Still, in March 1944, a young Jewish immigrant to Palestine named Hannah Senesh (Anna Szenes) parachuted into occupied Slovenia on behalf of the British Army.
The goals were twofold — to help Allied pilots who had fallen behind enemy lines flee to safety and to work with partisan forces to rescue Jewish communities under Nazi occupation.
Senesh was captured by the Hungarian police on June 7, tortured for months, and executed on November 7. She was only 23.
Hannah Senesh’s immigration certificate, 1939. (National Library of Israel)
A year later, a soldier in the British Army’s Jewish Brigade, Moshe Braslavski, returned to Kibbutz Sdot Yam, where Senesh had come to live in 1941. He found a suitcase full of letters, diaries, songs, poems and more under her bed.
Her tragic, heroic story and her poems — including “A Walk to Caesarea” (known popularly as “Eli, Eli” / “My God, My God”) — have made Senesh into an iconic figure of modern Jewish, Israeli and Zionist culture.
This year, Kibbutz Sdot Yam renovated its Hannah Senesh House, established in 1950, with an audiovisual display in Hebrew, English, Russian, French, Spanish and German presenting the story of her life, mission and death.
Hannah Senesh’s iconic poem, “A Walk to Caesarea” (“Eli, Eli”) in her notebook. (National Library of Israel)
Hannah Senesh House also houses an exhibition about the other six paratroopers who were killed on that mission and a monument brought from the Budapest cemetery, where she was initially interred. Her coffin was moved to Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl National Cemetery in 1950.
It contains her handwritten poems, personal diaries, a newspaper she edited at the age of six, letters, photographs, personal documents, the transcript of her trial and her suitcase, typewriter and camera.
Perhaps the two most moving items in the collection are a pair of notes found in her dress following her execution: the last poem she ever wrote and a letter to her mother.
Hannah Senesh’s childhood drawing of the Hungarian flag for her grandmother, 1930. (National Library of Israel)
“In 2021, we will commemorate 100 years since Hannah Senesh’s birth, and the National Library of Israel will work throughout the year to open global digital access to this significant archive, giving it pride of place among the millions of other cultural treasures we have digitized and made available online over the past decade,” said Oren Weinberg, director of the National Library of Israel.
The archive had been kept by the family until now.
After the war, Hannah’s mother, Katherine, immigrated to Palestine with more of her daughter’s writings and personal items from their home in Budapest. Katherine received the materials Braslavski had found on the kibbutz and kept the complete collection in her apartment in Haifa.
Hannah Senesh’s last note to her mother, found in her dress after her execution in 1944. (National Library of Israel)
Following Katherine’s death in 1992 and the death of Hannah’s brother Giora in 1995, the materials were passed down to Giora’s sons, Eitan and David, who used them to promote Hannah’s memory and legacy. Eitan also worked to manage, catalogue, translate and preserve the literary estate.
Over the past year, Ori and Mirit Eisen from Arizona enabled the transfer of the complete Hannah Senesh Archival Collection to the National Library of Israel, where it can be seen alongside the personal papers of other cultural figures, including Maimonides, Sir Isaac Newton, Martin Buber, Franz Kafka and Naomi Shemer.
“We feel that the collection has reached safe harbor, just as the renewed Hannah Senesh House opens in Kibbutz Sdot Yam,” commented the Senesh family.
“We thank the National Library of Israel and the Eisen family for their efforts and assistance and are happy and excited that the flame of the poet Hannah Senesh and her father, the writer Bela Szenes, will now be preserved in the most suitable place — the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem — and that from there, its light will shine upon the world.”
For information on Hannah Senesh House on Kibbutz Sdot Yam, click here.
For information on the National Library’s Hannah Senesh Archival Collection, click here.
Minority Health Institute and UCLA BRITE Center for Science, Research and Policy invite you to attend a virtual town hall with some of the nations’ premier COVID-19 experts and historically Black institution and organization leaders to address facts, fears and myths pertaining to COVID-19 vaccination as we fight to protect and save Black lives.
The townhall will take place on Saturday, January 16 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. To register and participate in the COVID-19 Vaccination: It Matters in Saving Black Lives visit www.mhinst.org.
Opening in Select Theaters, Digital & Cable VOD January 15
MLK/FBI is an essential expose of the surveillance and harassment of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (labeled by the FBI as the “most dangerous” Black person in America), undertaken by J. Edgar Hoover and the U.S. government. Based on newly discovered and declassified files, as well as revelatory restored footage, the documentary explores the government’s history of targeting Black activists. Directed by Emmy® Award-winner and Oscar®-nominee Sam Pollard, MLK/FBI recounts a tragic story with searing relevance to our current moment.
Q: You were part of a team who made arguably the most comprehensive documentary series about the Civil Rights movement to date. I’m not sure you ever had any reservations about approaching a massive undertaking like this one but talk a little bit about how you arrived at taking on one of the most iconic symbols of civil rights in the United States. What led you to the project?
Sam Pollard: Working back in 1987 and 1988 on “Eyes on the Prize,” one episode I did was called “Two Societies,” which followed when Dr. King went to Chicago to bring the movement from the South to the North, and the hostility he faced. It was a wake up call to me to know that Dr. King wasn’t always loved and embraced by the American public. If we fast-forward, my producer Benjamin Hedin reached out to me over two years ago about making this documentary, and it was a continuation of my understanding of the contradictions in terms of how King is looked at today by most Americans, and how he was really looked at back then.
One of those interesting things in our film is when Beverly Gage mentions the fact that there was a poll taken after King and Hoover met – the only time they ever met – about who was more popular. Hoover was much more popular than Dr. King. Most people forget that now, because Hoover is looked at as a pariah, but most Americans back then thought he was a hero. As did I, as a young African American man— 15, 16 years old— I embraced the American notion of what the FBI was all about. Watching the FBI show on television, watching an old movie from 1959, Jimmy Stewart. The FBI were heroes: beating the gangsters, fighting communism.
It’s always interesting to learn the true story behind these organizations that we mythically make so heroic. We wanted to look at the complexity and the accuracy of the American landscape in terms of the federal government. I hope this film is a wakeup call for America. I understand how complicated this notion of being American is, and how complicated the FBI is today.
Q: We’ve generally known that the FBI spied on Dr. King. But obviously, your film dives deeply into this subject. How long did it take you to pore over archives and then newer revelations about the extent of spying? How long did it take to make the film?
SP: My producer Ben was poring over archives from day one. We started to really dig into this material, these memoranda and unredacted material, from the beginning. We did our first interviews in December 2017 but the majority, with Beverly Gage, Donna Murch, Clarence Jones, and Andy Young, were in fall 2018, which in this business is pretty fast. We had our editor start screening the material and footage in November 2019. And here we are with the film world premiering in September 2020.
But it goes back to this decision that was made in 1992, that in twenty-five years some of the documents collected by the Congressional committee investigating assassinations would be unsealed. Because they investigated both Kennedy and King’s assassinations, when documents are released about one, there’s always the other. We couldn’t have known what was in the 2017-2018 declassification. So I think that we were also very fortunate in the timing.
Q: What was new in that declassification?
SP: A lot about the informants and how surrounded Dr. King was. We knew, of course, there were allies in the movement who might be tipping off FBI agents about King’s plans, but the new discoveries make it plain how coordinated and vast the bureau’s sources were. You get to a point where, on the night he died, for example, they’re not even tapping his phones anymore, they have such good informant coverage.
All the same, it’s important to note that, given Hoover’s motives, you can never take anything that is in these files, even once they are declassified, at face value. One must always remember the source — where it came from and why.
Q: It’s eerie how similar the crisis over Black safety inequality in the period covered by the film feels today. And Civil Rights issues are once again at the fore of the American consciousness.
SP: We are a country that’s always constantly struggling with the issues of race, because this country is founded on the backs of slaves. We have what we call a tipping point and a reckoning in America with Trump in office, with the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests after the murder of George Floyd and the horrific murders that are taking place in this country. So it is extremely timely. But I would say that this film will always be timely in the American zeitgeist, because America and the issues of race never leave. Black men being murdered in the streets of America, by the police, is endemic. It happens every damn day. The work of administrations is to say there’s chaos in the streets, get your weapons out because America is going to fall apart -it happens not only in the Republican administrations, but it happens in Democratic administrations. This is not unusual, but it’s like a huge avalanche now. What Dr. King went through and what America’s going through today is so connected. At the end of the film, when Beverly Gage talks about the First Amendment, the importance of protesting, it speaks directly to what’s happening in the streets of America today.
We could have done this film a year from now and it would still be timely as far as I’m concerned. Because this is America, quite honestly, and unless we have a real revolution, it’s going to be the same cycle over and over and over again.
Q: Dr. King’s legacy has morphed so much from when he was living in your documentary. At one point in the film, someone refers to Dr. King as the most “dangerous Negro in America.” Can you talk a little bit more about how you dealt with his legacy?
SP:I think it’s important to say a couple of things. First, I think his legacy is going to stay intact. What happens to people who are very important in our history is that over time they are revisited. A great example is how I grew up thinking Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. He was a great president. That’s what was taught to me. Now, we learned over time that Lincoln didn’t initially want to free the slaves. It just became something that was necessary to win the Civil War. In some ways he wasn’t “The Great Liberator” or “The Great Emancipator.” But has it really tarnished his reputation? Abraham Lincoln? Not really. You know, he is still considered one of the great American presidents. So the fact that we have known this already about Dr. King, that he was not a monogamous man, that he was a human being like everybody else. I don’t think it’s going to do anything to hurt his reputation.
We had this discussion when we decided to make the film. We talked about it. When we decided to include the rape allegations, we felt like it was important, as serious filmmakers. To look at all sides of this story, we couldn’t skirt that issue. We had to deal with that. Was Dr. King complicit in whatever went on in that room? Why would the FBI not go in there and interrupt and arrest them if they knew a woman was being raped? And this all comes from a handwritten note on a memo- there aren’t transcripts of the allegation. It begs many questions, but the information is out there, has been reported on, and we as filmmakers needed to include it in a responsible way, as part of the larger picture of the surveillance. In terms of what the FBI said on the subject, they’re going to couch it in a way that makes King look as horrific as possible. So you have to question everything about it. I don’t think anybody alive really knows what happened in that room.
When you create a film about someone, you have to look at everything, all the edges. Every part of the human being. If you wanted to see what I call a whitewashed version, it’s easy to do. But to me, as a filmmaker, I believe that all of us are flawed human beings – as James Comey said. My job is to look at all of that and question it. In a responsible way, but you have to do it. And if you don’t do that then you’re not doing your job. To me, whoever King was as a man didn’t take away from what he did as a great Civil Rights leader.
What we arrived on after scouring the documents and looking at the facts is that the FBI was so frightened and afraid of this man they were willing to go to any lengths to destroy his reputation. Something people overlook, is that the civil rights movement was not just Dr. King. America always has to create one person who takes us to the mountaintop, when there were lots of foot soldiers in the Civil Rights movement who got us to the ‘64 and ‘65 Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act – Fred Shuttlesworth and Ralph Abernathy and Dorothy Cotton and Fannie Lou Hamer – there were so many people, it wasn’t just King. He’s been made into the titular head. There’s more than one way to look at Dr. King, and at the movement.
There’s a very important distinction at the end of the film that the FBI wasn’t a rogue agency. King was pitted against the entire power structure of the government, in that the White House was privy to the surveillance. They would listen in on the recordings. The Congressional committees all knew about it. Nobody stopped it. So it was something that went just beyond the FBI headquarters and the suspicion of King in the halls of power persisted for so long. You know, Reagan didn’t even want to sign the holiday into law. And that’s more than a decade after he was shot.
Sam Pollard on Set
Q: Can you talk about the stylistic choice to use archival?
SP:We had discussions in terms of stylistic approach, how we wanted to put it together. Normal rule of thumb is usually you have your interviews on camera and you interweave the archival footage with it. But we felt like we wanted to make sure that you get a real sense of the narrative visually, with this wealth of archival. We wanted to let you just marinate in that new archival material, like the footage of Dr. King at home with his kids.
I want to really tip my hat to Laura Tomaselli, the brilliant editor of the film.
Q:Sorting through all of the archives and materials must have been a huge undertaking. How did you get a hold of rare footage? How did that all come together to shed light on the surveillance of Dr. King?
SP: We had a great archivist, Brian Becker, and it was important to use footage we hadn’t seen before. So we privileged that. If it had been seen, it was almost like it was off the table. And we benefited quite a bit from stuff that exists but hadn’t been digitized. The March on Washington footage, the Library of Congress just digitized that a couple of years ago. That film’s been sitting in their warehouse, so that was a source also.
The footage of King with his family, I’ve never seen before, nor the footage of James Earl Ray being arrested in London. And that’s always the great thing about when you have a good archival producer, who will go to any lengths to find new and fresh material. This gentleman, Brian Becker, did an extraordinary job doing that.
Q:Can you talk about the experts and the voices you chose to include in the film? For example, we hear from James Comey, former FBI director. The voices were distinct from one another. How did you decide which voices stood out to be included in your documentary?
SP:One thing we decided early on was to limit the number of interviews to focus on people who could provide cultural and historical context, as well as people who were close to Dr. King.
Donna Murch’s book on the Black Panthers and Black activist groups, “Living for the City: Migration, Education, and the Rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California” and Beverly Gage’s forthcoming book on Hoover, “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the American Century” made them important voices for context.
In terms of people who were really close to King, Clarence Jones is the man. Clarence Jones is the man because he was at King’s side for many, many years, as was Andrew Young. Both of them were great.
David Garrow’s research remains foundational: he wrote the first major biography of Dr. King, in 1986, and the FBI at one point offered him a monetary settlement if he would not publish his book on the bureau’s campaign against King . And Marc Perrusquia was crucial because he knew about the informants, specifically Ernest Withers. He waged a long court battle against the FBI to get the records proving that Withers was a paid informant. So this was a small group that each person really fitted their particular role.
It was also extremely important to include Bureau sources. As FBI Director, Comey tried very much to take on the legacy of the King surveillance. He would send agents in training to the King Memorial on the Mall and he would have them write a paper about it. Comey said that he kept the original wiretap request that Hoover sent to the Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, in October 1963, the initial request to tap King, under the glass on his desk when he was director as a reminder of the abuses of power. The other FBI source in the film is a guy named Charles Knox, who wasn’t an agent while King was still alive,but what he did was close the “Solo” file. And “Solo” is the codename for a pair of brothers who were embedded in Moscow, maybe the most successful case of informants that Hoover ever had. And it was the intelligence they were providing about the Communist Party that initially sent Hoover on the trail of King. Knox understood the whole sort of arc of the Bureau’s obsession with King.
Q: The surveillance tapes are under lock and key until 2027. Was it a predicament or a challenge not to have those tapes?
SP:The big question for me was what if they opened the files in 2027, would the film become irrelevant? I believe that it will still be relevant. Above all, it’s what this story tells us about the American character. Especially right now. Which is why we decided to proceed. I think anything in the tapes will just flesh out what we already know.
“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
LOS ANGELES, CA— Three African American health leaders — advocates for expanded health care who are on the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19 raging across California — took a moment to reflect on the state of health care as the holiday honoring civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. approaches on January 18.
Doctors David Carlisle, Elaine Batchlor and Adrian James are admirers of King and find his words of injustice in health care even more profound as hospitals and clinics are overflowing with COVID-19 patients — many of them African Americans and other people of color.
“On the day that we celebrate the great civil rights icon’s birthday, Dr. King’s sentiment has never been more relevant than today, as the pandemic has laid bare the great health inequities that remain in this country,” said Dr. Carlisle, president and CEO of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles. “COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on communities of color makes it more important than ever that African Americans, Latinos and other people of color seek out affordable health care coverage, such as through Covered California, and also get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available.”
Carlisle, Batchlor and James recently teamed up with Covered California to address vaccine confidence and encourage Black Californians to get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available, and to sign up for quality health insurance coverage through Covered California or Medi-Cal.
“Every day at MLK Community Hospital in South Los Angeles, we see high rates of unmanaged chronic disease that lead to poorer health outcomes,” said Dr. Batchlor, the hospital’s CEO. “This is illuminated by the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the African American community. We must change our country’s separate and unequal system of care, which is perpetuated by a payment system that disincentivizes doctors to serve in low-income communities like ours.
“I believe access to high-quality health care is a basic human right, and providing universal quality care to everyone, regardless of income level, race or political beliefs is a fundamental act of social justice,” Dr. Batchlor said.
Dr. Adrian James of the West Oakland Health Council in the San Francisco Bay Area said he and his colleagues are fighting misinformation circulating in the African American community about the vaccines to fight COVID-19.
Underlying medical conditions caused by inequality make people of color more susceptible to illness caused by COVID-19, Dr. James said. Other challenges Black people face include the inability to work from home and social distance.
“The quote from Dr. King that ‘Of all forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman’ is true because it may lead to death, which is the worst possible outcome. In California, the pandemic has had a devastating impact on the African American community,” Dr. James said.
The pandemic has also highlighted the importance of quality health care coverage. Right now, an estimated 1.2 million Californians are uninsured — including an estimated 67,000 African Americans — even though they are eligible for financial help through Covered California, or they qualify for low-cost or no-cost coverage through Medi-Cal.
“Roughly nine out of every 10 consumers who enroll through Covered California receive financial assistance — in the form of federal tax credits, state subsidies, or both — which helps make health care more affordable,” Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee said.
Covered California’s current open-enrollment period lasts until Jan. 31. Consumers interested in learning more about their coverage options can:
You better know that you know. And if you didn’t know, now you know. He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ [Isaiah 6:9]. So I will choose their punishments and will bring on them what they dread. Because I called, but no one answered; I spoke, but they did not listen. And they did evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight. [Isaiah 66:4]. Therefore, I say again, remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lamp-stand out of its place. [Revelation 2:5]. Take the gift – “Second Chance,” and use it wisely. Repent! For there are serious consequences that would result if My instructions are ignored and My laws are violated [see Deuteronomy 28].
Listen, God is patient, but God is just. In His mercy, He provides us time to repent. In His grace, He allows tragedy to be a warning about judgment rather than executing wrath on us. Make no mistake; it is mercy for us to be warned in this way. But, God will not be patient forever. For those who ignore His kind warnings, like the people in Noah’s day, they likewise will perish also. Don’t you wait until its too late! “For NOW is the acceptable time, for NOW is day of Salvation” [2 Corinthians 6:2].
As Joshua challenged the people to choose who they would serve! The same choice stands before you today! Forsake the foolish, and live, and go in the way of understanding. For as [Hebrews 10:26; Isaiah 58: 1], says, “If you deliberately keep on sinning after you have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire…”
Do not receive the grace of God in vain. Do not ignore, neglect or cast aside God’s offer of mercy. Respond to it now, as it is offered to you. It is a mercy call. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction…”[Matthew 7: 13-14].
“As I live! declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die?” [Ezekiel 33:11].
SACRAMENTO, CA – Today, Assemblymember Chris Holden introduced, AB 229, legislation that establishes use of force trainings within the existing courses provided by the California Private Security Services Act. Under current laws, no use of force trainings exist for Private Patrol Operators.
“When private security are responsible for the safety of the general public, those private operators must have the proper training in order to apply the appropriate use of force in any particular situation,” said Assemblymember Chris Holden. “We put a lot of attention on our State’s peace officers, but private security, who sometimes are in similar circumstances, need comparable training.”
In 2019, Mario Matthews was restrained face-down on the floor at Golden 1 Center by two security personnel after he ran on to the court following an NBA exhibition game. According the lawsuit filed by his parents, his hands were handcuffed behind his back and the two security personnel got on top of his back. One security guard used his right knee to apply pressure to the side of Mario’s neck for approximately four and a half minutes. In addition to the initial two Universal Protection Security personnel, a third security officer placed himself on Mario’s back.
After approximately ten minutes, several Sacramento Police Department officers arrived and used maximum restraints; they tied his legs together with one strap and another strap around his waist. For a total of 20 minutes, Mario was facedown with as many as four people on top of him. Mario became unresponsive and was taken to the hospital. He passed away two days later. The lawsuit claims that the Sacramento County Coroner acknowledged that restraint was a cause of Mario’s death.
“What happened to Mario is unacceptable, and proper training will play big role in avoiding unnecessary harm or death to others,” said Holden.
AB 229 requires the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (BSIS) to develop curriculum and training courses on the appropriate use of force for private security services employees in consultation with the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.
Gov. Gavin Newsom sounded upbeat when he announced at a press briefing Friday afternoon that he has submitted a $227 billion budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year to the State Legislature for approval.
The spending plan reflects a brighter picture than the gloomier one Newsom presented last summer when he projected a steep budget shortfall of more than $50 billion. In this proposal, the governor’s office is estimating that there will be a budget surplus of about $15 billion over the 2020-21 fiscal year, with nearly $3 billion stashed in the state’s operating reserve.
“In these darkest moments of the COVID-19 pandemic, this budget will help Californians with urgent action to address our immediate challenges and build towards our recovery,” said Newsom. “As always, our Budget is built on our core California values of inclusion, economic growth and a brighter future for all.”
The proposal includes significant investments intended to shore up and revive the state economy battered by the COVID-19 global pandemic. It proposes $2.4 billion for a one-time payout of $600 per individual from the “Golden State Stimulus” fund for the lowest earning Californians, many of them essential workers, who have been hit hardest by the global health crisis and the economic dip it caused. The majority of workers that have been affected are African American, Hispanic or from other ethnic groups in California and across the country.
To ensure a swift economic recovery, the governor has allocated $372 million to facilitate the distribution and administration of COVID-19 vaccines across the state.
Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Los Angeles), chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus and the only African American lawmaker in the upper house of the California legislature, says he is pleased that the governor’s budget invests in equity. He told CBM that he will work with the governor’s office to make sure the proposals in the plan, particularly the relief for businesses, benefit Black Californians.
“Governor Newsom’s 2021-2022 budget proposal reflects what we are all hoping: that things are getting back on track and in a better way. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate California, but thanks to the swift actions taken last year by the Legislature and the Governor, we are in a strong position to combat this crisis and rebuild our economy,” Bradford said
“We do not want to go back to where we were. We want a more just economy moving forward,” the senator added.
Workers at hospitals, grocery store clerks, public transportation operators and more had to continue showing up to work through the most difficult and uncertain phases of the pandemic last year. And entrepreneurs like barbers and beauticians and workers in retail, food and beverage service, hospitality and the leisure sectors suffered the most job losses. Newsom announced $777.5 billion in his budget for economic recovery, including assistance to businesses of all sizes – more than $500 million will go to small businesses — and money to support the state’s minimum wage increase to $14.
Bradford, who is also chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, applauded Gov Newsom for including funding for improving prisons and criminal justice reform efforts.
“As Chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, I am also pleased to see funding for the maintenance of California state prisons, Los Angeles County, use of force investigations by the Department of Justice, and rehabilitation and educational programs for our inmate population,” he said. “Following the work I began in 2018 with the California Cannabis Equity Act, I am delighted to see the permanent funding of the state’s local equity grant program, which is a momentous step toward a fair and equitable cannabis market.”
The money for COVID economic recovery comes at a time when there looms the threat of another economic downturn. According to numbers released by the U.S. Department of Labor Friday, payrolls across the country decreased by 140,000 jobs in December. It is the sharpest drop in jobs since last April. The economy has not fully bounced back since the beginning of the pandemic last march when it lost 22.2 million jobs. Only 12.4 million jobs have been recovered so far.
Although the governor’s budget projects optimism, and it provides substantial funding for critical ongoing government priorities like education, transportation public safety, higher education, health care and green initiatives, it is short on details. It does however include a clear high-level breakdown of where the money will be spent – if not exactly how. For example, Gov. Newsom calls for $2 billion to help schools across the state to reopen in the next couple of months. The budget also allots $85.8 billion for schools, which includes teacher training, early childhood education programs, teacher recruitment and money to extend learning into the summer. The governor is also proposing that the state invests $500 million in low-cost housing tax credits; $1.75 billion to continue purchasing motels to house the homeless under “Project Room Key;” and $353 million for job training and creation programs.
Over the next 5 months, Gov. Newsom says he and the Legislature will be working to hash out, distill and define budget priorities. Through the process, they will determine how and at which level of government – state, county or municipal – the monies will be spent. Then in May, he will present his revised, and more detailed, budget to the legislature for final approval before the fiscal year begins in July.
Senate Republicans say over 19,000 small businesses in the state have had to shutter since the pandemic began. Therefore, they are urging the governor to increase funding for them.
“Over the past ten months, the Governor’s shutdowns and COVID-19 challenges have made it difficult for millions of Californians,” said Senate Republican Leader Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) and Senator Jim Nielsen (R-Tehama) in a statement responding to the governor’s budget.
Some environmental groups complained that the budget redirects cash to emergency preparedness, “short-changing” programs that provide funding to underserved communities, some of them places where Black Californians live.
“The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is meant to cut pollution in our most impacted communities,” said CEO Debra Gore-Mann, president of the Greenlighting Institute, a public policy and research organization based in Oakland. “Funding for wildfires should come from the utilities whose recklessness led to so many problems.
Gov. Newsom says now that he has presented his budget, the hard work begins.
“The Budget makes progress towards the goal I set when taking office to harness California’s spirit of innovation and resilience and put the California Dream within reach of more Californians,” Gov. Newsom said.
We have heard about cops giving the jitters to culprits. However, in the western Indian city of Pune, something quite the opposite occurred last week when cops fled a crime scene at the sight of knife-wielding robbers.
A couple of policemen who were called to nab four burglars robbing apartments in the Aundh neighborhood, allegedly ran away when they saw the miscreants coming out of the building with knives and rods in their hands.
Surveillance cameras fitted outside the building recorded the entire episode.
“The event occurred around 3 a.m. on December 28. After being informed by the locals, two police constables were sent from the nearest police station Chaturshringi,” said an officer at Khadki police Division, Pune, Maharashtra.
The four men hit the society’s watchman Govind Hiraman Yadav to get into the complex. They then looted a television set, a silver chain, and cash from five locked flats.
The Pune police have ordered an inquiry against constables Anil Awaghade and Santosh Gore for their unprofessional behavior.
This is not the first time that such bizarre incidents involving the police have taken place.
Recently, Kaushlendra Pratap Singh, station head officer at Bithoor police station, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, was in the news for using a stolen car that had been recovered by the police. The car was stolen two years ago from a car wash center at Barra, another neighborhood in Kanpur.
The mess-up came to light when the car owner Omendra Soni got a call from an auto service center on Dec 30 asking for feedback on the service taken a few days ago. A startled Soni later discovered that his stolen car was in possession of the Bithoor police and Singh had been using it for a while.
Details on how and when the stolen car reached Singh are unclear as officials at the Bithoor police station refused to speak about the incident.
Police accountability in India has been questioned quite often. Alongside charges of corruption, the country’s policing system has been leveled with charges of discriminatory action towards economically vulnerable groups and religious minorities. The force has also been criticized for its inability to deliver services and failure to develop a functional relationship with citizens.
Last week, a police constable in Uttarakhand state in Northern India allegedly ran over and killed a shop owner after the latter asked him to pay for a cigarette he had bought. The constable, who was accompanied by two other men, got into a brawl with Gaurav Rohella (28), the cigarette seller, outside his shop at Bajpur, Udham Singh Nagar district.
“We have arrested all the three accused, including the police constable Praveen Kumar and are investigating the matter,” said Deepshikha Agarwal, circle officer, Bajpur.
“The incident occurred at around 10.30 p.m. on Dec 30. Complainants told us that Kumar and the other two accused arrived at the spot in Kumar’s brother-in-law’s car. They got into an argument after Rohella charged them for leaving the shop without paying for the bought cigarettes. Soon after, Kumar got into the car and ran over Rohella.”
Rohella was initially taken to the Community Health Center at Bajpur but was referred to a hospital at Haldwani, around 48 kilometers from Bajpur, where he succumbed to his injuries, said Agarwal.
The Lokniti team at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), in 2018, had surveyed 15,562 respondents across 22 states on their perceptions about policing. It found that only 24 percent of Indians trusted the police highly, compared to 54 percent of people who trusted the army.
The Status of Policing in India Report 2018 also found that 14 percent of the respondents were highly fearful of the police and 30 percent somewhat fearful of it. 29 percent of the surveyed women said they were afraid of sexual harassment by the police.
In July 2020, the death of father-son duo P Jayaraj and Bennicks in police custody had taken the entire nation by storm. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a charge sheet against nine Tamil Nadu police officers for allegedly illegally picking up the two men and torturing them all night – until their clothes were soaked in blood and both were left near-dead. The men died at a local hospital.
The U.S. Capitol was on lockdown Wednesday afternoon following a breach by hundreds of protesters who battled with police on blood-streaked pavement while waving flags that announced their support for President Donald J. Trump.
U.S. Capitol Police officers stood in the House chamber with guns drawn. Members of the House of Representatives were ordered to put on escape hoods and take shelter. Protesters swarmed police outside, breaking through their ranks and running riot.
One woman was shot in the chest, U.S. Capitol Police confirmed, and arrests were made. Vice President Michael R. Pence was rushed out of the Senate chamber where he was presiding over a debate about Republicans’ objections to electoral votes from Arizona.
Five other states’ votes were expected to draw similar objections, each leading to debates of up to two hours in the House and Senate. But the Senate was formally in recess before the debate could end, with an unidentified gas wafting down the hallway from the ornate Senate chamber. Senators were told to reach under their seats and pull out gas masks, a Cold War carryover precaution, and to evacuate.
In the House chamber, fewer Members than usual were on the floor when the debate was suspended, a product of Covid-19 precautions ordered by Speaker Nancy. P. Pelosi. After the floor was cleared, protesters stormed in. One stood at Pelosi’s place, high up on the dais, and shouted, “Trump Won That Election!”
Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol. (Ford Fischer)
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 06: Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Trump supporters gathered in the nation’s capital today to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
President Trump called for his supporters to march from the White House area down Penn toward the Capitol. Hundreds doing so now. pic.twitter.com/Z5TOkzexEL
C-Span footage showed other protesters marching through the Capitol Rotunda in an orderly line, careful not to stray outside a walkway bordered by velvet ropes. One man was captured in a tweeted photo sitting at Pelosi’s desk in the Speaker’s Office, grinning. The office was vandalized.
Police anticipated violence during what protesters called the “Stop The Steal” event; tensions had flared Tuesday night on city streets.
Supporters of Trump belonging to the Proud Boys group, and others, clashed with Metropolitan Police Department officers, fighting in the open near Black Lives Matter Plaza, an area just north of the White House.
Meanwhile, reporters were scurrying both into the fray and away from it, watching from staircases and balconies as the mini-rebellion forced its way through pepper spray, climbed over barricades and stone walls, burst through doors and smashed leaded-glass windows.
Hours earlier the Cannon House Office Building, a short tunnel-walk away, was evacuated following a bomb scare. Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser ordered a 6:00 p.m. curfew city-wide.
Wednesday’s chaos unfolded a day after hotly contested U.S. Senate elections won by Democrats who appear to have enough seats to take over both chambers of Congress. An hour before Trump supporters stormed the Capitol steps, the president was lavishing in their cheers on the Ellipse, south of the White House, just two miles away.
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 06: U.S. Capitol Police stand detain protesters outside of the House Chamber during a joint session of Congress on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Congress held a joint session today to ratify President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 Electoral College win over President Donald Trump. A group of Republican senators said they would reject the Electoral College votes of several states unless Congress appointed a commission to audit the election results. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 06: Protesters supporting U.S. President Donald Trump break into the U.S. Capitol on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Congress held a joint session today to ratify President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 Electoral College win over President Donald Trump. Pro-Trump protesters entered the U.S. Capitol building during demonstrations in the nation’s capital. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 06: Protesters enter the U.S. Capitol Building on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Congress held a joint session today to ratify President-elect Joe Biden’s 306-232 Electoral College win over President Donald Trump. A group of Republican senators said they would reject the Electoral College votes of several states unless Congress appointed a commission to audit the election results. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
He urged them, “Lets walk down Pennsylvania Avenue,” and returned to the White House instead of joining them. By the time he tweeted a demand for calm and order, Capitol Police had retreated in the face of an overwhelming force carrying signs and shouting slogans.
Some were heard chanting, “Bullshit! Bullshit!” — a refrain that broke out on the Ellipse after Trump used that word to describe the election he lost.
Outside the White House an hour later, a heavy-coated Trump recorded a one-minute video pleading for peace despite losing what he called “a fraudulent election.”
“We don’t want anybody hurt,” he said.
“I know your pain. I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us … but you have to go home now,” Trump said.
Trump had tried to rouse his supporters’ passions as some but not all Republicans argued against accepting electoral vote totals from states where they believe elections were rife with fraud. “We’re going to try & give our Republicans, the weak ones,” he said, “because the strong ones don’t need any of our help. We are going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”
So they marched to the Capitol, wreaking havoc at one end of Pennsylvania Avenue while the president sat at the other end planning his next move from the Oval Office.
In a joint statement, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck E. Schumer issued a joint statement calling on Trump “to demand that all protestors leave the U.S. Capitol and Capitol Grounds immediately.”
Biden, just two weeks from taking office, said: “It borders on sedition, and it must stop now. I call on President Trump to go on national television now to fulfill his oath and defend the Constitution and demand an end to this siege.”
An explosive device was also found near the Republican National Committee headquarters in Southeast Washington. It was safely detonated.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -– One of the most popular resolutions at the beginning of each year is the desire to quit smoking, with more than 70% of smokers reporting they want to quit. Smoking is a risk factor for severe illness from COVID-19, which makes 2021 an even more opportune time to begin the journey to quitting once and for all. With the help of the American Lung Association, more than a million people have achieved success with their goal to quit smoking.
The American Lung Association has the following five tips for those looking to quit smoking this year:
1. Utilize a plan that is proven to be both safe and effective in helping you quit for good. Despite what Juul and other e-cigarette companies want you to believe, switching to vaping (e-cigarettes) is not quitting smoking. E-cigarettes are tobacco products, they contain nicotine, and FDA has not approved any e-cigarette as a quit smoking device.
2. Learn from past experiences. Most smokers have tried to quit before and sometimes people get discouraged thinking about previous attempts. Instead, treat those experiences as steps on the road to future success. Think about what helped you during those tries and what you’ll do differently in your next quit attempt.
3. You don’t have to quit alone. Enrolling in a tobacco counseling program, such as American Lung Association’s Freedom From Smoking®, can increase your chances of success by up to 60% when used in combination with medication.
4. Talk to a doctor about quit smoking medications. Talking to a doctor can significantly increase your chances of quitting successfully. There are seven FDA-approved quit smoking medications that can help you quit. Just make sure to follow the directions and use them for the full duration they are prescribed.
5. Every smoker can quit. Find the right combination of techniques for you and above all, keep trying. Slip-ups – having a puff or smoking one or two cigarettes – are common but don’t mean that a quitter has failed. The important thing is to keep trying to quit.
The American Lung Association is here for you every step of the way with tools, tips and support. The important thing is to keep trying to quit, until you quit for good. Freedom From Smoking® helps individuals create their own unique quit plan for vaping and smoking, as well as tips and techniques to stay successful in the long run. Freedom From Smoking can be accessed online, at a virtual group clinic, by phone at 1-800-LUNG-USA and through a self-guided workbook. Those looking to quit smoking are encouraged to use the method that works best for their learning style, schedule and unique quit smoking plan. Ranked as the most effective smoking cessation program in a study of 100 managed care organizations conducted at Fordham University Graduate School of Business, Freedom From Smoking has helped hundreds of thousands participants quit smoking.
“The COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity for people, when they’re ready, to find the proven quit smoking support they need,” said American Lung Association President and CEO Harold Wimmer. “Quitting smoking will immediately improve your health and might also decrease your odds of severe illness from COVID-19. It’s the perfect way to set yourself up for a healthy new year and healthy years to come.”
For more information about quitting smoking and how to access Freedom From Smoking, visit the American Lung Association website at Lung.org/ffs or call the free Lung HelpLine at 1-800-LUNGUSA (1-800-586-4872).
About the American Lung Association
The American Lung Association is the leading organization working to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease through education, advocacy and research. The work of the American Lung Association is focused on four strategic imperatives: to defeat lung cancer; to champion clean air for all; to improve the quality of life for those with lung disease and their families; and to create a tobacco-free future. For more information about the American Lung Association, a holder of the coveted 4-star rating from Charity Navigator and a Gold-Level GuideStar Member, or to support the work it does, call 1-800-LUNGUSA (1-800-586-4872) or visit: Lung.org.
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