A unique art program for students in the Juvenile Court and Community Schools is getting support from the DA’s Office through a community grant.
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New York City Settles Civil Rights Lawsuit for $13 Million Stemming from 2020 BLM Protests
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
New York City has agreed to pay over $13 million to resolve a civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of approximately 1,300 individuals who endured arrests or violence at the hands of the police during the racial injustice demonstrations that gripped the city in the summer of 2020.
The settlement, submitted to the Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, July 19, could potentially become one of the largest payouts in history for a lawsuit involving mass arrests, according to legal experts closely monitoring the case.
The lawsuit focused on 18 specific protests that erupted in the city during the week following the tragic killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.
According to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, everyone who encountered arrests or police force during those demonstrations can receive compensation totaling $9,950.
The agreement, one of several that emerged from the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, enables the city to avert a costly and politically sensitive trial.
Cities across the United States reportedly are currently negotiating settlements for similar claims brought by protesters who took to the streets to denounce racist police brutality following Floyd’s death, during which police arrested about 10,000 people across just a few days.
The National Lawyers Guild, representing the plaintiffs in New York, accused the leadership of the New York Police Department of violating the protesters’ First Amendment rights through a systematic and indiscriminate campaign of brutality and unlawful arrests.
Throughout more than two years of legal proceedings, the city’s attorneys maintained that the police responded to an unprecedented and chaotic situation, highlighting unruly protests where police vehicles were set on fire and officers were pelted with rocks and plastic bottles.
Florida Board of Education Approves Anti-Black History Curriculum
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Florida’s Board of Education voted to approve several new rules this week, including teaching that African Americans benefited from their enslavement.
The new curriculum has sparked outrage and accusations of racism, setting up a new school year unlike any other because of these changes and other laws passed by state lawmakers and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
One of the most controversial rules drawing significant pushback is the alteration of the standards of instruction for African American history.
Critics argue that the new standards attempt to rewrite Black history in a deeply concerning manner.
Democratic state lawmakers made their objections known at the board’s meeting on July 19, expressing particular concern over one instructional change implying enslaved individuals benefited from their enslavement.
“Any kind of standards that indicate that slavery benefited Black people is such an insult,” said State Rep. Rita Harris.
Added Rep. Anna Eskamani, “The notion that enslaved people benefited from being enslaved is inaccurate and a scary standard for us to establish in our education system.”
The new rule faced additional opposition from a coalition of Black leaders and community groups, who wrote a letter to the school board asserting that the standards intentionally omitted or distorted crucial historical facts about the Black experience.
Despite the widespread criticism, the board plans to implement the new rule on African American history instruction, along with several others, in classrooms across the state during the upcoming school year.
The move adds to the state’s ongoing debate over African American history in education, further exacerbated by the education department’s rejection of a preliminary pilot version of an Advanced Placement African American Studies course for high school students, citing an alleged lack of educational value.
Under the new standards imposed by the board and DeSantis, teachers will instruct middle school students about how enslaved people developed skills they could use to benefit themselves.
The curriculum omits the brutal horrors of slavery, the inhumane treatment of African Americans, including the rape and torture of enslaved people, selling and separating families, and even the brutal mistreatment of children and babies.
The new curriculum will teach high school students about events like the 1920 Ocoee massacre, the deadliest Election Day violence in US history that began when white poll workers prevented Moses Norman, a Black landowner, from voting.
The rule stipulates that instructions also must include details about the Atlanta race massacre, the Tulsa race massacre, and the Rosewood race massacre.
“Our children deserve nothing less than truth, justice, and the equity our ancestors shed blood, sweat, and tears for,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson stated.
“It is imperative that we understand that the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow were a violation of human rights and represent the darkest period in American history.”
Illinois is First State to Eliminate Cash Bail, a Penalty Affecting Low-Income Communities Most
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois became the first state in the nation to eliminate cash bail as a condition of pretrial release from jail on Tuesday when the state Supreme Court upheld the constitutionally of the law abolishing it.
The 5-2 ruling overturns a Kankakee County judge’s opinion in December that the law violated the constitution’s provision that “all persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties.” Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis, writing for the majority, decreed that the law honors the constitution’s balance between the rights of victims and defendants.
Proponents of eliminating cash bail describe it as a penalty on poverty, suggesting that the wealthy can pay their way out of jail to await trial while those in economic distress — particularly people of color — have to sit it out behind bars. A pandemic-era increase in crime spurred debates on bail reforms.
While other states and municipalities have enacted changes to cash bail, notably New Jersey, Illinois is the first to abolish it. Instead, judges can decide that a defendant poses too much of a threat to the community to allow release, or that defendant can be released with conditions such as avoiding contact with a particular person or not visiting a certain place, according to the Bail Project.
Critics have argued that bail is a time-honored way to ensure defendants released from jail show up for court proceedings. They warn that violent criminals will be released pending trial, giving them license to commit other crimes.
Abolishing bail was part of an expansive criminal justice overhaul adopted in 2021 known as the SAFE-T Act. It was a piece of the groundbreaking “four pillars” agenda of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, approved with the aim of improving the lives of marginalized communities following the police killings of George Floyd and others in the previous year.
A Kankakee County judge, ruling on a lawsuit brought by county state’s attorneys and sheriffs, found that because the constitution mentions “bail,” it would take a constitutional amendment approved by voters to make such a change.
Theis countered in her opinion of the case, known as Rowe v. Raoul, that the constitution “does not mandate that monetary bail is the only means to ensure criminal defendants appear for trials or the only means to protect the public.”
Theis said that the charter “creates a balance” between the rights of defendants and victims and the law abolishing bail “sets forth procedures commensurate with that balance.”
When the Supreme Court received the direct appeal from the local court, it stopped the scheduled Jan. 1, 2023 implementation of the law. Theis ordered that it take effect in 60 days, on Sept. 18.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, on a trade mission to the United Kingdom, hailed a “transition to a more equitable and just Illinois.”
“We can now move forward with historic reform to ensure pre-trial detainment is determined by the danger an individual poses to the community instead of by their ability to pay their way out of jail,” the Democrat said in a statement.
Justice David K. Overstreet dissented, arguing that the law violates the constitution’s Crime Victims Bill of Rights, which voters added in 2014. He said it gives victims the right “to have their safety and the safety of their family, considered in denying or fixing the amount of bail.” Changing that requires voter approval, not just legislative fiat.
Kankakee County State’s Attorney Jim Rowe, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, calling the ruling “terribly detrimental to public safety” but pledged to abide by it. Another plaintiff, Kankakee County Sheriff Michael Downey, noted the decision was divided along party lines.
“This opinion will embolden criminals even more which is what our governor seems to want,” Downey said.
New Jersey essentially eliminated cash bail in 2014, replacing it with a risk assessment process which gauged the potential danger to the community a defendant posed if released. But there are instances where cash bail is still allowed, as is the case in other states which have curtailed the practice, such as New York and Alaska.
In spring 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Pretrial Practices strongly endorsed bail reform, noting that found that a defendant who can’t afford bail sees his or her life unravel within days — loss of a job, loss of child custody, health problems without access to medication.
What’s more, the commission found that it tends to generate spurious plea deals. Defendants reason that pleading to a lower-level offense gets them out of jail sooner.
Joining Theis in her opinion were Justices P. Scott Neville Jr., Joy V. Cunningham and Elizabeth M. Rochford. Justice Mary K. O’Brien specially concurred with her own opinion.
Justice Lisa Holder White joined Overstreet in his dissent.
President Biden’s Epic Marjorie Taylor Greene Troll: 40 Million Views and Counting
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
In a stunning display of political finesse, President Joe Biden trolled his Republican nemesis, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, with a masterful campaign ad that has taken the internet by storm.
The 30-second clip, originally from Greene’s passionate speech to young conservatives, has garnered over 40 million views on social media and has left even Democrats amazed at its gangster-level savviness.
During her speech, Greene compared President Biden’s policy accomplishments to those of former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” social programs.
Biden endorsed the comparison and decided to take things up a notch by turning the spotlight on the controversial congresswoman.
Biden’s team promptly snatched the moment and posted the clip on the President’s Twitter account, accompanied by the classic caption: “I approve this message.”
And that was just the beginning of the ad’s meteoric rise.
The ad ingeniously used Greene’s own words to showcase Biden signing groundbreaking legislation and making enthusiastic stops across the country to promote his ambitious “Investing in America” agenda.
The video was slick, fun, and aggressively highlighted Biden’s significant public investments in social infrastructure and environmental programs, echoing the legacies of presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lydon Baines Johnson.
“Joe Biden had the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs that is actually finishing what FDR started, that LBJ expanded on, and Joe Biden is attempting to complete,” Greene’s voice boomed in the ad.
The clip continued with Greene mentioning the vast range of programs Biden is working on, from education and medical care to urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, and labor unions.
Greene may have intended to criticize the government led by Biden, describing it as “one big fat, bloated machine,” but the ad cleverly flipped her narrative on its head.
Biden’s team seized on them as opportunities for the American dream to thrive.
Historically, Democrats have received criticism for stumbling in their messaging and failing to hit back at their opponents effectively.
But Biden’s ad demonstrated a fresh, assertive approach, showcasing the President’s team’s prowess in leveraging social media to their advantage.
Within days, the ad went viral, drawing attention from all corners of the political spectrum.
It resonated with the public, particularly young voters, who appreciated the ad’s humor and cleverness.
Even some Republicans begrudgingly acknowledged the brilliance of the maneuver.
With its massive success on social media, the ad achieved something extraordinary: it sparked honest conversations about policy accomplishments and the potential for building a brighter future through public investments.
It proved that a well-crafted ad using the words of a staunch political opponent could not only score points but also inspire positive discussions about the nation’s direction.
In an era where social media shapes political conversations, Biden’s epic troll demonstrates that humor and cunning can go a long way toward captivating hearts and minds.
Northwestern Hazing Scandal Included Multiple Sports, Men and Women, Attorneys Say
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois became the first state in the nation to eliminate cash bail as a condition of pretrial release from jail on Tuesday when the state Supreme Court upheld the constitutionally of the law abolishing it.
The 5-2 ruling overturns a Kankakee County judge’s opinion in December that the law violated the constitution’s provision that “all persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties.” Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis, writing for the majority, decreed that the law honors the constitution’s balance between the rights of victims and defendants.
Proponents of eliminating cash bail describe it as a penalty on poverty, suggesting that the wealthy can pay their way out of jail to await trial while those in economic distress — particularly people of color — have to sit it out behind bars. A pandemic-era increase in crime spurred debates on bail reforms.
While other states and municipalities have enacted changes to cash bail, notably New Jersey, Illinois is the first to abolish it. Instead, judges can decide that a defendant poses too much of a threat to the community to allow release, or that defendant can be released with conditions such as avoiding contact with a particular person or not visiting a certain place, according to the Bail Project.
Critics have argued that bail is a time-honored way to ensure defendants released from jail show up for court proceedings. They warn that violent criminals will be released pending trial, giving them license to commit other crimes.
Abolishing bail was part of an expansive criminal justice overhaul adopted in 2021 known as the SAFE-T Act. It was a piece of the groundbreaking “four pillars” agenda of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, approved with the aim of improving the lives of marginalized communities following the police killings of George Floyd and others in the previous year.
A Kankakee County judge, ruling on a lawsuit brought by county state’s attorneys and sheriffs, found that because the constitution mentions “bail,” it would take a constitutional amendment approved by voters to make such a change.
Theis countered in her opinion of the case, known as Rowe v. Raoul, that the constitution “does not mandate that monetary bail is the only means to ensure criminal defendants appear for trials or the only means to protect the public.”
Theis said that the charter “creates a balance” between the rights of defendants and victims and the law abolishing bail “sets forth procedures commensurate with that balance.”
When the Supreme Court received the direct appeal from the local court, it stopped the scheduled Jan. 1, 2023 implementation of the law. Theis ordered that it take effect in 60 days, on Sept. 18.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, on a trade mission to the United Kingdom, hailed a “transition to a more equitable and just Illinois.”
“We can now move forward with historic reform to ensure pre-trial detainment is determined by the danger an individual poses to the community instead of by their ability to pay their way out of jail,” the Democrat said in a statement.
Justice David K. Overstreet dissented, arguing that the law violates the constitution’s Crime Victims Bill of Rights, which voters added in 2014. He said it gives victims the right “to have their safety and the safety of their family, considered in denying or fixing the amount of bail.” Changing that requires voter approval, not just legislative fiat.
Kankakee County State’s Attorney Jim Rowe, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, calling the ruling “terribly detrimental to public safety” but pledged to abide by it. Another plaintiff, Kankakee County Sheriff Michael Downey, noted the decision was divided along party lines.
“This opinion will embolden criminals even more which is what our governor seems to want,” Downey said.
New Jersey essentially eliminated cash bail in 2014, replacing it with a risk assessment process which gauged the potential danger to the community a defendant posed if released. But there are instances where cash bail is still allowed, as is the case in other states which have curtailed the practice, such as New York and Alaska.
In spring 2020, the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Pretrial Practices strongly endorsed bail reform, noting that found that a defendant who can’t afford bail sees his or her life unravel within days — loss of a job, loss of child custody, health problems without access to medication.
What’s more, the commission found that it tends to generate spurious plea deals. Defendants reason that pleading to a lower-level offense gets them out of jail sooner.
Joining Theis in her opinion were Justices P. Scott Neville Jr., Joy V. Cunningham and Elizabeth M. Rochford. Justice Mary K. O’Brien specially concurred with her own opinion.
Justice Lisa Holder White joined Overstreet in his dissent.
Extreme Heat: Humanity’s Greatest Climate Killer
By Amara N. Beaty, Voice and Viewpoint Staff Writer
Heat is the deadliest and most threatening weather hazard to human health. With heat temperatures rising in the state of California and across the globe, it’s important to understand the dangers of extreme heat and how to stay cool in its midst. Ethnic Media Services and the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications (OCPSC) held the first of three special news briefings on July 13, 2023, to highlight what extreme heat is, its dangers and what resources the state of California is implementing in response to the hazardous weather.
The briefing, just one week after Planet Earth recorded the four hottest consecutive days on earth thus far, included five guest speakers to highlight the various ways heat affects California residents: Professor V. Kelly Turner, Assoc. Director of Urban Environmental Research at UCLA; Dr. Lucía Abascal, MD, PhD, MS of CA Dept. of Public Health (CDPH); Marta Segura, City of Los Angeles’ Chief Heat Officer and Director of Climate Emergency Mobilization; Sandra Young, Founder of Mixteco Indigenous Community Organizing Project (MICOP); and Dr. Kimberly Chang, MD, MPH, Asian Health Services Family Physician.
Prof. Turner, brought to the conversation her expertise on the science of extreme heat and how that applies to policy change in California. Already noted is the fact that heat poses the greatest weather-related risk to human health. Extreme heat, such as heat waves, have an even greater effect on urban cities as opposed to more rural ones due to buildings, roads, and parking structures made from heat-absorbing materials — known as the “Urban Heat Island Effect”. Turner explained one way to combat this effect is through “shade infrastructure,” like trees and awnings, which can reduce heat by around 30 to 40 degrees celsius.
The state is mobilizing resources to help beat the heat as well through the implementation of cooling spaces like the aforementioned shade infrastructure as well as cool zones like malls, libraries and shaded parks. Plans for planting more trees and the placement of “bus shelters” are also in the works. Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a $20 million multi-ethnic education campaign, Heat Ready California, July 11, 2023, to help mitigate the health risks caused by heat exposure in California. Planning information, resources and strategies for staying safe and cool in the heat can be found at HeatReadyCA.com.
According to Segura, California cities, such as Los Angeles, are working on implementing more cooling centers, as the state is experiencing longer heat seasons, with high-heat lasting from about mid-June to mid-November, and more heat waves, with waves frequenting five times more than they were 10 years ago.
Dr. Abascal offered some tips on behalf of CDPH to stay cool at home and on a daily basis. Utilize the cool zones and to keep the air conditioning on at home if possible. Staying hydrated and checking in on friends, family, and neighbors is also important during these times of harsh weather. This is especially vital for vulnerable CA residents including pregnant women, older adults aged 65+, small children, people with disabilities and chronic conditions, residents of urban communities, and the homeless population.
Healthcare providers also hold a key role in the prevention of heat-related illness, as symptoms of heat stroke and other health issues due to heat exposure can often be ignored or misunderstood. This is especially true for vulnerable residents.
“It’s important as providers to recognize [headaches, fatigue, rashes, dizziness, and fevers as symptoms] being tied to heat exposure,” said FNP Young. “I think we don’t do that good a job [of] recognizing those connections many times.”
Be sure to stay informed, cool and hydrated during these record-high temperatures.
New York City Agrees to Pay $13 Million to 2020 Racial Injustice Protesters in Historic Class Action
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City has agreed to pay more than $13 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought on behalf of roughly 1,300 people who were arrested or beaten by police during racial injustice demonstrations that swept through the city during the summer of 2020.
If approved by a judge, the settlement, which was filed in Manhattan federal court Wednesday, would be among the most expensive payouts ever awarded in a lawsuit over mass arrests, experts said.
The lawsuit focused on 18 of the many protests that erupted in New York City in the week following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. With certain exceptions, people arrested or subjected to force by NYPD officers at those events will each be eligible for $9,950 in compensation, according to attorneys for the plaintiffs.
The agreement, one of several stemming from the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, allows the city to avoid a trial that could be both expensive and politically fraught.
It comes as many other cities across the U.S. are negotiating their own settlements with protesters who spilled into the streets to decry racist police brutality after Floyd’s death, a period of unrest that saw 10,000 people arrested in the span of a few days.
Attorneys with the National Lawyers Guild, which represented the plaintiffs in New York, accused NYPD leaders of depriving protesters of their 1st Amendment rights through a “coordinated” campaign of indiscriminate brutality and unlawful arrests.
Through more than two years of litigation, attorneys for the city maintained that police were responding to a chaotic and unprecedented situation, pointing to some unruly protests in which police vehicles were set on fire and officers pelted with rocks and plastic bottles.
A spokesperson for the NYPD deferred questions to the city’s Law Department, which did not respond to a request for comment.
During some of the 2020 protest marches, officers deployed a crowd control tactic known as kettling against peaceful protesters, corralling them in tight spaces and attacking them with batons and pepper spray before making mass arrests.
Adama Sow, one of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said their group of marchers were trapped by police without warning. Sow and the other arrestees were placed in zip ties until their hands turned purple, then held in a sweltering correctional bus for several hours.
“It was so disorganized, but so intentional,” Sow said. “They seemed set on traumatizing everyone.”
The city invoked qualified immunity, which protects police officers from lawsuits stemming from lawful work performed in the line of duty, and defended the decision to arrest medics and legal observers as within the rights of the department.
While attorneys for the plaintiffs cited past crackdowns on large demonstrations, including during the 2004 Republican National Convention, as evidence of longstanding “systemic violations” by the NYPD, attorneys for the city said there was no systematic effort to deprive people of their right to protest.
“There is no history — or present or future — of unconstitutional policing,” Georgia Pestana, an attorney for the city, wrote in a memo. “There is no frequent deprivation of constitutional rights.”
The lawsuit named former Mayor Bill de Blasio and retired NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea as well as other police leaders as defendants. Under the settlement agreement, neither the city nor the NYPD is required to admit any wrongdoing.
Protesters who were arrested on certain charges — including trespassing, property destruction, assaulting an officer, arson or weapons possession — will be excluded from the settlement. Those who were seen on video blocking police from making arrests may also be ineligible.
Unlike some other lawsuits related to the 2020 protests, the class action was not meant to force the NYPD to change its practices. There are several other lawsuits aimed at injunctive relief that are ongoing, including one brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James that calls for a federal monitor to oversee the NYPD’s policing of protests.
Another class action settlement announced earlier this year would award $21,500 to those arrested by police during one demonstration in the Bronx, a payout that could total around $10 million including legal fees.
Separately, more than 600 people have brought individual claims against New York City related to police action during the 2020 protests, according to the city’s comptroller, Brad Lander. Roughly half of them have resulted in settlements and resolutions, costing the city nearly $12 million to date.
Wylie Stecklow, an attorney for the protesters in the class action lawsuit, said the growing cost to taxpayers should serve as a “red flag” for city leaders about the NYPD’s inability to correct its “decades old problem with constitutionally compliant protest policing.”
“While the arc of the moral universe is indeed long, sometimes it needs reform to bend towards justice” he said.
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Home Depot Faces a Lawsuit Alleging Discrimination Against Disabled African American Veterans
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
Home improvement retailer Home Depot is facing a civil rights lawsuit filed by Larry and Denise Boggs, disabled African American veterans, who claim the company purposefully discriminated against them and denied them services based on their race and disabilities.
The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, accuses Home Depot of violating various laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the New York State Human Rights Law, and federal civil rights statutes.
According to the complaint, the Boggs sought assistance from Home Depot to make their home more accessible for Denise, who uses a wheelchair due to a below-the-knee amputation.
The Home Depot Foundation, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Home Depot, had entered into a contract in October 2017 to perform construction improvements on the Boggs’ home, ensuring ADA compliance and meeting Denise’s needs.
However, the Boggs allege that Home Depot and its affiliates breached the contract and discriminated against them based on their race and disabilities.
The lawsuit claims that the company failed to complete the agreed-upon improvements, withheld necessary building supplies, and performed faulty work that violated local building codes.
Additionally, Home Depot allegedly misused grant funds for building materials to purchase unrelated tools.
The Boggs also claim that Home Depot employees informed them that work on their home would be delayed due to the return of Hasidic Jewish residents for the summer.
When the couple contacted Home Depot to address the ongoing issues, they said company officials told them to complete the work themselves, with Home Depot employees providing only minimal assistance.
The lawsuit asserts violations of the ADA, breach of contract, violations of the New York State Human Rights Law, and federal civil rights statutes.
The couple seeks compensatory and punitive damages, declaratory relief, attorney’s fees, and other appropriate relief.
Home Depot, which operates over 2,200 stores across the United States, including numerous locations in New York State, has yet to issue a public statement regarding the lawsuit.
Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern rejected Home Depot’s motion to dismiss the race and disability discrimination suit filed by the Boggs.
Judge Halpern ruled that the couple sufficiently proved that Home Depot employees had prioritized work for white, Hasidic Jewish residents, causing the abandonment of the Boggs’ home renovation.
Halpern dismissed Home Depot’s argument that the Boggs’ did not have the right to enforce the renovation grant provided by the nonprofit Action Towards Independence Inc.
The judge also found that the Boggs’ had a recognizable property interest in using their own home and that Home Depot’s alleged racial discrimination impacted their ability to utilize their property.
Halpern further ruled that Home Depot must face the couple’s breach of contract claim due to the terms of the grant contract and the Boggs being third-party beneficiaries.
Additionally, Halpern rejected Home Depot’s argument that the disability discrimination claim under the New York Human Rights Law should be dismissed, stating that the law applies when a place of public accommodation discriminates at a private residence.
“This is an elderly Black family in a predominately white and Hasidic Jewish neighborhood,” said the couple’s attorney, Onyuwoma W. Igbokwe.
“They obviously didn’t have the financial capability to take care of their home. Home Depot was supposed to step in there and help them out.”
Climate and Violence Hobble Nigeria’s Push to Rely on its Own Wheat After the Hit from Russia’s War
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Abubakar Salisu was terrified when he discovered arid sand in the middle of his farmland, rendering a broad strip unfit for crops. Now, extreme heat is killing his wheat before it is ready for cultivation.
Wheat normally requires heat, but in the last three years, farmers in Nigeria’s far north, part of Africa’s Sahel region that largely produces the country’s homegrown food, have seen an “alarming” increase in heat — much more than required, said Salisu, a local leader of wheat farmers in Kaita, Katsina State. Plus, rain is irregular.
“The unpredictable rain pattern is affecting us because wheat is planted immediately after the rainy season, but sometimes we will plant it thinking the rain has stopped, only to have it start again, thereby spoiling the seeds,” said Salisu, 48.
The vicious heat and rain cycle, worsened by climate change, has contributed to his wheat yield dropping in half.
He is not alone — others in northern areas ripped apart by violence suffer even more. Conflict and climate change are driving a food security crisis in Nigeria, exacerbated by supply disruptions tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine. It means people are spending more for food in Africa’s largest economy as it becomes more reliant on imported grain, which is priced in U.S. dollars, and its currency weakens.
Nigeria is trying to become self-sufficient: The government has launched programs to provide loans to farmers and boost domestic grain production. But extreme weather and violence from both gangs and farmers and cattle herders clashing over resources have hindered those efforts. It’s left Nigeria unable to produce enough wheat to bridge a gap in supply of more than 5 million metric tons.
Russia’s decision this week to back out of an accord allowing Ukraine to ship grain from the Black Sea could make things worse. Ukraine had announced a plan this year to send more wheat to the West African country at expected lower prices, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Now, that initiative in doubt.
The Nigerian program providing loans to growers “worked to a reasonable extent, but corruption played a part, as did the failure of farmers to repay the loans as climate change and insecurity undermined their production,” said Idayat Hassan, senior Africa program fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Wheat is one of Nigeria’s most consumed grains, and it imports largely from the U.S., South America and Europe, according to the Trade Data Monitor. Russia was a key source of affordable wheat, but its shipments have dwindled to almost nothing amid the war.
The loan program for growers failed to help increase local wheat yields, so the government has introduced new initiatives to boost how much land is harvested and distribute high-yielding seeds, pesticides and equipment to wheat farmers.
The flour milling industry, which struggles with Nigeria’s weakening currency and high costs like diesel fuel, has also made a deal with farmers to source more wheat locally at competitive prices, potentially encouraging growers to increase production.
With the new efforts, the USDA projects Nigeria’s wheat production to increase 42% in the 2023-2024 trading year over the year before. But the agency warned that “the challenges outweigh the opportunities.”
Besides climate change creating irregular rainfall, extreme heat and dry land, “security challenges across the wheat-producing region restricts farmers’ access to fields,” the USDA said in this year’s Nigeria grain report.
The same problems will also decrease production of rice and corn, the department said.
“Of course, insecurity is affecting our activities because sometimes we can’t go to our farms even if we plant, and some of our colleagues have completely stopped farming, while some of us have reduced the number of our farmlands,” said Sama’ila Zubairu, a wheat farmer in Katsina’s Faskari area ravaged by violence.
Gangs control vast swaths of the north’s rural areas, carrying out killings and abductions for ransom. There also are perennial clashes between farmers and cattle herders competing for land and water.
Zubairu has not seen his land degrade like Salisu, but he said “climate change affects me in two ways: excessive heat and rain patterns, which affect my turnout.”
He harvested enough wheat to fill 20 bags last year and 18 most recently — down from 35 two years ago.
“And I am not alone,” Zubairu said.
Farmers being unable to reach their fields amid the violence triggers “both human security and food security crises,” said Hassan of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Consumers are struggling with food inflation of 24%, with wheat-based staples like bread and pasta nearly doubling in price.
“The price surge has affected me because I have to double the costs of what I normally buy, and I would still not be able to buy enough,” said Chinedu Edeh, cooking gas retailer and installation technician in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. “Pasta has gone from 370 (naira) to 550 per unit.”
He avoided the coarse wheat flour semolina in his last trip to the market and bought cheaper cassava flakes instead.
Last week, President Bola Tinubu released a policy statement on food and agriculture acknowledging rising food costs and declaring “a state of emergency,” with a commitment to include food and water availability in the government’s national security system.
Spokespeople for the president and the ministry of agriculture declined to comment or did not send answers to questions.
The government should “appreciate the full extent of how climate change fuels insecurity and food crisis and localize climate plans so that they affect real people who actually produce food for the country,” Hassan said.
Never Leave One Behind Hosts Veterans Fair
By Darrel Wheeler, Contributing Writer
There were some serious health and veteran’s benefits-related conversations held at the Never Leave One Behind Veteran Fair held last Saturday at the Jackie Robinson YMCA.
No subjects dealing with health or financial-benefits were off limits at the NLOB community information day event. Informative speakers willingly shared their knowledge (with) all of the room’s interested listeners. Cancer, COVID, blood pressure, diabetes, stress, cardiovascular issues and much more were some of the health-related topics of discussion. Non-veterans were also invited to attend the gathering for the health & wellness portion of the special event.
“I want to thank some of the important people that helped to make this critical event possible,” said NLOB founder Larry Price. “Dr Jeromy Dr. Jerome Robinson, MD; Veterans Benefit Adviser David Hood; NLOB Board members Melvin Price and event facilitator Dr Dr. Inez Price; Bud Watkins of All Guard Insurance; Samantha Williams and her staff from JIREH Providers; the YMCA for the use of the building; Lakemba Hinton; and all of our friends for their unwavering support.”
For more information, visit www.neverleaveonebehind.org.
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