Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalWe can make birth safer for Black mothers. Here's how.
Over the last 30 years, nearly every wealthy country in the world has made it much safer for people to have babies. Only one outlier has moved in the opposite direction: the United States, where the rate of people dying in childbirth continues, stubbornly and tragically, to rise. In 2021, 1,205 US women died from birth-related causes, up from 754 in 2019. Many of those deaths — a full 89 percent in one Georgia study — are potentially preventable with the proper care.
Black people who give birth are at especially high risk. Nationwide, the maternal mortality rate for Black women is 2.6 times the rate for white women. Some regions have even bigger disparities: In Chicago, the rate for Black women is almost 6 times the rate for white women; in New York City, it’s 9 times.
The causes are big societal problems: failing hospitals (or no hospitals at all), lack of access to affordable health care, and doctors and nurses who dismiss Black women’s pain. These issues may seem intractable, but activists, clinicians, and scholars around the country are already working on solutions: ensuring access to Black doctors and nurses, creating new models of prenatal care that give Black patients a bigger support system, and expanding Medicaid to make sure patients can get care from preconception to postpartum.
Karie Stewart, for example, started Melanated Group Midwifery Care three years ago to provide prenatal and postpartum care “for Black people, by Black people.” As a labor and delivery nurse in Chicago, Stewart said that she always noticed that Black patients were treated differently. “Their care was not even close to what their counterparts were getting,” she said.
To help combat those inequalities — and the dangers birthing people and babies can face when they get substandard care — Melanated Group connects each patient with a Black midwife, doula, nurse, and social worker. Together, they make sure that no matter what issues come up during or after pregnancy, patients always have someone to reach out to — someone who will actually listen to their concerns.
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/24092448/black-mothers-maternal-mortality-crisis-solutions
I applaud this, wholeheartedly. However, we should be making childbirth safer for all mothers while doing this at the same time. The first instance of a death in childbirth that I knew was a white mother, not well off, married to a Black man and having her fifth baby. It seems to me that poverty may be the common thread here. Or maybe it was the Black father, in her case....
Meet the Tennessee teens and their teacher who solve cold cases
The kids in Alex Campbell's class stalked the serial killer like gumshoe sleuths from a paperback novel.
They traipsed around a mountain in East Tennessee looking for a murder weapon. They called the offices of district attorneys to try to get cold cases re-opened. They contacted a knot expert to look at ligature marks on victims' necks. They held news conferences to rally public support for their work hunting a serial killer whose victims — all young women, many of whom were sex workers — were discovered in 1984 and 1985.
Since 2018, Elizabethton High School's social studies classes (those taught by Campbell) have identified victims, worked up profiles that wowed a former FBI special agent and then identified a man they have called a prolific killer. Along the way, they did a side project that helped an innocent woman get out of prison. They even contributed to a couple of podcasts, including one called "Murder 101."
This class project wasn't some academic exercise. This was real life and real death.
After finding answers in one case, in which they linked a long-haul trucker to a 1985 murder, the teacher and students at Elizabethton High believe they have discovered even more truth that law enforcement agencies should confirm. Campbell and his class think they've solved five more cases.
https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2024/04/15/elizabethton-high-school-students-win-recognition-for-solving-crimes/73068272007/
I would have LOVED being in a class like this!
These Mormon women are rejecting Trump, fraying GOP support in a key state
It was Annie Lewis' idea to put a "Republicans for Biden" sign in the front yard in the lead-up to 2020. For her, it came down to civility. As a teacher for over a decade, the mother of six little ones, and a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she felt then-President Trump did not show true leadership.
"I was embarrassed anytime a clip of Trump, at that time, was on and my children were in the room," Lewis said.
Lewis was not alone in her thinking. In 2020, GOP residents of Maricopa County in Arizona banded together to stand up against Trump. The signs were created by Dan Barker, a leader in the Maricopa County LDS community and former GOP-appointed judge, who wanted to find a way to support Biden without giving up his lifelong Republican identity.
His wife, Nan, was the one who pushed him to have a sign.
"She probably got there quicker than I did," said Barker, who in 2020 started the political action committee Arizona Republicans Who Believe in Treating Others with Respect. "I just wasn't quite comfortable identifying with the Democratic Party. And so for me, I said, hey, well, I'd rather do something like, 'Republicans for Biden.' "
https://www.npr.org/2024/04/14/1242051595/trump-arizona-mormon-lds-republican-voters
I don't care how we get 'em, keep 'em coming!
How to give kids autonomy? 'Anxious Generation' author says a license to roam helps
American kids are being walloped by a hurtful combination, says social psychologist Jonathan Haidt: too much screen time and too little autonomy.
In his new book, The Anxious Generation, Haidt argues that these two key factors have combined to cause the mental health crisis now facing America's teenagers. A study by the health policy research organization KFF shows that 1 in 5 adolescents reports symptoms of anxiety and depression. Haidt's book offers a series of recommendations for flipping both of these factors around.
For example, Haidt gives this advice to parents of children ages 6 to 13: "Practice letting your kids out of your sight without them having a way to reach you. While you cook dinner for your friends, send your kids out with theirs to the grocery store to pick up more garlic — even if you don't need it."
But as many parents know, granting kids more autonomy while delaying access to smartphones can be way tougher than it sounds.
Parents confront resistance from many directions: school policies, neighbors, other parents and even the law. Some parents have even faced prosecution. So I wanted to talk with Haidt, who is a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, about the details of implementing some of his recommendations.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/04/14/1244000143/anxious-generation-kids-autonomy-freedom
This all started in the 90s with the "stranger danger" and the 24 hour news cycle. Time to break that and give the kids some freedom again.
Kristi Noem Banned by Yet Another South Dakota Tribe
MAGA Gov. Kristi Noem was banished from the Rosebud Indian Reservation in her own state of South Dakota on Thursday, the fourth Lakota tribe to bar her from its lands in recent months.
If she sets foot on any of the tribal land she’s been banned from, she could face removal, detention, and arrest, Lakota Law Project Director Chase Iron Eyes told The Daily Beast.
The Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council issued the most recent ban over inflammatory statements Noem has made—including the claim that tribal leaders were operating with Mexican drug cartels—and her “uninvited presence” at a quarterly meeting between the tribes and the U.S. Forest Service in March. In a statement, the Rosebud Council cited years of hostility from Noem’s administration.
“This banning is not based solely on recent allegations made against the Oceti Sakowin, Tribal Leaders, and Native American Students, but also from an ongoing strained relationship with Governor Noem since she took office in 2019,” the council said.
In recent years, Noem has clashed with the tribes over her support of the Keystone XL pipeline, which cuts through land considered sacred by the Sioux; her removal of “significant sections” of Native American history from state educational standards; and her alleged withholding of millions of dollars in federal Emergency Rental Assistance funding from the tribes.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/kristi-noem-banned-by-yet-another-south-dakota-tribe
Four down, three to go! Make it unanimous!
Athletes call for change after airline damaged wheelchairs
Athletes from all across the country traveled to central Virginia this week for the National Wheelchair Basketball Championships. But for some players, the road to victory was met with challenges even before tip-off.
Hours and hours of practice culminated in preparation for the National Wheelchair Basketball Championships, Henrico County’s new Sports and Events Center put out the red carpet for the best-of-the-best in wheelchair basketball.
Myranda Shields is a wheelchair basketball athlete and the social media manager for the Ability 360 Wheelchair Phoenix Suns team. She told 8News about how her team, among others, found their wheelchairs broken and damaged by Southwest Airlines, with some of the wheels having been removed. This left the athletes stranded on their plane at Richmond International Airport.
“They treat it like it’s luggage and it’s not luggage… it’s a part of our bodies,” Shields said.
While family members tried to get the proper parts back to the athletes so they could exit the ramp, the team said Southwest Airlines called the police on them for “violating protocol.” Player Justin Walker remarked how this type of mistreatment shouldn’t be happening in 2024.
“These devices… it’s our second life. It’s giving us our freedom,” Walker said. “If you take that away, we’re basically animals at that point.”
https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/henrico-county/its-literally-our-legs-athletes-call-for-change-after-airline-damaged-wheelchairs/
I guess Southwest gets the traveling "Shithouse of the Skies" trophy this week.
America is full of abandoned malls. What if we turned them into housing?
Amy Casciani, a longtime real estate developer whose corporation built housing across seven states, watched her local community struggle for years to add new homes.
Casciani grew up in upstate New York, in a suburban town outside Rochester. She eventually started a family and raised her children there, and in the early 1990s, a new mall opened up, bringing over 100 new stores including anchor retailers like Sibley’s, J.C. Penney, and Sears.
The mall was a proud boon to the town of Irondequoit, and a go-to spot for teenagers to hang out. “Hands down the most attractive shopping mall in the area,” an editorial for a newspaper serving Albany declared. “From its blue Legolike entrances and splashing fountain to its light-trimmed glass roof, columns and carousel, the mall exudes carnival gaiety.”
But in a few short years, retail patterns across the United States began to change. Mall foot traffic slowed and online shopping ticked up. Stores in the Irondequoit Mall began to close, and by 2016, the last major anchor, Sears, called it quits.
Casciani ached for her town, which not only was dealing with the eyesore of the abandoned mall but also lacked enough vacant land to develop desperately needed affordable housing. Her nonprofit development group, PathStone, embarked on a complex but meaningful project: They retrofitted the Sears department store into 73 rental apartments and built a new four-story multifamily building with 84 rental units on the adjacent parking lot.
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/24075581/housing-conversions-stripmalls-affordable-supply
No reason, other than lazy developers who'd rather take the tax loss.
Why are 18-wheelers allowed to park on on and off-ramps?
They are hindrances to visibility, for one thing. Last night there was an accident in Tennessee where someone hit a truck that was parked on the shoulder of a ramp from I-6-40 North going onto I-75 north..at night, with apparently no warning triangles out or anything. He was hit by a driver coming onto I-75 from I-640 North. That driver was killed.
This happens in Virginia, too, and heaven knows how many other states. I know they do it all the time on the on and off ramps where we enter and exit I-81, and it's a horrible nuisance. Especially on the exit ramp to Hwy 11, which is totally unnecessary since there is a 7/11 right across the road from there which has acres of parking and advertises that truckers are welcome! They really block the view to the right turn there, also. I am told that it's actually illegal for them to do this, but just try to find a statey or ANY cop when there's one of them in the way! I don't know what the law is in any other state, but I am really tired of those guys cluttering up the shoulders without at least putting out warning triangles.Can't anything be done about that, here or anywhere else?
McCarthy says Gaetz ousted him to stop ethics complaint over sex scandal
The far-right Florida Republican Matt Gaetz forced Kevin McCarthy out as House speaker last year “because he slept with a 17-year-old” and wanted a congressional ethics investigation to end, McCarthy charged on Tuesday.
“Because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old, an ethics complaint that started before I ever became speaker. And that’s illegal and I’m not gonna get in the middle of it.
“Now, did he do it or not? I don’t know. But ethics was looking at it. There’s other people in jail because of it. And he wanted me to influence it.”
The House ethics investigation of allegations against Gaetz opened in 2021, when Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, was speaker.
The House investigation was paused when Gaetz was investigated by the US Department of Justice for sex trafficking, over allegations that he paid for sex and had sex with an underage woman. In December 2022, Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector whose arrest led to the investigation of Gaetz, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for offences including sex trafficking a minor.
In February 2023, prosecutors said they would not issue charges. The House ethics investigation then restarted.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/10/matt-gaetz-removed-kevin-mccarthy-house-speaker-ethics
Of course he did. Next...?
Videos show Chicago police fired nearly 100 shots over 41 seconds during fatal traffic stop
Plainclothes Chicago police officers fired nearly 100 gunshots over 41 seconds during a traffic stop that left one man dead and one officer injured, according to graphic video footage a police oversight agency released Tuesday.
Five officers from a tactical unit who were in an unmarked police vehicle surrounded an SUV last month driven by Dexter Reed, allegedly for failing to wear a seatbelt. Video shows the 26-year-old Black man briefly lowering a window and then raising it and refusing to exit the vehicle as more officers arrived, yelled commands and drew weapons.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability said preliminary evidence showed Reed fired first, injuring an officer in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the city’s West Side. Then four officers returned fire, shooting 96 rounds.
The gunshots continued even after “Reed exited his vehicle and fell to the ground,” COPA said in releasing the body-worn camera footage, 911 calls and police reports.
https://apnews.com/article/dexter-reed-chicago-police-shooting-0529419b830040e41bff495f1b8f0313
I wasn't aware that failure to wear a seatbelt was a capital offense.
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Gender: Do not displayCurrent location: Virginia
Member since: Wed Jun 1, 2011, 07:34 PM
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