Author: Reporter

Wisconsin judge suspends criminal case against defrocked Cardinal McCarrick for sexual abuse

A Wisconsin judge suspended charges against defrocked Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, accused of sexually assaulting a boy in the 1970s, ruling on January 10 that the former cleric is incompetent for trial because of dementia. The decision will be reviewed at the end of the year, according to court records. McCarrick, who did not appear in person for the hearing but listened in by phone, was charged with sexually assaulting an 18-year-old man more than 45 years ago, court records show. A criminal complaint alleges he fondled the man in 1977 while staying at a cabin on Geneva...

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“Insurance Godmothers” help sign up Latino families ahead of Trump’s threat to repeal Obamacare

Salsa music blares from the food court in a rundown Miami shopping center as Latinos head to a kiosk and an office showing signs for “Obamacare,” where they hope to renew their health coverage plans before the year ends. Areas near this mall is where former Democratic President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul is more popular than anywhere in the country, according to federal data. The region has also shifted away from Democrats to Republicans in recent years, with criminally indicted ex-president Donald Trump hosting several rallies here as part of his outreach to Latino voters. Trump, the current...

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Senate rejects effort by Bernie Sanders to limit U.S. military aid for Israel over human rights abuses

In a notable test on January 16, Senator Bernie Sanders forced colleagues to decide whether to investigate human rights abuses in the Israel-Hamas war, a step toward potentially limiting U.S. military aid to Israel as its devastating attacks on Gaza grind past 100 days. Senators overwhelmingly rejected the effort, a first of its kind tapping into a decades-old law that would require the U.S. State Department to, within 30 days, produce a report on whether the Israeli war effort in Gaza is violating human rights and international accords. If the administration failed to do so, U.S. military aid to...

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University students in Wisconsin join debate over limits for Constitutional protection of hate speech

Generations of Americans have held firm to a version of free speech that makes room for even the vilest of views. It is girded by a belief that the good ideas rise above the bad, that no one should be punished for voicing an idea — except in rare cases where the idea could lead directly to illegal action. Today, that idea faces competition more forceful and vehement than it has seen for a century. On college campuses, a newer version of free speech is emerging as young generations redraw the line where expression crosses into harm. There is...

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MLK’s daughter urges nations to adopt philosophy of “Kingian nonviolence” as conflict threatens humanity

Citing gun violence in the U.S., the deaths of families in Ukraine and Gaza from war, and threats from artificial intelligence, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter said the world urgently needs to study and adopt her father’s philosophy of nonviolence to avoid self-destruction. The Rev. Bernice King used an address to announce events for the upcoming holiday in honor of her father to warn that humanity was at a critical juncture. “We are witnessing unprecedented loss of human life and especially among the Black, brown and indigenous people throughout the world,” she said. She also mentioned conflicts...

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Cecil Williams: How a single photographic vision preserved South Carolina’s civil rights history

Much of how South Carolina has seen its civil rights history has been through the lens of photographer Cecil Williams. From sit-ins to prayer protests to portraits of African Americans integrating universities and rising to federal judges, Williams has snapped it. After years of work, Williams’ millions of photographs are being digitized and categorized and his chief dream of a civil rights museum marking how Black Americans fought segregation and discrimination in the state is about to move out of his old house and into a much bigger, and more prominent, building in Orangeburg. “Images can be very powerful...

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