| Blog and Media Roundup - Saturday, December 6, 2018; News Roundup | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 6 2018, 03:56 AM (95 Views) | |
| abb | Jan 6 2018, 03:56 AM Post #1 |
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2018/01/meet-the-finalists-for-schewels-empty-city-council-seat Meet the finalists for Mayor Schewel’s vacant city council seat By Bre Bradham | 01/05/2018 Sheila Arias Abonza was busy planning a Martin Luther King Jr. day celebration when she got a Facebook message on Thursday afternoon. “I actually had a good friend of mine send me a message and say ‘Congratulations!’ and I said ‘For what?’” said Abonza, a candidate for the open Durham City Council seat. “He said, ‘You are one of the seven finalists.’” At their Jan. 4 work session, Durham City Council made their first round of cuts in the race to fill Mayor Steve Schewel’s vacated at-large council seat. After initially receiving 20 applications, the council whittled the list down to seven names via a ranked-choice vote on Thursday afternoon. In alphabetical order, the remaining candidates are Abonza, Javiera Caballero, Pierce Freelon, Kaaren Haldeman, Shelia Ann Huggins, Pilar Rocha-Goldberg and Carl Rist. “I feel really good,” Haldeman said Thursday night. “I know some of the other candidates, have volunteered with some of the other candidates and it’s a group of people that I’m just really impressed by.” Like Abonza, Haldeman—a gun violence activist who also works with Rise to Run, which seeks to empower girls to consider participating in politics—found out about making the cut via Facebook. Around 5:00 p.m., she saw that a friend had tagged her in a post about being one of the finalists, and since then she’s received lots of positive feedback from her friends. Haldeman is one of the five female finalists for the position. If chosen, a female candidate would make the city council majority-female. “This is a really powerful time for women,” Haldeman said. “I can’t tell you how it feels for someone who has been in activism for a long time, to see this number of women jumping into the political landscape.” For Abonza, who is a campaign associate at Moms Rising and owns a cleaning business, being one of three Latina finalists for the position on the council—which currently does not have any Latinx members—is exciting. “Seeing those names, it’s amazing. It makes me feel very good as a resident of Durham knowing that there are Latinas out there that care so much about the community and want to make a difference,” Abonza said. “The fact that there are three different Latinas from three different countries in Latin America—and that we are three women—it’s even more amazing, because we’re making history and we’re breaking barriers, and these individuals on city council are seeing this.” Caballero, a program coordinator at Alma Advisory Group and PTA President at Club Blvd. Elementary school, moved to the city in 2010. She currently serves on the Durham Open Space and Trails Commission, and stressed the importance of having “culturally sensitive, bilingual leaders” in her application for the position. “If we want our community to be better, then we must all be involved and do our part in whatever capacity we are able to,” she wrote in the questionnaire the candidates submitted to the council. Rocha-Goldberg, the president and CEO of Durham’s El Centro Hispano, is focused on the issues of affordable housing, inclusion and increasing the safeness of the city. She has previously worked with Duke on issues relevant to the Latinx community, and served on the Board of Directors for UnidosUS and as member and chair of the Governor’s Hispanic/Latino Affairs Committee under Governor Beverly Perdue. “I feel very honored to be chosen for this last part of the process,” Rocha-Goldberg wrote in an email Friday morning. “I believe that my background and experience will serve inclusivity and give not only a voice to an important segment of the community, but will serve the larger community by increasing understanding and supporting integration and communication within the community.” Two of the candidates for the vacant seat are familiar names to Durham residents who kept up with the recent municipal elections. Freelon, who finished third in the mayoral primary, is the founder of Blackspace, a digital maker space in Durham. “If elected, I will be the sole millennial on Durham's City Council and will bring creative perspectives and innovative solutions to the issues facing Durham… As someone born and raised in this city, I am excited about the opportunity to serve the community that has given me so much,” Freelon wrote in an email Thursday afternoon. Huggins, a self-employed attorney with a focus on business law who previously worked as a city employee, ran against now-councilwoman Vernetta Alston in the recent race for the Ward 3 city council seat. During her time working for Durham, Huggins earned a Culture of Service award. “Durham is at a crossroads, and the decisions we make now will determine the trajectory of our city for years to come,” she wrote in her candidate questionnaire. One of the candidates is also a Duke alumni. Rist, who earned a Master of Arts in Public Policy Studies in 1991, has been a member of the People’s Alliance Political Action Committee for 25 years. He highlighted his experience as a particularly relevant asset considering the youth of the current council. “It is a great honor to be chosen as one of the finalists for an appointment to the Durham City Council,” Rist wrote in an email on Friday. “Ever since I graduated from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke in 1991, I have been involved in promoting progressive politics in Durham.” With the field of candidates narrowed, the next steps in the selection process will be in-person. The candidates will be interviewed on Jan. 11, and the council plans to elect and swear-in the new member on Jan. 16. “People ask me, ‘What happens if you’re not selected?’ And I say that’s fine, I’m still going to be doing my work as an activist in the community, and this whole process has taught me so much about the city,” Abonza said. “I’m gaining so much knowledge and getting to know so many people that it continues to encourage me to make a difference.” |
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| abb | Jan 6 2018, 04:03 AM Post #2 |
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https://www.twincities.com/2018/01/05/gophers-say-no-red-flags-with-reggie-lynch-others-call-it-worst-kept-secret/ Gophers say 'no red flags' with Reggie Lynch. Others call it 'worst-kept secret' Chad Graff 1/5/18 Eight months before the University of Minnesota’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action recommended a suspension of more than two years for Gophers men’s basketball player Reggie Lynch, athletics director Mark Coyle was told the senior center had a history of sexual misconduct. It was May 1, 2017, almost exactly a year after the incident in Lynch’s dorm room involving a 20-year-old woman that led the EOAA on Thursday to recommend the athlete be suspended and banned from campus until at least Aug. 1, 2020. Abby Honold, a 22-year-old former U student and rape survivor, was there to talk to Coyle and two other administrators about sexual assault awareness and education, but before she left, she gave them a warning. Honold said Friday that she told Coyle months ago that she knew of “multiple other victims” of sexual misconduct involving Lynch. “This is a pattern,” she told Coyle and urged him to investigate further. “But it did not really fall on open ears,” Honold said. “The only person who really responded told me, ‘Well, this sounds awfully personal, how would you even know all of this?’ And, ‘This is irrelevant because they didn’t report to police.’ “I get that you can’t always do something, but you can care. You can be empathetic and concerned, and I didn’t get that during that meeting.” At a news conference Friday, Coyle said he recalled the meeting but evaded a direct question about whether he remembered Honold’s warning regarding Lynch. “We had a very productive meeting with Abby,” he said. “It was great to hear from her, hear her perspective, and we talked about the steps we were doing, the steps we were trying to do, to make our program better as we move forward.” Last fall’s investigation was the school’s second into an alleged sexual assault involving Lynch. The first resulted in his arrest on suspicion of sexual misconduct in May 2016. After a police investigation, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office declined to press charges saying it could not prove a crime was committed, and an EOAA investigation found him not responsible for violating student code. This time, he was found responsible for violating the U’s sexual misconduct policy, among others. Lynch has been suspended from playing for the Gophers but remains a part of the team and can still practice, receive medical treatment and educational help. KSTP reported Friday that a source close to Lynch told the station he denies the accusation. Lynch’s attorney, Lee Hutton, told WCCO that Lynch will appeal his EOAA suspension. Messages seeking comment left at numbers believed to belong to Lynch’s parents weren’t returned, according to the Associated Press. Coyle and men’s basketball coach Richard Pitino stood by the culture of the program, and Pitino expressed surprise at the recent findings on Friday. He recruited Lynch to Minnesota as a transfer student from Illinois State. “We do a lot of background, and we never saw any red flags leading up to this,” Pitino said. “We do as much background as we possibly can with everybody you bring in.” Yet, in the wake of Friday’s suspension, multiple women expressed little surprise to the news, including Whit Bordscheid, who grew up in Bloomington at the same time as Lynch. “There were absolutely red flags beforehand,” she said, “and honestly, if it weren’t so disgusting that it’s being spun differently, I’d laugh at how poorly they executed their lying today.” On Friday, Borscheid wrote on Twitter, “There are very few (if any) of us from Bloomington and Edina who weren’t already aware of Reggie Lynch’s atrocious history of alleged abuse prior to the news that came out. … I look back on high school and remember how often girls would suggest steering clear of Reggie at parties. 15-18 year old girls found normalcy in warning each other of his tendencies. This is no exaggeration.” Honold said it would not have been difficult to find red flags in Lynch’s past. “It was extremely well known, to the point where when he was arrested the first time, there was a celebration from girls in my hometown who were excited that finally someone had paid attention to this,” she said. “I think a lot of girls who had previously felt scared or intimated felt validated by that. He was kind of like the worst-kept secret.” |
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| abb | Jan 6 2018, 04:09 AM Post #3 |
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/sports/ncaabasketball/minnesota-reggie-lynch-suspended.html At Minnesota, Another Athlete Is Suspended in a Sexual Assault Case By MARC TRACY JAN. 5, 2018 The University of Minnesota athletic department is once again grappling with a controversy surrounding sexual assault allegations after suspending one of its star basketball players from competition. Athletic Director Mark Coyle announced on Friday that the senior center Reggie Lynch would not appear in any games, but that he would remain a member of the basketball program. Given his age, 23, and dwindling eligibility, however, it is unlikely he will ever play for the Golden Gophers again, unless a related ruling is overturned on appeal. The decision to suspend Lynch stems from an incident in April 2016 in which he allegedly sexually assaulted a Minnesota woman in his dormitory. The university’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action issued a decision on Thursday, ruling that Lynch was responsible for violations of the university code regarding sexual misconduct and sexual assault, stalking and relationship violence, and would be suspended from the university early next week, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. The Star Tribune of Minnesota, which first reported the impending suspension on Friday morning, cited a source close to Lynch who said he planned to appeal. If he does, the suspension will be delayed pending the outcome of a formal hearing, in which a decision would be handed down by a panel. Lynch was arrested two years ago in a separate incident on suspicion of sexual assault. Prosecutors declined to charge him, and a university probe cleared him of wrongdoing. The decision to suspend Lynch comes a year after the university began an investigation into, and suspended, 10 members of the college football team in connection with allegations of a sexual assault. The football team then threatened to boycott a bowl game. The team’s football coach at the time, Tracy Claeys, supported the boycott, though the players ultimately decided to play. The Golden Gophers beat Washington State in the bowl game. The university fired Claeys a week later. In Lynch’s case, the athletic department suspended him from practices after his initial arrest. The ensuing investigation took place over that summer, however, and Lynch did not miss any games. He was named the Big Ten’s defensive player of the year after a stellar season at center. A lawyer believed to be representing Lynch did not return a request for comment. At a news conference on Friday, both Coyle and Minnesota’s head basketball coach, Richard Pitino, a son of the former Louisville head coach Rick Pitino, declined to comment on specifics of Lynch’s situation, citing federal and state student privacy laws. Coyle justified his decision to hold Lynch out of play but not dismiss him from the program, stating, “We want to make sure he has access to medical treatment, academic services, let him be around his team.” Richard Pitino defended the program’s actions and his decision to play Lynch as he was being investigated, saying he had discussed the matter extensively with his superiors. “When certain things like this happen, big things, you go to your boss and you discuss and you go with what the policies are in place more than anything, and we did that,” he said. Minnesota (13-3) hosts Indiana on Saturday afternoon. Minnesota’s main campus in the Twin Cities is one of several around the country where the debate over campus sexual assault has notably been refracted through the prism of college athletics. The issue with the football team erupted after a woman received a restraining order in the fall of 2016 against six football players after an episode in which she claimed several men sexually assaulted her. Prosecutors declined to prosecute, and the restraining order was lifted as a part of a settlement. But the university investigation led to several expulsions and a suspension. In March 2017, Eric W. Kaler, the university president, proclaimed a new initiative to combat sexual assault on his campus after, he said, the campus had been “at the center of sexual assault news and conversation.” “What we can do,” Kaler said, “is stand firm on our values and effectively articulate the behaviors we expect and the culture we want to create.” |
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| Quasimodo | Jan 6 2018, 06:27 AM Post #4 |
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Why don't they select candidates on the basis of their talent, skill, and knowledge about running a city, irrespective of their race, ethnicity, gender, etc.? This is more like Lilliput, where officers were selected on the basis of their abilities with rope dancing.
This is an example of Newspeak -- a word selected to change thought. "Latino" is the usual word; "Latinx" attempts to blur or erase gender identity, and impose "gender neutral" thought into our culture. Too bad the ill-or under educated editors at the Chronicle have surrendered to this trend. |
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