Tuesday Morning Newspaper Notes
BIENVENIDOS! Let’s sit for a moment and savor this hot, sweet, brew as the sun rises over the land. Let’s share news of the day and talk about what we lend our hand to; how we can make things a little better for all, or reach a little higher ourselves, or root out injustice.
HEY THERE! I was wondering when you were gonna shuffle out of your room. You were sleeping with the remote glued to your forehead. Here, have some coffee. Let’s scan the news and see what’s going on lately.
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Firstly, you remember the post I made on Carlos’ taping the cops at El Gran Mercado? That story got picked up by larger media, which is cool. Dig:
MCSO YouTube Clip Sparks Outcry
Attorney Says It Violates First Amendment Rights
PHOENIX — A videotape that shows a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office detective in a heated exchange with a cameraman has some people claiming the actions are a violation of civil rights.
The YouTube video shows a member of the sheriff’s office confronting a man shooting video of a crime sweep Saturday at Gran Mercado.
Yeah! People power! That’s great. One vato cruises the scene looking to protect his community, films some bullies at large, a few of us help spread the word, and next its in the major news.
It may be annoying and sort of empty a lot of times when CNN, for example, cranes its neck to the point of breaking to peer into the Twitter abyss all day. But in many senses the blurring of lines of media institutions between non-paid community-minded media makers and larger outfits is obviously very healthy for our society (as it is on any day that CNN almost breaks its neck.)
On a final note…isn’t it kind of silly when police try this one: “You can’t tape me because I’m protecting undercover officers!” Firstly, we know who needs protecting more times than not. Also, can we stop assuming we live in the past, where there aren’t cameras everywhere all the time? If not today, then tomorrow or the next, that line will just be laughable. Unless you live in East Oregon or something and are deep under cover in a errant Moose sting. Which probably happens more than reported.
2
Next, special segregated lectures being given to Teh Spix about bad grades and gang-banging:
ACLU investigating whether Hispanic students were singled out for poor test scores
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas has launched an investigation into whether the Hispanic students in Gainesville High School were singled out for assemblies about low standardized test scores.
A parent complained to the Austin-based group that during classes on Sept. 17, calls went out over the school public address system instructing ninth-grade Hispanic students to report to assemblies, according to an ACLU news release.
The students were told they were responsible for the school “underperforming” on the standardized Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test and the school’s rating of academically unacceptable, lowest on the state’s four-tier accountability scale, the release said.
The talks also covered gangs and teen sexual activity, said Gouri Bhat, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Texas.
3.
I’m sorry to wait so long to give this to you!
The 2009 Wendy’s® High School Heisman® (WHSH) race has begun! Wendy’s is on the hunt to find the next class of High School Heisman recipients – exceptional students who bring excellence in:
1. academics 2. athletics 3. and community service
To date, more than 188,000 high school students have represented their schools and been touched by the Heisman glory where only 1% has been LATINO. All eligible seniors may submit an application online through Oct. 1, 2009. The first 41,100 applicants will receive a free Wendy’s gift card randomly valued from $5 to $50.
From the completed applications, one male and one female winner will be chosen from each high school. The names of all applicants and school winners will be posted on the Wendy’s High School Heisman Web site on Oct. 22, 2009. For more information, students can visit www.WendysHeisman.com, call (800) 205-6367 or contact their local high school principal, guidance counselor or athletic director.
- Twelve National finalists will receive a gold medal, Heisman patch, $100 gift card, a $2,000 cash award for their high schools and an invitation to participate in the Heisman Weekend festivities in New York City from Dec. 11-13, 2009.
- ESPN2 will feature all 12 national finalists during the Wendy’s High School Heisman awards ceremony on Dec. 13.
- One male and one female will be named the 2010 Wendy’s High School Heisman national award winners during the awards ceremony in New York City.
- Both winners will receive an additional $10,000 award for their respective high schools, a Wendy’s High School Heisman trophy, Heisman patch and a $500 Wendy’s gift card.
The Wendy’s High School Heisman, awarded in conjunction with the collegiate Heisman, is a joint program between Wendy’s and the Heisman Memorial Trust (host of the College Heisman Memorial Trophy since 1935.) Created in 1994, WHSH has set the standard for high school student-athletes and gained tremendous prestige in its own right. To date, more than 188,000 high school students have represented their schools and been touched by the Heisman glory.
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La fecha límite es el 8 de Octubre .
Además del premio nacional Heisman hay MUCHAS otras oportunidades de ganar premios tanto para los estudiantes como las escuelas. Con tan solo participar pueden ganar:
- Los primeros 41,000 solicitantes recibirán al azar una tarjeta de regalo de Wendy’s valorada de $5 hasta $50
- Si a lo menos 5 estudiantes de cada escuela someten una solicitud completa la escuela calificara para la oportunidad de ganar $500
- Ganadores de las escuelas recibirán una carta, un certificado, un parche de Heisman y una tarjeta de regalo de Wendy’s de $10.
- Veinte estudiantes (10 masculinos y 10 femeninos) de cada estado serán reconocidos como finalistas a nivel de estado y recibirán una carta, una medalla de bronce, un parche de Heisman y una tarjeta de regalo de Wendy’s de $25.
- Ganadores a nivel de estado – 102 (un estudiante masculino y un femenino de cada estado y del distrito de Colombia) – serán elegidos de entre todos los finalistas a nivel de estado y otorgados una carta, una medalla de plata, un parche Heisman y una tarjeta de regalo de Wendy’s de $50.
- Finalistas a nivel nacional recibirán una medalla de oro, un parche Heisman, una tarjeta de regalo de Wendy’s de $100, un premio de $2000 en efectivo para sus escuelas secundarias y una invitación para participar en las festividades de fin de semana de Heisman in Nueva York del 11-13 de diciembre del 2009.
- ESPN2 presentara a los 12 finalistas a nivel nacional durante la ceremonia de los premios Wendy’s High School el 13 de diciembre.
- Un estudiante masculino y uno femenino serán nombrados ganadores a nivel nacional del premio Wendy’s High School Heisman durante la ceremonia de premios en la ciudad de Nueva York. Ambos ganadores recibirán $10,000 adicionales para sus respectivas escuelas, un trofeo de Wendy’s High School Heisman, un parche de Heisman y una tarjeta de regalo de Wendy’s de $500.
4
Give thanks for your food…but please put your name behind that thanks. This won’t take you long, and it will help protect fieldworkers.
The UFW has just kicked off a major organizing campaign in the grapes at Giumarra–the nation’s largest table grape company.Giumarra harvests approximately 1 out of every 10 bunches of grapes picked in the US.
We are trying to get 25,000 people to sign on online campaign petition by Oct. 1.
Giumarra has a history of intimidating and bullying workers & violating their rights. In fact, back in 2006, a union election was thrown out by an administrative judge because of their unlawful interference. In addition, two farm workers have died of heat-related causes while laboring in Giumarra’s fields.
You’d think that Giumarra would have learned their lesson and quit putting workers at risk. Unfortunately not. Workers have come to us asking for help because Giumarra is back to its old tricks. Workers have asked us to help them in getting a union contract so they have protection against these abuses.
Giumarra is doing all they can to avoid hearing from the public on this campaign. They have blocked our ISP from delivering the e-mail to their domain. After our last campaign targeted their web page’s contact us form, they have blocked the form as well as taking down their facebook fan page & twitter page.
As a result we’re going with the old-fashioned method of turning in a petition as a press event. We kicked off an online petition on Labor day and are trying to get 25,000 signatures by the end of the month on our online petition that a delegation will hand in to the company.
[Related:"Nature's Partner" (Grape Grower) Oppressing Workers.]
5
Transforming Race: Crisis and Opportunity in the Age of Obama…
The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity is pleased to announce the Call for Proposals for its second biannual conference, entitled Transforming Race: Crisis and Opportunity in the Age of Obama, to be held March 11-13, 2010, in Columbus, Ohio.
We seek innovative proposals that address any of three thematic tracks: Racial Dynamics and Systems Thinking; Race Talk; and Race, Recession, and Recovery. We invite practitioners, community organizers, scholars, researchers, and others to submit proposals for papers, entire panels, workshops, performances, fishbowls, and more!
Please visit our web site, http://transforming-race.org, for conference details and updates. To encourage widespread participation, please feel free to share this e-mail and attachment with your networks. Should you have any questions, contact Rebecca Reno at reno.34@osu.edu.
Download the Call for Proposals at: http://transforming-race.org/transformingrace_cfp.pdf
Okay, people, that does it for now. Sorry if you sent me something and I waited longer than you would have liked to post it. It was not intentional, if so. The valet tells me to thank all of you for your generous tips.
And myself, I’m off to brew another pot! Have a good one.
oh about the segregated lectures…it’s total bullshit, yeah, and reinforces stereotypes because you said they talked about stuff like gang-banging etc.
I would like to point out on thing, though, having a mom that is a teacher (and I’m assuming the texas method is similar to the Florida method) they take race into account for how they evaluate schools, and if one racial group doesn’t show improvement on standardiazed tests, the whole school fails. And in a school with a small hispanic population even one or two kids can make the diffrence between a school failing or not. They grade schools – this is an A school, etc., and A schools get bonus money, etc.
Not everyone does well on standardized tests. I’m not saying that every single kid doesn’t deserve attention, but this system doesn’t actually help the kids. Maybe the teachers know a better way of reaching the kid than teaching a test, but they don’t have a choice because so much importance is being given to this test by their school.
And all these studies are coming out saying how much difference a good teacher makes in the lives of their students (listen to Arne Duncan, Obama’s education secretary, or also the head of DC schools Michelle Rhee, they’ve been all over Time, Newsweek, US News, the past few months, Obama’s education plan is very much Bush part II so far) they want to fire underperforming teachers, and have said principals aren’t harsh enough and don’t fire underperforming teachers enough. here’s the problem though, how do they propose to judge whether a teacher is underperforming or not…they haven’t come up with anything better than these same standardized tests.
My mom, for example, is very passionate about history, she teaches 6th grade history and english. Of course history isn’t tested on the FCAT, the Florida test, and sometimes kids get pulled out of history for remedial English or Math or whatever and go turn off their brains some more.
These kids being singled out in an assembly seems awfully disgusting. But in a less brazen way this is happening in all states that do testing this way. Teachers are told “you’ve got three black kids in the 6th grade only? Man, if one of them fails, you fail…I hope none of them suck at testing.” Johnny gets sick and tired of math after trying his hardest and instead of a lick of sympathy all he gets is “the test is in a few months, you can’t be like this” Oh Cynthia has dyslexia? Too bad one of your few hispanic students has dyslexia, that’s going to cost you. Oh and her mother died this year and she can’t really focus? Damn, I guess you’re going to have to take the fall if her test sores slip from last year.
Kids parents are getting divorced, all thiss stuff happens, and teachers are supposed to convince these kids that this test is important? My mom, in 6th grade, has students that Christmas tree them.
The school with the most money around here constantly gets an “A” score. So it seems kind of fishy to me in that way, too.
And just think of all the money these testing companies are making. I used to work at a bookstore, the number of books to prepare for the FCAT test has multiplied.
The testing industry is not going away, and while I’m not totally averse to teachers being more evaluated and underperforming teachers being fired, it can’t be tied to this testing. And at schools I see where there are just a few hispanic students, or just a few black students, this them being held responsible for the whole school’s performace needs to stop. Like I said this assembly is awfully brazen and upfront, but at schools around where I am the same is happening, even though it’s much more subtley said.
Interesting…thanks for this info. Wow.