Ms. Sandra Annette Bland, 28-years-old and born in Naperville, Illinois, was a student at Prairie View A&M University located outside Hempstead, Texas in Waller County, Texas, where she was a member of the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority. She graduated in 2009 with a degree in agriculture.
On July , 2015, she was on her way to a job interview where she was due to start a temporary job on August 3, 2015, with Prairie View as a summer program associate.
As a civil rights activist, Ms. Bland was a member of the Black Lives Matter and she had posted videos of Black citizens who met death at the hands of race soldiers.
On the afternoon of July 10, 2015, Ms. Bland crossed paths with Brian Encinia on University Drive in Prairie View, Texas, for failure to signal a lane change. As seen from events recorded by his cruiser dashcam, Encinia spoke to Ms. Bland, the interaction escalated, and he removed her from her car under threat of using a Taser on her (“I will light you up!”); she exits the car. As they moved out of view of the dashcam, he pushed her to the ground and arrested her.
Ms. Bland can be heard crying and screaming.
Charged with assaulting a public official, the alleged charge was kicking Encinia, Ms. Bland was arrested and taken to jail.
Overheard by an inmate next to her in another cell, Ms. Bland was described as distraught and worried about payment of her bail. Information on Ms. Bland’s intake form indicated that she had shown suicidal behavior, but instead of keeping Ms. Bland where they had could have constant access to watching her, they instead left her in a cell all alone.
On July 13, 2015, at 9: 00 a.m., Ms. Bland was found hanging in her jail cell by officers who stated she “in a semi-standing position” hanging in her cell. Her death was ruled a suicide due to asphyxiation per the Harris County Institute of Forensic Science. Police issued a statement that Ms. Bland was found dead in her cell, and they believed she had hanged herself. On July 20, 2015, one week after Ms. Bland’s death, police released video from a motion-activated camera stationed in the hallway outside Ms. Bland’s cell. The video has no recording from 7:34 to 9:07 a.m., but it shows Ms. Bland’s discovery by a jailer after that time.
Full dashcam video – the second DPS upload, reportedly free of “irregularities” (Bland from 1:45)
Protests across America demanded an explanation for her death. A petition was started to look into her death, which garnered 31,000 signatures at the time of its inception.
Texas State Senator Royce West called Bland’s death suspicious, stating: “the kind of information disclosed on Bland’s intake form should have prompted jail officials to place Bland on a suicide watch, meaning a face-to-face check on her welfare every 15 minutes instead of the hourly checks normally required.”
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) joined Ms. Ms. Bland’s family members in demanding justice for Ms. Bland.
On July 16, 2015, the FBI and Texas DPS announced that they had launched an investigation into Ms. Bland’s death. Encinia was placed on administrative duties for having violating procedures used for traffic stops, and he was terminated in January 2016 by DPS following his indictment on perjury charges. After an arrest warrant was issued, Encinia surrendered at the Waller County Jail and was released after posting a $2,500 bond. His attorney stated that Encinia would appeal his termination. Ms. Bland’s family called for criminal charges of battery and false arrest to be brought against Encinia.
Ms. Bland’s family has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit, and a jury trial in that case is scheduled to convene in January 2017. The family is seeking unspecified damages from Texas DPS, Brian Encinia, Waller County, and two jailers.
Youth representatives at the High-level event on “Mobilizing Generation Zero Hunger”, September 2015.UN Photo/Cia Pak
“On this World Youth Skills Day, let us renew our resolve to invest more in empowering young people. When we do, they can better advance the broader mission of the United Nations for lasting peace, sustainable development and human rights for all. Ban Ki-moon” — UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon
Young people are almost three times more likely to be unemployed than adults and continuously exposed to lower quality of jobs, greater labor market inequalities, and longer and more insecure school-to-work transitions. In addition, women are more likely to be underemployed and under-paid, and to undertake part-time jobs or work under temporary contracts.
That is why education and training are key determinants of success in the labor market. But unfortunately, existing systems are failing to address the learning needs of many young people, and surveys of learning outcomes and skills show that a large number of youth have low levels of achievement in basic literacy and numeracy. Skills and jobs for youth feature prominently in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and SDG target 4.4 calls for a substantial increase in the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills.
July 15 is World Youth Skills Day, and the United Nations is observing the day with a special event on the theme of “Skills Development to Improve Youth Employment.” Understanding what works to support young people in today’s and tomorrow’s labor market through training and skills development will be key to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda, and will be at the center of this high-level event.
The event will be facilitated by the UN Envoy on Youth, Ahmad Alhendawi, and will feature opening remarks from the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The event is co-organized with the Permanent Missions of Portugal and Sri Lanka to the United Nations, UNESCO, and the International Labour Organization (ILO).
The United Nations’ (UN) World Population Day is annually observed on July 11 to reaffirm the human right to plan for a family. It encourages activities, events and information to help make this right a reality throughout the world.
World Population Day aims to increase people’s awareness on various population issues such as the importance of family planning, including gender equality, poverty, maternal health and human rights. The day is celebrated worldwide by business groups, community organizations and individuals in many ways. Activities include seminar discussions, educational information sessions and essay competitions.
Public Life
World Population Day is a global observance and not a public holiday.
Background
In 1968 world leaders proclaimed that individuals had a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and timing of their children. About 40 years later modern contraception remains out of reach for millions of women, men and young people. World Population Day was instituted in 1989 as an outgrowth of the Day of Five Billion, marked on July 11, 1987. The UN authorized the event as a vehicle to build an awareness of population issues and the impact they have on development and the environment.
Since then, with the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) encouragement, governments, non-governmental organizations, institutions and individuals organize various educational activities to celebrate the annual event.
Symbols
The UN logo is often associated with marketing and promotional material for this event. It features a projection of a world map (less Antarctica) centered on the North Pole, enclosed by olive branches. The olive branches symbolize peace and the world map represents all the people of the world. It has been featured in colors such as blue against a yellow background.
On this Memorial Day, we sat down with a World War II Veteran and Tuskegee Airman who is overcoming a life threatening condition. John Chandler reports. (Published Monday, May 30, 2016)
Mayor Bill de Blasio has ordered all flags to fly at half-staff until Saturday in Brown’s honor.
Brown flew 68 combat missions for the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American pilots in U.S. history. A nine-time New York City Marathon runner and lifelong Jets and Mets fan, he told NBC 4 New York in May: “Fighter pilots are like athletes. And I was a pretty good pilot.”
In 2007, Brown and five other airmen accepted the Congressional Gold Medal on behalf of the Tuskegee Airmen. President George W. Bush and Congress awarded the airmen with one of the nation’s highest honors for fighting to defend their country even as they faced bigotry at home.
Brown, who held a Ph.D. in education, also served 17 years as president of Bronx Community College. Brown later joined the CUNY Graduate Center as professor and director of the Center for Urban Education Policy. He also hosted “African American Legends,” a public affairs show on CUNY TV.
As World War II raged overseas, the nation’s first black aviation unit was flying high above the color barrier. For all we’ve heard about the Tuskegee Airmen over the years, there are untold stories about their battles. Tracie Strahan heard the tales from Roscoe Brown Jr. in this edition of Positively Black. (Published Monday, Oct. 3, 2011)
Brown fell critically ill over the winter and had a pacemaker installed at Montefiore Medical Center. His physician, Dr. Daniel Sims, told NBC 4 New York in May, “If he wasn’t as healthy and in such great shape, he probably wouldn’t have made it through this.”
“Most 94-year-olds are not this active, but Dr. Brown is just remarkable,” he said.
“As I got older, I tried to do a lot more than my body would accept,” he admitted.
On March 15, 1945, Brown was part of the longest mission flown by the Air Force in World War II. He flew 1,500 miles from southern Italy to Berlin to take on a group of German jets. He shot down one of the German planes and he had a vivid memory of buzzing his home base as he and other pilots celebrated their triumph when they returned.
“I was a kid, 23 years old,” Brown recalled to NBC 4 New York’s Gabe Pressman in 2009, as he prepared to march in the Inauguration Day Parade for President Barack Obama. “And we were, like all pilots, a fun-loving, happy go lucky group.”
Nearly 1,000 fighter pilots trained as a segregated Army Air Corps unit at the Tuskegee, Alabama, air base. Not allowed to practice or fight with their white counterparts, the Tuskegee Airmen distinguished themselves by painting the tails of their airplanes red, which led to them becoming known as the “Red Tails.” Their story was told in a 2012 movie of the same name, on which Brown was an adviser.
“Young people don’t totally understand,” Brown told NBC 4 New York’s Tracie Strahan in 2011, noting that The Civil War had only happened about 70 years before World War II. “I didn’t understand the brutality of the Civil War, but when I was a Tuskegee Airman, I knew that I was good, I knew that I had to challenge the system, and I loved to fly.”
“My message to young people is to keep on working,” he continued. “You’ve got to be better, you’ve got to be disclipined, you’ve gotta believe. And if you believe you can overcome, you can overcome. That’s the story of the Tuskegee Airmen.”
SYDNEY SCHANBERG, CAMBODIA KILLING FIELDS JOURNALIST
9 July 2016
Image copyrightAP In 1975, Schanberg ignored directives to leave Cambodia and stayed to report on the Khmer Rouge
US journalist Sydney Schanberg, whose reporting inspired the Oscar-winning Hollywood film, The Killing Fields, has died at the age of 82, the New York Times reports.
Schanberg worked for the Times and won a Pulitzer Prize for reporting the fall of Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge in 1975.
His colleague, Dith Pran, was unable to leave and his four-year ordeal inspired Schanberg’s work.
Schanberg died in Poughkeepsie after a heart attack earlier in the week.
His death was confirmed by Charles Kaiser, a friend and former Times reporter, the paper said.
In 1980, Schanberg described his Cambodian colleague’s ordeal of torture and starvation at the hands of the Khmer Rouge in a magazine article, and later a book called The Death and Life of Dith Pran.
Oscar awards
In 1975, Schanberg and Dith Pran ignored directives from Times editors to evacuate and stayed in Cambodia as almost all Western diplomats and journalists fled.
Both were seized by the Khmer Rouge and threatened with death.
Image caption Photos of prisoners executed by the Khmer Rouge
Dith Pran’s pleas saved Schanberg’s life. The pair took refuge in the French Embassy but Dith Pran was forced to leave and was sent into the countryside.
Two weeks later Schanberg was evacuated by truck to Thailand.
Dith Pran eventually managed to escape to Thailand and died in 2008. It was he who coined the term “killing fields”.
The Killing Fields won eight BAFTA Awards and three Academy Awards. Sam Waterston played Schanberg in the movie, with Haing S Ngor, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, in the role of Dith Pran.
The Khmer Rouge was the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, during which it was responsible for one of the worst mass killings of the 20th Century. The genocide claimed the lives of more than a million people – some estimates say up to 2.5 million.
Under the Maoist leader Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge tried to take Cambodia back to the Middle Ages, forcing millions of people from the cities to work on communal farms in the countryside.
But the attempt at social engineering had a terrible cost, and whole families died from execution, starvation, disease and overwork.
Christopher Lee as Lord Summerisle, who leads the bizarre society depicted in Robin Hardy’s film “The Wicker Man.”Credit Rialto Pictures/Studiocanal
Robin Hardy, the director of the horror film “The Wicker Man,” which failed at the box office when it was released in 1973 but went on to attract a large cult following, died on Friday. He was 86.
The University of Malta, where Mr. Hardy had spoken recently, announced on its Facebook page that Victoria Webster, Mr. Hardy’s wife, had informed the school of his death. She did not specify where he died or the cause.
When Mr. Hardy, a television director, decided that he wanted to make a horror film, he found an enthusiastic collaborator in Anthony Shaffer, who wrote the play “Sleuth” and the screenplay for the Alfred Hitchcock film “Frenzy.” Mr. Hardy and Mr. Shaffer, partners in a production company, were avid fans of the horror films made by Hammer Studios. Together they set about making a film that would take the Hammer approach in a new direction.
Mr. Shaffer, using the novel “Ritual” by David Pinner as a basis, came up with the story of a devout Christian policeman, Sgt. Neil Howie, who travels to a Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. In Mr. Hardy’s directorial hands, the island and its inhabitants — led by the priestlike Lord Summerisle, played by Christopher Lee — took on a mystifying aura, with bizarre events unfolding in broad daylight.
Sergeant Howie beholds, with growing horror, a pagan society in which sexual rituals are practiced openly and village schoolchildren are encouraged to talk about phallic symbols and other topics not in the usual curriculum. The sense of dread hanging over the film builds to a startling discovery when Sergeant Howie realizes he has been lured to his doom. In the film’s final scene, he is burned alive inside a giant man made of wicker, sacrificed to appease the local gods and ensure a bountiful apple harvest.
Edward Woodward, later the star of the 1980s television series “The Equalizer,’’ played Sergeant Howie. Diane Cilento, who had received an Oscar nomination for her performance as the gamekeeper’s lusty daughter in the 1963 film “Tom Jones,” was the village schoolteacher, and Britt Ekland was cast as Willow, an embodiment of pagan sexuality.
British Lion, the company that produced the film, deemed it unsellable. Mr. Lee, in his autobiography, asserted that the company’s new head, Michael Deeley, called it one of the 10 worst films he had ever seen. Mr. Deeley protested that he had actually called it one of the 10 most unsalable films he had ever seen. In any case, British Lion distributed it halfheartedly on a double bill with Nicholas Roeg’s “Don’t Look Now,” and it failed miserably at the box office.
Robin Hardy on the set of “The Wicker Tree,” his 2010 film.Credit Graeme Hunter/Anchor Bay Films
“The Wicker Man” lived on, cherished by horror-movie devotees who argued that it belonged in the front rank of the genre.
In 1977 the magazine Cinefantastique called it “the ‘Citizen Kane’ of horror movies.” The Guardian, in 2010, put it in fourth place on a list of the 24 greatest horror films in history, after “Psycho,” “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Don’t Look Now” and ahead of “The Shining” and “The Exorcist.”
“It’s stood the test of time because it’s about ideas,” the film historian Jonny Murray, an organizer of the first international “Wicker Man” conference at the University of Glasgow, told the Times Higher Education supplement in 2003. “It engages you on an intellectual level. It’s about paganism: the clash between superstition and modernity; authority and sexuality.”
Robin St. Clair Rimington Hardy was born on Oct 2, 1929. Some sources say he was born in Surrey, others in London. After studying art in Paris he began working for the National Film Board of Canada and made educational television programs in the United States, including episodes of “Esso World Theater” for PBS.
He returned to Britain in the late 1960s and formed a production company with Mr. Shaffer to make television commercials and informational films.
Mr. Hardy made only a handful of films. “The Fantasist” (1986) was about a serial killer who seduces his victims over the telephone, and “The Wicker Tree” (2001) was about two Texas evangelists who bring their religious message to a remote Scottish island, with disastrous results. Mr. Hardy said that film, based on his novel “Cowboys for Christ,” was a companion to “The Wicker Man” rather than a sequel. At the time of his death, he was trying to raise money for a third “Wicker Man” film, “The Wrath of the Gods.”
With Mr. Shaffer, Mr. Hardy wrote a novelization of “The Wicker Man,” published in 1978. The film was the subject of two documentaries released in 2001, “The ‘Wicker Man’ Enigma” and “Burnt Offering: The Cult of ‘The Wicker Man.’” The director Neil LaBute remade the film in 2006 with Nicolas Cage as Sergeant Howie and Ellen Burstyn in the Christopher Lee role.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Hardy is survived by several children, including a son, Justin, who is also a filmmaker. Complete information on survivors was not immediately available.
In 2013 he described the filming of the final scene of “The Wicker Man” to The Guardian. “The wicker man was enormous,” he said. “The stunned look on Howie’s face when he first sees it wasn’t acting. Up until then, Edward had only seen drawings. He clambered in and we set it on fire, filming from the inside.”
As a civil rights lawyer in the South, Donald Jelinek was shot at and was arrested once for practicing law without the permission of the Alabama bar.Credit Jane Scherr
Donald Jelinek, who quit a Wall Street law firm to defend civil rights workers in the South and later inmates accused in the Attica prison revolt and Indians who seized Alcatraz Island to dramatize their grievances against the government, died on June 24 at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 82.
The cause was lung disease, his wife, Jane Scherr, said.
Mr. Jelinek was at a law firm in 1965 when he volunteered to work during the summer for the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union, representing mostly workers from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC (known as snick).
As a civil rights lawyer in the South, he was shot at and was arrested once for practicing law without the permission of the Alabama bar.
He also directed the Southern Rural Research Project, which documented rural malnutrition and sued the Agriculture Department to distribute surplus commodities to the hungry and to force recalcitrant county officials to participate in the federal food stamp program.
After moving to California, he represented the Native Americans who seized Alcatraz Island in 1969. They claimed title under a 19th-century treaty and aired their other grievances against the federal government during a 19-month occupation.
Mr. Jelinek practically lived on the island, raised money for the protesters and helped persuade prosecutors to level relatively minor charges. (Three demonstrators were convicted of stealing copper piping, a verdict overturned on appeal.)
In 1971, he was recruited to coordinate the defense of 61 inmates charged with nearly 1,300 crimes after the Attica prison riot in western New York, which left 10 corrections officers and civilian employees and 33 prisoners dead. All but one guard and three inmates were killed by the authorities in what a prosecutor branded a wanton State Police “turkey shoot.”
Russell G. Oswald, the New York State corrections commissioner, lower left, negotiating with inmates during an uprising at Attica in 1971. Mr. Jelinek coordinated the defense of 61 inmates charged after the riot.Credit William E. Sauro/The New York Times
Over decades of litigation, the inmates were gradually cleared of additional penalties.
Mr. Jelinek also represented conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War and served three terms on the Berkeley City Council.
Donald Arthur Jelinek was born in the Bronx on Feb. 17, 1934, the son of Jewish immigrants. His father, Eugene, ran a print shop. His mother, the former Adele Schneider, was a secretary.
He grew up near Yankee Stadium and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science, New York University and New York University Law School, living in Greenwich Village and paying his rent by working as a janitor.
He met his first wife, the former Estelle Cohen Fine, in the South. Their marriage ended in divorce.
In addition to Ms. Scherr, he is survived by her daughters, Dove and Apollinaire Scherr; two grandchildren; and his brother, Roger.
Inspired by the “Portraits of Grief” articles in The New York Times about the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he told crmvet.org, a website for veterans of the civil rights movement, in 2005 that he and his wife had already discussed his epitaph.
“I told her that if I had been one of them,” he said, “I would want her to write: ‘He had people who he loved and who loved him . . . and he was part of SNCC.’”
After a 5-year-long journey, NASA’s Juno probe, an emissary to the largest planet in the solar system, has arrived at its destination and slipped into orbit around Jupiter.
The waxing crescent Moon shines in the west at dusk tonight, and Jupiter shines nearby. On July 12th, as soon as it’s dark, look for Jupiter to approach 4th-magnitude Sigma Leonis, Leo’s hind foot.
Tour July’s Sky: Planets on Parade Sky & Telescope’s astronomy podcast takes you on a guided tour of the night sky. In early evening look for Jupiter in the southwest, with Mars and Saturn embedded in Scorpius toward south.
The 2017 Sky & Telescope Observing Calendar combines gorgeous astrophotography and special monthly sky scenes that illustrate the positions of the Moon and bright planets. It also highlights important sky events each month, including eclipses, meteor showers, conjunctions, and occultations.
The Preamble is the opening statement to the United States Constitution. The preamble gives the reasons why the Framers of the Constitution made the United States a republic. In so doing, the founding fathers replaced the original Articles of Confederation. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitution of the United States. It was drafted by the Second Continental Congress from mid-1776 through late-1777, and ratification by all 13 states was completed by early 1781. The Preamble along with the rest of the Constitution, was written over a period of about 6 weeks. The Preamble helped explain why the Constitution was written, but, the Preamble is not any law. The preamble was signed in convention September 17, 1787. It was ratified June 21, 1788.
The Preamble – Full Text
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
The first 10 amendments to the Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. Written by James Madison in response to calls from several states for greater constitutional protection for individual liberties, the Bill of Rights lists specific prohibitions on governmental power. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, written by George Mason, strongly influenced Madison.
The Bill of Rights – Full Text
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
United States Bill of Rights
Currently housed in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
After the articles of the Constitution were ratified, down through the years subsequent amendments were added to the Constitution. Those amendments are eleven through twenty-seven. The Constitution was created September 17, 1787, during the Philadelphia Convention when 39 of the 55 delegates signed it into law. It was ratified June 21, 1788. It replaced the Articles of Confederation in 1777. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land.
The three amendments I consider of great importance to all American citizens are the following: Amendment I, Amendment V, and Amendment IV.
I leave it to you readers as to why those amendments are so very important to us all.
AMENDMENT I
Amendment 1: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
AMENDMENT V
Amendment 5: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
AMENDMENT IV
Amendment 14: All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
MICHAEL CIMINO, FILM DIRECTOR OF ‘THE DEER HUNTER’ AND ‘HEAVEN’S GATE’
3 July 2016
Image copyrightGetty Images
The director of the 1978 Vietnam War film The Deer Hunter has died, his friend and former lawyer has confirmed.
Mr. Cimino, left, with Robert De Niro, in beret, during the filming of “The Deer Hunter” in Bangkok in 1977.Credit: NEAL ULEVICH/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Double Oscar winner Michael Cimino’s body was found at his Los Angeles home on Saturday, Eric Weissmann said.
Cimino, 77, who directed a total of eight films, will be remembered for a career of highs and lows.
While The Deer Hunter has been hailed as one of the best movies in Hollywood history, his next project, Heaven’s Gate, was derided as a flop.
A scene from Heaven’s Gate, filmed in Wyoming. It took almost a year and more than $40 million to make.Credit: MGM, via Photofest
Mr Weissmann said Cimino’s body was found after friends had been unable to contact him. No cause of death has yet been determined.
The Deer Hunter with its famous Russian roulette scene starred Robert de Niro and Christopher Walken and won five Oscars including the award for the best film in 1979.
It chronicles the lives of a group of friends from a Pennsylvania town and the devastating effect of the Vietnam War, both on those who fought in it and those who stayed at home in small-town America.
“Our work together is something I will always remember. He will be missed,” De Niro said in a statement.
Based on the success of The Deer Hunter, Cimino wrote and directed Heaven’s Gate, loosely based on the Wyoming Johnson County war of 1889-93.
It was a financial disaster that went four times over budget and a year behind schedule, It nearly bankrupted the United Artists studio.
Cimino in his earlier career was an advertising executive who moved into film with the Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges crime caper, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, in 1974.
He also directed Desperate Hours (1990), starring Mickey Rourke and Anthony Hopkins, and the gangster film The Sicilian (1986), adapted from a novel by Godfather author Mario Puzo.
Correspondents say Heaven’s Gate led to the demise of director-driven productions in the late 1970s and the imposition of tighter controls on film budgets.
The Holocaust survivor and Nobel peace laureate Elie Wiesel has died aged 87.
He died in the US, where he lived and had been a citizen since the 1960s.
He became famous after writing about his experiences as a teenager in Nazi concentration camps, where he lost his mother, father and younger sister.
He dedicated his life to ensuring the atrocities committed under the Nazis were never forgotten, and the president of the World Jewish Congress has called him “a beacon of light”.
Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust remembrance centre announced his death on Saturday.
US President Barack Obama said Mr Wiesel was “one of the great moral voices of our time”.
Elie Wiesel was born in Romania in 1928. In 1940 his town, Sighet, was part of a region that was annexed by Hungary. Four years later the town’s entire Jewish population, including 15-year-old Elie and his family, was deported to Auschwitz.
Image: ReutersElie Wiesel lost three members of his family in Nazi death camps
Mr Wiesel’s mother and one sister were killed in Nazi death chambers. His father died of starvation and dysentery in the Buchenwald camp. Two other sisters survived.
After the war, Mr Wiesel lived in a French orphanage and went on to become a journalist.
He wrote more than 60 books, starting with Night, a memoir based on his experiences in the death camps.
It included the lines: “For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living.
“To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”
‘Take sides’
Mr Wiesel’s use of the term Holocaust helped cement the word’s association with Nazi atrocities against the Jews.
In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for his role in speaking out against violence, repression and racism.
When accepting it, he said: “Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides.
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
After Mr Wiesel’s death, the head of the World Jewish Congress said he was “undoubtedly one of the great Jewish teachers and thinkers of the past 100 years”.
Ronald S Lauder said: “We have lost the most articulate witness to history’s greatest crime.
“His passing leaves a void that will be impossible to fill. At the same time, his writings will live on.”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Elie Wiesel “served as a ray of light and an example of humanity that believes in the goodness of man”.
The country’s president, Reuven Rivlin, called him “a hero of the Jewish People, and a giant of all humanity”, while Barack Obama said he was “not just the world’s most prominent Holocaust survivor, he was a living memorial”.
Mr Wiesel leaves a wife, Marion, who also survived the Holocaust, as well as a son, Elisha.
ALVIN TOFFLER, FUTUROLOGIST GURU AUTHOR OF ‘FUTURE SHOCK’
30 June 2016
Alvin Toffler appeared on a BBC Horizon show in 1995 discussing IT in warfare
Alvin Toffler, the author of Future Shock and other works predicting social, economic and technological change, has died at the age of 87.
Future Shock, which sold 15 million copies, defined people’s anxiety at the pace of social change in the 1960s.
Toffler popularised terms such as “information overload” and his works led world leaders and business moguls to seek his advice.
He predicted the rise of the internet and decline of the nuclear family.
He died in his sleep late on Monday at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles.
Online chat rooms
Although many writers in the 1960s focused on social upheavals related to technological advancement, Toffler wrote in a page-turning style that made difficult concepts easy to understand.
Future Shock (1970) argued that economists who believed the rise in prosperity of the 1960s was just a trend were wrong – and that it would continue indefinitely.
The Third Wave, in 1980, was a hugely influential work that forecast the spread of emails, interactive media, online chat rooms and other digital advancements.
But among the pluses, he also foresaw increased social alienation, rising drug use and the decline of the nuclear family.
Space colonies
Not all of his futurist predictions have come to pass. He thought humanity’s frontier spirit would lead to the creation of “artificial cities beneath the waves” as well as colonies in space.
One of his most famous assertions was: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, China Prime Minister Zhao Ziyang and Mexican business guru Carlos Slim were among those who sought his advice.
The futurologist, also termed futurist by some, was born to Jewish Polish immigrants in 1928 and honed his theories working for IBM and other technology firms in the 60s.
Toffler is survived by his wife, Heidi, with whom he collaborated on many of his books.
In the worlds of politics and art, many recalled being moved by Elie Wiesel’s unflinching chronicles of the Holocaust, and by the profound questions he raised.
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