Denver police officer Jose Manriquez and his attorney Randy Corporon join ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss the impact of the vaccine.
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Friday that the Golden State would be the first state in America to require COVID-19 vaccinations for K-12 students.
Newsom announced the vaccine mandate while speaking at a San Francisco-area school, saying all eligible students will be required to be vaccinated before attending class.
The current plan would require students older than 12-years-old to receive the coronavirus vaccine in order to be able to attend class. This step would add the COVID-19 vaccine to the required list of childhood vaccinations required to attend school.
The vaccine requirement would be enforced after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gives the approval for different age groups to receive the shot while allowing religious and medical exemptions.
With the mandate, California becomes the first state to require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend class.
Newsom’s mandate comes just weeks after he dodged a recall election effort over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
California announced in August that all school staff must provide a proof of full vaccination or be tested for COVID-19 at least once per week in order to teach in-person. Schools are required by the state to be in full compliance by Oct.15.
New York City also recently implemented a vaccine mandate for teachers in the Big Apple, prompting a group of teachers to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to block the city’s mandate.
Fox News’ Jon Brown contributed reporting.
Houston Keene is a reporter for Fox News Digital. You can find him on Twitter at @HoustonKeene
Que el procurador Alejandro Ordóñez haya ratificado su sanción de destitución e inhabilidad por 15 años contra el alcalde de Bogotá, Gustavo Petro no sorprendió a nadie. Tampoco que en las manos del jefe del Ministerio Público reposaba la posibilidad de recortar la carrera contrarreloj del mandatario local hacia la revocatoria que le insuflaría aire político.
De los 50 días que le quedaban a Petro para resistir el fallo en cinco distintos escenarios, Ordóñez despachó en un solo día ambos frentes y ahora las esperanzas del alcalde radican en la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH), en Washington.
Mientras esta entidad revisa el caso, la destitución de Petro desata una serie de desafíos para el propio alcalde, sus seguidores, sus opositores y los habitantes de la capital. Desde su cuenta en Twitter, a pocos minutos de conocerse la ratificación del fallo, el destituido mandatario invitó a “una movilización permanente de la ciudadanía en contra del ‘golpe de Estado’”.
Esto se suma a la convocatoria durante un discurso en la marcha del pasado viernes en las que el alcalde pidió a sus seguidores quedarse permanentemente en la Plaza de Bolívar como protesta contra la decisión de Ordóñez.
Todo indica entonces que Petro le apostaría a una resistencia ciudadana con sede en la emblemática plaza capitalina. Esta es la prueba de fuego para su naciente movimiento de indignación. De la convocatoria y permanencia de la movilización petrista dependerá que se abran salidas políticas prontas ya que las ventanas jurídicas dentro del ordenamiento nacional se le están agotando al alcalde.
En otras palabras, Petro necesita generar con su movilización un hecho político de tal magnitud que empuje al presidente Santos a reconsiderar espacios políticos.
El reto para el alcalde está en la construcción de esta “resistencia” desde afuera de la alcaldía. Por más molestia que genere a sus seguidores, Petro deberá respetar la decisión de la Procuraduría, ejecutada por la Casa de Nariño, y salir de su cargo.
De ese respeto inicial a la normatividad, dependerá tanto el tono de su movimiento como la legitimidad de su protesta. Un antecedente cercano al del alcalde bogotano es el del exaspirante presidencial mexicano Andrés Manuel López Obrador, quien protestó por meses en las avenidas del Distrito Federal contra un supuesto fraude en las elecciones presidenciales.
Los petristas también enfrentan un desafío: el de la protesta pacífica. Hasta ahora las movilizaciones de apoyo al alcalde y rechazo al Procurador no han generado desórdenes y se han desarrollado de manera tranquila y respetuosa. Esa actitud de los seguidores del alcalde debería continuar en los distintos escenarios de protesta que se convoquen.
A los opositores del alcalde Petro les esperan decisiones. Por ejemplo, la persona que encargue el presidente Santos de la alcaldía de Bogotá debe continuar los proyectos más importantes del plan de desarrollo vigente y evitar el desgobierno de la ciudad. Sería un error de las fuerzas políticas contrarias a Petro asumir la decisión de la Procuraduría como una derrota de las ideas del alcalde.
Sólo el triunfo en las elecciones atípicas, incluido el de un candidato petrista, proveerá la legitimidad política de impulsar un modelo de ciudad con toda la potencia del Distrito.
A los bogotanos en general les corresponde asimismo una dosis de responsabilidad cívica en los críticos momentos políticos que atraviesa la capital. Tanto los escenarios de resistencia política que desplieguen Petro y sus seguidores como la campaña electoral que vendrá encenderán ánimos y despertarán controversias en la ciudad.
La transición del Distrito hacia una nueva administración, que podría ser de la misma corriente petrista, requiere la participación democrática de sus habitantes. En juego estará o la ratificación electoral de las ideas de Petro o la apuesta mayoritaria a un nuevo rumbo para Bogotá.
Barack Obama has accused Donald Trump of violating a “core tenet” of democracy by refusing to concede the presidential election and making up a “whole bunch of hooey”.
The former president said his successor’s unfounded “big lie” claims about 2020 had helped fuel anti-democratic measures such as voter suppression and warned that if action was not taken now, “we are going to see a further delegitimizing of our democracy”.
Making the comments in a fundraising call for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, his first virtual fundraiser since last year’s election, he said: “What we saw was my successor, the former president, violate that core tenet that you count the votes and then declare a winner – and fabricate and make up a whole bunch of hooey.”
What’s the context? Since last year’s election, Georgia, Arizona, Florida and Iowa have signed new voting restrictions into law and state legislatures in Pennsylvania and Texas are attempting to. These states will be key battlegrounds in the 2022 midterms.
Obama also said he believed there would be a new vote on the voting rights bill in the Senate after it was blocked last week by Republicans.
Republicans have also spoken out against Trump recently – including William Barr, his former attorney general, who said the former president’s claims were always “bullshit” and Senator Mitt Romney who compared his claims of a stolen election to tv wrestling (entertaining but “not real”).
Portland is bracing for temperatures of 115F as the Pacific north-west ‘heat dome’ breaks records
A girl cools off in the Salmon Street springs fountain in Portland on Monday. Photograph: Kathryn Elsesser/AFP/Getty Images
Portland is braced for temperatures of 115F (46C) and Seattle for 110F (43C) after the cities broke all-time heat records over the weekend caused by an extended “heat dome” over the Pacific north-west.
Light rail, street cars and summer school buses were shut down in Portland because of the heat, which was straining the city’s power grid. Meanwhile, in nearby Eugene, the US track and field trials were stopped on Sunday and the stadium evacuated.
Experts warned that the heatwave was a preview of the future as the climate crisis dramatically changes the world’s weather patterns.
It is likely to be “one of the most extreme and prolonged heatwaves in the recorded history of the inland north-west”, the National Weather Service has said,and will make the region “increasingly vulnerable to wildfires”.
Why is the Pacific north-west facing record temperatures? And what is a heat dome? Hallie Golden explains.
Trump is in financial and political danger as his company faces possible criminal charges
Donald Trump tosses a hat into the air at his first post-presidency rally in Wellington, Ohio, on Saturday. Photograph: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Donald Trump could face a potentially devastating political and financial hit as state prosecutors decide whether to file criminal charges against the Trump Organization this week.
Prosecutors in New York could soon bring an indictment against his family business tied to taxation of lucrative perks that it gave to top executives – such as use of cars, apartments and school tuition.
What would it mean for Trump? While the former president is not expected to be personally charged, it could bankrupt his company by damaging relationships with banks and business partners, writes David Smith, the Guardian’s Washington bureau chief. It could also get in the way of a political comeback.
In other news …
A memorial for those killed at Champlain Towers in Surfside, Miami. Photograph: Larry Marano/REX/Shutterstock
The Miami condo collapse has prompted questions over the role of the climate crisisand whether south Florida’s vulnerability to rising seas could lead to the destabilization of more buildings. The cause of the collapse of the 12-storey building last week is not yet known, but a 2018 engineering report warned of “significant cracks and beaks in the concrete” and design flaws and deteriorating waterproofing. Eleven people have been confirmed dead and 150 people are still unaccounted for.
A staggering 400,000 lives in Brazil could have been saved if the country had enforced stricter social distancing measures and started a vaccination programme earlier, an eminent epidemiologist has said. Pedro Hallal, a professor at the Federal University of Pelotas, said these policies would have prevented 80% of Brazil’s half a million Covid deaths.
A federal judge has dismissed lawsuits brought against Facebook by the Federal Trade Commission and 48 states and districts in a considerable blow to attempts to rein in big tech. They sued Facebook in December, accusing the company of abusing its market power in social networking. But on Monday the US district judge James Boasberg ruled the lawsuits “legally insufficient”.
Stat of the day: the US needs to plant 31.4m more trees – about a 10% increase of today’s tree cover – to combat shade disparity
As much of the American west endures a record-breaking heatwave, the first nationwide tally of trees, the Tree Equity Score, has found that neighborhoods where the majority of residents are people of color have 33% less tree canopy on average than majority white neighborhoods. Cities identified to benefit most from tree equity include Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix and San Jose.
Don’t miss this: Fighting for LGBTQ+ rights in the pandemic
Lockdown hit LGBTQ+ communities hard. But as Pride parades in San Francisco, Brighton and New York are cancelled, there is hope that they will return, writes Lizzy Davies. “You can’t cancel Pride. The pride lives in all of our hearts,” says Fred Lopez, the executive director of San Francisco Pride.
… or this: Experts warn plan to build a city in California grasslands could go up in flames
Tejon Ranch Company wants to build 20,000 homes an hour’s drive north of Los Angeles in what Maanvi Singh describes as “one of the last remaining pieces of the truly wild, wild west”. The developers say it would help the housing crisis, but scientists and climate activists fear it could put people in danger.
Last Thing: Picasso and Mondrian stolen in 7 minutes recovered nearly a decade later
A detail of the 1939 female bust by Pablo Picasso. Photograph: AP
They were stripped from their frames at the National Art Gallery in Athens in 2012 in a heist that lasted just seven minutes. But nearly a decade later, the two paintings by the 20th-century masters Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian have been recovered. A statement issued last night said police had the two works – a cubist female bust that Picasso donated to Greece in 1949 and a 1905 oil painting of a windmill by Mondrian – but did not include information on their condition or any arrests.
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El reconocido periodista Nilsen Buján, quien fue anunciado como el nuevo director de Noticias Columbia, las cuales se transmiten por la frecuencia radial 98.7 FM, aseguró que su principal objetivo será llevar las informaciones positivas a los costarricenses.
Tal y como lo dio a conocer La Prensa Libre, este comunicador renunció a Telenoticias de Canal 7, donde se desempeñaba como jefe de edición, hace cuatro meses. Lo anterior para dedicarse a proyectos personales, como, por ejemplo, el programa Pulso Empresarial y la agencia Albu Sports.
Sin embargo, no lo pensó dos veces para aceptar el nuevo reto del destino, en un medio de comunicación que él mismo definió como volver a casa. “Es uno de los noticieros de tradición a nivel nacional, espero que durante mi trabajo y la gestión del equipo podamos brindar una información objetiva, educativa, donde se resalte lo positivo, a todos los hogares.
Hay un equipo de trabajo que va a estar de sol a sol, elaborando el mejor producto posible. Estoy muy agradecido con la familia Alfaro, con don Rolando, su hija Daniela, los compañeros en la emisora. Me recibieron de la mejor manera”, dijo durante una transmisión en vivo.
Buján recordó que parte de sus primeras armas las efectuó en esas instalaciones. “Ya había estado en Columbia hace 13 años en el área de deportes donde me desarrollé por siete meses, luego me fui a la cadena CNN en Español donde estuve dos años y luego regresé a Costa Rica.
Me integré a Telenoticias donde trabajé por 11 años y ahora Dios me da esta gran oportunidad, tengo mucho sentimiento ya que es como un volver a casa, en algún momento sabía que sería así”, agregó.
Parte de los comentarios que recibió de apoyo.
El comunicador concretó que los radioescuchas notarán una forma diferente de caminar. “Soy de retos, me encantan, y lo voy a asumir con la mayor responsabilidad, compromiso y seriedad, de dar una noticia diferente, madura, actual, dinámica y los radioescuchas son parte de esto.
A mi familia, a mi esposa, a mi hija, no me gusta mencionar la parte personal, pero son motivos que me enorgullecen y nos llevan para adelante. Es empezar a caminar de manera diferente, queremos dejar huella a donde lleguemos, impactar con noticias positivas”, finalizó.
A House panel voted Wednesday to authorize subpoenas to obtain special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s full report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, laying down a marker in a constitutional power struggle that could end up in the courts.
The House Judiciary Committee voted 24 to 17 along party lines to authorize its chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), to subpoena the report and underlying documents of Mueller’s probe from Attorney General William P. Barr.
The panel, which has jurisdiction over impeachment, also voted to subpoena five former White House officials it believes may have received documents relevant to the special counsel’s probe.
“This committee has a job to do,” Nadler said. “The Constitution charges Congress with holding the president accountable for alleged official misconduct. That job requires us to evaluate the evidence for ourselves — not the attorney general’s summary, not a substantially redacted synopsis, but the full report and the underlying evidence.”
The much-anticipated move to compel the Justice Department to release the report comes one day after Barr missed a House-imposed deadline to turn over the nearly 400-page document. Barr told lawmakers last week that although he could not meet their Tuesday deadline, he promised to deliver a redacted version of Mueller’s findings by mid-April, if not sooner.
But Democrats, who are leaving for a two-week congressional recess next week, have made clear that redactions are unacceptable and have sought to give Nadler the tools needed to respond at any moment.
Nadler told reporters after Wednesday’s vote that he will hold off on serving Barr with a subpoena, seeking to first negotiate with him for the full range of Mueller’s documents. The Democrat would not specify, however, how long he would wait.
“We’re going to work with the attorney general for a short period of time in a hope that he will reveal to us the entire Mueller report and will go to court to get permission to get the [grand jury] material,” Nadler said, referring to interviews and documents presented during the proceedings throughout the investigation. “But if that doesn’t work out, in a very short order we will issue subpoenas.”
After reviewing the report, Barr sent a four-page letter to Congress on March 24, saying Mueller “did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.”
Mueller also made no determination about whether President Trump attempted to obstruct justice during the inquiry, arguing that “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” according to Barr’s summary.
That has not stopped Trump and his GOP allies from claiming it does — even as Democrats counter that Barr, a Trump appointee, is hardly a neutral observer and is protecting the president.
On Monday, Trump asserted on Twitter that “no matter what information is given to the crazed Democrats from the No Collusion Mueller Report, it will never be good enough.” Republicans argued during Wednesday’s hearing that Democrats simply want to embarrass or impeach Trump.
“My friends across the dais are eager for headlines, so they’re issuing subpoenas . . . despite the fact the special counsel spent nearly two years examining exactly what House Democrats are fishing for here,” said Rep. Douglas A. Collins (R-Ga.), the top Republican on the committee.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), an outspoken Trump ally, asked: “Why are we here? Seems to me we’re here because the Mueller report isn’t what the Democrats wanted it to be . . . just the opposite.”
Democrats objected, reminding Jordan that neither they nor the GOP has seen a single page of the Mueller report.
However, House Democrats in recent days have sought to shift the focus away from their investigations of the president, especially talk of impeachment. Some Democrats worry the nationwide focus on their efforts probing Trump is drowning out their legislative message, which they deem vital to maintaining their majority in 2020 and defeating Trump.
Still, party leaders have argued that Barr — who personally determined there was not sufficient evidence to establish obstruction, absent a Mueller recommendation on the matter — could have misrepresented Mueller’s findings and that Democrats need to review the report themselves.
“We do not need your interpretation. Show us the report,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said last week, calling Barr’s handling of the matter “condescending” and “arrogant.”
Nadler echoed that sentiment Wednesday: “We are not willing to let the attorney general . . . substitute his judgment for ours.”
The Judiciary Committee on Wednesday also approved subpoenas for five former White House aides: former White House counsel Donald McGahn; former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon; former communications director Hope Hicks; former chief of staff Reince Priebus; and Ann Donaldson, McGahn’s former chief of staff.
The five were among 81 individuals and entities Nadler sent document requests to last month as part of his investigation into whether Trump abused power, obstructed justice or engaged in public corruption.
The fight over the Mueller report is expected to land in the courts. Senior Justice Department officials have expressed opposition to releasing information that could damage an individual who is not charged with a crime. But when it comes to the president, Democrats argue, Barr has an obligation to make the report public, and they have said they will sue for the entire document if Barr does not comply.
The House voted 420 to 0 last month to urge Barr to release the report. But since then, House Republicans — particularly on the Judiciary Committee — have deferred to Barr, arguing that he would make the best legal decision about what to make public.
Barr and Justice Department officials are working behind the scenes to redact grand-jury information, classified material, details related to ongoing prosecutions and “information that may unduly infringe on the personal privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties,” according to Nadler.
But Democrats have argued that Congress deserves to see all the information, citing as precedent former independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s delivery to Congress of his full, unredacted report on President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky. The Starr report in 1998 was complete with grand-jury testimony.
Nadler at one point during the committee session held up two massive books from Starr’s investigation, noting he gave Congress “boxes and boxes” of such information.
“The department is wrong to try to withhold that information from this committee,” Nadler said. “Congress is entitled to all of the evidence.”
Collins challenged Nadler’s logic, mocking his use of props by holding up his own makeshift display — two water bottles, one empty, one full — to argue Nadler is comparing apples and oranges.
Starr, Collins argued, was appointed under a different law and made recommendations on impeachment.
“I’m glad we’re using props today, because the chairman is wanting you to look at one thing when the reality is another thing,” Collins said. “It doesn’t work! They’re not the same!”
Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) argued that previous special counsels and prosecutors who handed over grand-jury information to Congress received permission from the courts to release such sensitive material.
Sensenbrenner, who said he would be “happy to be a co-plaintiff” in a court motion to release the full report, encouraged Nadler to hold off on his subpoena and go to a judge. “We ought to do what we need to do first,” he said, “. . . and that’s go to court.”
Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.) countered that in those circumstances, the special counsel or special prosecutor went to the courts “on their own” without Congress to get permission.
Barr “has attempted to keep the information,” Cicilline said, “so for us to wait and pray and hope that Mr. Barr will find his way to the courthouse is foolish.”
Since Barr’s four-page summary of the findings were released, support for House Democratic investigations of the president has hardened along party lines, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll. The division offers a stark contrast to the start of the year, when an overall majority backed the lower chamber’s effort to probe whether the president or his allies conspired with Russia.
Still, 83 percent of respondents said the Mueller report should be made public in its entirety, public sentiment Democrats can use to their advantage when pressing for its release.
The script for Michael Cohen’s opening statement to Congress on Wednesday is basically the shorter, less well written version of “Fire and Fury.”
CNN is naturally on fire ahead of the testimony, calling Cohen’s opener “damaging,” “stunning” and “shocking.” Perhaps it would be those things, if the public hadn’t already heard almost all of Cohen’s claims before, or if those claims weren’t in some cases just explicitly stupid.
Cohen is expected to say at the start, “Never in a million years did I imagine, when I accepted a job in 2007 to work for Donald Trump, that he would one day run for President, launch a campaign on a platform of hate and intolerance, and actually win.”
And yet later on, he calls Trump “a man who ran for office to make his brand great …”
Yes, of course! marketing executives around the globe must be saying right now. Let’s make our brand “great” by emphasizing “hate and intolerance!”
Cohen, Trump’s former gofer, is supposed to admit in his remarks that he never saw any proof or even evidence that the president’s 2016 campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the election. But he will at least keep hope alive in hearts at CNN by saying he has “suspicions.”
He’ll also call Trump a “racist,” a “con man,” and a “cheat,” summarizing Mitt Romney’s scorching 2016 speech that sank the Trump campaign. No, wait a second — I’m being told that it didn’t work, and that Trump went on to win the election. Never mind.
Cohen will say he was in the room in 2016 when Trump took a call from his longtime adviser Roger Stone, who alerted then-candidate Trump that he had had phone calls with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that a cache of hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton would soon be public. This claim implies that the FBI, House, Senate and all of the news media have been searching for clues that Trump knew about the email hacks, and yet the first we’re hearing about it is from Cohen, who is just about to go to prison?
The simpler explanation is better: Cohen is desperate and bitter. The media are trying to polish the turd of his credibility by noting he has “nothing to lose” in telling the truth. That’s true, but people who shoot themselves after committing mass murder having nothing to lose, either.
La Casa Blanca anunció el martes la renuncia del director de comunicaciones, Michael Dubke, en lo que se espera será el primero de una serie de cambios en el equipo de prensa de Donald Trump.
Dubke, de 47 años, ocupó este puesto, tan importante como de bajo perfil, durante tres turbulentos meses. “Puedo confirmar la renuncia de Dubke”, dijo un funcionario a la AFP.
No se ha anunciado una fecha para su salida, que ha estado en el tapete durante dos semanas.
Desde hace meses los rumores alrededor del ala oeste de la Casa Blanca apuntan a que Trump estaría inclinado a despedir en masa a su equipo de relaciones públicas.
Muchos vienen de la tradicional clase dirigente republicana y han sido aliados incómodos para el presidente.
Trump ha expresado, tanto de manera pública como privada, su profunda molestia por una serie de titulares adversos, y ha fustigado a los periodistas por publicar “noticias falsas”.
El fracaso del presidente a la hora de aprobar importantes leyes, objeciones legales a sus órdenes ejecutivas y un escándalo en la investigación de las relaciones de su equipo más cercano con Rusia, han minado su corta presidencia.
Todo esto ha hecho que el futuro de su secretario de prensa Sean Spicer y todo su equipo estén en duda.
Aunque el director de comunicaciones de la Casa Blanca es una figura mucho menos conocida que Spicer, ambos juegan un papel clave a la hora de definir estrategias de comunicación y darle forma a la agenda de los medios.
Durante la administración de Barack Obama, su asistente y confidente Dan Pfeiffer ocupó el puesto.
El supuesto agresor de Natalia Ponce de León fue enviado a la cárcel.
Jonathan Vega fue recluido en un centro carcelario de Bogotá, tras haber estado en la audiencia que terminó a las 4:15 de la mañana de este domingo. El acusado no aceptó los cargos por el delito de tentativa de homicidio que le imputó el fiscal, quien, durante la audiencia, sustentó que el hombre tiene antecedentes de consumo de heroína y esquizofrenia, según los resultados de un examen forense.
Escoltado por al menos una docena de policías –en su mayoría mujeres y miembros de grupos especiales– y portando chaleco antibalas y un casco que le cubría parte del rostro, ingresó este sábado a la sala de audiencias Jonathan Vega Chávez, de 33 años, quien fue judicializado por el ataque con ácido que el pasado 27 de marzo sufrió Natalia Ponce de León, en el norte de Bogotá. (Lea también: Las pistas que llevaron a la captura de Jonathan Vega)
En ese instante, sobre las 3:15 de la tarde –casi 22 horas después de la captura–, sorprendió el escaso parecido del presunto agresor respecto de la fotografía que antes de la detención había revelado la Policía. A diferencia de la imagen, lucía el pelo corto, no tenía barba y su peso era mucho mayor. (Vea las manifestaciones de apoyo para Natalia)
Antes de ingresar a la sala fue insultado por algunos de los asistentes, pero Vega no pronunció una sola palabra. La juez legalizó la captura de Vega acogiendo la petición de la Fiscalía, la defensa de la víctima y representante de la Procuraduría.
En su primera intervención, la defensora pública que representa a Vega había solicitado que no se legalizara el proceso de captura, argumentando tres razones básicamente: primero, que el fiscal del caso no empleó los términos correctos al hacer la petición ante la jueza; segundo, la credibilidad de una supuesta “Sandra” (quién habría revelado la ubicación exacta del apartamento donde estaba Jonathan Vega, luego de que se publicara su imagen a través de distintos medios de comunicación) y, por último, la ausencia y supuesta inconsistencia de algunas firmas en las actas de allanamiento.
No obstante, la defensa de la víctima y representante de la Procuraduría habían solicitado a la jueza que impartiera la legalidad de la captura, respaldando al ente acusador.
Frente a esto, el general Rodolfo Palomino, director de la Policía Nacional, expresó que la Sijín adelantó un procedimiento absolutamente legal. El alto oficial acudió este sábado a los juzgados a expresar su solidaridad con los familiares de Natalia Ponce de León, quien sigue bajo constante supervisión en el Hospital Simón Bolívar.
EL TIEMPO pudo establecer con fuentes cercanas al caso que no se descarta que, por lo que ha dicho Vega, acuda a desórdenes mentales para sustentar una supuesta inimputabilidad.
El fiscal 51 especializado relató que cuando la Policía llegó a efectuar el allanamiento, el viernes, Vega Chávez se asomó por la ventana y después de saber que había una orden de detención en su contra llamó a la línea 123.En seguida abrió la puerta y se identificó, a pesar de no tener documentos personales.
Al momento de hacer una inspección en el lugar en el que se produjo la captura, los investigadores de la Sijín encontraron dos cuadernos argollados con algunos dibujos y anotaciones. Pese a que no se ha revelado el contenido, la Fiscalía señala que los presentará más adelante como material de prueba para apoyar su tesis.
También, ha dicho que compró el ácido sulfúrico en la calle 69 con Caracas, en Chapinero, por 10 mil pesos. En el sitio quedó registrada la compra. Y contó que el restante del ácido lo botó. Fue en ese momento cuando se quemó las manos y parte de las piernas.
De hecho, aseguró que sufría de esquizofrenia y que Natalia Ponce supuestamente “lo atacaba en sus sueños”. De Vega, quien residía junto a su abuela en la misma casa en la que fue capturado, se sabe que estuvo internado en la Clínica Montserrat durante varios meses por su adicción a las drogas.
Este sábado, en el complejo judicial de Paloquemao, Julia Cristina Gutiérrez de Piñeres, madre de la joven agredida, expresó que su hija no había sido amiga de Jonathan Vega y que él vivía obsesionado con ella. Así mismo, pidió que se haga justicia en este caso que causó indignación en el país y que tuvo eco internacional. Otro familiar de Natalia afirmó que pase lo que pase con Vega será muy difícil superar esta tragedia.
La Fiscalía sustentará las pruebas que se tienen contra Vega Chávez. De Vega Chávez se sabe que dependía económicamente de su abuela, con la que compartía el mismo techo. A los 23 años validó el bachillerato y luego alcanzó a hacer un semestre de artes plásticas en una prestigiosa universidad.
Este hombre tenía registros de ingresos a varios gimnasios del norte de Bogotá. Las indagaciones también revelaron que el hombre tenía problemas de consumo de drogas, por lo que en el 2006 fue internado seis meses en la Clínica Montserrat y tiempo después regresó a la misma institución.
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Mucho se viene hablando últimamente de la batalla que ha planteado Facebook a las noticias falsas en su plataforma. De hecho, ya se ha explicado hasta cómo Zuckerberg lo va a evitar —levantando alguna que otra duda al respecto—.
Pero mientras la red social e, incluso, Google se han puesto manos a la obra, podemos ir filtrando ya las noticias que no son ciertas por nuestra cuenta gracias a una simple extensión para Chrome. Hablamos de Fake News Monitor, un software gratuito que si bien no nos va a bloquear ninguna página web, nos va a permitir identificar rápidamente si estamos visitando una web de dudosa veracidad.
Esta extensión ha sido creada por el editor del New York Magazine, Brian Feldman, y se apoya en una amplia base de datos que se ha configurado a través de una rigurosa investigación de la veracidad de cada una de las webs. Esta lista hará que sitios como El Mundo Today o, en habla inglesa, Breitbart o InfoWars no nos vuelvan a colar una noticia falsa como verdadera. Visualmente lo que obtendremos será una notificación en pantalla, de las que ya nos hace Chrome, en la que nos invitará a pensarlo dos veces antes de hacernos caso de una web que estamos visitando.
Se basa también en una larga lista de webs que se pueden denunciar por parte de los usuarios y, además, apoyada por la inteligencia que dan los datos de tráfico de Alexa de cada web para determinar su autoridad (aunque esto, en las webs preparadas para hacer correr bulos no sabemos si será una buena métrica).
Además, en la web de la extensión también indica que se dedicar a rastrear la fuente de cada noticia para comprobar que lo que se cuenta en ella es real o, por el contrario, viene de una de estas webs de fakes de Internet. Por otra parte, cualquier usuario de internet puede reportar una web de noticias falsas para seguir aumentando la base de datos de Fake News Monitor.
De esta forma tan sencilla podemos dejar de caer una y otra vez en noticias que poco o nada nos aportan y sólo consiguen aumentar la confusión entre nuestros amigos y, a veces, ganarnos sus bromas por lo crédulos que podemos llegar a ser.
erp
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Sydney Aiello, 19, of Coconut Creek, died Sunday, according to police. Her grief-stricken mother told a news station Sydney took her own life.
The suicide death over the weekend of a teen who survived the 2018 Parkland school shooting is being blamed on the horrible tragedy.
Sydney Aiello, 19, of Coconut Creek, died Sunday, according to police. Her grief-stricken mother told a news station Sydney took her own life. Sydney and Meadow Pollack, one of the 17 persons killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, were close friends.
“It breaks my heart that we’ve lost yet another student from Stoneman Douglas,” Ryan Petty told CBS 4 Miami. Alaina Perry, his daughter, was also one of the victims.
“My advice to parents is to ask questions, don’t wait,” he said.
Sydney suffered from “survivor’s guilt” and had been diagnosed recently with post-traumatic stress disorder, Cara Aiello told the station.
She said her daughter was taking college classes but struggled because she was scared to be in a classroom. She graduated Stoneman Douglas in June after the shooting.
“Beautiful Sydney with such a bright future was taken from us way too soon,” Meadow Pollack’s brother, Hunter Pollack, said Wednesday on Twitter. “My friend’s sister and someone dear to Meadow.”
Twitter will begin flagging tweets from public officials that violate the social media platform’s rules as the social media giant attempts to be more transparent about its terms of service.
Twitter announced the new policy on Thursday in a blog post. Twitter’s post does not mention President Trump by name, but others in tech and related industries immediately connected it with him.
“Twitter doesn’t call out Trump by name, but this is clearly a new Trump rule — labeling tweets that violate rules,” CNBC tech editor Steve Kovach tweeted.
“This policy change could face its most prominent test in President Trump, who has repeatedly tested Twitter’s community standards,” CNN Business tweeted.
A disconnect between Twitter’s stated rules and how it chooses to enforce those rules on the platform has confused many users and led to accusations of bias and favoritism, the company said. Effective Thursday, the company will flag and limit the reach of tweets that violate the platform’s policies but that Twitter executives have decided to leave up as a matter of public interest.
“We’ll place a notice – a screen you have to click or tap through before you see the Tweet – to provide additional context and clarity,” the blog post says. “We’ll also take steps to make sure the Tweet is not algorithmically elevated on our service, to strike the right balance between enabling free expression, fostering accountability, and reducing the potential harm caused by these Tweets.”
The new policy will apply to government officials, people running for public office, and those being considered for a public position. The user must be verified with more than 100,000 followers.
Flagged tweets will be restricted in reach and will not appear in a variety of search and interactive functions of the platform, such as in a safe search or in a recommended tweet notification.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto faced fresh questions on Wednesday about his dealings with a company at the center of a conflict-of-interest scandal, after it emerged that he enjoyed rent-free use of a house belonging to the firm as a campaign office.
Already under pressure over the government’s handling of the presumed massacre of 43 students abducted by corrupt police in southwestern Mexico in September, Pena Nieto is facing his most difficult period since taking office two years ago.
On Nov. 3, the government announced a Chinese-led consortium had won a no bid contract to build a $3.75 billion high-speed rail link in central Mexico.
Three days later, the government abruptly canceled the deal, just before a report by news site Aristegui Noticias showed that a subsidiary of Grupo Higa, a company that formed part of the consortium and had won various previous contracts, owned the luxury house of first lady Angelica Rivera.
Under public pressure, Rivera said she would give up the house. But neither she nor Pena Nieto have addressed the apparent conflict of interest stemming from the government’s business with Grupo Higa.
On Wednesday, Aristegui Noticias published a new story that said Pena Nieto used a different property belonging to another Grupo Higa subsidiary as an office when he was president-elect in 2012.
Eduardo Sanchez, the president’s spokesman, said Pena Nieto unwittingly used the property. Sanchez said it was leased from the Grupo Higa firm by Humberto Castillejos, the president’s legal adviser, who lent it rent-free to Pena Nieto’s team.
“If I invite you to my house, do you come to my house and ask me under whose name it is? Neither does the president,” Sanchez said, denying there were conflicts of interest.
The spokesman also said there were no more properties Pena Nieto or his team had used belonging to Grupo Higa.
“No, there is no other house that was used in a professional capacity,” Sanchez said.
Castillejos could not immediately be reached for comment.
Jorge Luis Lavalle, a senator with the opposition conservative National Action Party, said the public saw a clear conflict of interest in the dealings of Pena Nieto and his government with Grupo Higa.
“It needs to be investigated. All these doubts need to be dispelled fully and clearly,” he said. “We now have another case with no explanation.”
The president of Ecuador has accused Julian Assange of using its embassy in London as a “center for spying.”
In an interview with the Guardian, Lenín Moreno expressed frustration with the WikiLeaks founder, who had been provided asylum by Ecuador since 2012. On Thursday, the country revoked that asylum, leading to Assange’s arrest by British police on a U.S. hacking charge. This follows Moreno’s initial public address the same day, which explained that Assange was being kicked out for his behavior and for violating the terms of his asylum.
“We cannot allow our house, the house that opened its doors, to become a center for spying,” Moreno told the Guardian. “This activity violates asylum conditions. Our decision is not arbitrary but is based on international law.”
The allegations appear to stem in part from a batch of leaked personal photos of Moreno and his family that appeared last month on an anonymous website, while the president was in the midst of a political battle at home. Moreno blamed WikiLeaks for the release of the photos, the New York Times reported.
A set of anonymous documents known as the INA Papers also was released this year, the Daily Beast reports, and alleged that Moreno benefited from a corrupt deal with a Chinese firm. WikiLeaks has denied involvement with the anonymous site or the hacking, but the anti-secrecy group did direct its followers to the documents in a March 25 tweet that said a corruption investigation had been opened into Moreno’s conduct.
“Any attempt to destabilize is a reprehensible act for Ecuador, because we are a sovereign nation and respectful of the politics of each country,” he told the Guardian. Before evicting Assange, Moreno said he sought assurances from Britain that Assange would not “suffer torture, ill treatment or the death penalty” were he to be taken into custody or extradited to another country.
He also claimed that Assange had taxed his hosts’ patience. Moreno said he “mistreated our officials in the Ecuadoran embassy in London” and that his “improper hygienic behavior” affected the climate at the diplomatic outpost.
Assange’s attorney, Jennifer Robinson, said in an interview on Sky News that Moreno’s claims were “not true.”
“Ecuador has been making some pretty outrageous allegations over the past few days to justify what was an unlawful and extraordinary act in allowing British police to come inside an embassy,” she said.
Robinson had previously called her client’s arrest “a dangerous precedent for all news media.”
Moreno’s predecessor, Rafael Correa, called the decision to release Assange to authorities a “crime that humanity will never forget.” Correa had granted Assange asylum in 2012.
Assange has been charged by U.S. prosecutors on suspicion of conspiring with Chelsea Manning to obtain secret military and diplomatic documents, The Washington Post reported last week. However, Assange’s extradition to the United States could take years.
It’s the latest chapter in a nearly decade-long legal saga for Assange. He brought himself and WikiLeaks to prominence in 2010, when the organization published leaks from Manning, who was convicted in 2013 for the leaks.
But that same year, Swedish authorities issued an arrest warrant for Assange over two allegations of sexual assault, which he has always denied (Swedish authorities later dropped the investigations). Assange traveled to Britain, where a court ruled in 2012 to extradite him to Sweden. But he jumped bail and entered the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, where he was granted asylum later that year.
He had been confined to the embassy until his arrest last week.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the opening of a monoclonal antibody site Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021, in Pembroke Pines, Fla. DeSantis has sought to block schools from requiring masks for students.
Marta Lavandier/AP
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Marta Lavandier/AP
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at the opening of a monoclonal antibody site Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021, in Pembroke Pines, Fla. DeSantis has sought to block schools from requiring masks for students.
Marta Lavandier/AP
Despite a judge’s ruling on Friday declaring that the Florida governor’s ban on mask mandates in schools is unconstitutional, the State Board of Education has forged ahead with its threat to withhold school board members salaries in districts that require the face coverings in classrooms.
Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran announced that school board members in Alachua and Broward counties will not be getting paychecks from the department of education this month, saying their mandatory face mask policies violate parental rights. The board will hold onto the funds until each school board complies with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ now overturned executive order.
“We’re going to fight to protect parent’s rights to make health care decisions for their children,” Corcoran said in a statement on Monday. “They know what is best for their children.”
“What’s unacceptable is the politicians who have raised their right hands and pledged, under oath, to uphold the Constitution but are not doing so. Simply said, elected officials cannot pick and choose what laws they want to follow,” Corcoran stated.
It’s unclear if others counties will be penalized
Local reports indicate that several other school districts have implemented mask mandates, including Orange, Duval, Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Sarasota, Palm Beach, Indian River and Leon Counties. It is unclear whether school board members in those counties will also have their pay withheld.
The bitter fight is playing out as a rash of COVID-19 infections sweeps across Florida, including among children who are not eligible for vaccination. On Monday, officials reported 18,608 new cases.
DeSantis’s opposition stems from the lack of parental control. He argues that under existing Florida law, parents must be free to opt-out of student mask requirements. However, the rules in place in Alachua and Broward counties only allow for a medical exemption from a doctor.
DeSantis, who barred the mask mandates on July 30, warned that “there will be consequences” for districts that defied the ban.
A judge said DeSantis’ order lacked authority
But on Friday, following a four-day trial, Judge John Cooper ruled in favor of parents who sued, arguing DeSantis overstepped his authority in forbidding the face covering requirement and said it cannot be enforced. He noted that face mask mandates that follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are “reasonable and consistent with the best scientific and medical opinion in this country.”
Cooper also added that DeSantis’ order “is without legal authority.”
DeSantis is appealing the decision and on Monday called Cooper’s ruling “obviously problematic.”
The move could potentially garner federal attention
The decision to withhold funding from Alachua and Broward could open the state up to further legal troubles.
On Monday, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights announced it had launched an investigation into five states “exploring whether statewide prohibitions on universal indoor masking discriminate against students with disabilities.”
At the time, the OCR said it had refrained from opening investigations in Florida, Texas, Arkansas or Arizona “because those states’ bans on universal indoor masking are not currently being enforced as a result of court orders or other state actions.”
However, officials said they would continue to monitor those states and take action “if state leaders prevent local schools or districts from implementing universal indoor masking or if the current court decisions were to be reversed.”
It is unclear if Florida’s decision not to pay school board members will trigger an investigation. The Education Department did not immediately return NPR’s requests for comment.
Aides to Mr. Biden say they are wary of criticizing Fox News directly, reasoning that it would be counterproductive to promoting a pro-vaccine message to Fox News viewers.
“We need every media platform to step up and ensure their coverage provides accurate, objective information,” a White House spokesman, Kevin Munoz, said in a statement that avoided an aggressive attack against Fox News. “As with any misinformation, we don’t shy away from calling it out.”
Some right-wing media outlets have generated mixed coverage in recent days about vaccines. Breitbart News, for instance, still features articles on its website grouped under the category “Mask/Vax Cult.” But Newsmax, a cable network whose opinion shows run further to the right than Fox News, ran an essay on Tuesday by its chief executive, Christopher Ruddy, that praised Mr. Biden’s vaccination efforts.
“I myself have gotten the Pfizer vaccine,” Mr. Ruddy wrote in the piece, which was published on the Newsmax website. “There’s no question in my mind, countless lives would have been saved if the vaccine was available earlier.”
In an interview, Mr. Ruddy said the White House had not contacted Newsmax regarding its coronavirus coverage. He said he wanted to credit Mr. Biden for “doing a good job,” though he also cautioned that his network would not censor alternative views. “I don’t want to be the thought police,” he said.
Fox News has produced its own 30-second vaccine public service announcement, featuring the hosts and anchors Mr. Doocy, Harris Faulkner, Dana Perino and John Roberts. “If you can, get the vaccine,” Ms. Faulkner says in the ad. The anchor Bret Baier said in April that he was “grateful” to be vaccinated. Mr. Hannity and Mr. Doocy have previously told viewers to consider whether a vaccination would be beneficial to their lives and their families.
On Monday’s “Fox & Friends,” Mr. Doocy echoed government officials in noting that nearly all coronavirus deaths now involve unvaccinated people. After acknowledging that some people, such as pregnant women, might be hesitant, he said: “Everybody else, if you have the chance, get the shot.” Mr. Doocy also cited examples of online disinformation claiming the vaccine is “killing lots of people” or “changes your D.N.A.” or comes with “little microchips.”
Hervé Gourdel, el turista francés secuestrado el pasado domingo en el este de Argelia por Soldados del Califato, un grupo vinculado a Estado Islámico, ha sido decapitado, según un vídeo difundido por la propia organización a través de Internet.
El presidente de Francia, François Hollande, ha confirmado la ejecución del rehén francés secuestrado el pasado domingo por un grupo yihadista en Argelia, pero ha advertido de que su país no interrumpirá las operaciones emprendidas contra Estado Islámico.
El vídeo, titulado “Mensaje de sangre para el Gobierno francés” muestra a cuatro hombres enmascarados y armados y al rehén arrodillado delante de ellos, según France Info. Tras la lectura de un largo mensaje en árabe, se procede a decapitar a Gourdel, si bien el momento de la ejecución no se muestra. Soldados del Califato había reivindicado en un vídeo publicado el lunes el secuestro del turista francés.
“Estoy en manos de Jund al Jilifa, un grupo armado argelino”, decía en la grabación el rehén, que se identificaba con nombre, edad y fecha de nacimiento. El hombre dirigió su mensaje al presidente galo, François Hollande.
“Este grupo armado me dice que te pida que no intervengas en Irak. Me mantienen como rehén y te pido, presidente, que hagas todo lo posible por sacarme”, añadió. Soldados del Califato dio a Francia 24 horas para poner fin a su participación en los bombardeos contra Estado Islámico en Irak. Soldados del Califato surgió como escisión de Al Qaeda en el Magreb Islámico (AQMI) y este mismo mes declaró su lealtad a Estado Islámico.
La milicia está encabezada por Gouri Abdelmalek, conocido como Jaled Abu Suleimane. Abdelmalek era el jefe de AQMI en la región central de Argelia y a él también se sumaba en la escisión el líder de la organización en la zona oriental.
El primer ministro galo, Manuel Valls, aseguró este martes que Francia no negociaría con los secuestradores y que no se dejaría chantajear por sus exigencias. Esta misma tarde, ante la Asamblea Nacional, ha vuelto a defender los bombardeos franceses en Irak “porque nuestra seguridad nacional está en juego como no lo había estado nunca en el curso de los últimos años”.
A tradução deste artigo se encontra no final da versão em inglês
This Friday, Nov. 6, at 7:30 pm, the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center presents the acclaimed Brazilian film “Que Horas Ela Volta?” (The Second Mother), starring famous comedian and Globo actress Regina Casé. The movie portrays the life of Val (Regina Casé), a hardworking live-in maid. Val caters to all of her employers’ needs, as she is appreciative of having a job and a place to live. The one, and perhaps only, happy aspect of the job is her relationship with Fabinho, her employers’ only son, whom she has cared for as her own since Fabinho was a toddler. However, when Val’s daughter Jessica, whom she hasn’t seen in 10 years, decides to move in with Val to pursue her dream of applying to and attending a university, the unspoken but real class barriers that exist within the home are tested, forcing everyone to reconsider what family means.
If you can’t make it to Friday’s screening, you can watch the film on Saturday, Sunday, or next Thursday (Nov. 12) at 7:30 pm at the Film Center.
The first Thursday of every month is referred to as “translation day” at the Edgartown District Courthouse. A translator, usually Maria F. Mello, a Spanish and Portuguese court-certified interpreter from Seekonk, provides translation services for individuals who are not yet proficient in English.
On Thursday, Sept. 3, I spent the day at the Edgartown District Courthouse and met Michelle J. Da Silva, a criminal defense and immigration lawyer. I was very interested in her views regarding the driver’s license dilemma that undocumented immigrants in Massachusetts face. Most of the Brazilians in court that day were confronting the same charge — they had been charged with driving without a license.
Some states, such as Connecticut, have created a driver’s license for undocumented immigrants, one that doesn’t grant the same privileges as an American citizen, or a legally documented immigrant, but that helps ensure public safety and accountability. In Massachusetts, similar initiatives to allow undocumented immigrants to drive legally remain on hold.
Michelle J. Da Silva agreed to an interview in which she shared her views on the matter.
MVTimes: Please tell me about your law practice involving Brazilian nationals.
Michelle J. Da Silva: My practice areas are immigration, criminal defense, and divorce. I would say that 80 percent of my clients are Brazilians, with the remaining being from Spanish-speaking nations.
MVT: To what extent do motor vehicle violations, specifically driving without a license, account for the cases you handle?
MD: Of my criminal defense practice, about 20 percent of cases involve operating without a license and operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
MVT: Is there a typical scenario for the Brazilian national charged with driving without a license?
MD: The typical scenario involves an undocumented immigrant (typically Brazilian in my practice, since I am fluent in Portuguese) who is driving using a “foreign or international license.” Most of the time, the clients are first-time offenders who are frightened by the U.S. legal system because of lack of knowledge and understanding of how the system works. They seek the assistance of an attorney to help them navigate the system.
Many undocumented immigrants are under the mistaken belief that a foreign license gives them the right to drive in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous businesses that provide these “international licenses” (for a fee, of course) and who often prey on these undocumented immigrants’ fears and misinformation about the true validity of these licenses.
After they acquire the license, they have a false sense of security that they are eligible to drive. It is only once they are stopped by the police and issued a citation and summoned into court for driving without a license that they come to realize that they were defrauded.
However, although the minority of the cases, some undocumented immigrants use the international license as an excuse to violate the laws knowingly.
MVT: Please comment on the typical outcome for a first-time offender on the mainland versus what you know of the outcomes on Martha’s Vineyard.
MD: It is important first to note that the law gives the judge discretion in the fine amount, up to $500 for the first offense. A typical outcome in my experience is that a case is dismissed on fine of $300 to $500 for a first offense. The difference on Martha’s Vineyard from the mainland is that most of the unlicensed-operation violations are held on the same day [because it is the only day there is a Portuguese interpreter available], thus allowing much more consistency in the judge’s ruling.
MVT: Based on what you have observed, is the system for issuing driver’s licenses broken?
MD: In my opinion, the system for issuing licenses is not broken; it is that the current laws are not adequate for the times we are living in. The reality is that we do have undocumented immigrants living within our communities, and will continue to have as long as U.S. employers are willing to employ them. It is also true that U.S. employers will continue to employ these individuals if the U.S. labor market cannot produce the quality of workers that come from abroad. Therefore, the first issue that must be addressed is the need for comprehensive immigration reform.
However, because of the current gridlock in Congress and the polarization involved with the topic of immigration, it is unlikely that we will see any immigration reform shortly. Therefore, a better solution would be to provide licenses for these undocumented immigrants, so that not only do we know who is living among us, but we also reduce the burden to our court system.
Also, by allowing these undocumented immigrants to have access to licenses, we would also be protecting our society. Right now, many undocumented immigrants drive without insurance; that endangers the public and other drivers on the road — this occurs not because they want to evade the law, but because without a valid driver’s license, an insurance company will not insure them.
MVT: In general, do your clients think they are fairly treated by the courts?
MD: Yes, I do think that my clients are treated fairly because I fight for their rights.
Overall, I do believe the system works. Undocumented individuals have all the rights afforded to them as those of a native person in this country. However, I think the system works better for those who have private legal representation than those who do not. In my experience, most of my clients have never been involved with the legal system either here in the U.S. or abroad in their home country. This makes going to court a very scary experience, because many of them think that if they go to court they are automatically going to be deported. The undocumented individual’s fear of the legal system is only because of their lack of education about the American justice system. As a private counsel whose practice deals with a large number of undocumented individuals, I find it necessary to provide a basic understanding of the criminal justice system to my clients in order to ease their fears, which in turns makes them much more trusting of the system and reassures them that they are getting a fair treatment when their case is heard.
Michelle Da Silva’s Law Office Contact Information:
Nesta sexta-feira, dia 6 de novembro, às 7:30 da noite, no Martha’s Vineyard Film center, o filme brasileiro “Que Horas Ela Volta” será exibido. O filme tem recebido diversas críticas positivas. A atriz e comediante global Regina Casé faz o papel de Val, uma empregada doméstica que trabalha há anos para uma família que também a concede moradia. Val gosta do emprego por lhe proporcionar um lugar para morar, assim como um salário. Mas talvez o único elemento positivo de seu emprego seja a sua relação com Fabinho, de quem Val cuida como filho desde que ele ainda era um bebê. Porém, quando sua filha Jessica, que Val não vê há dez anos, decide mudar para onde Val mora, para correr atrás de seu sonho de passar no vestibular e cursar faculdade, as barreiras de classes sociais existentes na casa, mas nunca discutidas, começam a serem testadas, forçando todos a reconhecer o que uma família realmente é.
Se você não conseguir ir a sessão de sexta, pode ver o filme no sábado, domingo ou na próxima quinta (12/nov) às 7:30 da noite no Film Center.
A primeira quinta-feira do mês é conhecida como “dia da tradução” na corte de Edgartown. Um tradutor(a), geralmente Maria F. Mello, uma intérprete de português e espanhol certificada pela corte de Seekonk, provê tradução para indivíduos que ainda não são fluentes em inglês.
Na quinta-feira, dia 3 de setembro, eu passei o dia na corte de Edgartown, onde conheci Michelle Da Silva, uma advogada de defesa criminal e imigração. Eu fiquei muito interessada na opinião de Michelle no tocante dilema que imigrantes que não possuem documentação adequada enfrentam quando se trata de uma carteira de motorista no Estado de Massachusetts. A maioria dos brasileiros em corte naquele dia enfrentavam o mesmo problema – eles estavam na corte por dirigem sem uma carteira de habilitação.
Alguns estados, como Connecticut, já criaram carteiras especificas para imigrantes sem documentação adequada para morar nos Estados Unidos, mas não fornecem os mesmos privilégios que americanos desfrutam, ou imigrantes com documentação adequada. Porém, essas carteiras foram criadas para ajudar a garantir segurança pública, assim como prestação de contas.
The Brazilian lawyer Michelle Da Silva.
Michelle J. Da Silva concordou em dar uma entrevista na qual compartilha seu ponto de vista sobre o assunto.
MVTimes: Por favor descreva sua prática de lei que envolve brasileiros.
Michelle J. Da Silva: As minhas áreas de prática são imigração, defesa criminal e divórcio. Eu diria que 80% dos meus clientes são brasileiros, e os demais são clientes de nações cuja língua oficial é o espanhol.
MVT: Até que ponto as violações de trânsito especificamente dirigir sem licença, contabiliza os casos que você lida?
MD: Na minha prática de defesa criminal, cerca de 20% dos casos envolvem dirigir sem carteira de motorista e dirigir sob a influência de álcool ou drogas.
MVT: Existe um cenário típico para o brasileiro acusado de dirigir sem uma carteira de motorista?
MD: O cenário típico envolve um imigrante sem documentação (tipicamente brasileiro, na minha prática, uma vez que eu sou fluente em Português) que está dirigindo usando uma “licença estrangeira ou internacional”. Na maioria das vezes, os clientes são réus primários que estão assustados com o sistema legal americano, por causa da falta de conhecimento e compreensão de como funciona o sistema. Eles procuram a assistência de um advogado para os ajudar a navegar pelo sistema.
Muitos imigrantes sem documentação estão sob a crença equivocada de que uma licença estrangeira lhes dá o direito de conduzir no Estado de Massachusetts. Infelizmente, há empresas sem escrúpulos que fornecem esses “licenças internacionais” (por uma taxa, é claro) e que, frequentemente, aproveitam-se dos medos e desinformação dos imigrantes sem documentos sobre a verdadeira validade dessas licenças.
Depois de adquirir a licença, eles têm uma falsa sensação de segurança de que eles são habilitados para a condução. É somente quando eles são parados pela polícia, recebem uma citação e são convocados ao tribunal por dirigir sem uma licença que eles percebem que foram defraudados.
No entanto, embora na minoria dos casos, alguns imigrantes sem documentos usam a licença internacional como uma desculpa para violar as leis com conhecimento de causa.
MVT: Por favor, comente sobre o resultado típico de um réu primário em outras cidades de Massachuseets e para um réu primário em Martha’s Vineyard.
MD: É importante primeiro notar que a lei dá ao juiz critério para decidir o valor da multa, até US$ 500 para a primeira ofensa. Um resultado típico, na minha experiência, é que um caso é encerrado com uma multa de US$ 300 a US$ 500 para uma primeira ofensa. A diferença em Martha’s Vineyard é que a maioria dos casos de violações sem licença são realizadas no mesmo dia porque é o único dia no qual há um intérprete de português disponível, permitindo assim muito mais consistência na decisão do juiz.
MVT: Baseado no que você tem observado, o sistema de emissão de carteiras de motorista é defeituoso?
MD: Em minha opinião, o sistema de emissão de licenças não está quebrado; é que as leis atuais não são adequadas para os tempos em que estamos vivendo. A realidade é que nós temos imigrantes sem documentos vivendo dentro de nossas comunidades, e continuaremos a ter, enquanto os empregadores dos EUA estiverem dispostos a empregá-los. Também é verdade que os empregadores norte-americanos continuarão a empregar esses indivíduos se o mercado de trabalho dos EUA não pode produzir a qualidade de trabalhadores que vêm do exterior. Portanto, a primeira questão que deve ser abordada é a necessidade de uma reforma abrangente da imigração.
No entanto, por causa do impasse atual no Congresso e da polarização envolvida com o tema da imigração, é pouco provável que vejamos qualquer reforma da imigração em breve. Portanto, a melhor solução seria a de fornecer licenças para estes imigrantes sem documentos, para que possamos não só saber quem está vivendo entre nós, como também reduzir a carga do nosso sistema judicial.
Além disso, ao permitir que esses imigrantes sem documentos tenham acesso a licenças, estaríamos também protegendo a nossa sociedade. Agora, muitos imigrantes sem documentos conduzem sem seguro; o que põe em perigo o público e outros motoristas nas estradas – isso não ocorre por que eles querem fugir da lei, mas porque, sem uma carteira de motorista válida, uma companhia de seguros não vai segurá-los.
MVT: Em geral, os seus clientes acham que são tratados de maneira justa pelos tribunais americanos?
MD: Sim, eu acho que meus clientes são tratados de forma justa porque eu luto pelos direitos deles.
No geral, eu acredito que o sistema funciona. Indivíduos sem documentos têm todos os direitos concedidos a eles como as de uma pessoa nativa neste país. No entanto, eu acho que o sistema funciona melhor para aqueles que têm representação jurídica de direito privado do que aqueles que não o fazem. Na minha experiência, a maioria dos meus clientes nunca esteve envolvido com o sistema jurídico, seja aqui nos EUA ou no exterior, em seu país de origem. Isso faz com que ir ao tribunal seja uma experiência muito assustadora, porque muitos deles pensam que, se forem ao tribunal, eles serão automaticamente deportados. O medo do indivíduo em situação irregular do sistema jurídico é só por causa de sua falta de educação sobre o sistema de justiça americano. Como uma advogada privada, cuja prática lida com um grande número de pessoas em situação irregular, acho que é necessário fornecer uma compreensão básica do sistema de justiça criminal para os meus clientes, a fim de aliviar seus medos, que por sua vez os torna muito mais confiante no sistema e assegura-lhes que eles estão recebendo um tratamento justo quando seu caso for ouvido.
Informações sobre o escritório da advogada Michelle Da Silva:
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