All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

We Can Do Better Wednesdays, Working for Libraries Prompt

Context, Thought, and Learning: ShiraDest Offers Project Do Better

    A funding prompt from the old chapter 7 (from the old chptrs 5 and 10 as they rely on libraries to make the rest of our public life more livable…): 

“I just asked for more library funding in my city, as part of
#ProjectDoBetter!”

How many shares of this prompt can you get?

*****************

Click here to read, if you like:

B5,Hakan: Muhafiz/The Protector, orLupinReviews

Holistic High School Lessons,

orLong Range Nonfiction, or Historical Fiction

Thoughtful Readers, if you are on Twitter, please consider following#Project Do Better on Twitter.

Shira


Shira Destinie Jones’ work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Owner/Manager of Key West Labor Staffing Companies Convicted of Immigration Fraud, Money Laundering and Tax Crimes | OPA | Department of Justice

Mykhaylo Chugay and others owned and operated a series of labor-staffing companies in southern Florida, including General Labor Solutions LLC, Liberty Specialty Service LLC, Paradise Choice LLC, Paradise Choice Cleaning LLC, Tropical City Services LLC and Tropical City Group LLC, between August 2007 and July 2021. At trial, the government proved that Chugay, through these staffing companies, facilitated the employment of individuals in hotels, bars and restaurants in Key West and other locations, even though the employees were not authorized to work in the United States.

The government also proved that Chugay and his co-conspirators defrauded the IRS out of more than $10 million in Social Security and Medicare taxes that should have been collected and paid over in connection with the employment of these workers. In addition, the government proved Chugay conspired to encourage workers to enter the United States and remain in the country, in violation of immigration laws. The government also proved that Chugay and others sent checks and wires totaling more than $11 million in proceeds from the illegal scheme to conspirators in Ukraine and elsewhere.

Chugay was convicted at trial on all counts. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 22 and faces maximum penalties of five years in prison on the tax conspiracy, 10 years in prison for conspiring to harbor aliens and induce them to remain in the United States and 20 years in prison on the money laundering conspiracy. He also faces a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

 

Source: Owner/Manager of Key West Labor Staffing Companies Convicted of Immigration Fraud, Money Laundering and Tax Crimes | OPA | Department of Justice

Walgreens and Greater Than AIDS Partner with Health Departments and Community Organizations to Provide Free HIV Testing and Information in 250+ Cities on National HIV Testing Day (June 27) | KFF – USA

Source: Walgreens and Greater Than AIDS Partner with Health Departments and Community Organizations to Provide Free HIV Testing and Information in 250+ Cities on National HIV Testing Day (June 27) | KFF

Meta banned firearms sales. Why are they still available on Facebook and Instagram? | Meta | The Guardian

Guns, weapon parts and ammunition are widely available for sale on Facebook and Instagram, new research shows, as experts say Meta is not doing enough to stop deadly weapons getting into the wrong hands. Meta policy since 2016 has banned the “sale or use of weapons, ammunition or explosives” between individuals, including “firearms parts”. However, the study from Media Matters for America, a non-profit tech watchdog group, shows users of Instagram and Facebook can buy materials from unregulated sources to build high-powered, automatic weapons in just a few clicks.

Many of these listings are for 3D-printed or DIY gun kits, also known as “ghost guns”, which allow users to build weapons at home without completing a background check. Such weapons are a growing problem in the US, with 20,000 suspected ghost guns recovered in criminal investigations in 2021 – a tenfold increase from 2016. Joe Biden in April announced a new effort to crack down on untraceable firearms, calling them “weapons of choice for many criminals”.

The study from Media Matters identified more than 40 active listings in the US on Facebook Marketplace and Instagram Shopping that are selling gun parts, accessories and ammunition – including parts to build unregistered weapons at home.

Source: Meta banned firearms sales. Why are they still available on Facebook and Instagram? | Meta | The Guardian

Teslas account for 273 of nearly 400 US crashes involving driver-assist systems | US news | The Guardian

Ed Markey, a US senator from Massachusetts, said although the NHTSA data had limitations, it was not isolated evidence that Tesla has ignored regulations and putting the public in danger.

There have been “a never ending parade of reports” of Teslas on automated systems rolling through stop signs or braking for no reason, he said. NHTSA also is investigating Teslas that crash into parked emergency vehicles.

“As today’s data suggests, this contempt for auto safety laws has real-world consequences,” Markey said, urging NHTSA to take enforcement action.

NHTSA has used the data to seek a recall, open investigations and provide information for existing inquiries, officials said.

“This will help our investigators quickly identify potential defect trends that can emerge,” Cliff said. “These data will also help us identify crashes that we want to investigate and provide more information about how people in other vehicles interact with the vehicles.”

 

Source: Teslas account for 273 of nearly 400 US crashes involving driver-assist systems | US news | The Guardian

Dead Penguins Keep Washing Up on New Zealand’s Beaches. Here’s Why.

Experts believe the birds are starving to death as a result of global heating, as rising temperatures force the fish on which they feed down into cooler waters that are too deep for the penguins to reach.

2021 was New Zealand’s warmest year on record, according to an annual climate summary from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, with New Zealand Climate Change Research Institute adjunct senior research fellow Nathanael Melia telling Radio New Zealand in January that the waters surrounding the country “have been pulsing up to 3 [degrees celsius] recently, inexorably driving up our surface air temperatures.”

 

Source: Dead Penguins Keep Washing Up on New Zealand’s Beaches. Here’s Why.

FDA moves closer to authorizing COVID-19 shots for kids under 5 – Los Angeles Times

COVID-19 shots for U.S. infants, toddlers and preschoolers moved a step closer Wednesday.

The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisors gave a thumbs-up to vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer for the littlest kids.

The outside experts voted unanimously that the benefits of the shots outweigh any risks for children under 5 — that’s roughly 18 million youngsters. They are the last age group in the U.S. without access to COVID-19 vaccines and many parents have been anxious to protect their young children.

If all the regulatory steps are cleared, the shots should be available next week.

“This is a long-awaited vaccine,” said one panel member, Dr. Jay Portnoy of Children’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. “There are so many parents who are absolutely desperate to get this vaccine and I think we owe it to them to give them a choice to have the vaccine if they want to.”

 

Source: FDA moves closer to authorizing COVID-19 shots for kids under 5 – Los Angeles Times

A Toothless, Useless, Waste of Time

Filosofa's Word

There are so damn many issues to claim our attention and concern today that it seems something important is always falling by the wayside.  There are some things, though, that we simply cannot afford to lose sight of – climate change, the threats to democracy, the ‘dumbing-down’ of education, the pandemic that is still a pandemic, and our massive gun problem.  Speaking of the gun crisis … I have looked at the ‘bi-partisan’ agreement in Congress and said, “pbthhhh … it has no teeth.”  In my book, it is even less than the very minimum I would expect or demand, were I in a position to make demands.  It is the Republican’s attempt to placate us, to shut us up, to brag that they took our concerns seriously, when they don’t at all.  Did you know that according to the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, 59% favor curbing gun…

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Hundreds March in Chicago to Call Attention to Missing, Murdered Black Women

The National Crime Information Center found 90,000 Black women and girls were reported missing in 2020. Another 10,000 were reported missing in 2021. To call attention to the cases that have gone cold, local Chicago organizers worked with the families to create the “We Walk for Her” march. They marched for the fifth year Tuesday, per the Chicago Tribune. Hundreds of Black women, holding signs of their loved ones who have either gone missing or been killed, took to the streets of Bronzeville to demand action and answers. The family of Nancie Walker have been waiting 20 years to find her killer. She was 55 when she went missing and was found 60 days later dismembered in plastic bags along the highway.

Source: Hundreds March in Chicago to Call Attention to Missing, Murdered Black Women