We can do the right thing to create positive change within ourselves and the world around us! I have created this blog with the intention of keeping you informed of news that is affecting humanity and nature throughout the world! There is no better time than the present to become a global participant and not just an innocent bystander. I have provided you with several websites to help empower yourself and a list of global organizations that you can choose from to make a difference.
I added the picture gif above to the message below. The Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh was the first image that came to mind for this Virgo New moon. Made me giggle. I don't have Virgo sign anywhere in my astrological birth chart. But I still embody a little, um actually more than a little, of Rabbit's characteristics that are in full contrast to my Sagittarius Tigger personality traits.
My Saturn in Taurus is very Rabbitesque. ;)
The pictures and gifs that I share sum up my interpretation of the current astrological message.
Intro written by Lena Stevens at www.thepowerpath.com
Body written by Patricia Liles. Contact her at PATLILES@aol.com
New Moon is Friday, August 30 at 4:37 AM Mountain Daylight Time (MDT).
This new moon supports focus, details, action, reorganizing, resetting and new intentions.We are moving into a time of more clarity and desire for action and manifestation. The energy will move if you put commitment behind your intentions. Take some time and revisit what you truly want out of life, reset your intentions if needed, and make some commitments to how you will proceed. You will be greatly supported provided you are not stuck in ambivalence, confusion or extreme caution that will hold you back from moving forward. This New Moon initiates a cycle of “all systems go”. Resistance to it may show up as exhaustion, apathy and withdrawal.
If you find yourself down in the dumps during this potentially invigorating time, do something physical to get the energy moving. This is not a time for mental overthinking, worry or anxiety. Instead it is a time to open up to your intuition and allow for support to come in whatever form it shows up. Instead of overthinking something, just do it.
Blessings,
Lena
ASTROLOGICAL NOTES:
Written by Patricia Liles. Contact her at PATLILES@aol.com
VIRGO NEW MOON CYCLE
New Moon
Sun and Moon in Virgo 7ยบ
Friday, August 30, 4:37 AM Mountain Daylight Time
(Friday, August 30, 10:37 AM Greenwich Mean Time)
Our Virgo cycle is offering so much support from the earth element as if the universe is granting ‘matching funds’ for all your efforts! The lineup in Virgo looks like this: Venus, Mars, Sun, Moon, Juno and Mercury. Full House!
Mars is closest to the Virgo Sun/Moon amplifying drive, energy and the will to make things happen. Uranus in earthy Taurus is sending a lightening flash of inspiration to tear down, re-conceive and reorganize almost anything you choose. Virgo with its love of order, discerning vision and strong ability to analyze a situation and sort what stays, what goes and what can be adapted in combination with her natural rulership of daily routines points to some major reorganizing projects of both time and spaces.
Virgo also holds a keen relationship to health and the body especially the intestine and digestion with an interest in herbalism and diet. Virgos naturally align to what is pure and natural. This New Moon marks a good time to instigate new health routines, detoxify and welcome in our self-healing power of mind over matter.
Gut level reactions are part of Virgo’s gift. Known for perfectionism, what you really have here is a strong work ethic and consistent attention to details that disrupt the flow of creating if left unattended. Their high standards, creative energy, productivity and dedicated service are unmatched in the zodiac archetypes. Virgo follows Leo on the wheel, because who is going to carry out all the fiery proclamations of The King if not the idealistic and diplomatic, behind-the-scenes Virgo.
Virgo is the mutable earth sign ruled by mental Mercury. Mercurial energy loosens up the density of earth and allows it to interact with the material world with objectivity. Excessive worry and anxiety can be a stumbling block, but properly applied we have some highly efficient and practical energy at our disposal. Saturn in fellow earth sign Capricorn is available to provide focus, purpose and staying power for our improvements.
Along with the earth element, the New Moon chart contains a noticeable preponderance of mutable signs lending the energy of versatility, adaptability and a desire to change and apply ourselves in new areas. We see the vast majority of planets and asteroids in feminine earth and water signs, so we feel industrious and practical with the desire to nurture and provide sacred harmony in our environment. The signs and guidance from the inner and invisible worlds will be plentiful and easily point the way.
Ceres, Mother Goddess, provider of nourishment from the Earth, brings the challenge of this cycle. So many earth signs is a call to focus on the elemental that gives us a home, sustains us, and teaches us the source of beauty, creativity and power – that would be Mother Earth, Gaia, Pachamama. Now is the time to honor the Earth and all her sustaining gifts. She requires our honor and respect to complete the circle of life. Let the Earth meet the Sky within your own body. Feel how we are not separate from her. Her change is our change, her chaos is our chaos, and her cry is our cry. Virgo beckons you to purify your body, your earthly vehicle, at New Moon to prepare to be filled with the gratitude and illumination of the Harvest Full Moon to come.
“Will & Grace” star Eric McCormack called on The Hollywood Reporter on Friday, asking them to publish the names of anyone attending a Tinsel Town fundraiser for President Donald Trump.
Responding to the news that the president would attend a fundraiser in Hollywood during Emmys week, McCormack tweeted, “Hey, @THR, kindly report on everyone attending this event, so the rest of us can be clear about who we don’t wanna work with. Thx.”
Hey, @THR, kindly report on everyone attending this event, so the rest of us can be clear about who we don’t wanna work with. Thx. https://t.co/7W3xPG3bI2
Actress Kristy Swanson fired right back, expressing her disappointment that he would refuse to work with anyone over political differences of opinion. “It’s absolutely heartbreaking that you would say something like this & then ask The Hollywood Reporter to get on board with you (so sad),” she tweeted.
“Oh my goodness Mr. McCormack. I personally have never ever NOT worked with someone just because I had a difference with them politically. It’s absolutely heartbreaking that you would say something like this & then ask The Hollywood Reporter to get on board with you (so sad).”
Oh my goodness Mr. McCormack.
I personally have never ever NOT worked with someone just because I had a difference with them politically.
It’s absolutely heartbreaking that you would say something like this & then ask The Hollywood Reporter to get on board with you ๐คฆ๐ผ♀️ (so sad) https://t.co/wG9SsYpXlv
Isn't that what the Nazi's did to the Jewish people during WWII?
Throughout the German Nazi occupied Europe, Jews were forced to wear Yellow Jewish badges for the purpose of identification and mark them as undesirables.
That's what these Celebrities are promoting to do to us.
Eric McCormack takes his Trump Derangement to a new level, one reflecting his industry's political bigotry.
Eric McCormack’s “Will & Grace” helped break down gay stereotypes. Even Vice President Joe Biden said as much.
The long-running show featured a platonic friendship between a single lady (Debra Messing) and her gay best friend (McCormack).
Here’s Biden, currently fighting fellow Democrats for the chance to battle President Donald Trump in 2020, recalling the NBC sitcom’s impact on the culture.
I think Will & Grace did more to educate the American public more than almost anything anybody has done so far. People fear that which is different. Now they’re beginning to understand.
This week, McCormack took a step in the opposite direction. He rushed to Twitter after learning President Trump planned to hold a fundraiser near La La Land.
That, apparently, could give the actor the ammunition he needs to fight back against those with whom he disagrees politically. And he hopes his friends follow his lead.
The message earned a few applause GIFs as well as condemnation from fellow liberals.
Actor Isaiah Washington, profiled in this probing episode of Red Pilled America, doubled down on behalf of his colleagues.
Hey @jack is this tweet openly threatening to “blacklist” American Citizens in Hollywood okay for the good of society? Just asking for a friend. ๐ค https://t.co/nsy3OhQljP
you wanna know why anyone in Hollywood who thinks for themselves has to keep their mouths shut and their heads down? Like Joe McCarthy, Eric sees ruining a career as a viable method to encourage lockstep. Be like me, or you're finished. https://t.co/g23sVysfCK
A crush of stories shows how conservatives are treated like second-class citizens, or worse, in Hollywood today. That intensified following Trump’s election. They lose jobs and aren’t allowed to fully express themselves like their liberal peers.
Many right-leaning actors and crew members stay silent, both on the set and via social media. They fear risking key opportunities if they don’t toe the progressive line.
And while a select few actors, like Nick Searcy, are loud and proud of their conservative opinions, others think speaking up can have consequences.
You’d think the actor best known for a show about love and tolerance would understand that.
UPDATE: McCormack’s “Will & Grace” co-star, Debra Messing, doubled down on his Blacklist-style sentiment.
Please print a list of all attendees please. The public has a right to know. https://t.co/YV4UoxrPHI
How wonderfully fascist of you @EricMcCormack ! Yes, how dare anyone in a FREE COUNTRY actually be FREE to support someone that you don’t or have an opinion that differs from yours. Anyone that doesn’t get in line with your opinion should absolutely be blacklisted from work. ๐คฆ♀️
I used to like Eric back in the old days of the early Will & Grace. Now I refuse to watch anything he or Debra Messing are in new or old. Their political BS is too much.
I have many employees that work with me who have alternative political opinions to my own. Yet I would never think it was okay to punish them or take away their livelihood because of it. You need to learn some perspective Eric.
So let me get this straight... The same people that want you to believe a man with a beard, dick and balls who says he’s a woman, is “normal”, but a black person who supports Trumps conservative policies has a mental illness??? https://t.co/8dhG61Lm1b
Twisted. He vehemently declares he doesn't support "blacklists or discrimination of any kind". Yet he ASKED FOR LIST of Trump donors so he blacklist discriminate against us.
So, in that vein let's compile a list of all Jewish owned businesses. It's public info right? [/sarcasm]
reporting by Catherine Lagrange; writing by Matthias Blamont; editing by Edmund Blair
Saturday August 31, 2019
LYON, France - One person was killed and at least nine others wounded on Saturday in the city of Villeurbanne near Lyon in central France after a suspected knife attack, a police source told Reuters.
A suspect carrying a knife was arrested, the source said. A second source close to the police said the man had told officers he was an Afghan national.
The police source said the motivation for the suspected attack, which took place around 1430 GMT, was not immediately clear.
The police source said authorities had been hunting for a suspected second attacker. But the second source said this search was now not being pursued, adding that the victim was aged 19.
The suspected attacker assaulted residents waiting at a bus stop and then ran towards an underground station before being seized by other local people and transport staff, Lyon mayor Lyon Gerard Collomb told reporters.
A helicopter was patrolling the area, a Reuters correspondent at the location reported.
written by Alastair Jamieson & Chris Harris and AFP
Saturday August 31, 2019
A man armed with a knife and a barbecue fork attacked passers-by at a metro station in the Lyon suburb of Villeurbanne on Saturday, killing a 19-year-old and injuring eight others, three of whom were critically wounded.
The suspect, whose motives are unexplained, was arrested and taken into police custody for "murder and attempted murder,” the Lyon prosecutor's office told AFP.
Authorities initially reported a second suspect on the run, but the prosecutor and a police source later denied the existence of a second perpetrator.
The attack happened at 4:30 pm at Laurent Bonnevay metro station.
The suspect was initially detained by passers-by, including TCL transit workers.
“I sensed that something was not right and when I got to the lift I saw that some people had stopped someone,” a 39-year-old mother-of-one at the scene told Euronews.
“I saw some people in front of the lift who shouted at a man ‘stay there’ and ‘don’t move’. There were maybe three men who had stopped him, it wasn’t police.”
She added: “I thought it was a robbery at first. Someone else, I’m not sure if it was a security guard, said to me: ‘Get away from here’. I saw a man with some blood on his t-shirt.”
Among the injured, three were critical and five less seriously hurt, according to the prosecutor's office. In addition, 20 others were treated for shock.
"There was a gentleman at the 57 [bus] stop who started stabbing people in all directions," a young girl with a blood-stained tank top told AFP.
"He managed to touch, to open a person's stomach. He stabbed a guy in the head,” she cried.
The mayor of Lyon, Gรฉrard Collomb, quickly went to the scene and called for people not to speculate about the nature of the attack.
He said the suspect had targeted "people waiting for their buses in a high-traffic area" and was on his trying to flee through the metro station when he was apprehended.
In May, a parcel bomb in the heart of Lyon wounded 14 people. France's third largest city has otherwise bemn spared by the unprecedented wave of jihadist attacks (251 dead) that have hit France since 2015.
The suspect in the bombing, a radicalized 24-year-old Algerian, Mohamed Hichem Medjoub, was indicted and imprisoned.
Muslim women have pushed back against a ban on burkinis at a public pool, provoking a firm response from the far right. National Rally leader Marine Le Pen said the all-encompassing swimsuit has "no place in France."
With the summer weather heating up, the debate surrounding the banning of the burkini in France has reemerged. Muslim women defied a local ban over the weekend and wore the Islamic full-body swimsuit, breaking the rules of a swimming pool in the southeastern city of Grenoble by doing so.
Women who wore the swimsuit, which covers the entire body except for the face, hands and feet, were issued a fine of €35 ($40).
The Jean Bron Swimming Pool is among several in France that have banned burkinis, and it saw many women breaching the rules as part of an organized protest.
"Operation Burkini" was created last month by members of the group Citizen Alliance of Grenoble in order to defend Muslim women's rights. The women are demanding that public pools, which currently require men to wear swim briefs and women to wear bikinis or one-piece swimsuits, change their regulations to accommodate burkini wearers.
'Burkini has no place in France': Le Pen
Far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen has criticized the activists and called for a firm response from local authorities.
"It's time to say loud and clear that the burkini has no place in France," she tweeted on Monday.
The center-right head of the greater Paris region, Valerie Pecresse, also raised concerns about normalizing the full-body swimsuits.
"If we accept the burkini, in a few years, all the young girls from poor neighborhoods will be bathing covered up, for moral reasons or to protect their reputations," she told Radio Classique.
Two of the women who took part in the protest held a very different view.
Speaking to the BBC, Hassiba and Latifa said they should have the same rights as everyone else.
"We have a dream: to have fun in public swimming pools like all other citizens, to accompany our children whenever they want to have a swim while it is very hot in the summer here in Grenoble.
"We must fight against discriminatory policies and prejudice in France, as we are actually deprived of our civil rights of access to public services and city-owned infrastructures," they told the BBC.
The Citizen Alliance said, via Facebook, that the action was part of a movement that began over a year ago with a petition signed by more than 600 Muslim women. They are pleading with Grenoble Mayor Eric Piolle to change the rules regarding public swimming pools.
France: an association of "feminists" in Tourcoing compare the burkini ban to the Holocausthttps://t.co/Zg9h6soVv3
The president of a feminist and Muslim association in Tourcoing has compared on Facebook the ban on burkini to the extermination of Jews.
Zakia Meziani, president of the feminist and antiracist association Identitรฉ plurielle and former candidate EELV in the cantonal elections in 2015, protests against the ban on burkini (full swimsuit) in municipal swimming pools. While associations have tried to impose force to impose Villeurbanne or Grenoble, Zakia Meziani reacted on his Facebook page to a survey of Figaro questioning his readers on whether a law was necessary on the subject.
๐ IN OTHER RELATED NEWS ๐
Furnaces holding the remains of burned bodies at the Buchenwald concentration camp near Jena, Germany.
Credit: U.S. Army Signal Corps/Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum
Operation Reinhard, known as the single largest murder campaign during the Holocaust, was worse than historians imagined. In a mere three months, at least 1.32 million Jewish people died — close to one-quarter of all the Jewish victims who perished during World War II, a new study finds.
The finding is based on an old data set that tallied the number of Jews who were forced from their homes onto trains, which then took them to the death camps in Poland known as Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka. Once there, the majority of these victims were killed in gas chambers.
But Yitzhak Arad, an Israeli Holocaust historian, managed to compile data about the murders. Arad collected Reichsbahn data on 480 train deportations from 393 Polish towns and ghettos, recording "the location, number of victims of each transportation and final death-camp destination," Stone said. "The data set has been sitting around for years, but hardly anyone has ever studied it, possibly because the subject is so sensitive."
Almost every victim who arrived at these three death camps was murdered, so the data set served as an extraordinary proxy for murder rate, Stone said. After crunching the numbers, Stone found that a minimum of 1.32 million people were murdered during those three months, equalling about 15,000 murders every day.
In all, between 5.4 million and 5.8 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, Stone wrote in the study.
Gender apartheid in Iran is in full display in this video sent from a waterfall.
At 42C (108F), women aren't allowed to cool. Only men are enjoying the water.
Imagine being forced to wear your compulsory hijab in this sweltering heat as well.
I swear Islam ideology is truly schizophrenic. But I feel its worse that Western magazines are promoting this oppressive ideology.
And it's quite illogical for the Left to shame Christians with the fake Handsmaid's Tale story but think real Islam is cool and hip. Insane. pic.twitter.com/Wt856swmF8
40 years ago Iranian women were free to wear what they wanted. My mum got around in mini skirts & singlet tops. Then the Islamic Revolution happened...
Women in the West who fetishise the hijab are betraying oppressed women living under sharia. https://t.co/n2o0386ymR
— Yasmine Mohammed ูุงุณู ูู ู ุญู ุฏ ๐ฆ (@YasMohammedxx) August 21, 2019
UPDATE 8/31/19 at 8:14pm: Added tweet below.
Cruel reaction by Iran against 3 women accused of violating the veil laws: 55 years in jail.
Europe's response? Silence.
Sick and tired of the double standards of Europe when it concerns the rights of Muslim women. I shall take up this issue in the European Parliament https://t.co/kaRRK5wvuk
Law enforcement officers in Virginia have seized enough fentanyl to kill 14 million people, busting a massive three-state drug ring as part of what they called "Operation Cookout." Thirty-five suspects were arrested, and four others are on the run. ๐ฑhttps://t.co/FPbk7LrQ1G
Law enforcement officers in Virginia have seized enough fentanyl to kill 14 million people, busting a massive three-state drug ring as part of what they called "Operation Cookout." Thirty-five suspects were arrested, and four others are on the run.
"This opioid crisis is not an issue that is happening someplace else, or to someone else. It's happening right here in Norfolk," said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
In total, authorities seized over 30 kilograms of fentanyl, 30 kilograms of heroin, five kilograms of cocaine and over $700,000. It's the largest drug takedown in Virginia in 15 years. They also seized roughly 24 firearms, including an AK-47.
"We're not talking about $500 and $600 deals, we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars," Terwilliger said. "You know, $20,000 in the trunk of somebody's car in a gym bag, you know, behind a local restaurant."
Terwilliger said the bust spanned three states and that one of the 39 people charged ordered fentanyl from Shanghai and had it delivered to Virginia through the mail.
"The last thing we want is for the U.S. Postal Service to become the nation's largest drug dealer," he added.
Hampton Police Chief Terry Sult said the case should serve as a warning to other dealers. "If you're out there, you're using firearms, you're dealing drugs and you're hurting people in our communities, this is the group of people that's coming after you," he said. "And we're relentless."
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard announced Thursday that the crew of Coast Guard Cutter Robert Ward has seized about 2,800 pounds of cocaine during their first drug patrol in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The cocaine was worth an estimated $38.5 million.
Terwilliger said that most fentanyl comes from Chinese labs. There's been an increased effort to hold China accountable for drugs like fentanyl that are manufactured there and smuggled to the U.S. A bipartisan bill in the Senate would sanction Chinese labs and traffickers that export the drug.
What the MSM would never tell you... Turns out, a black man asked President Trump to call out Cummings over the conditions of Baltimore.
⚠️ language
Take a second and follow me, I do follow back. pic.twitter.com/KxblTwGRlP
Fleccas Talks published on Aug 6, 2019: MURDERLAND: Baltimore Residents Are Tired of Corruption and Violence. Reverend Al Confronted. Baltimore has been in the news a lot the past few days. A Fleccas Talks correspondent spoke with some residents about the issues they're facing. Some residents confronted Reverend Al while conservative activist Scott Presler organized a MAGA Baltimore clean up that went viral on twitter.
On Monday, street reporter Austen Fletcher, a.k.a “Fleccas,” released about ten minutes of footage of West Baltimore residents talking about the conditions of the area and how they felt about President Donald Trump's recent comments concerning West Baltimore — which the mainstream media and many top Democrats framed as racist.
The residents told a grim story about the decline of the area they love, plagued by crime and murder, and said Trump was right in his assessment even if, as one female put it, she's still “Team Obama.”
Fleccas also highlighted another inconsistency within the mainstream narrative. When controversial activist Rev. Al Sharpton popped up in West Baltimore following Trump’s comments, residents heckled the political figure, calling him a “phony” and a “hustler” and asking why he only comes around during politically opportune times.
“It’s just sad man, everyday I’m crying inside because I wake up and I’m still here. It used to be okay, but it's not now,” one man told Fleccas’ crew.
Another woman with a legally obtained firearm on her hip, said, “You can’t go home without feeling a threat of being shot, you’re scared to walk anywhere. ... The violence is that bad.”
“Baltimore city is definitely ‘Murderland,’” she later added. “There are contracts out here for nothing, to kill someone for less than $100. The statement is definitely true. I got my gun permit eight years ago. You really have to feel some type of way that you have to be armed to live in Baltimore city — granted, mine is legal.”
“I saw a man rob a man, right here,” a man working from behind a shield at a convenience store said. “A customer went out of the door, and this guy, he just opened the door for him and put a gun to his head and he robbed him right in his car.”
“I feel like nobody cares about this area here, they’re not concerned about us,” a middle-aged female said.
Two men then complained that Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) has been representing the area for 25 years and has nothing to show for it.
“He allocated $4.6 billion for illegal immigrants but he hasn’t donated any money right for North Avenue ... West Baltimore. Where has he been at? It’s drug-infested, it’s homeless people right there in West Baltimore — two blocks from his district. He don’t come there everyday. I haven’t seen Elijah Cummings in ten years ride up and down North Avenue,” one of the men said, noting that the last time he was around was following the death of Freddie Gray, which was quickly politicized.
When asked about President Trump’s comments, one of the men answered, “Me personally, I want him to say things like that because it’s true. ... I don’t have no problems with the man. I really respect him as a man because he’s upfront, he’s truthful. They keep wanting to say, ‘he a racist, he a racist, he a racist’; that’s not the problem, especially with black people, because I don’t see white men killing my own kind, you know what I mean.”
The woman with a firearm on her hip told the interviewer, “It’s sad but it’s true.” She later added, “I’m still ‘Team Obama,’ but with that being said, he’s (Trump) a powerful man and I believe he can make a lot of changes happen.”
“I don’t want to make a comment on the president, but he has a point,” the man working at the convenience store said. “Crime is very high and something has to be done.”
Two other locals had a back-and-forth over Trump suggesting “no human” would want to live in the area. “That’s true! I moved. I moved out of there. I can take you, right now, where there’s no running water in a whole block — ten minutes from Elijah Cummings’ block,” one of them said.
In another part of the video, men living in West Baltimore heckled Mr. Sharpton while he was giving a speech about Trump’s comments, painting the president as racist.
“You go back to New York! You bring that s*** to New York! You ain’t do nothing for Baltimore! You a phony!” an elderly man yells at the political figure.
“Our schools are failing us! Where are you when our schools are failing us? You’re just a hustler,” another man yells at Sharpton.
Late last month, Trump highlighted the issues in West Baltimore while going after Mr. Cummings. Trump ridiculed the top Democrat for neglecting the American people he represents to focus on the southern border.
"Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous. His district is considered the Worst in the USA," Trump said in a series of tweets. "As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming[s'] District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place.”
Though the media were quick to paint Trump as a racist for calling out the conditions, during a congressional hearing in 1999, Cummings called Baltimore “a drug-infested area" where people were "walking around like zombies,” as previously reported by The Daily Wire.
WHOA: Al Sharpton gets heckled in Baltimore by fed-up resident.
"You go back to New York! Our schools are failing us… You’re just a hustler! Go back where you came from!"pic.twitter.com/Q8cKLmrH4Z
Six Baltimore City schools — five high schools and one middle school — were found to have not a single student who scored proficient in math or reading in 2016, Fox45 News reports.
One student interviewed by the station said he believes students aren't passing the state assessments because the material on the tests is not covered in class.
Data shows that despite maintaining one of the country's highest per-pupil spending levels, a recent study out of Harvard University found Baltimore to have the lowest rate of mobility out of poverty in the country, a statistic tied directly to education as much as it is economic opportunity.
Dive Insight:
The news in Baltimore again underscores the debate over the impact of funding on school quality. Some say the education level of adults and parents in the district is the greatest determinant of student achievement, while other research has found a direct correlation between school funding and student graduation rates. And with Baltimore City Public Schools out-spending both Howard and Montgomery Counties in the state — both perennial exemplars in student achievement — questions loom over exactly where the money is going in Baltimore.
For one, the distribution of wealth in the city is highly concentrated. And as one of the first cities in the country to enact legal racial segregation, the neighborhoods — and thus the schools — remain highly segregated generations after the laws were overturned. A 2009 study out of Loyola University found that despite a mayoral moniker that Baltimore is "the city that reads," "in a city of over 700,000, an estimated 200,000 adults were considered functionally illiterate.”
But a bigger problem highlighted by the student's interview is the rigor of courses in the city's failing schools. In Montgomery and Howard Counties, even general education is highly focused on test preparation. In the schools in question in Baltimore, there is very little access to AP or advanced courses, and even the core courses seem to be inadequately preparing students for success after high school. Public libraries in the city have closed, and, according to Baltimore historian and UMUC professor Edwin Johnson, the city "has some of the nation’s most dilapidated school buildings and facilities, and the newest, most technologically advanced prison facilities.” All of these factors combine to paint a picture of how Baltimore, like many big cities in this country, is failing its most vulnerable population and perpetuating socio-economic inequality.
So I am a black woman being racist against black people that asked me to elevate their story in order to finally receive assistance? Tell me more guy living in Ohio ๐ค
16 people shot this weekend in Baltimore. Yet, many of the elite Baltimore residents & the editorial board at the @baltimoresun are more upset the president pointed out the trash.
BALTIMORE (WBFF) -- A Project Baltimore investigation has found five Baltimore City high schools and one middle school do not have a single student proficient in the state tested subjects of math and English.
We sat down with a teen who attends one of those schools and has overcome incredible challenges to find success.
Navon Warren grew up in West Baltimore. He was three months old when his father was shot to death. Before his 18th birthday, he would lose two uncles and a classmate, all gunned down on the streets of Baltimore.
“I’ve lost a lot of people, so I’m used to it. It hurts,” Warren said. “I just chose not to show it. I just keep it in. You just have to live on and keep going on every day. You have to do it somehow.”
Despite his tremendous loss, Warren is set to graduate this year from Frederick Douglass High School. It’s a school where only half the students graduate and just a few dozen will go to college. Last year, not one student scored proficient in any state testing.
“That’s absurd to me. That’s absurd to me,” says Warren’s mother Janel Nelson. “That’s your teachers report card, ultimately.”
Project Baltimore found Frederick Douglass is not alone. Four other city high schools and one middle school also have zero students proficient.
The schools are:
Booker T. Washington Middle School
Frederick Douglass High School
Achievement Academy at Harbor City
New Era Academy
Excel Academy at Francis M. Wood High
New Hope Academy
High school students are tested by the state in math and English. Their scores place them in one of five categories – a four or five is considered proficient and one through three are not. At Frederick Douglass, 185 students took the state math test last year and 89 percent fell into the lowest level. Just one student approached expectations and scored a three.
Despite the challenges at his school, Warren found a path to higher education. He’s the reigning Baltimore City 50 and 100 freestyle champion who competed at the junior Olympics, finishing in fourth place. In the fall, he will leave the streets of Baltimore and head to Bethany College in West Virginia, where he will swim.
“It’s exciting for him to get out of the city and exciting for him to start a new chapter in his life,” says Nelson.
Warren told FOX45, he believes zero students are proficient at Frederick Douglass, because the state tests are more advanced than what the students are learning in class.
Editor’s Note: We spoke with the executive director of teaching and learning for Baltimore City Schools about this data. She told us some of those students might be considered proficient, even though they did not score a four or five on the state tests. Baltimore City Schools later told us that was an error in statement.
2018 'Rat Film' documentary about Baltimore's rodent fight to air on PBS tonight.
The shooter had 30 charges since 2007. It was illegal for him to own a gun. Can anyone explain what new gun law would’ve made it so super illegal that a criminal intent on murder would suddenly comply & say "I was ready to kill but I don’t wanna break this new gun law"? https://t.co/Cu0iZIKTgE
Some members of the crowd that gathered outside the scene of the Philadelphia shooting of six police officers laughed and taunted at police as they were trying to get the gunman to come out of the house where he was barricaded.
That’s according to journalist Alexandria Hoff of CBS Philadelphia, who was at the scene.
Writing on Twitter, Hoff expressed disapointment at what she witnessed and indicated she was also harassed at the standoff scene, which broke out when police say Maurice Hill, a felon with a lengthy criminal history, opened fire on officers who were serving a narcotics search warrant.
A video also emerged that showed people yelling at police officers (you can see a van belonging to the daycare near the shooting scene in the video. None of the children was harmed.) People also screamed profanities at cops at the scene.
Hoff posted two tweets that described the situation, which eventually ended when Hill (above on his Facebook page) surrendered.
“I mentioned this at 10 and since I was harassed during that live shot, I’ll mention it here too. A major moment of disappointment this evening was watching a crowd of people taunt police officers, laughing and yelling at them in the midst of the gunfire. #PhiladelphiaShooting,” she wrote on Twitter.
“I should add – 98% of people here on scene were respectful and concerned. That moment was just such a startling thing to see in the middle of something so chaotic,” she added.
Although the officers did not suffer life-threatening injuries, for hours the situation was dangerous and very volatile, according to the police commissioner.
Police have not yet released the suspect’s name. The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper cited police sources for its report, and CBS Philadelphia also reported that the suspect in the more than 7-hour long standoff is Maurice Hill, attributing the information to his lawyer. Just after midnight, police announced: “Suspect is in custody. SWAT is still clearing the house.”
As a felon, Maurice Hill was legally barred from possessing a firearm; he was previously convicted in federal court of illegally doing just that (being a felon in possession of a firearm). You can read Maurice Hill’s extremely lengthy state criminal history here. Over the years, many criminal charges ended up not being prosecuted by authorities, including firearms offenses and accusations of reckless endangerment.
The mayor used the shooting press conference to highlight gun control issues.
“Our officers need help…. They need help with gun control. They need help with keeping weapons out of these people’s hands,” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney said. “This government, federal and state’s level, doesn’t want to do anything about getting these guns off the streets and getting them out of the hands of criminals.”
The terrifying incident could have been much worse, as officers were pinned inside the dwelling while the suspect was still firing for a time and one officer suffered a wound to his head.
The police commissioner said he hadn’t seen anything like it “in years.”
In the August 14, 2019 shooting, police dispatch audio indicated at one point that the gunman was in a kitchen shooting at officers up through the floor. An officer on the dispatch audio says the suspect was “shooting from inside a kitchen. Shooting upwards and forwards from the position of the police.” Officers were pinned down inside the home at one point, according to the audio.
Video showed officers crouched down behind their police vehicles.
I read in other articles where local residents were interviewed and were actually blaming the police for the shootout. Unreal. It was Maurice Hill who started the shootout when the warrant for his arrest was served. It was Maurice Hill who didn't give a damn who was shot injured or killed in the crossfire. Maurice Hill put all of his neighbors lives at risk. The police had to neutralize Maurice Hill to protect the community. How do Black Lives Matter supporters respond at the scene? By physically attacking the police, and protecting the criminal who is putting everybody's lives at risk. And you somehow have the nerve to blame the White man for the oppressive conditions in your neighborhood? What did you expect the community would be like without law and order? You actually believed the criminals you're protecting would improve your lives? Crime ridden neighborhoods are oppressing you NOT the White man.
Let me put it another way. You have security bars on your doors and windows not to keep the police out, but to keep the criminals you're protecting out. Right? I would think those bars would make you feel imprisoned in your own home. That awful unsafe oppressed feeling would be thanks to the crime ridden neighborhood and NOT the White man. Who is in charge of your city? Democrats? Why are they allowing you to live with such unsafe conditions where graffiti vandals, thieves, and murderers control the streets? (emphasis mine)
CBS Philly published on Aug 15, 2019: Suspected Gunman Accused Of Shooting 6 Philly Cops Has Long Rap Sheet
"In Philly Stand-off, Alleged Cop Shooter Maurice Hill Has Long Criminal History"
50% murders in U.S. are black perp/black victim, mostly male. Out of 7% of the pop. come 50% of murderers. But, hey, let's talk "white supremacists."https://t.co/K0E5a2qqwX#PhiladelphiaShooter
written by Samantha Melamed, Jeremy Roebuck, Dylan Purcell and Craig R. McCoy
Thursday August 15, 2019
Police sources have identified the gunman in a standoff at a Tioga apartment building that left six police officers injured as Maurice Hill, 36, a Philadelphia man with a lengthy history of gun convictions and resisting attempts to bring him to justice.
The police sources declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak. Reached by phone about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Shaka Johnson, the lawyer who most recently represented Hill, confirmed that Hill had a connection to the standoff.
“My client is requesting me to come to the scene,” he said.
The standoff began about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday when a Narcotics Strike Force unit attempted to serve a search warrant at a house on the 3700 block of North 15th Street.
For the next few hours, police used bullhorns and phone calls trying to get the gunman to surrender.
And then, just after midnight, a man left the home and was placed into police custody.
After Hill’s surrender, Johnson said in an interview with CBS3 that Hill called him about 8:30 p.m. on his personal phone “in a panic."
“I told him, ‘You gotta surrender, man,’” said Johnson, who added that he has known Hill for about a decade.
Hill’s history in the adult criminal justice system began in 2001, when he was 18 and was arrested with a gun that had an altered serial number.
Public records show that he has been arrested about a dozen times since turning 18, and convicted six times on charges that involved illegal possession of guns, drug dealing, and aggravated assault. He has been in and out of prison; the longest sentence handed him came in 2010, when a federal judge gave him a 55-month term.
And his record indicates he does not like to go to prison. In 2008, he was convicted of escaping, fleeing from police, and resisting arrest. Along the way, he beat criminal charges on everything from kidnapping to attempted murder.
Hill also spent time in federal prison. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to federal firearms violations after he was caught with a Smith & Wesson .357 and later a Taurus PT .45 semiautomatic. His prior felony convictions should have barred him from owning those weapons. U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond sentenced him to four years and seven months in prison.
More recently, Hill was convicted of perjury in 2013 and sentenced to seven years of probation. He appeared before Common Pleas Court Judge Rayford Means for three different alleged violations of probation — at least two of them related to new cases, which he later beat.
In one of those cases, Philadelphia police arrested Hill in May 2014 after spotting him driving an unregistered scooter. But when officers tried to stop him, he raced down an alleyway against traffic on a one-way street and then onto a sidewalk, sending pedestrians scattering, court records say. Hill crashed the scooter and then fled on foot but was apprehended. He was charged with driving without a license, recklessly endangering another person, and fleeing police, but was acquitted on all counts.
Philadelphia police arrested Hill again in October 2014 on charges of drug possession and false imprisonment.
According to court filings, his accuser told police she had agreed to sell marijuana for Hill but then changed her mind. When he summoned her to his house on the 6900 block of Greenway Street in Southwest Philadelphia days later, she said, she overheard Hill and an associate discussing killing her. Fearful for her life, the woman said, she called 911. When officers arrived, she fled as Hill and his associate hid the crack cocaine and marijuana in a tire out back. Investigators discovered 83 grams of marijuana.
This is what happens when the media fuels an anti-police narrative 24/7. https://t.co/LMDtFSpAjU
Inside Edition published on Aug 15, 2019: Philadelphia police were being taunted and heckled during Wednesday’s wild eight-hour siege with a gunman in the city. Some onlookers surrounded the officers, pelting them with garbage. One cop was even shoved. This all happened as other officers dealt with a man firing at them who wounded six officers. Larry Artis, who served during the Iraq War, watched the terrifying gunplay from his bedroom window. He said he was afraid, adding, “I had my wife on the floor ducking.”
Organizers Say Hundreds Expected To Attend Rally To Support Suspect Accused Of Shooting 6 Philadelphia Police Officers
The other day I told you that it’s not a gun problem, it’s a people problem. https://t.co/9TQDLllQo8
PHILADELPHIA — Only a handful of people showed up for a controversial rally on Friday night in North Philadelphia to support Maurice Hill, the alleged gunman accused of shooting six Philadelphia police officers. Organizers were expecting 200 to 300 people at the rally.
Earlier in the day, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said police would have to be there too.
“Sadly, we do have to be there, I don’t understand it. There’s certain marches I do understand, this is definitely not one of them,” Ross said.
Hill is still in jail right now while he waits to be arraigned.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said Thursday Hill will most likely face charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault, among others.
“There will be a lot of charges. These are more than enough charges so that Mr. Maurice Hill may never exit jail,” Krasner said.
All six police officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were released from the hospital Wednesday night.
For resisting violently and FIGHTING the cops or ATTACKING the cops or doing something stupid. White people get killed by the cops too. & you MISSED THE POINT: A black man named Maurice Hill wasn't killed even though he SHOT SIX COPS. Why wasn't he killed? He SURRENDERED! pic.twitter.com/5l2rrtnYZc
So, you would rather the public be at the mercy of criminals?
Have you seen what happens when police are told to stay the f**k out of communities like Chicago, Baltimore, St. Louis? The community lives in fear, are poor because jobs stay out bc high crime, murders rule the city.
Norway isn't a third world country. Norwegian police aren't armed because Norway has so little crime. Norway also has very relaxed gun laws and high per capita gun ownership.
I'm turning 50 this year. I've lived in my same neighborhood my whole life. I have never feared the police here. Never.@LAPDNorthHwdDiv@LAPDChiefMoore@LAPDHQ
It is a corruption issue where those incidents that you described are prevalent.
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