— Israeli Army Spokesperson Avital Leibovich to the BBC [audio] on yesterday’s attack which left at least eight journalists injured.
Nearly nine million Californians - almost a quarter of the state’s residents - live in poverty under a newly devised federal standard, making the state’s rate by far the highest in the nation.
The stunning number will fuel California’s perpetual political debate over the state’s “safety net” of health and welfare services, which have been reduced sharply due to budget deficits. With voter approval of new taxes, advocates for the poor are demanding that some of the benefit cuts be rescinded.
California’s 23.5 percent poverty rate under the “supplemental poverty measure” (SPM) developed by the Census Bureau is approached only by the 23.2 percent rate in the District of Columbia. The highest SPM rate in any other state is Florida’s 19.5 percent.
”— California’s poverty rate highest in U.S. by new federal measure, Sacramento Bee
LAPD Arrest 60 Year Old Woman At City Counsel Meeting For ‘Speaking Too Long’
A Riverside woman is facing misdemeanor charges following her arrest for speaking too long at a Riverside City Council meeting, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported Thursday.
Karen Wright, whose arrest was videotaped and obtained by the paper, was cited for disrupting a public meeting Tuesday night.
“The incident unfolded after Wright exceeded her allotted three minutes to speak at the lectern while commenting on a sludge hauling contract,” the paper reported.
Wright, 60, was initially handcuffed by two officers while she was on her knees.
In video of the incident, Wright can be heard yelling in pain as officers tried to bring her to her feet.
“Can you see my wrists? You’re pulling and jerking on my wrists!” she said. “I cannot get up without putting my hands down!”
Wright was later led out of the building.
“City officials said officers used their discretion when Wright didn’t follow the rules,” according to the Press-Enterprise. Council members deny ordering her arrest.
Wright was given a citation with a date to appear in court.
Oh boy, if they tried this shit in Oakland you’d see some real riots.
Color might have been a decent option here…
Or so would some tonal values! Jeez, come on guys. Design amateurs up in the AP.
http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/election110712/s_e14_80937144.jpg
I think this Captain America and the Occupy Oakland Captain America should have a battle.
He’s had a tough week leading in to last night’s vindication, so I thought I’d show Nate Silver some love and fan art.
You made some horrible decisions, America, but you also made some good ones, so I’m not consumed by rage today. Also this family I saw yesterday was pretty cute.
I drew the election from an eco angle for Grist. And I almost slapped “no biases” kid.
Walk Oakland Bike Oakland asked city council candidates to fill out these pretty simple, brief questionnaires about their positions on pedestrian and cycling safety and infrastructure in Oakland. The answers aren’t very interesting at all. But the pattern that emerges from them is.
Fewer than half the candidates bothered to respond, but the ones who did were most likely to be white, second most likely to be Latino, and third most likely to be black. Only candidates from Districts 1, 3, and the at-large seat responded at all — the places where most of Oakland’s 28% black population does not live.
I think these responses reflect the values of these communities. Where transit votes come down to people of color voting for and white people voting against, cycling and pedestrian issues work very differently.
As documented extensively in transportation research, transit systems and advocacy have tended to take transit dependent communities for granted, focusing initiatives on seducing people who own cars to try other modes. As such, communities of color tend to have lower quality service than their corresponding level of ridership deserves. Biking offers a non-motorized mode with a critical level of mobility and access in communities with relatively low levels of car ownership and quality transit service. If for nothing else, bike ridership in communities of color is important to the general sustainability movement in raw numbers. While 7% of white households own no vehicles, 24% of Black households and 17% of Latino households own no vehicle.
For me, this little questionnaire was a stark reminder of how racialized transportation advocacy really is (read: really white) — something I’ll be keeping in mind in my work at Grist.
— Vigilantes spray-paint sexual harassers in Cairo, All Things Considered. FUCK YEAH EGYPT.
