including as chair starting in 2018), and serves on the boards of directors at Amazon.com and Corning, Inc. He also helped found Cornell Tech, the technology, business, law, and design campus in New York City built by Cornell University. There, he was the school’s first dean and vice provost, guiding its efforts to tie together industry and computing to enhance New York’s tech ecosystem.
Today, Huttenlocher serves as the inaugural dean at MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. To highlight the significance of this moment in time, and the need for an interdisciplinary computing hub like the college of computing, he references the oft-cited prediction that software would gobble up and disrupt traditional industry structures. Huttenlocher believes that while this insight was right, what we’re experiencing now is something different, greater, with vast implications for humanity. Computing on the whole — not only software but also hardware, algorithms, and machine learning — has evolved to the point where it is redefining our approach to problem-solving in nearly every industry sector, discipline, and area of research. This, he suggests, is also redefining reality as we experience it.
With Huttenlocher steering, the college is both recognition and response to a new era of computing. It explores ways to support, but also to lead, the technological changes that are reshaping the world. A bidirectional, interdisciplinary approach is key to the agenda, according to Huttenlocher. “We want to harness the forefront of results in computing and infuse them with the other disciplines,” he says. “This means helping departments outside of computing stretch toward computing, but we also want to help the computing fields to stretch toward the other disciplines.” To accomplish this, Huttenlocher and the college aim to forge strong ties and collaborations in education and research between computing and a broad range of disciplines at MIT, across all five schools, departments, and programs at the graduate and the undergraduate levels.
From an operations standpoint, the college is not yet three years old, but Huttenlocher has already overseen the rollout of several programs and initiatives that build toward the infusion of computing with other disciplines. MIT committed to the creation of 50 new faculty positions for the college: 25 in computer science and artificial intelligence, and 25 shared positions rooted in other academic departments not primarily focused on computing. Thus far, it has hired 25 new faculty members with a half-dozen in shared positions.
He has also overseen the development of Common Ground for Computing Education, a platform that unites experts from departments across the Institute to develop and teach new courses and launch programs that blend computing with the other disciplines. It aims to capitalize on the ubiquity of computing through a coordinated approach to computing education at the Institute. Current common ground subject offerings include “Interactive data visualization and society,” “Solving real-world problems with optimization and computational imaging: Physics to algorithms,” and “Julia: Solving real-world problems with computation.”
The Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC), meanwhile, is a cross-cutting initiative that encourages responsible technology development and deployment by incorporating insights and methods from the humanities and social sciences with an emphasis on social responsibility. “SERC brings together multiple viewpoints — social scientists and humanists, engineers and computer scientists — because so much of understanding the societal and ethical challenges of computing is about combining expertise across these disciplines,” says Huttenlocher. The initiative relies on a clearly defined teaching, research, and engagement framework designed to assess the broad challenges and opportunities associated with computing while fostering what it refers to as “responsible habits of mind and action” in MIT students who create and deploy computing technologies. Proving demand and impact, in 2021 more than 2,100 students were enrolled in subjects in which SERC worked with instructors to incorporate social and ethical issues into the syllabus.
In his book, “The Age of AI: And Our Human Future” (Little, Brown, 2021), co-authored with Henry Kissinger and Eric Schmidt, Huttenlocher explores the ways in which artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing how we view ourselves as human beings, our role in society, how we perceive the world around us, and the need for collaboration across disciplines to define the future. Reflecting on what he and his colleagues have been able to accomplish at the college in such a short time frame, Huttenlocher says he is impressed with and proud of what so many at MIT have already contributed to. But that the work is far from finished: “I believe are now getting to the point where we are starting to have impacts in parts of MIT, but we’re working toward broad impact, an infusion between computing and the disciplines across the Institute — that is the aspiration of MIT Schwarzman College of Computing,” he says.
Categories Artificial intelligence Tags Common Ground for Computing Education, Cornell Tech, Dan Huttenlocher, interdisciplinary collaboration, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, MIT administrators, MIT Industrial Liaison Program, MIT News, MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC), The Age of AI: And Our Human Future, Victor Zue
Large language models help decipher clinical notes | MIT News
Busy GPUs: Sampling and pipelining method speeds up deep learning on large graphs | MIT News


« His cis, straight, liberal parents
At a conference on preventing cyberbullying »
Such a starkly disproportionate impact
Aug 20th, 2018 | By Ophelia Benson
That Georgia county that’s planning to close 7 of its 9 polling places is getting a lot of attention from civil rights groups.
The closures would come just before a high-stakes midterm election in which Stacey Abrams, a black woman, is the Democratic nominee for governor.
“This is nothing more than a racially motivated, voter suppression scheme that aims to lock Black voters out of a historic election cycle,” Kristen Clarke, who leads the Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights Under Law, tweeted on Sunday. The Lawyers’ Committee, representing three Georgia civil rights groups, sent a letter to the Randolph County Board of Elections and Registration threatening legal action if the plan moves forward.
It’s a rural county, with no public transportation, and a majority-black population.
Some residents would have to travel more than 10 miles to vote in a county that lacks public transportation. According to the Census Bureau, the county is more than 60 percent black, and 30 percent of residents live in poverty, nearly twice Georgia’s 16 percent statewide poverty rate.
Last week, the Georgia chapter of the ACLU likewise threatened legal action against the county. In a letter, the group pointed out that the transportation difficulties of reaching a polling location would fall disproportionately on the county’s poor, black, rural voters. “When polling place configurations or closures have such a starkly disproportionate impact on racial minorities or lower-income rural voters without transportation, such closures almost certainly constitute a violation of the Voting Rights Act or the United States Constitution,” the letter warned.
That kind of crap used to be absolutely routine in the South, and that’s why Johnson pushed for the Voting Rights Act.
The election board defended its plan at two contentious public meetings last week, according to the local Fox affiliate. A consultant hired by the board explained that the seven locations slated for closure are not compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act, and the board doesn’t have time to fix the problem before the election. The Lawyers’ Committee, finding the justification unreasonable, submitted a public records request in order to acquire information about how the board reached its decision. Georgia’s secretary of state, Brian Kemp, who is also the Republican nominee for governor, issued a statement urging the county to abandon the plan; Abrams likewise announced her opposition.
The plan to close these precincts was made possible by the Supreme Court, which in 2013 struck down a provision of the Voting Rights Act that required jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination to clear changes to voting procedures with the federal government. In his decision, Chief Justice John Roberts said that the South had changed since the law passed in 1965, and that the burden of clearing changes with the government was no longer necessary.
Ha. Ha ha ha fucking ha.
Close down the polling locations, that’ll fix ’em
Voting is for solid citizens with plenty of $$
Enormous, disproportionate impact on black minority women
Welcome, voters, how long can you hold it?
868 fewer places to vote
3 Responses to “Such a starkly disproportionate impact”
tiggerthewing
So, the answer to polling stations which might be inaccessible to Americans with disabilities is…
…tada! To make them inaccessible to everyone else, too.
Ummm… do they really think that everyone else can’t see the problem with that?
To be fair I think there are situations in which legally people are better off shutting a facility down (temporarily) rather than keeping a non-compliant one open. But yeah, in this case that’s not looking at all plausible. As someone pointed out in the article, they were non-compliant before, too, yet the county didn’t shut them down until now…when a black woman is the Dem candidate for governor. Mmhmm.
Shutting down a non-compliant facility, in order to move the polling to a compliant one, is a sensible move. But shutting it – and most of the others – down, without replacing them? Criminal.


City Hall, news, Social Justice 1 Comment
After Teachers Strike, Brooklyn Friends School Recognizes Union
October 8, 2020 By Maria Abreu
(Photo via @BFSUnion on Twitter)
After two days of striking, a Quaker school in Downtown Brooklyn has agreed to recognize a union formed by its teachers and staff.
“The strike which began on Monday ended last night,” the Brooklyn Friends School union announced on Twitter, calling the move “a complete victory for the workers.”
The decision came after BFS teachers, teachers from other schools, members of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and families picketed on Monday and Tuesday in front of the school’s building, at 375 Pearl Street. Some parents set up a GoFundMe campaign to support the strikers, raising more than $58,500 as of this morning. The money will be refunded since the teachers can now return to work.
“At the moment, all that matters is reopening our doors (virtual and physical) for our students,” the school wrote in an email “They need school and the care that it offers. We will continue working towards a Collective Bargaining Agreement contract with the UAW that will allow us to open the lines of communication with the purposes of providing better care for our colleagues.”
Megan Glionna, a third-grade teacher at BFS, took her children to the protests. She initially chose to teach at the Quaker school and enrolled her children as students because of its promotion of liberal values and social justice. It was frustrating for her not to be able to be part of a union when so much of the school’s curriculum is about civil rights.
“I am thrilled the petition was withdrawn and we can go back to work and school,” said Glionna. “My daughters learned an important lesson about standing up for what is right. Last night when i put my youngest to bed she said, ‘Mom, I’m proud of you.’”
The faculty and staff voted to unionize in the spring of last year in part because of a lack of a place to go to for grievances (the school only hired its first HR director last month, according to Glionna). The union was also meant to “ensure transparent procedures for evaluation and grievances, establish equitable hiring and termination protocols and demand equitable pay for all workers,” as stated on its website.
With over 80 percent voting in favor of unionizing, contract talks began at the end of 2019. However, the coronavirus pandemic delayed negotiations. In the interim, Crissy Cáceres was hired as the new head of school in the summer.
“The new head of school was going to start in July and asked us (in an email) not to vote for the union,” said Glionna. “She did not want to work for an unionized school.”
Cáceres’ reasoning behind disbanding the union, the New York Times reported, was based on a June decision by the National Labor Relations Board to reverse an Obama-era ruling regarding the Board’s jurisdiction over faculty members at religious institutions. Essentially, it takes away religious affiliated institutions’ rights to organize.
“That you would now question that right based on a reactionary Trump-dominated Labor Board precedent is unconscionable,” said the BFS union in an open letter to Cáceres. “Standing behind a policy that unfairly restricts the rights of workers to unionize, serves to delegitimize the school’s legacy of integrity and social justice.”
Now, with many schools struggling to reopen and without a clear plan ahead, Glionna believes that being part of a union is more crucial than ever.
“So much of the reopening plan needs teacher involvement that school admins don’t recognize. Having teachers in those conversations is so critical and a union is important for that. Unions are crucial to protecting workers rights, particularly during a global pandemic,” she said.
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Looks like Brooklyn Friends has seen the light, congratulations!


COVID-19 expert: Coronavirus will rage 'until it infects everybody it possibly can'
Ken Alltucker
A high-profile infectious disease researcher warns COVID-19 is in the early stages of attacking the world, which makes it difficult to relax stay-at-home orders without putting most Americans at risk.
Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said the initial wave of outbreaks in cities such as New York City, where one in five people have been infected, represent a fraction of the illness and death yet to come.
"This damn virus is going to keep going until it infects everybody it possibly can," Osterholm said Monday during a meeting with the USA TODAY Editorial Board. "It surely won’t slow down until it hits 60 to 70%" of the population, the number that would create herd immunity and halt the spread of the virus.
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Even if new cases begin to fade this summer, it might be an indicator that the new coronavirus is following a seasonal pattern similar to the flu.
During the 1918 flu pandemic that sickened one-third of the world's population, New York City and Chicago were hit hard in the first wave of illness that largely bypassed other cities such as Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis and Philadelphia. The second wave of illness was much more severe nationwide.
More:Antibody tests were supposed to help guide reopening plans. They've brought more confusion than clarity.
More:To find a coronavirus vaccine, can we ethically infect people with a disease with no cure?
If COVID-19 retreats only to return in the fall, the number of cases could peak and overwhelm hospitals that must deal with cases of flu and respiratory viruses. Furthermore, Asian nations such as South Korea and Singapore, lauded for strict controls and rapid testing to avoid damage during the first wave, might be vulnerable to a second wave of infections, he said.
"It’s the big peak that’s really going to do us in," he said. "As much pain, suffering, death and economic disruption we’ve had, there’s been 5 to 20% of the people infected, ... That’s a long ways to get to 60 to 70%."
Still, there are key differences between COVID-19 and the flu. The average incubation period for the new virus is five days, compared with just two days for the flu, according to a Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy report comparing the pandemics.
The longer incubation period and a higher transmission rate suggest the COVID-19 virus spreads more easily than the flu.
There were nearly 80,000 deaths and more than 1.3 million confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the U.S. at noon Monday, according to the Johns Hopkins University data tracker. New York state has been hit the hardest with more than 26,000 deaths, and preliminary antibody testing suggests about 20% of New York City-area residents have been infected.
Worldwide, more than 283,000 people have died and 4.1 million have been infected.
Osterholm said only an effective vaccine can slow the virus before a large enough segment of the population becomes infected and develops some level of immunity. Even if a vaccine works, Osterholm said, it's unknown whether it would be durable enough to confer long-lasting protection from SARS CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Most states are easing stay-at-home orders though patchwork measures that vary from one to the next. Georgia began opening in late April amid national criticism, allowing tattoo parlors, bowling alleys and hair and nail salons to reopen with restrictions. California has taken a slower, phased approach, allowing some retailers and manufacturers considered low-risk to resume operations.
Governors worry about the economic harm social distancing measures have caused with shuttered businesses and the growing ranks of jobless Americans. Unemployment has reached 15% nationwide, and a Trump administration economic adviser warned unemployment could soon reach 20%.
Osterholm acknowledges that the nation "can't lock down for 18 months" and said political and business leaders need to find a way to resume activities while adapting to a virus that won't soon disappear. He doesn't believe there has been enough of a frank assessment on the economic harm the virus will cause over coming months and its disruption to international supply chains.
"We all have to confront the fact there’s not a magic bullet, short of a vaccine, that’s going to make this go away," he said. "We’re going to be living with it. And we’re not having that discussion at all."


Meet the Detroiter made infamous by an iconic anti-war poster
By Michael Jackman on Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 10:15 am
http://a1a.in/the-never-earlier-than-told-story-of-the-man-in-the-injurious-fuck-the-draft-posters/
An event this weekend will mark 50 years since anti-war activists attempted an "exorcism" of the Pentagon, and will feature the man from Detroit who burned a draft card and became part of a historic piece of anti-war agitprop.
It's a long story, one that has been told better several times before. Bill Greenshields and some other Detroiters resisting the military draft for the Vietnam War made their way to Washington, D.C. in October 1967. That's where Allen Ginsberg, Abbie Hoffman, Ed Sanders, and the Fugs were leading a protest that would "levitate" the Pentagon and exorcise the building of its evils.
No brick or mortar were elevated, of course. But as this all took place, draft resisters were burning their draft cards. Perhaps it was something in the way Greenshields seemed hypnotized by his flaming draft card that made somebody snap a photo.
That photo would soon appear in Kiyoshi Kuromiya’s famous “Fuck the Draft” poster, which Greenshields would only discover later, in an underground magazine published by his childhood friend Harvey Ovshinsky, some rag called The Fifth Estate.
After his family and friends were questioned by the FBI, Greenshields decided, "discretion is the better part of valor here, so I decided to get out of Detroit, hitchhike out west and keep moving around."
Now, 50 years after the protest at the Pentagon, Greenshields will speak at Trinosophes. He's reputed to be quite a storyteller, and should be an entertaining speaker.
An original copy of Kuromiya's poster is on exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit's Sonic Rebellion exhibit.
Out, Demons, Out! featuring Bill Greenshields with special guests, takes place after 9 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 25, at Trinosophes, 1464 Gratiot Ave., Detroit; 313-737-6606; $6 admission.
Trinosophes,
Bill Greenshields,
levitate the Pentagon,
Abbie Hoffman,
Ed Sanders,
the Fugs,
Kiyoshia Kuromiya
Michael Jackman
Born in 1969 at Mount Carmel hospital in Detroit, Jackman grew up just 100 yards from the Detroit city line in east Dearborn. Jackman has attended New York University, the School of Visual Arts, Northwestern University and Wayne State University, though he never got a degree. He has worked as a bar back, busboy,...
Read More about Michael Jackman


TED NUGENT: 'Black-On-Black Crime Is Everywhere You Go, Even At The Oscars'
Ted Nugent has condemned Will Smith for walking onto the stage at the Oscars Sunday evening and slapped Chris Rock during the live broadcast.
Smith, 53, interrupted the 57-year-old comedian's introduction of "Best Documentary" with a slap across the face. The altercation came after Rock made a joke about Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith, saying, "Jada, I love ya. G.I. Jane 2, can't wait to see ya," an apparent reference to the actress's bald hairstyle as she lives with the autoimmune disorder alopecia, which attacks follicles resulting in bald spots and hair loss.
Pinkett Smith could be seen rolling her eyes, before the camera cut back to Rock, while Will Smith initially laughed from his seat. Shortly after, however, Smith's mood changed as he walked up to Rock and struck him across the face with an open hand.
"Oh wow," Rock said as Smith made his way back to his seat.
"Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me," the host said.
"Keep my wife's name out your fucking mouth!" Smith yelled up to the stage at Rock after taking his seat again.
"Wow, dude, it was a G.I. Jane joke," said Rock — to which Smith replied once again, "Keep my wife's name out your fucking mouth!"
Later in the night, Smith won the "Best Actor" award for his starring role in "King Richard". He addressed incident in his acceptance speech by apologizing to the Academy and his fellow actors for the altercation but failing to mention Rock by name.
"I want to apologize to the Academy. I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees," Smith said in part.
He added: "Art imitates life: I look like the crazy father. Just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things."
Nugent weighed in on the incident during today's (Monday, March 28) edition of "The Nightly Nuge", a news-style clip in which Ted offers his take on the news of our world every night. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Number one, black-on-black crime is quite visible [laughs] — it's everywhere you go, even at the Oscars. We got broadcast globally black-on-black crime.
"Okay, there's a number of dynamics that I would like to address," he continued. "Number one, Chris Rock has had some brilliant moments where he's identified the failure of his culture to respond adequately and properly when pulled over by the police and how to not get killed. So we applaud Chris Rock on those rare moments where logic surfaced in his life.
"With all due respect, I got to hang out at the Comedy Store with Richard Pryor, Rodney Dangerfield, Sam Kinison [and] Robin Williams, so I know that humor is supposed to be irreverent and outrageous. So Chris Rock's whole career is based on outrageous and irreverent. Certainly Will Smith knows that. And there's another time in our culture where if you were disrespectful to my woman that I should be able to coldcock you flat out in the street. Now, I have been attacked, my family, my mother, my wife, my children have been attacked publicly because I 'murder innocent animals,' which I suspect would be considered barbecue in conscientious families' lives. And you know what I do? Because I've been armed since I'm 17, and I trained with the greatest warriors of all time, and when people spit at me, when they attack the honor of my family members, you know what I do? I back away and leave. Because unless there's actual life-threatening conditions, I will not engage.
"So there's a two-edged sword here," Ted added. "Number one, I'm a huge fan of Will Smith and I'm a huge fan of Chris Rock in many ways, when I want a good guffaw or I wanna see a super action actor in a brilliant role, which Will Smith seems to have dominated over the years. But to go ahead and drop your sense of social norms in the clusterbuck [sic] of 2020 and to walk up onstage for the whole world to see and slap Chris Rock… Will, prioritize. That's not the hill you want to climb right now.
"So, there's all kinds of dynamics, but I thank Will and I thank Chris Rock, because society needs to see that there's an element of our society, most profoundly exposed in the Hollywood world, where your and my rules of engagement don't apply. Because let's go ahead and admit it right now: you and I would have been arrested. If Will Smith would have been a white guy hitting Chris Rock, he would have probably been taken out in handcuffs. But I'm glad that the whole world got to see it.
"But those days of defending the honor of our loved ones, in all practicality, those days are over," Ted said. "Because if you defend the honor of your wife in such a violent manner, you're supposed to go to jail; you're supposed to be charged with assault and battery. That was assault and battery under any jurisdictional definition.
"So it's good that the spoiled brat Hollywood people have so disconnected themselves from the rules of engagement for the rest of society that it's great we got to see it.
"Now my final statement is, as I say we finally get to see it, guess what? Almost nobody saw it, because the Oscars are so stupid and the people involved are so disconnected from society that mom-and-pop America don't watch 'em anymore because pretty much everything about Hollywood is offensive and against the traditional family values that made America great while they condemn those of us that purchase their products. And it's become so laughable.
"So there's a number of dynamics. Number one, I'm glad it happened. Number [two], I didn't see it. Number [three], I'm glad that my friends have shared that with me. But let the world know the emperor has no clothes, and he's a wart-riddled fat pig."
Rock declined to file a police report in connection with the assault, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
"LAPD investigative entities are aware of an incident between two individuals during the Academy Awards program," the LAPD said in a statement, obtained by Variety. "The incident involved one individual slapping another. The individual involved has declined to file a police report.
"If the involved party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available to complete an investigative report," the statement continued.
Earlier today, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences condemned Smith for slapping Rock during the Oscars broadcast, saying that it's reviewing the matter.
"The Academy condemns the actions of Mr. Smith at last night's show," the Academy said in a statement.
"We have officially started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our bylaws, standards of conduct and California law."
Full video: Will Smith's wife appeared upset after Chris Rock called her "G.I. Jane 2" at the Oscars. Jada Smith suffers from a condition which causes hair loss pic.twitter.com/EChVHrRvjz
— BNO News (@BNONews) March 28, 2022
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Pit bulls bite three people, including toddler, after escaping Staten Island home
Tina Moore
Social Links for Tina Moore
At least three people were bitten – including a toddler – when as many as 10 pit bulls escaped from a Staten Island home Tuesday afternoon, cops said.
Eight to 10 dogs ran away from a home on York Avenue near Prospect Avenue in New Brighton around 12:48 p.m. and attacked several people in the street, police said.
A 2-year-old girl, 13-year-old boy and 19-year-old woman suffered bites to their legs and were taken to Richmond University Medical Center, cops said. Their injuries were not life-threatening, police said.
NYPD at the scene of where at least three people were bitten by pit bulls on Staten Island on October 18, 2022.
Steve White
A 2-year-old, 13-year-old and 19-year-old were injured when as many as 10 pit bulls escaped.
A person of interest is taken into custody at the home.
Police outside of the Staten Island home where the dogs were removed.
whiite
A person of interest is led away by police.
NYPD begins to investigate the scene and removes the crates.
Eight to 10 dogs ran away from the home before attacking people nearby.
NYPD Emergency Service police officers were spotted carrying animal carriers into the home where they were then taken out one-by-one.
Several crates were seen laying on the grass in front of the property. One woman was also seen being placed in handcuffs by authorities on the front steps.
A 49-year-old man and 29-year-old woman, both considered persons of interest, were taken into custody at the scene, but no charges have been filed, at least yet, cops said.
It’s unknown at this time how many dogs were taken from the home, cops said Tuesday night.
Read Next Zeldin takes swipe at Adams for blaming subway murders on ...


Todd E. Creason
(extensively updated from original posted 4/9/12)
Martin Luther King Jr. is universally recognized as one of the principal leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States and a prominent advocate of nonviolent protest. King's challenges to segregation and racial discrimination helped convince many to support the cause of civil rights in the United States.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, he was ordained as a Baptist minister at age 18. He graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 and from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1951. In 1955 he earned a doctoral degree in systematic theology from Boston University. While in Boston, King met Coretta Scott, whom he married in 1953. He's also been identified many times over as being a Freemason.
The question is, was Martin Luther King, Jr. a Freemason? It's a little more complicated than you might think.
It was widely reported in 1999, that the Most Worshipful Brother Benjamin P. Barksdale, Grand Master of Prince Hall Freemasonry in Georgia, posthumously made Dr. Martin Luther King a Mason at sight.
That story has created a huge controversy. If true, it is one of the few instances (if not the only one) when a man was declared a Master Master after his death. Dr. King's widow, Coretta Scott King, accepted the honor on behalf of her late husband.
However, some dispute that Martin Luther King was made a Mason at sight--I've received a lot of emails on this post since I originally published it, and articles, etc. that refute those reports. They say that what Coretta Scott King accepted was actually an honorary membership from Prince Hall Freemasonry for her late husband.
However, what is clear, is that it does seem to have been Dr. King's intention to become a Mason. Both his father and his grandfather were Prince Hall Masons, and Prince Hall documents indicate that Grand Master X. L. Neal had arranged for Dr. King to become a Freemason upon his return from Atlanta in 1968. Unfortunately, his assassination in Memphis on April 4th, 1968 prevented that from happening.
So was Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. a Freemason?
No--Martin Luther King Jr. was never raised a Master Mason. But without question, Dr. King would have made a fine Mason. He was, after all, a builder, and his legacy has forever changed the world.
~TEC
Todd E. Creason, 33° is the founder of the Midnight Freemasons blog, and author of several books and novels, including the Famous American Freemasons series. He is member of Homer Lodge No. 199, and a Past Master of Ogden Lodge No. 754 (IL). He is a member the Scottish Rite Valley of Danville, the York Rite Bodies of Champaign/Urbana (IL), the Ansar Shrine (IL), Eastern Illinois Council No. 356 Allied Masonic Degrees, and Charter President of the Illini High Twelve in Champaign-Urbana (IL). He is also the author of the blog From Labor To Refreshment . . .
Labels: American History, Freemason or Not?, Great American, Myth, Prince Hall
Raymond Sean Walters January 19, 2015 at 10:14 AM
Finally, a story written on this topic that has the details correct.
This topic was written about in The Phylaxis Magazine a number of years ago, so I have been puzzled at how the facts have been skewed in the manner they have been at times.
Thank you Bro. Creason for taking the time to research and write a good article filled with FACTS.
Raymond Sean Walters, Fellow of The Phylaxis Society
http://www.thephylaxis.org
Andre' B. Clark February 26, 2015 at 4:08 AM
An older brother from my jurisdiction, who was personally acquainted with Dr. King, insists that MLK was made a mason on sight.
arjunparanthaman November 12, 2015 at 4:52 AM
This is my grandsons profile January 22, 2016 at 2:34 AM
Thank you for the great research on Martin Luther King Jr. his father and grandfather was Masons and I believe he was a Mason in his heart and should be remembered as one of the Greatest orators of the time. His words were an inspiration to all
Fraternally W. Thomas L. Hewitt West Roxbury-Dorchester lodge
Knw_thy-Self September 11, 2018 at 11:37 AM
I am a brother of the Atlanta Consistory 24A, of which GM Barksdale is a active member, He directly vouched MLK jr. was NOT made a mason on site. Can't make a dead person. It was planned to have occured thru GM John Wesley Dobbs but Mlk was assassinated before it could occur. Barksdale did establish a Grand Lodge Scholarship in his name but that was it.
Fraternally Submitted, Abdul Walker - Exodus Lodge #593 - Atlanta 3E - MWPHGLGA.
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Breaking Down Utah's Potential Bowl Matchups
By Alex Stark@starkaw23 Dec 1, 2015, 1:34pm MST
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Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
Joseph broke down some bowl projections for Utah football that can be found here. With the regular season done, it would seem that bowl projections would be straight-forward, but the situation is far more muddy than one might think. The Pac-12 currently has five teams with between two and four losses in conference. Oregon has two, USC, Utah and Washington State all have three, and UCLA has four. This means that pretty much any of these teams could theoretically go to the Valero Alamo Bowl, National University Holiday Bowl, Foster Farms Bowl, Hyundai Sun Bowl, or the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl (UCLA cannot go to the Alamo Bowl, and Oregon cannot go to the Las Vegas Bowl). The Alamo, Holiday, and Foster Farms Bowls can each pick while the Sun and Vegas Bowls must take the Pac-12 team with fewest losses (so the Sun Bowl would have to take USC/Utah/WSU over UCLA). This means that Utah could get picked over Oregon, USC, and Washington State for the Alamo Bowl or could end up falling all the way to the Las Vegas Bowl. Since Utah and Washington State have the same conference record, the scenarios in this article from Coug Center apply the same way for Utah as well.
First, let's get this matchup out of the way... Utah vs. BYU in the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl. Campus Insiders projects this matchup for the Utes. The Vegas Bowl might like this matchup since it is a historic rivalry. The Vegas Bowl has the sixth pick for a Pac-12 team, so for this to happen, the Valero Alamo Bowl, National University Holiday Bowl, Foster Farms Bowl, and Hyundai Sun Bowl would all have to pass on the Utes. Another thing going against this matchup is that bowls tend to not like having the same team two years in a row, and Utah won the Vegas Bowl last year. So, how could this happen? Well, after starting 6-0, Utah wilted down the stretch, going 3-3 in the second half of the season. They also lost their best player and biggest name: running back Devontae Booker. Utah is not a flashy team, so the other bowls may favor other teams in the Pac-12 that can score a lot of points. BYU finished the season 9-3. BYU finished the season 1-3 against Power 5 opponents, only beating 5-7 Nebraska on a last-play Hail Mary. BYU is not ranked and is currently No. 28 in the AP Poll based on the votes they have received. Utah would gain little with a win (like last year against Colorado State) but would lose a lot with a loss. This is likely the worst-case scenario for Utah when it comes to a bowl game.
Multiple predictions see Utah headed to the Hyundai Sun Bowl, but none agree on the opponent. Sports Illustrated sees the Utes taking on N.C. State. ESPN's Brett McMurphy also sees the Utes playing Miami. Lastly, Fox Sports sees Pittsburgh as Utah's opponent in the Sun Bowl. The Sun Bowl has the fifth choice of a Pac-12 team. Utah last played in the Sun Bowl in 2011, defeating Georgia Tech. The Sun Bowl would at least give the Utes a Power Five opponent. Miami and Pittsburgh both finished the season 8-4, while N.C. State finished 7-5. The game against Miami would have some intrigue because Utah assistant head coach and running backs coach Dennis Erickson won two National Championships as the coach of Miami in 1989 and 1991. Utah has also been recruiting Florida much more in recent years, so playing a name program from south Florida would certainly have some recruits watching. Miami fired head coach Al Golden after a 58-0 at home against Clemson. Since firing Golden, Miami has gone 4-1, only falling to North Carolina. N.C. State did not beat an FBS team with a winning record all season. Miami would be a good matchup since they are a well-known program. N.C. State would be another matchup where Utah would gain very little but could lose a lot. Pittsburgh would be an intriguing matchup. Pitt wide receiver Tyler Boyd will likely hear his named called in the first few rounds of the 2016 NFL Draft. Pitt finished second in the ACC Coastal Division. They played a tough nonconference schedule that included Iowa and Notre Dame. A win over Pitt would be nice, but it would not be a marquee win since the Panthers are not ranked, and the ACC by and large has been seen as a weak conference outside of a few top teams. After Utah's best season in the Pac-12, appearing in a bowl they have been to recently would be at least a little disappointing.
College Sports Madness has the Utes in the Foster Farms Bowl against Indiana. The game is played at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. Utah would have loved to have a game at Levi's Stadium before the season, but this is not the game. Indiana beat only one team with a winning record (10-2 Western Kentucky), but they put a scare into Ohio State, Iowa, Michigan, and Rutgers, falling by one score in each of those games. Indiana is a Power Five opponent, but they are not a very good one. They have shown they can put a scare into good teams, and they can score points (36.2 per game, No. 24). Indiana quarterback Nate Sudfeld throws for almost 300 yards per game. UAB transfer running back Jordan Howard amassed over 1,200 in only nine games. This is not a good matchup for Utah for multiple reasons. Indiana has an offense that could challenge the Utah defense, giving Indiana a great chance to win the game because I do not like Utah's chances in a shootout. Indiana is not a well-respected Power Five team, usually finishing near the bottom of the Big Ten. This will be the first bowl game appearance for the Hoosiers since the 2007 Insight Bowl (where they were defeated by Oklahoma State). They have only played in nine bowl games in 120 years. This could make them hungry to come out and beat their opponent. This would be yet another game where Utah would lose a lot with a loss and gain little with a win. Indiana is one of many Big Ten teams that have been mocked to the Foster Farms Bowl. Many scenarios see the Foster Farms Bowl having to take a 5-7 Big Ten team (like Nebraska or Minnesota) because there are not enough bowl-eligible teams to fill the spots in the record 41 bowls this year.
SB Nation, CBS Sports, ESPN's Mark Schlabach, and FanSided all see Utah in the National University Holiday Bowl against Wisconsin. This seems like by far the most likely matchup and is probably the best matchup for the Utes realistically. The Badgers finished the season 9-3. They faced three ranked teams (Alabama, Iowa, and Northwestern) and lost all three games. Wisconsin, typically a run-first team, has struggled to run the football this season after losing Doak Walker Award winning running back Melvin Gordon. Wisconsin did not have a running back run for over 1,000 yards (provided running back Dare Ogunbowale does not run for 231 yards in the bowl game) for the first time since 2004. Wisconsin has had a running back top 1,000 yards rushing in 20 of the previous 22 seasons. Wisconsin has relied on quarterback Joel Stave (who is 57th in the nation in passing yards per game with 205.8) and receiver Alex Erickson, who averages 77.0 receiving yards per game (No. 41 in the nation). Wisconsin is currently ranked No. 25 in the AP Poll and Coaches Poll. A bowl game between two ranked Power Five teams would attract a lot of eyes from around the nation. The game is also played in San Diego, Calif., and southern California is a primary recruiting ground for the Utes.
Our projection here at BlockU has Utah in the Valero Alamo Bowl against TCU. Joseph's statistical model has this matchup occurring due to USC beating Stanford in the Pac-12 Championship game, thus getting two Pac-12 teams in New Year's Six bowl games, and since Utah and Oregon both have a 9-3 record, Joseph's model gives the edge to Utah due to the head-to-head win. I however do not see this playing out because Oregon has a better Pac-12 record, is ranked ahead of Utah, and is the bigger name program, having played just last year in the College Football Playoff. The Alamo Bowl would likely take Oregon for these reasons over Utah because it would be a higher profile game, though the matchup between two former Mountain West BCS Busters turned Power Five teams would have some intrigue. TCU will very likely be ranked in or close to the top 10 by the time bowl season rolls around, so they would certainly be the highest profile potential bowl opponent for Utah if they were chosen for the Alamo Bowl, but it is a poor matchup for Utah. TCU has a potent offense, especially through the air that could challenge Utah's secondary. TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin spent much of the 2015 season as a Heisman candidate before injuries slowed him towards the end of the season.


Global access to pain relief: Evidence for action, the first ever global survey on availability and barriers to access of opioid analgesics for patients in pain
Global disparities in access to pain relief
Vast and unacceptable disparities in access to pain relief exist between developed and developing countries. Across the developing world, internationally recommended medicines, indispensable to treat moderate to severe pain, are scarce and unnecessarily difficult for patients to access.
The barriers to availability and access to pain relief
Essential opioids were included on national essential medicines lists in all regions of the world, but were not consistently available anywhere. In all regions, many of the 7 essential opioids were on national essential medicines lists (EML). With few exceptions, codeine and at least one, often more, morphine formulations were on national lists. Oxycodone, Methadone and Fentanyl were less consistently included on formularies, but also common. Yet, data revealed that in many of the countries and all of the Indian states surveyed, fewer than 3 of the 7 medicines were routinely available in hospital dispensaries and pharmacies.
All regions of the world show similar inconsistencies between adherence to global standards at the national policy level and the actual range and availability of essential opioids to patients.
European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)


Mahmoud Shukair
Mahmoud Shukair was born in Jerusalem in 1941. He studied philosophy and sociology in Damascus. He was arrested by the Israeli authorities in 1974 and, after several months in prison, deported to Lebanon. He later went to Amman. He was only able to return to his home city following the Oslo Agreement of 1993. Shukair was a member of the Palestinian National Council from 1988 to 1998. He worked as an editor for various Palestinian newspapers and journals, including »Dafatir Thaqafiya«, which was published by the Palestinian Ministry of Culture.
Mahmoud Shukair writes scripts, stage plays, children’s books and short stories. He has also written several autobiographical works, which form an important document on recent Palestinian history. An example of this is »Maraya al-ghiyab: Yaumiyat al-huzn wa s-siyasa« (2007; t: The Mirror of Absence: Diaries of Sadness and Politics), which is mainly concerned with his experiences in the Palestinian Communist Party.
Shukair became well-known for his short stories, which have been published in journals and anthologies in translated versions, including English, Korean, and Chinese. A selection appeared in France, entitled »Ma cousine Condoleeza« (2008; t: My Cousin Condoleeza). The Palestinian critic and writer Hassan Khider characterised Shukair’s prose thus: »There are similarities between Mahmoud Shukair’s style and the narratives of the Italian writer, Alessandro Baricco. Both write short texts which recall Chinese ink drawings rather than oil paintings. The drawings are mysterious, transparent, they appear to be amputated, but they inspire the reader’s imagination and there achieve their ultimate form. The language used is extremely sparse, but very poetic.«
Since setting out as a writer in the early 1960s, Shukair has confronted the Palestinian tragedy in his writing: exile, Israeli occupation, self-image and interpersonal relationships. In his later works a trace of irony shimmers through. The clearest example of this is in »Surat Shakira« (Beirut 2003; t: Shakira’s Picture). Mahmoud Shukair lives in Jerusalem.
© international literature festival berlin
Guest at the ilb: 2009
Surat Shakira
al-Muassasa al-Arabiya lildirasat wa an-Nashr
Beirut, 2003
Maraya al-ghiyab:
Yaumiyat al-huzn wa s-siyasa
Mordechai’s Moustache And His Wife’s Cat
Banipal Books, 2007
[Ü: Issa J Boullata, Elizabeth Whitehouse, Liz Winslow and Mahmoud Shukair]
Ma cousine Condoleeza
[Ü: Stéphanie Dujols]
Issa J Boullata, Stéphanie Dujols, Mahmoud Shukair, Elizabeth Whitehouse, Liz Winslow


Home>Policies>Policy Priorities>Child Health
Child HealthBen Dawson2021-05-10T11:52:07-05:00
While Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have greatly improved coverage rates, around 100,000 children in New York still lack coverage. An even greater number live in medically underserved areas, without meaningful access to quality care. The result is too many children suffering from unmet health needs, poor outcomes, and health disparities. In fact, New York has the highest rate of preventable pediatric hospitalizations of any state in the nation. Unmet health needs can also result in children falling behind developmentally and having trouble catching up physically, socially, and academically. Poor children and children of color have worse access to care and face more health disparities than their more resourced and privileged peers.
All children in New York should have access to health coverage and care that is comprehensive, affordable, child-appropriate, and easy to get and keep regardless of income, zip code, place of birth or immigration status.
The Children’s Defense Fund-New York works to ensure every child in New York has a Healthy Start in life. To achieve this, we focus on improving health coverage, increasing access to high-quality, culturally and linguistically appropriate care, improving outcomes, and eliminating disparities.
Our goal is coverage for every child. We can achieve this protecting and enhancing Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), fully-funding health insurance navigator services, improving the capacity of schools to facilitate referrals for enrollment, and ensuring culturally and linguistically appropriate resources to aid enrollment are available at multiple access points in the community.
Our goal is access to high-quality, culturally and linguistically competent care for every child. New York has the highest rate of preventable pediatric hospitalizations of any state in the nation. Preventable hospitalizations are a measure of how well a state’s primary care system is performing. Many children in New York live in medically underserved areas, which lack a sufficient number of primary care providers. Some of these areas also lack a sufficient number of mental health providers or dentists. Our youngest New Yorkers and their families face other barriers to care, including transportation time or cost, or lack of culturally competent care.
New York can improve access to care by investing in school-based health centers. School-based health centers overcome access barriers by providing services where children spend most of their time during the day. School-based health centers have been shown to increase attendance rates, improve academic outcomes, and reduce hospitalizations.
Our goal is improved child health outcomes and the elimination of disparities. Health is about more than illness or disease. Health is a resource that helps children develop the capacity to become successful in school and life. Healthier children have more energy, better concentration, and greater productivity than their peers. Improving child health outcomes will yield a lifetime of benefits for children, their families, and New York.
We can improve health outcomes by eliminating childhood lead poisoning. No amount of lead is safe in children. Yet, well over 100,000 children in New York have had tests indicating some amount of lead in their blood. Even the lowest detectable levels of lead in the blood have been found to cause permanent neurological damage and behavioral disorders. Greater investment in testing for lead, cleaning up or eliminating known sources, and better public disclosure of known hazards will help eliminate this problem once and for all.
While New York leads the pack in many health outcome measures, racial and ethnic disparities abound. Black babies statewide are twice as likely as white babies to die prematurely or be born at a low birthweight. In several parts of the state, black mothers are twice as likely as white mothers to die in childbirth. The causes of these disparities are multiple, as are the solutions. We can and must do better.
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Benjamin Anderson, EsqDirector of Health Policy
[January 16th, 2023]
PRESS RELEASE: In Celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, The Children’s Defense Fund – New York Calls for a Just State Budget that Centers Children, Youth and Families
Today, as a part of its celebration of the life and world-changing legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., renowned civil rights activist and one of the greatest nonviolent leaders in world history, the Children’s Defense Fund – New York (CDF-NY) releases its Fiscal Year 2023- 2024 Legislative and Budget Agenda, titled Prioritizing the Needs of Children, Youth and Families: New York State Budget and Legislative Priorities.
Prioritizing the Needs of Children, Youth and Families: New York State Budget and Legislative Priorities FY 2023 – 2024
As communities of color continue to navigate the triple crises of COVID-19, inflation, and systemic oppression rooted in racism, our State elected officials must do what is just, which is to put New York on a strong path to a just equitable recovery by centering and prioritizing the needs of the youngest New Yorkers along with marginalized children, youth and families in the FY 2023-2024 Budget and Legislative Session in ways that center their physical and mental wellness and economic health, thereby enabling them to have joy and to thrive.
[July 25th, 2022]
Leveraging Racial & Ethnic Impact Statements To Achieve Racial Equity In All Policies: National Context
Enacting new legislation and rules without first evaluating their potential to disproportionately impact New York’s communities of color only perpetuates deep-rooted and systemic racial and […]
[June 24th, 2022]
Telehealth Consumer Survey Deadline Extension Request Letter
We write today to urge you to extend the Telehealth Consumer Survey deadline for an additional 30 days, to past July 31st in order to afford community-based organizations, trusted messengers and healthcare providers adequate time to deploy the survey among the communities they serve and for the State to receive ample survey responses that are truly representative of as many New Yorkers as possible. We also request that paper versions of the survey should be provided to local departments of social services and other community-based partners to ensure individuals who face barriers to responding electronically can participate.
[June 22nd, 2022]
Telehealth Consumer Survey One-Pager (July 2022)
Calling New Yorkers of ALL AGES: Yes, that means YOU! New York wants to hear YOUR experiences using telehealth services to meet your health and behavioral health needs.
[May 20th, 2022]
CDF-NY Public Comment on New York State’s Medicaid § 1115 Waiver Proposal
Children’s Defense Fund – New York (CDF-NY) is grateful to the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) for the opportunity to comment on its proposed amendment to New York’s Medicaid Redesign Team Waiver Demonstration, titled Strategic Health Equity Reform Payment Arrangements: Making Targeted, Evidence-Based Investments to Address the Health Disparities Exacerbated by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
CDF-NY Memorandum in Support of S. 8438 / A. 9294: Continuous Medicaid Eligibility from Infancy to Three Years Old
The Children’s Defense Fund – New York (CDF-NY) strongly supports S. 8438
(Rivera) / A. 9294 (Gottfried), which would extend continuous Medicaid coverage of infants from up to one year to up to three years for families whose income does not exceed 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).
[May 5th, 2022]
CDF-NY 2022 Final State Budget Response
Mired in last-minute negotiations to roll-back recent criminal justice reforms, including Raise the Age, the final State Budget is a disappointment for children, youth and families. While we cannot overlook important new investments in child care and health care for new mothers, the budget still failed to prioritize our children.
[March 4th, 2022]
Our New York Children’s Budget: A Community Vision for Prioritizing Our Children
New York can and must do better for our children, youth and families. This report is a blueprint for addressing the most pressing needs of New York children, and the Governor and the Legislature must adopt these proposals in the Fiscal Year 2022-23 budget to realize our bold vision rooted in making opportunities accessible, ending harm and transforming systems.
[February 14th, 2022]
CDF-NY Testimony | Joint Legislative Hearing on the 2022-2023 New York State Mental Hygiene Executive Budget
The Children’s Defense Fund – New York (CDF-NY) thanks the chairs of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee for the opportunity to submit testimony on the 2022 – 2023 New York State Mental Hygiene Executive Budget Proposal.
[February 8th, 2022]
CDF-NY Testimony | Joint Legislative Hearing on the 2022-2023 New York State Health/Medicaid Executive Budget
The Children’s Defense Fund – New York (CDF-NY) thanks the chairs of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee for the opportunity to submit testimony on the 2022 – 2023 New York State Health/Medicaid Executive Budget Proposal.
[January 31st, 2022]
Testimony for the Joint Legislative Public Hearing on the Executive Budget Proposal for Housing
As a co-founder and leader of the statewide Lead Free Kids New York coalition, the Children’s Defense Fund – New York (CDF-NY) is grateful to the Senate Finance Committee, the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, and the respective Housing Committees for the opportunity to submit testimony for this Joint Legislative Public Hearing to discuss the Executive Budget for Housing.
PRESS RELEASE: In Celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, The Children’s Defense Fund – New York Releases Its 2022 Legislative and Budget Agenda
Today, as a part of its celebration of the life and world-changing legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., renowned civil rights activist and one of the greatest nonviolent leaders in world history, the Children’s Defense Fund – New York (CDF-NY) releases its Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Legislative and Budget Agenda, titled Prioritizing the Needs of Children, Youth and Families: New York State Budget and Legislative Priorities.
PRESS RELEASE: To Continue the Legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), The Children’s Defense Fund – New York Demands the Expansion of Voting Rights for 16- and 17-Year-Olds
Today we commemorate the legacy of Dr. King by calling for the passage of NYS Senate Bill S366, which would lower the voting age in New York State to 16 years and require that students receive education in civics and be allowed to register to vote in the classroom, and for the passage of H.J.Res.23, which would lower the voting age in America to 16 years old.
Prioritizing the Needs of Children, Youth and Families: New York State Budget and Legislative Priorities (FY 2022-2023)
As our communities continue to navigate the COVID crisis across New York State, we must seize this moment to center the needs of the youngest New Yorkers and to build a bold new vision for marginalized children, youth and families to thrive.
[December 15th, 2021]
CDF-NY Public Hearing Testimony on Improving Maternal & Newborn Health: Access to and Quality of Perinatal Health
The Children’s Defense Fund – New York (CDF-NY) is grateful to the New York State Assembly Health Committee and the Assembly Task Force on Women’s Issues for the opportunity to submit testimony for this Public Hearing on Improving Maternal and Newborn Health: Access to and Quality of Perinatal Care.
[November 29th, 2021]
CDFNY Childhood Lead Poisoning Hearing Testimony
As a cofounder and leader of the statewide Lead Free Kids New York coalition, the Children’s Defense Fund – New York (CDF-NY) is grateful to the Senate Standing Committee on Health and the Senate Standing Committee on Housing, Construction and Community Development for the opportunity to submit testimony for this Joint Public Hearing to discuss childhood lead poisoning prevention in New York State.
[October 29th, 2021]
Centering Youth Voices at New York City’s Polls: 2021 Voter Issue Guide
As New Yorkers cast their ballots this Fall, supporting policies and platforms that prioritize child, youth and family wellbeing is critical. #VoteBecause the needs of the youngest New Yorkers and their families must be centered on Election Day – and every day.
2021 Legislative Session Report Card
With the conclusion of the 2021 Legislative Session, we pause to take stock of progress for New York’s children and families, celebrate our victories and assess where further advocacy is needed to level the playing field for the youngest New Yorkers.
Black Youth Suicide in New York: An Urgent Crisis
New York must act now. The stakes could not be higher.
An Overview of Child Lead Exposure in New York
New York continues to suffer a troubling crisis of childhood lead exposure, with more known cases of elevated child blood lead levels than any other state and with childhood lead poisoning cases on the rise due to collateral effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
CDF-NY FY22 Mental Hygiene Budget Testimony
Children’s Defense Fund – New York (CDF-NY) thanks the chairs of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee for this opportunity to submit testimony on the 2021 – 2022 New York State Mental Hygiene Executive Budget Proposal.
Response to the Governor’s Proposed FY 2022 Executive Budget
Last spring and summer, 4,200 New York children lost a parent or guardian to COVID-19 — that’s one out of every 1,000 of our State’s […]
CDF-NY 2021-2022 Legislative and Budget Priorities
The Children’s Defense Fund-New York seeks to ensure that children are centered in all budget and legislation decisions, with a particular emphasis on racial impact, […]
What Repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Would Mean for New York’s Children, Young Adults and Families
Overturning the ACA during a global pandemic and amidst economic downturn would undoubtedly harm New York’s children, young adults and families, and will disproportionately impact […]
CDF-NY Press Statement: As Many as 3.2 Million New Yorkers Could Become Uninsured if the Affordable Care Act is Overturned
Overturning the ACA during a global pandemic and amidst economic downturn would undoubtedly harm New York’s most vulnerable children, young adults and families, and will […]
Bringing New York Children’s Voices to the Polls: 2020 Voter Issue Guide
As New Yorkers cast their ballots this Fall, protecting the programs and policies that impact our children, youth and families is critical. We urge New […]
[September 10th, 2020]
Protecting Children in the Budget – Joint Letter to NYS Leadership
We ask NYS leadership to center children and families in their priorities and commit to protect essential programs that promote health, well-being, resilience, family stability, […]
[August 3rd, 2020]
Letter from Child Advocacy Organizations to New York State Congressional Delegation on Covid-19
The undersigned New York State-based child advocacy organizations urge our US Senators and Members of the House of Representatives to stand firmly with children and families during negotiations on the next federal stimulus package.
A Profile of Medicaid in New York State
Medicaid provides comprehensive, affordable health care coverage to nearly 50 percent of our State’s children – over two million of the youngest New Yorkers.
[July 22nd, 2020]
Racial and Geographic Disparities in New York’s Burden of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children
As New York grapples with the devastating and far-reaching impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Children’s Defense Fund – New York (CDF-NY) is deeply alarmed by our State’s burden of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).
[July 8th, 2020]
Policy Brief: HEROES Act
The Children’s Defense Fund-New York urges members of Congress to support the HEROES Act to help children and families struggling with food insecurity and unemployment brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Protect Medicaid Statement on the HEROES Act’s Medicaid Maintenance of Effort Provision
The Protect Medicaid Campaign – representing New York’s leading health care consumer advocacy groups – applauds the introduction of the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus […]
[April 28th, 2020]
What Children and Youth Need Now: Addressing Health Care Needs During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has destabilized New York’s economy, debilitated our health care system, and disrupted our education and social services sectors. The Children’s Defense Fund-New […]
CDF-NY Priorities in the New York State FY2021 Final Budget
Children’s Defense Fund – New York (CDF-NY) examined the budget’s impacts on children and families, with attention to on child welfare and family wellbeing, economic […]
[April 2nd, 2020]
New York State Budget Embraces Some Reforms But Fails to Invest In Child and Family Well-Being
The Children’s Defense Fund-New York applauds the leadership in Albany for important reforms in youth justice and child welfare, but we are deeply disappointed with […]
New York State Medicaid Budget Harms Children and Families
The budget contains draconian cuts that target programs and providers that serve children, and others that will result in job losses or lost wages for […]
[March 26th, 2020]
Protect Medicaid Campaign thank you to Senators Schumer and Gillibrand
As lead organizations for the Protect Medicaid campaign in New York, we are writing to thank you for your passing the Families First Coronavirus Response […]
[March 23rd, 2020]
Health and Economic Justice Responses to New York’s COVID-19 Crisis
Our health care system is being pushed beyond its limits. Our fragmented payment and delivery systems are ill-suited to respond to the crisis and are […]
Protect Medicaid Campaign’s Support of Families First Caronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA)
We heartily thank you for the provisions of the Families First Caronavirus Relief Act (FFCRA) that increase Medicaid funding to states (FMAP) at this crucial […]
CDF-NY’S MEDICAID REDESIGN TEAM II (MRT II) PROPOSAL: Replace New York’s Medicaid Global Cap with a Transparent Global Budgeting Process
The Medicaid global cap should be eliminated and replaced with a transparent and accountable global budgeting process that properly accounts for consumer needs, quality of […]
[February 3rd, 2020]
CDF-NY Testimony at the Joint Legislative Hearing on the 2021 Health/Medicaid Executive Budget Proposal
We stand with all Medicaid beneficiaries when we call for the protection of care and services through Medicaid.
CDF-NY 2020-2021 State Budget and Legislative Priorities
The Children’s Defense Fund-New York provides our 2020-2021 State Budget and Legislative Priorities.
More than 100,000 Children in New York Still Uninsured
In 2018 there were 107,381 children in New York without health coverage. While the uninsured rate in New York dropped from 2.7 percent to 2.5 […]
[August 9th, 2019]
Protecting Your Child From Lead Poisoning
Children can be exposed to lead through paint and dust from inside the home, and children under six years old are most at risk.
Leveraging CHIP or Medicaid to Eliminate Lead Exposure
States have the option under CHIP to develop state-designed HSIs to improve the health of low-income children. States can also leverage Medicaid funding to pay […]
Protecting Your Children From Lead Poisoning
Lead poisoning is a completely preventable, but irreversible condition that impacts children for a lifetime. Children can be exposed to lead through paint and dust from inside the home, and children under six years old are most at risk.
[April 9th, 2019]
CDF-NY Priorities in the New York State FY 2020 Final Budget
On April 1, 2019, the New York Legislature adopted the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 final state budget. The final budget includes $175.5 billion in spending. […]
An Overview of the NYC Mayor’s Roadmap to Eliminating Childhood Lead Exposure
In January 2019, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio issued a Roadmap to Eliminating Childhood Lead Exposure. The roadmap was the culmination of a 90-day review […]
[October 23rd, 2018]
CDF-NY Testimony: New York State Assembly Standing Committee on Education School Health, Mental Health, and Physical Education
As the Assembly considers best practices to meet student’s health and mental health needs, it is vital that you ensure there is continued funding to help school districts improve school climate and safety. This week marks the 9th annual week of action against school pushout, a national effort carried out by the Dignity in Schools Campaign, a coalition of organizations dedicated to ending the school-to-prison pipeline.
2018 Election Guide: New York’s Children
Having the basic necessities of life such as nutritious meals and financial security is a universal human right and something all people concerned with the well-being of children should work to secure.
[August 2nd, 2018]
2018 House Farm Bill Calls for Stricter Work Requirements to Maintain SNAP Eligibility: What does this mean for New York State’s Children and Families?
The 2014 Farm Bill is set to expire on September 30, 2018. The House’s proposed 2018 Farm Bill was rejected by Congress on May 18, […]
NYC Needs More School Social Workers for Homeless Students
Amy Pantoja, Beat the Odds Scholar, talks about the importance of getting more social workers focused on education for homeless students in New York City
Achieving Lifelong Payoffs for Displaced Children
Some of the most at-risk children in NYC are children who have been displaced from their homes or families due to homelessness or resettlement as unaccompanied immigrant children. While homeless and unaccompanied immigrant children have been displaced from their homes or families for different reasons, both groups of children often have remarkably similar experiences and needs.
[September 5th, 2017]
House’s Budget Resolution Does Not Prioritize America’s Vulnerable Populations
In New York, these budget cuts would deprive disadvantaged children and adults of basic necessities and push them deeper into poverty.
School Health Issue Brief: Financing Brief
By maximizing available funds, New York City can more strategically deploy its limited resource to extend a baseline of school health services to all students […]
School Health Issue Brief: Behavioral Health in New York State
Providing behavioral health care to children in schools is a wise investment for the future. Children who receive behavioral interventions increase their academic performance, and […]
School Health Issue Brief: School-Based Health Centers of NYS – The Value, Need and Implications
The overarching goal of any school health service is to best position children to have the greatest opportunities for learning and life-long wellness. SBHCs are […]
School Health Issue Brief: Addressing Unmet Healthcare Needs of New York City Youth
As New York City moves toward a future of community schools, children’s advocates must discern the appropriate role of health education and health care services […]
Health + Education = Opportunity: An Equation that Works
As the capacity for health care delivery in schools increases, significant opportunities exist to better connect schools to the larger health care infrastructure that works […]
School-based Health Centers in New York State: Ensuring Sustainability and Establishing Opportunities for Growth
New York State is a leader and innovator in providing children with access to health services. Committing to the sustainability of school-based health centers as […]
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Kevin Sorbo
Kevin David Sorbo was born in Mound, Minnesota, in 1958. He was in a number of plays in high school, and after leaving college, he joined an actors theater group (traveling to Europe, then to Sydney, Australia).
With Kevin's muscular physique, he was a natural for the title role in what would become his signature series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995). He became internationally famous, and he learned the craft of film-making. He has produced many projects such as Abel's Field (2012), Alongside Night (2014), the Andromeda TV series (2001-2005), Fire From Below (2009), Mythica: The Iron Crown (2016), and Wolf Canyon (2009).
His film credits include such films as God is Not Dead (2014), Avenging Angel (2007), Jesse James: Lawman
(2015), Prairie Fever (2008), and Shadow on the Mesa (2013). It is for these last four films that the Reel Cowboys were proud to give Kevin Sorbo the Silver Spur Award in 2017.
Kevin is currently working on a new faith-based film entitled Let There Be Light. The plot will center on a world-renowned atheist whose beliefs are dramatically challenged.
His wife, Sam Sorbo co-wrote this film with Kevin and also stars in it. Sean Hannity (Fox News Anchor) is the executive producer on this full-length feature film.
It was a true pleasure for the Reel Cowboys to have such a prolific, multi-talented, and wonderful friend join us at the 2017 Silver Spur Award Show.