Robert Earl Smith was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi on April 24, 1952 to Anna Lee Newson and Claude Smith Sr. Robert came from a large family of 24 children. Robert obtained his high school education in Mississippi. He moved to San Diego, CA in early 1970.
Robert was baptized at the 69th St. Church of Christ under Minister John Lawson Sr. in 1995, and was a member until his passing June 11, 2023.
Robert started working construction as a mason in 1970. He worked for Foundation Builder as a blueprint reader and was known as the “BEST” layout, form builder, and cement finisher in the business. He also trained his workers to be like him. Robert drove backhoes, bobcat and other construction equipment and heavy-duty vehicles. Robert worked for many other construction companies and was a contractor and foreman for Nielson Construction Company, Archie Tinsley, and Rufus Whitaker. Robert was in construction for over forty-seven years until his health began to fail. Robert was a true mastermind in his work.
Robert was good to all who knew him. A provider to his wife Barbara and a loving, protective family man. He told funny jokes that could make you cry laughing. His favorite color was blue; which to him symbolized loyalty, inspiration, and confidence and he showed it throughout his life.
Robert Earl Smith married Eyvette Jackson and to this union they had one son, Robert
(Poky) Smith Jr., who lived 27 years until his untimely passing, preceding Robert in death.
Robert leaves behind the best and loving and kind wife in which he thought a man could ever have. His children; daughter Vaneisha Alexander, son in-law Ernest, son Kevin Wyatt, and his wife Tracy Landry, daughter Ivore Wyatt and, four grandchildren, seven great grandchildren; Willie Ray Smith, Cathy Smith, Johnny Ray Smith, Jessie Smith Sr., Lola Smith, Claude Smith Jr., Ernestine Smith, Ezra Ruth Smith, Bobby “Bob” Smith, Oneda Wesley Albert, Janice Johnson, Kim Stubb, Johnny Stubb, Katherine Terrell, her husband Bobby, Laverne Powell, and husband Willie, Patricia Pittman, Robin Smith and wife Dorothy, Edward Earl Smith, Billy Smith and his wife Pam, a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, best friend Robert Washington, and favorite nephews Vince Washington, Jessie Smith Jr., who all are mourning Robert’s passing to life into the bosom of Abraham.
Born on May 31, 1947 to Bernice Thomas and Patrick Fox, Patrick grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He enlisted in the Marine Corps at the age of 17, on July 2, 1964. There he met his wife Iris, who was also in the Marine Corps. They both were stationed at Twentynine Palms in 1968. Patrick served in the Marine Corps honorably for 25 years, retiring in 1989 as a Sergeant Major.
Patrick also worked for the San Diego Sheriff’s Department as a Reserves-Man while in the Marine Corps. He graduated from the academy in 1985, served 19 years, and retired as a Sergeant in 2004. On April 20, 1994, he received the Medal of Valor, the state’s highest valor award for a public safety officer.
Patrick also worked many years for the Grossmont Union School District. He counseled at Helix High School and later at Chaparral for at-risk kids. He took pride in his loyalty to family, friends, community, and his country.
Patrick enjoyed fishing, bowling, trap shooting, camping, motorcycle riding, and watching old westerns. He loved the Raiders, attending games both at home and away. He enjoyed cooking, sharing recipes, and feeding people. He often shared stories with his family and friends about his life’s events.
Patrick passed from this earth on June 10, 2023. He was loved by his family and friends and will be truly missed. We will remember him most for his warm advice, tough love, storytelling, and funny sayings.
Patrick’s favorite scripture was Isaiah 38:16-17:
“You restored me to health and let me live. Surely it was for the benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men will stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. Marine veteran who placed a homeless man in a fatal chokehold aboard a New York City subway train last month pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to revised charges.
Daniel Penny, 24, pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the May 1 death of Jordan Neely, a former Michael Jackson impersonator who was shouting and begging for money on the Manhattan train, according to witnesses.
Penny pinned him to the ground with the help of two other passengers and held him in a chokehold for more than three minutes. Neely, 30, lost consciousness during the struggle.
The chokehold death, which was caught on bystander video, has prompted fierce debate, with some praising Penny as a good Samaritan and others accusing him of racist vigilantism. Penny is white and Neely was Black.
At a brief arraignment on Wednesday, Penny, who is free on bond, uttered only the words “not guilty” before leaving the courtroom with his lawyers.
Penny was initially arrested on the manslaughter charge in May, but a grand jury earlier this month added the negligent homicide count, potentially giving a trial jury the option of finding him guilty of the lesser charge.
To get a manslaughter conviction, which carries a prison sentence of up to 15 years, prosecutors would have to prove Penny recklessly caused Neely’s death while being aware of the risk of serious harm.
A conviction for criminally negligent homicide would require the jury to find that Penny unjustifiably put Neely at risk of death, but failed to perceive that risk. The maximum penalty would be four years in prison.
Penny, who served in the Marines for four years and was discharged in 2021, has said he acted to protect himself and others from Neely, who allegedly shouted “I’m gonna’ kill you” and said he was “ready to die” or go to jail for life.
Following the arraignment, an attorney for Penny, Steven Raiser, predicted that a Manhattan jury would empathize with the experience of confronting erratic subway behavior while “confined underground.”
“Danny isn’t the only one on trial,” he said. “The rights of people to defend one another will be on a trial too.”
Neely’s family members and their supporters have said Neely, who struggled with mental illness and homelessness, was crying out for help and was met with violence.
Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, was in attendance for the arraignment on Wednesday. At a brief press conference, an attorney for the Neely family, Donte Mills, sought to paint Penny as a vigilante killer who hasn’t taken responsibility for his actions.
“Daniel Penny did not have the courage to look Jordan’s father Andre in the eyes,” Mills said. “But from now on, don’t be shocked when justice happens for Jordan, for you or for anyone.”
Neely’s death aboard an F train in Manhattan quickly became a flashpoint in the nation’s debates over racial justice and crime. Republican politicians like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have hailed Penny as a hero, helping him to raise more than $3 million in legal expenses.
Meanwhile, civil rights leaders, including Rev. Al Sharpton, have compared the killing to the 1984 subway shooting of four Black men by Bernhard Goetz, a white man dubbed the “subway vigilante” who was eventually acquitted of charges in the shooting except for carrying an unlicensed gun.
“A good Samaritan helps those in trouble. They don’t choke him out,” Sharpton said during Neely’ May 19th funeral. “What happened to Jordan was a crime and this family shouldn’t have to stand by themselves.”
By JENNIFER PELTZ and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — The hush money case against former President Donald Trump appears headed back to a New York court after a federal judge showed little inclination Tuesday to let Trump move the history-making prosecution to federal court.
Changing courts could give Trump a new avenue to try to get the case thrown out. Hoping to get to federal court, Trump’s lawyers argue that he was acting in his capacity as president when he hired and paid a personal attorney who orchestrated payouts to squelch allegations of extramarital sex — payouts that are at the heart of Manhattan prosecutors’ case against Trump.
After a three-hour hearing that featured surprise testimony from a Trump company insider, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein told a packed courtroom that he was not ready to make a “firm ruling” but saw “no relationship to any official act of the president” in the alleged conduct that made Trump the first former president ever charged with a crime.
“There’s no reason to believe that an equal measure of justice could not be rendered by the state court,” Hellerstein added. He said his remarks reflected his “present attitudes,” and a formal written ruling will follow within two weeks.
Lawyers for both sides declined to comment after the hearing.
Trump, a Republican, pleaded not guilty in April to state felony charges of falsifying business records to hide 2016 hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. Trump has denied having had sexual encounters with either woman.
According to the indictment, Trump fudged records at his company to cover up the nature of payments made in 2017 to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to compensate him for arranging to buy the women’s silence and fronting the money for Daniels.
Trump’s lawyers have said those payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses and not part of any cover-up.
Pressed by Hellerstein to prove it, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche called the legal chief of Trump’s company to the witness stand, though attorneys for both sides last week had agreed they would not call witnesses at the hearing.
Alan Garten, the Trump Organization’s chief legal officer, testified that he believed the payments were partly reimbursements for the money that Cohen had paid Daniels, and partly to compensate him for “the role that he was playing as counsel” for Trump’s personal matters.
However, Garten said he knew of no written retainer agreement between Trump and Cohen, though Trump’s attorneys “typically” had them. On being shown some of Trump’s ledgers, Garten also testified that “the vast majority” of attorney payments were accompanied by some description of the lawyers’ work, though there was no such description for the monthly $35,000 payments that went to Cohen throughout 2017. Company documents recorded them generally as legal expenses.
Garten said he sometimes referred to Cohen non-corporate matters involving Trump and his wife, Melania, but wasn’t sure what Cohen did about those things.
After hearing Garten’s testimony and arguments from both sides’ lawyers, Hellerstein said the evidence suggested that Cohen “was hired privately, not under color of any presidential office or related to it.”
“We have the invoices” showing what Cohen was paid, the judge noted. “But no proof of what he did.”
U.S. law allows criminal prosecutions to be moved from state to federal court if they involve actions taken by federal government officials as part of their official duties, among other qualifications.
While requests to move criminal cases from state to federal court are rarely granted, the prosecution of Trump is unprecedented.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is bringing the hush money case, has argued that nothing about the payoffs to either Cohen or the women involved Trump’s official duties as president.
If the case is moved to federal court, Trump’s lawyers could try to get the charges dismissed on the grounds that federal officials are immune from criminal prosecution over actions they take as part of their official job duties.
A shift to federal court would also mean that jurors would potentially be drawn not only from heavily Democratic Manhattan, where Trump is wildly unpopular, but also from a handful of suburban counties north of the city where he has more political support.
In state court, a criminal trial was set for March 25 — in the thick of the primary season before next year’s November presidential election. Trump is currently the front-runner for the Republican nomination.
It’s been a year since the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and the predictions by several experts that the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade would lead individual states to ban abortions have come true.
Also true has been the impact of those bans and restrictions on the reproductive health disparities between Black and white women.
As a scholar who studies reproductive policy, politics and social justice movements, I have always been aware that, even when Roe was in place, abortion access is an elusive right for women of color, women in rural areas and women living in poverty.
Black women comprise a disproportionate percentage – 39% – of abortion patients in the United States, and many live in communities with limited access to health services, including family planning clinics and pharmacies. They also disproportionately experience higher rates of other reproductive health conditions, such as infant mortality and pregnancy-related complications and deaths.
The lack of clinics means that Black women often delay or forgo necessary health care services.
Before the reversal of Roe, many Black women, who are likely to live in states with abortion restrictions, had to worry not only about the cost of the procedure but also about travel costs and the possible loss of wages.
Given the continued actions of anti-abortion policymakers at the state level, it’s my belief that the U.S. will continue to see more restrictions – not fewer – and thus make it harder for Black women to have access to reproductive health care.
Restricted abortion access
A small number of states, such as California, New York and Washington, have passed laws or constitutional amendments that guarantee or strengthen abortion access.
Some of those states have seen an increase in demand for abortion at clinics. In fact, the demand has quadrupled for some clinics in California.
But at least 17 states, mostly concentrated in the Southeast and the Midwest, have fully or partially banned abortions.
An additional 10 states have further restricted abortion access without banning abortion outright. Moreover, some state legislatures have begun to pass legislation that makes it illegal to travel across borders to obtain abortions.
That means that pregnant women – and those who assist them – can potentially face criminal charges for obtaining abortions in another state.
Two states with the largest populations in total numbers of African Americans – Texas and Florida – have abortion bans.
The states with the largest percentages of African Americans – 37% in Mississippi, 31% in both Georgia and Louisiana, and 26% in Alabama – have the most restrictive abortion laws.
In fact, abortion is completely banned with few exceptions in Texas, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.
These bans have a detrimental impact on access for Black women. They now have to travel – even more so than before – to obtain an abortion, assuming they have the financial means to do so.
Reproductive health disparities beyond abortion
The recent tragic death of U.S. Olympic champion Tori Bowie during childbirth is a stark reminder of the reproductive health disparities that continue to plague the Black community.
Black women, regardless of income or educational level, are three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related complications as white women. Black women have higher levels of obesity, hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease that can contribute to these complications.
They are also more likely to receive little or late prenatal care, or none at all.
But this only partially explains this disparity.
Researchers have shown that the implicit bias and stereotypical assumptions of health care providers are also key factors.
Pregnant Black women are often refused hospital admission for delivery if they lack health insurance. Sometimes they are denied on the mere assumption that they do not have insurance.
In various studies, Black women have reported that they have been treated disrespectfully by medical personnel dismissive of their fears and concerns about their reproductive health. Black women’s complaints about pain are often ignored, which can lead to misdiagnosis or delayed treatment.
In addition, Black women are more likely to be coerced into submitting to unnecessary cesarean sections, which can lead to major medical complications.
Black women report that they must be particularly assertive with health care providers to ensure that their reproductive needs are addressed.
Where do we go from here?
According to the Pew Research Center, 57% of Americans disapprove the reversal of Roe, and 62% say that abortion should be legal.
The Dobbs ruling is not only out of step with the general public, it also does not jibe with the opinions of most African Americans, of which a significant majority – 68% – agree that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
It remains to be seen if these sentiments will have an effect on the upcoming elections.
In the meantime, abortion access remains only one part of Black women’s reproductive health challenges.
By MICHAEL GOLDBERG, Associated Press/Report for America
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — All five Mississippi deputy sheriffs who responded to an incident where two Black men accused the deputies of beating and sexually assaulting them before shooting one of them in the mouth have been fired or resigned, authorities announced Tuesday.”
The announcement comes months after Michael Corey Jenkins and his friend Eddie Terrell Parker said deputies from the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department burst into a home without a warrant. The men said deputies beat them, assaulted them with a sex toy and shocked them repeatedly with Tasers in a roughly 90-minute period during the Jan. 24 episode, Jenkins and Parker said.
Jenkins said one of the deputies shoved a gun in his mouth and then fired the weapon, leaving him with serious injuries to his face, tongue and jaw. The Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation into the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department after the episode.
Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey announced Tuesday that deputies involved in the episode had been fired, and some had already resigned. He would not provide the names of the deputies who had been terminated or say how many law enforcement officers were fired. Bailey would not answer additional questions about the episode.
“Due to recent developments, including findings during our internal investigation, those deputies that were still employed by this department have all been terminated,” Bailey said at a news conference. “We understand that the alleged actions of these deputies has eroded the public’s trust in the department. Rest assured that we will work diligently to restore that trust.”
Bailey’s announcement also follows an Associated Press investigation that found several deputies who were involved with the episode were also linked to at least four violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two dead and another with lasting injuries. Deputies who had been accepted to the sheriff’s office’s Special Response Team — a tactical unit whose members receive advanced training — were involved in each of the four encounters.
Deputies said the raid was prompted by a report of drug activity at the home. Police and court records obtained by the AP revealed the identities of two deputies at the Jenkins raid: Hunter Elward and Christian Dedmon. It was not immediately clear whether any of the deputies had attorneys who could comment on their behalf.
In a phone interview Tuesday, Jason Dare, an attorney representing the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, said the department knows of five deputies who conducted the Jenkins raid. Jenkins and his attorney have said six deputies were at the home. All five identified by the department were either fired or resigned.
There is no body camera footage of the episode. Records obtained by the AP show that Tasers used by the deputies were turned on, turned off or used dozens of times during a roughly 65-minute period before Jenkins was shot.
Jenkins and Parker have also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit and are seeking $400 million in damages. In a statement Tuesday, Malik Shabazz, an attorney representing Jenkins and Parker, celebrated the firing of the officers and called for criminal indictments of deputies by the state attorney general and the Justice Department.
“The firing of the Rankin County Mississippi Sheriff’s deputies involved in the torture and shooting of Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker is a significant action on the path to justice for one of the worst law enforcement tragedies in recent memory,” Shabazz said. “Sheriff Bryan Bailey has finally acted after supporting much of the bloodshed that has occurred under his reign in Rankin County.”
Civil Rights and personal Injury attorneys Benjamin Crump and Carl Douglas announced a $100 million lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles last week for the death of Keenan Anderson, a high school English teacher visiting Los Angeles from Washington D.C.
The attorneys are representing Anderson’s son, Syncere Anderson, and Syncere’s mother Gabrielle Hansell.
The complaint alleges civil rights violations, assault and battery, false imprisonment, and negligence on the part of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers in the death of Anderson.
“They are trying to George Floyd me,” Anderson said as he lay face down on the street in Venice, California on January 3. The 30-year-old died later at a hospital after body-camera footage shows him being tased at least six times by LAPD officers.
“[He is] calling out to the public when he’s on the ground being tased and squashed. He’s calling for help. He was anticipating his own injury,” Douglas, said to California Black Media (CBM).
“When you think about Black people, our fear is that every time police stop us, they might do us like George Floyd,” Crump said to CBM.
The LA County Medical Examiner-Coroner reported in early June that Anderson’s cause of death was an enlarged heart and cocaine use and reported manner of death as undetermined.
The attorneys argue the report is irrelevant.
“After they assassinated him, they tried to assassinate his character. That is the strategy, tried and true, in America when the police kill Black people,” Crump said. “Look at that video, your eyes are not deceiving you. What killed [Anderson] was an overdose of lethal force, it’s that simple. If he were not tased, he would be here today.”
They believe the video shows that the use of force by police was inappropriate in this situation.
“It matters not whether there was cocaine in his system, because the actions of the officers were wrong. It matters not why he was in distress, because it’s clear from the body camera footage that he was never a threat. He spoke to the officers politely. He was always compliant; he never balled his fist, he never kicked. He never did anything to give an officer the belief that he was a threat.
Instead, these officers acted like hammers. And when you send a hammer into a garden, they treat all the flowers like their nails,” Douglas said to CBM.
“They did not know that Keenan Anderson was a schoolteacher of high school students. They didn’t know he had a five-year-old boy who loved him and he was engaged in his young son’s life. They didn’t know he was a role model to dozens of other kids across the country.”
“It resonated with me because I was so close to George Floyds family,” said Crump, who represented the family in a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis.
“The one thing that I think is similar is just the fact that Black people who have mental health crises, man, we get the death sentence,” Crump said. “When White people have mental health crises, everybody is trying to help them.”
This month the U.S. Department of Justice released a report outlining systemic problems in the Minneapolis Police Department. It said police officers used “unjustified deadly force” and other types of force, and that they “unlawfully discriminate” against Black and Native American people, violate the rights of people engaged in protected speech, and discriminate against people with behavioral health issues.
There were similar findings in Los Angeles Police Department after the Rampart Scandal uncovered corruption.
“20 years ago, there was a finding that there were systemic problems in the Los Angeles Police Department and there was a consent decree,” Douglas said. “The problem is there is a warrior mentality that envelops law enforcement: us versus them; military equipment against citizens instead of a guardian mentality to protect and serve, to help.”
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass discussed the incident with CBM in February.
“People have died at the hands of the LAPD. You had those three deaths in one week, which was really horrific from my point of view,” Bass said. “With my medical background, I looked at those tapes unedited, and I saw two people in serious crisis.”
Bass also described assurances she received from Los Angeles Police Chief Michael Moore. She said, “Part of my agreement in supporting him was that we identified a group of objectives of what I want to see done. I am insisting that every officer be trained in mental health to spot crises.”
“The Commitment I made to the chief was to work to increase the funding for mental health, social workers, so that they can go out and be part of these assessments, because I believe if those officers had been accompanied by a mental health professional that it may not have escalated the way it did.”
A June 23 statement from Mayor Bass’ office to CBM stated, “The Mayor’s approved budget has money to continue funding the SMART teams. The primary challenge isn’t lack of funding for these positions but a shortage of licensed clinicians who work alongside the officers to respond to people experiencing mental health crises. The Mayor’s Office is working with our partners at LAPD and LA County Department of Mental Health to pursue strategies to hire additional licensed clinicians.”
The LA City Attorney declined to comment for this article, citing pending litigation.
The Biden administration has dropped an investigation into whether Louisiana officials put Black residents living in an industrial stretch of the state at increased cancer risk, despite finding initial evidence of racial discrimination, according to a federal court filing Tuesday.
The Environmental Protection Agency said a resolution “is not feasible” by a July deadline. It ends an inquiry that some activists in majority-Black communities had praised as finally offering a chance to improve their health.
The agency said it has taken several “significant actions” involving Denka, a polymer plant at the heart of the investigations, including an agreement to cut emissions. It also filed a lawsuit against the company alleging it imposed an unacceptable cancer risk to nearby residents, and tightened regulations. But the investigation did not compel Louisiana to make any commitments of its own. Commonly, a civil rights investigation will end with commitments by the target to do better.
Louisiana had argued in a recent federal court filing that the administration had improperly “weaponized” a part of civil rights law in pursuing the investigations.
The Biden administration has prioritized environmental justice, drawing praise from activists for going so far as to create a new office last year to focus on cases of alleged environmental discrimination. Those activists were dismayed to learn of the retreat in Louisiana, saying it would be “deeply problematic” if it represents a broader curtailment of civil rights investigations.
“It is a dangerous precedent,” said Patrice Simms, an attorney with Earthjustice, one of the environmental groups that asked the EPA to investigate Louisiana.
Last year, the agency accepted complaints from activists to investigate Louisiana’s regulation of air emissions in an industrial corridor called the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor but colloquially referred to as “cancer alley.” It said there was initial evidence of racial discrimination. The federal government and state officials had been in informal talks to resolve the allegations.
That process has now come to an end without a formal finding of discrimination by the EPA.
“We are disappointed in the EPA,” said Sharon Lavigne, resident and founder of Rise St. James, a group that filed a complaint that prompted the EPA to investigate. It was important to her that EPA Administrator Michael Regan visited the area, she said, adding that she had had high hopes for the investigations.
“We were hopeful because we thought we were going to win this,” she said.
The EPA said it would analyze how residents — especially those who live near the Denka plant — are exposed to a variety of dangerous emissions. The study would aim to “characterize the current baseline cumulative health risks and burdens” in the community and provide recommendations. The EPA wants the community to participate in the process and they invited the state to take part as well, although it is not forced to.
The EPA also disposed of a complaint over emissions from a proposed chemical plant to be operated by FG LA, a Formosa Plastics affiliate, in the same industrial corridor. The agency noted that permits for the facility had been vacated and were now in litigation in state court.
Environmental justice remains vital to the agency’s mission and officials will continue to fight to improve conditions in the two Louisiana parishes at the heart of the now-ended investigation, the EPA said.
“We look forward to our continued partnership with the residents in both parishes as we continue our joint efforts to improve public health and the environment,” the agency said.
The EPA’s initial findings said it appears that for decades, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality let a Denka polymer plant expose people who live nearby and children at an elementary school to enough chloroprene, a chemical used to make synthetic rubber, to increase their cancer risk. The EPA had said Black residents “along the entire corridor” bear a disproportionate health risk from pollution, including near the proposed Formosa facility.
Denka has reduced its emissions in recent years. It called the investigation “ill-conceived” and said the EPA should focus on “science, not politics.”
Louisiana filed a federal lawsuit challenging the investigations in May. It accused the EPA of exceeding its authority under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by improperly pressuring the state to make radical changes to the state’s air permitting regime, including implementing new practices that would consider how multiple chemical facilities in an area might cumulatively harm nearby majority-Black communities.
“The agency has weaponized Title VI as a blanket grant of authority to veto any and all permitting decisions that offend its vision of environment justice and ‘equity,’” Louisiana said in a federal court filing last week, asking a judge to halt the investigation.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act forbids anyone who receives federal funds from discriminating based on race or national origin. It’s been used in housing and transportation, but until the Biden administration, rarely on environmental matters.
The state says Title VI was designed to go after intentional discrimination, not programs that may incidentally harm one racial group more than another. A conservative Supreme Court in recent years has been skeptical of the EPA’s regulatory authority in major cases concerning greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution. Louisiana argues the EPA is trying to use civil rights law in a way that Congress hasn’t clearly allowed — a position in conflict with the justices’ recent rulings.
Simms said the Supreme Court’s recent decisions are an “invitation for some of these kinds of challenges” from states that are fighting back against the EPA’s power.
The EPA may have decided this wasn’t the right case to test its Title VI authority, said J. Michael Showalter, an environmental attorney with ArentFox Schiff.
Plus, the Supreme Court will soon decide a major affirmative action case that touches on the power behind Title VI. A decision that curtails Title VI could limit the agency’s authority to wield the civil rights law, said Julius Redd, an environmental attorney at Beveridge & Diamond P.C.
“I anticipate that EPA took this action to mitigate the risk” of a bad court ruling, he said.
By MARGARET STAFFORD and SUMMER BALLENTINE, Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — In an unusual legal move, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is asking a state appeals court to reverse the conviction of a white former Kansas City police detective who shot and killed a Black man three years ago.
In a brief filed Monday, Bailey said the evidence presented at a trial in 2021 did not support Eric DeValkenaere’s conviction for second-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action in the death of 26-year-old Cameron Lamb on Dec. 3, 2019.
Bailey asked the court to reverse DeValkenaere’s conviction or order a new trial.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, whose office secured DeValkenaere’s conviction, said the motion by the attorney general — the state’s top law enforcement officer — to challenge a conviction was “unprecedented” and an affront to the people of Kansas City.
In a news conference on Monday, she accused Bailey, a Republican who was appointed to the attorney general’s office in January, of “attempting to expand his power to that of a judge.”
“I can’t say in my time, 25 plus years of being here, that I’ve seen anything like this before,” Baker said.
Cameron Lamb’s father, Aqil Bey, said at the news conference that Bailey’s actions were a miscarriage of justice. He said DeValkanaere had been given every legal advantage, including not having to serve a day in jail since his conviction.
“We don’t feel good about it. But we are going to continue to let the legal system run its course, and we’ll see what happens,” Bey said.
Ben Trachtenberg, a University of Missouri School of Law professor and expert in criminal law, agreed that Bailey’s decision was unusual, noting the state’s attorney general’s office has a history of vigorously defending convictions, even in cases where the local prosecutor is trying to overturn a conviction.
Bailey’s predecessor, Eric Schmidt, who is now a Republican U.S. senator, strongly opposed efforts by Baker and former St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner to release two men — Lamar Johnson and Kevin Strickland — who they believed were jailed for murders they didn’t commit. Both men were eventually released from prison.
Still, Trachtenberg said Bailey was within his authority in not defending DeValkenaere’s conviction.
“The attorney general’s office does have broad responsibility for dealing with criminal appeals,” he said. “But lawyers don’t have to defend every single case. The attorney general’s office’s highest duty is to pursue justice. If they think somebody is innocent, they don’t have to defend the conviction.”
DeValkenaere was convicted in November 2021 of killing Lamb, who was shot as he backed his truck into his garage. Police said DeValkenaere and his partner, Troy Schwalm, went to Lamb’s home after reports that Lamb was involved in a car chase with his girlfriend on residential streets.
Jackson County Circuit Court Presiding Judge J. Dale Youngs, who convicted the former detective after a bench trial, sentenced DeValkenaere to three years for involuntary manslaughter and six years for armed criminal action, with the sentences to run consecutively.
But Youngs later ruled that DeValkenaere could remain free while his conviction is appealed.
In his motion, Bailey said Lamb’s death was “tragic” and shouldn’t have happened. But he argued that DeValkenaere used reasonable force because he believed Lamb was going to shoot Schwalm. The motion, which includes several pages reiterating the police department’s version of events, said officers believed they saw Lamb with a handgun inside the truck, and a handgun was found near the truck after Lamb was shot.
“DeValkenaere’s use of force was reasonable in light of Mr. Lamb’s use of deadly force against Schwalm, and the court erred as a matter of fact and law in determining that Schwalm and DeValkenaere were the initial aggressors,” Bailey wrote. “DeValkenaere also was not criminally negligent.”
Prosecutors and Lamb’s family had alleged the handgun was planted after the shooting. But Youngs did not address that issue when he convicted the detective.
Instead, the judge said the officers had no probable cause to believe that any crime had been committed, had no warrant for Lamb’s arrest and had no search warrant or consent to be on the property. He said police were the initial aggressors and they had a duty to retreat, but DeValkenaere illegally used deadly force instead.
Rumors had swirled in the last month that Republican Gov. Mike Parson was considering pardoning or granting clemency to DeValkenaere, prompting Baker to send him a letter urging him not to do so. Civil rights advocates warned that releasing the former detective could cause unrest in the city and damage an already tense relationship between police and Kansas City’s minority community.
Parson said last week that he had not yet decided what action to take and criticized Baker for using the case for political purposes.
The NHL and NHLPA launched a new inclusion committee Tuesday that is made up of current and former men’s and women’s players, with minority and LGBTQ+ representation, aimed at diversifying hockey and making the sport more welcoming.
The NHL Player Inclusion Coalition is the latest step in a process started in the summer of 2020, when the police killing of George Floyd led to a worldwide reckoning on matters of race and racism. It comes on the heels of Pride night incidents around the league, when a handful of players refused to wear rainbow-colored jerseys for warmups, leading the league to decide against teams wearing any themed uniforms next season.
“It’s no secret that this is a sport that struggles with diversity and inclusion sometimes,” retired U.S. women’s star Meghan Duggan, who’s part of the coalition, said at an event in Nashville, Tennessee. “That’s why this group is here: to continue to push, to continue to make recommendations, to continue to have players step up and be public allies.”
Duggan, who is openly gay, is one of 20 members of the coalition chaired by former NHL players P.K. Subban and Anson Carter, each of whom is Black. Duggan, now the New Jersey Devils’ director of player development, wants to be on the leading edge of helping a sport that has traditionally been slow to respond to social change.
“Ignorance is just not an excuse anymore,” Duggan said. “We have so many resources at our fingertips to understand: ‘What is the terminology for the queer community? What is the acronym? What are different, politically correct ways to address certain groups?’ The education is out there for people to understand, not necessarily exactly how to relate to someone from a marginalized community, but just how they can be an ally.”
The coalition will start with $1 million to use for contributions to grassroots programs, education and other special projects. Duggan called the group, which also includes current national women’s players Sarah Nurse (Canada) and Abby Roque (U.S.), “action focused” and not just one that holds meetings to complain.
That action means not only donating money to underserved communities but going to them and showing why hockey is for them. It’s a task that could take a generation to bear out, so kids and families are a focus.
“We have to make it a safe and nurturing environment for the parents to understand that it’s a safe place to put their kids,” said former player Jamal Mayers, who’s part of the group. “If they don’t think it’s a safe, nurturing place, you’re certainly not going to allow your kid to go into that avenue, so it’s important and incumbent upon the league as leaders of the sport to make sure that they’re creating an environment that’s safe and nurturing, so that parents feel like, ‘OK there’s an opportunity.’”
Some of the work also happens at the professional level.
Duggan said an important first step three years ago was educating executives on the need for minority and women’s representation in front offices, and meetings since then have centered around racial incidents in the minors and Pride nights. Specifically, Duggan said she and fellow coalition member Mark Fraser spoke to Toronto Maple Leafs players about Pride issues.
“It’s really trying to provide resources to players to be able to engage in the community and speak out and have a voice,” Duggan said. “I’ve been happy with some of the progress we’ve seen. I think we all know that there’s a long way to go, but steps are being taken.”
Commissioner Gary Bettman said the goal was to “provide the NHL with insights regarding equality and inclusivity that only the players can give us.” NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh expects the coalition to “continue to do some amazing things for young people” all across North America.
“Hockey players deserve a world without doubt to know that hockey’s for them,” Carter said.
Monica Ward starts her day loading Amazon packages — and her 5-year-old daughter — into her car before sunrise. In the early hours of the morning, she delivers boxes to doorsteps around Cincinnati while her daughter eats McDonald’s breakfast or sleeps in the backseat.
“I know she doesn’t have the attention span to stay in the car and be seated and not do obnoxious things for four or five hours,” Ward says.
But as a single mother of two who can’t afford daycare, Ward, 32, says she has two options: Leave her daughter at home with her teenage son or bring her along to gigs.
“I recently had to resign from my job because I did not make enough money for childcare,” she says. “I literally had no other option.”
Ward quit a full-time job in May after being deemed ineligible for daycare vouchers through the city. Her monthly earnings — $3,028.50 as a $20.19 per hour worker — exceeded the state’s limit of $2,726 for a three-person household.
She requested a pay increase through her employer of two months, but it was denied. So, she was forced to resign and earn less money to again be eligible for childcare assistance.
“This is the most shameful thing ever,” Ward says of quitting and applying to 60-70 new jobs, some of which she says she’s overqualified for.
Millions of parents nationwide find themselves in this position: struggling to afford childcare, which can absorb up to 70% of a household’s income.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Black single mothers are impacted most by the childcare crisis. Especially since 46% of Black children live with their mothers only, according to 2020 Census data.
The Cost of Childcare
Childcare in some states exceeds the cost of household expenses, such as health care, housing, and education.
In Florida, center-based toddler care costs about $8,600 a year, compared to an average of $6,100 for public in-state college tuition and fees. Centers in the District of Columbia, where childcare is most expensive, charge an average of $24,400 for one toddler — twice the annual cost of healthcare in the area.
In Ohio, where Ward lives, a single mother may spend up to 40% of her yearly income on daycare, according to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a charitable foundation focused on improving the well-being of children.
This puts single mothers, like Ward, in a bind.
Sending her daughter to daycare would’ve cost $700 a month out-of-pocket — or 60% of the rent for her $1,150 two-bedroom apartment.
“Absolutely, positively no way I can afford rent and the daycare and food,” she says. “When I started working, they also cut my food assistance off.”
An Unequal Burden on Black Moms
An analysis by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that Black working mothers spent more than any other race on childcare for two kids in 2017 — 56% of their income, compared to 51% for American Indian and Alaska Native moms, 42% for Latino moms, and 26% for white moms.
Between 2020 and 2021, Black children ages 5 and younger were most likely to be in a family that experienced job changes due to childcare issues.
Leslie Boissiere, vice president of external affairs at the foundation, says disparities in pay are reasons why Black moms are suffering.
“They tend to be overrepresented in industries where there are lower wages and where there’s less flexibility in terms of family-supporting policies that allow parents, for example, to take time off when they need to care for their kids,” she says.
Though the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a culture of remote work that may allow some moms to do double duty (working while watching their children), Boissiere says parents deserve sustainable options.
“Infant and toddler care while working is extremely difficult to do,” she says. “And so, it may create some flexibility, but it doesn’t eliminate the need to have a childcare provider to care for your children.”
Lack of Childcare and Underdevelopment
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services considers childcare affordable if it costs households no more than 7% of their income — a pinch of what parents actually pay.
As Boissiere says, “there’s a significant need to increase the investment in early childcare.”
“The brain is developing so rapidly for young children who are 0 to 5 years old. It’s critically important that we make sure that we have sufficient resources so that all families and all children have access to quality childcare,” she says.
When families are financially secure, parents, as well as their children, are less likely to experience mental illness.
Between 2020 and 2021, Black children ages 5 and younger were most likely to be in a family that experienced job changes due to childcare issues.
“When parents are stressed out, children are absolutely stressed out,” Boissiere says.
This has been the case for Ward, who’s battled depression since she’s been unemployed. She’s had to put her goal of advancing her career as a medical assistant on hold and work odd jobs to make ends meet.
She’s currently considering other routes to financial stability.
“It’s like I have to go back to school and go back to the drawing board. But even if I go back to school, who’s going to provide for us in the meantime?” Ward says. “I have thought about different scenarios, and I don’t know what our future looks like at all.’”
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — There was no way, Ralph Yarl thought, that the white man pointing the gun at him through the glass door would shoot him. But the Black teenager, who had gone to the wrong house in Kansas City looking for his younger brothers, was wrong a second time.
Yarl’s brothers were actually at a home a block away, and he said in an interview with “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts that aired Tuesday that he hadn’t met the family of his brothers’ friends, “so maybe it was their house.”
After ringing the doorbell, he said, he waited a long time on the porch before the door opened.
“I see this old man and I’m saying, ‘Oh, this must be like, their grandpa,’” said Yarl, now 17. “And then he pulls out his gun. And I’m like, ‘Whoa!’ So I like, back up. He points it at me.”
Yarl braced and turned his head.
“And then it happened, and then I’m on the ground. I fall on the glass, the shattered glass,” he told Roberts, and “then before I know it, I’m running away, shouting, ‘Help me! Help me!’”
Yarl was bleeding and said he wondered how it was possible that he had been shot in the head. The man he had never met before said only five words to him, he said: “Don’t come here ever again.”
Andrew Lester, 84, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree assault and armed criminal action in the April 13 shooting.
Lester admitted that he shot Yarl through the door without warning because he was “scared to death” he was about to be robbed by the Black person standing there. He remains free after posting $20,000 — 10% of his $200,000 bond.
The shooting drew international attention amid claims that Lester received preferential treatment from investigators. President Joe Biden and several celebrities issued statements calling for justice. Yarl’s attorney, Lee Merritt, has called for the shooting to be investigated as a hate crime.
Yarl’s mother, Cleo Nagbe, said on “Good Morning America” that she had been worried that her son got a flat tire, but that she then got a call from police telling her about the shooting, and she headed to the hospital. He was partially alert, but it was traumatizing, she said.
Ten weeks later, Yarl is physically recovered but said that he has headaches and trouble sleeping and that sometimes his mind is just foggy.
“You’re looking at a kid that took the SAT when he was in eighth grade — and now his brain is slowed,” Nagbe told Roberts. “So physically he looks fine. But there’s a lot that has been taken from him.”
Yarl said he is seeing a therapist and hopes to continue his recovery by focusing on his passions for chemical engineering and for music.
“I’m just a kid and not larger than life because this happened to me,” Yarl said. “I’m just going to keep doing all the stuff that makes me happy. And just living my life the best I can, and not let this bother me.”
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