Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Milwaukee County Judge Kahn Jr. Won't Seek Re-election In 2014

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Charles F. Kahn Jr.

Judge Kahn Jr. announced that he won't seek re-election and will retire in middle November.

By H. Nelson Goodson
November 6, 2013

Milwaukee, WI - On Monday, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Charles F. Kahn Jr. confirmed that he will retire in the middle of November and won't seek re-election. Kahn posted his decision late Monday night in his Facebook page.
Kahn stated that his last day at work as a circuit court judge will be November 22, after 21 years on the bench. 
"In December, I will bring the lessons I have learned in 39 years as a trial lawyer and judge to my passion for conflict reduction by moving to field of mediation, arbitration and advocacy consultation. The new service will be called A Neutral View...Early in December, I will activate a website with more information about the services available through A Neutral View," Kahn wrote.
Governor Scott Walker (R) will have the opportunity to appoint a judge to fill the remainder of Judge Kahn Jr.'s term, which ends in July 2014. 
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Erickson, MSO Chorus Director Charged With Lewd And Lascivious Behavior

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Lee Erickson

Erickson followed an undercover Milwaukee County Sheriff Deputy into a lakefront bathroom and began to touch and expose himself to the deputy.

By H. Nelson Goodson
November 5, 2013

Milwaukee, WI - On Monday, Lee Erickson, 58, was arrested and charged with lewd and lascivious behavior after following an undercover Milwaukee County Sheriff Deputy into a Grant Park bathroom and exposing and touching himself in front of the deputy. Erickson who is the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus Director has been suspended from his job pending the outcome of the case.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff's office has been conducting undercover sting operations to arrest people who use the county parks for their lewd and lascivious behavior and other criminal activity.
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Tennessee Woman Craving Mickey D's Runs Over Boyfriend With Pickup Truck

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Crystal Greer Brook

Woman arrested by Kingsport police for taking boyfriend's pickup truck and running over him three times for not stopping at a McDonald's restaurant. 

By H. Nelson Goodson
November 5, 2013

Kingsport, Tennessee - Last Wednesday,  Police in Kingsport arrested Crystal Greer Brook, 33, of Kingsport just after midnight and charged her with aggravated assault for striking her live in boyfriend, Santiago Hernández, 41, with his 2002 S10 Chevrolet pickup truck multiple times. Kingsport Police Officer Dennis Hickman responded to an incident at the 400 block of W. Carters Valley Road just after midnight and found Hernández with abrasions to his arms and back and a torn clothing "consistent with being dragged on the pavement."
According to the police report, Francisco Hernández told police that Brook, Santiago and him had gone out drinking and then decided to stop at a restaurant to get something to eat. The choice of restaurant ignited an argument between Brook and Santiago who was driving. Santiago stopped at a different restaurant, which Brook didn't agree with. She wanted some McDonald's. 
Brook made her boyfriend stop the truck. While he got out and went to the front of the truck, Brook slided over to the driving wheel and accelerated striking and knocking Santiago Hernández over and then ran him over several more times. Brook denied that she ran over Santiago, but Francisco who accompanied them confirmed to police that Brook had been upset that Santiago didn't want to stop at Mickey D's to get something to eat.
She told Officer Hickman that Santiago had "jumped on top of the hood" and denied that she struck him with the pick-up truck. Officer Hickman determined that Brook was the aggressor and arrested her.
Santiago survived the incident and Brook ended up in jail without having any McDonald's. 
Officer Hickman gave Santiago who spoke little English a domestic violence form to fill out and drove him to a friend's house where he spent the night, according to the police report.
Both Brook and Santiago Hernández have a child together, according to Officer Hickman.
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Monday, November 4, 2013

Congressman Gutiérrez Has Falling Out With NIYA Over Immigration Reform Tactics

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Marco Pacheco being arrested at U.S. Senator Bob Menéndez office. Photos: Facebook

Marcela Espinoza

Photo: Facebook

Congressman Gutiérrez will no longer work with the National Immigrant Youth Alliance and the DREAMActivist dot org.

By H. Nelson Goodson
November 5, 2013

Washington, D.C. - On Monday, the Office of Congressman Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-IL) announced that Gutiérrez will no longer work with the National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA) and their affiliated advocates at DREAMActivist dot org. The latest decision by Gutiérrez shows a deep division and a difference of strategy to deal with immigration reform between immigrant rights groups.
Douglas Rivlin, spokesman and Director of Communication for Rep. Luis V. Gutiérrez says, that on Monday, representatives of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA), DREAMActivist dot org, and the DREAM 30 sat-in at the office of Congressman Luis V. Gutiérrez (D-IL) in Washington, D.C.  One activist, Marcela Espinoza, 28, from Illinois, who was recently released from detention in El Paso, Texas at the request of Congressman Gutiérrez, was removed from the office of Congressman Gutiérrez for refusing to leave until the Congressman spoke personally with President Obama and secured the release of other detainees.  Espinoza was arrested for unlawful entry by Capitol Police and two other activists left the office voluntarily.  
Rivlin in a news release says, that Congressman Gutiérrez met privately with the parents of some of the young people in detention in El Paso last week in Washington; a meeting that was frank, emotional, and confidential.  But that meeting was also recorded surreptitiously by NIYA, without the knowledge of the parents, the Congressman or his staff.  It is unfortunate that the actions of the advocates in this case are preventing this office from being able to work with parents and family who are understandably and rightly concerned for the safety of their son or daughter.
The illicit tape recording of a confidential conversation was the latest chapter in a long and difficult relationship with NIYA and its leaders.  The NIYA leaders have expressed their strong opposition to immigration reform and don't believe a bill will pass this year. They have also expressed disturbing racism, and have put young people in harm's way, according to Gutiérrez.  In talking with the families, the Congressman and his staff believe that the parents and families were being manipulated by NIYA and its leaders and were not well informed about the law and the legal process.
Gutiérrez is warning parents that these actions can hurt the chances that young people will be able to return to the United States or live legally in the United States.  Only one in ten asylum cases like these are approved and a deportation or removal could put future legal status in doubt.  Congressman Gutiérrez continues to fight for the ability of DREAMers and their parents to remain in the U.S. or to enter legally, if they have been removed or left the United States.
The Congressman's staff had been working with the Department of Homeland Security and the attorney for the detainees to help secure their release.  The Congressman's staff has also communicated directly with a number of the parents, siblings and supporters of the detainees in the past several weeks, according to Rivlin.
Also arrested was Marco Pacheco, of Texas, who refused to leave the office of Congressman Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX) and another DREAMer Brandol Pahuamba was arrested later in day at the office of U.S. Senator Bob Menéndez (D-NJ). Both Pacheco and Pahuamba were arrested for unlawful entry, according to police.
The DREAMers wanted legislators to intervene in the deportation process of eight members of their group known as the DREAM 30.  Eight DREAMers are awaiting deportation and 21 have been freed pending the outcome of their legal status.  Rocio Hernández Pérez, 23, has been deported after leaving the U.S. and then attempting to reenter the country with more than 30 DREAMers at the Laredo International border crossing from Mexico. The DREAM 30 had applied for asylum, but were arrested and sent to an El Paso, Texas ICE processing center.
NIYA released the following statement in response to Gutiérrez accusing them of manipulating undocumented families. NIYA states that they haven't worked with Gutiérrez months before September 2012, "Since the launch of the #BringThemHome campaign, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, especially Rep. Cuellar and Rep. Gutiérrez have stuck to one talking point: the families of the #Dream30 are being manipulated by the National Immigrant Youth Alliance. We have always found this analysis to be horribly off and, at its core, very dehumanizing. Rep. Gutiérrez wants YOU to believe that if a “Mexican” finds his or her way to his Capitol office to ask for something, then he or she must be being manipulated. The only place a “Mexican” must know is in the back of someone’s kitchen or office, doing back-breaking work. We find Rep. Gutiérrez’s statements to be absolutely dis-empowering and a disservice to the real power of the undocumented community."
"As the National Immigrant Youth Alliance, we are the only national network that is led entirely by undocumented youth. The decisions as to what we work on and the direction in which we go are completely in line with the needs of the undocumented community. That is the reason why we have already, purposefully infiltrated several detention centers and have had members willingly return to Mexico in an effort to bring home other exiled DREAMers. As NIYA, we ultimately lay our faith in our own community, and believe that an empowered community is more powerful than other organizations at accomplishing its goals.
"Given Rep. Gutiérrez’s recent posturing, it is all the more evident to us that to those like him, an empowered community that dares to make an ask of him is a very dangerous thing. In the role that Mr. Gutiérrez has carved out for the “Mexican,” they are only expected to get involved in politics when he is on one of his many national church tours. Their only role is to fill his pews, provide tears for the cameras so that he, as the “Moses of the Latinos” can once again “tell us” how bad deportations are. But once they begin forming their own political opinions and demanding more than just the scraps from the table, can only mean they are being manipulated," NIYA stated. 
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Sunday, November 3, 2013

LULAC Selects Milwaukee For Its 2014 Women's Conference

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LULAC women's conference to draw hundreds of nationwide members into Wisconsin in March 2014.

By H. Nelson Goodson
November 4, 2013

Milwaukee, WI - The national League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) organization has announced in its website that Milwaukee has been picked to hold its two day 2014 LULAC Women's Conference in March 28-29. LULAC posted in its website that, "This Conference provides professional development workshops and seminars targeted to the needs of "Latinas" and also highlight the contributions that "Latinas" have made to this country."
On Saturday, Margaret Moran, the national president of LULAC was in Milwaukee to confirm the organization's decision to hold the women's conference in the city. Moran held a limited news gathering at the Wisconsin Hispanic Scholarship Foundation (WHSF) facility, which in partnership with LULAC Councils 319 and 322 sponsor the annual Mexican Fiesta at the Summerfest grounds in late August. 
In September, the WHSF held a restrictive news conference at the facility focused on a story that Hispanic News Network U.S.A. broke and exposed concerning Fiesta LPOA security and Milwaukee police were targeting Hispanics believed to be in gangs and people with facial and body tattoos not in good taste for Mexican Fiesta officials. Those victims were targeted and expelled from the Fiesta grounds without refunds and banned from the weekend festival without doing anything illegal at the event.
Afterwards, Ruben Burgos and other board members of the WHSF held a news conference and kept HNNUSA from covering their response to the article that exposed their discriminatory policy and treatment of festivalgoers for the last three years.
A call by friends of the victims to boycott Mexican Fiesta for 2014 went viral on the social network and a YouTube news report was even posted. HNNUSA also learned that for years, the national LULAC organization, WHSF and the two LULAC Councils 319 and 322 were denying access to undocumented students who applied for scholarships. They continue to deny scholarships, even though they have come out in support of immigration reform.
With hundreds of women attending the LULAC conference in March, hopefully some or even one of the women attending has the courage to challenge the national LULAC and the Wisconsin Hispanic Scholarship Foundation Sponsor of Mexican Fiesta, including LULAC Councils 319 and 322 policy to denied scholarships for women DREAMers at a crucial time that LULAC shamefully shows supports for immigration reform, but not giving scholarships to undocumented students.

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Saturday, November 2, 2013

Immigration Reform For 2013 Dead As Día De Los Muertos Celebrated

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Moises Roger Mory-Lamas

The U.S. House has no more sessions scheduled for this year and the scheduled committee meetings thru November 26 show no action for immigration reform.

By H. Nelson Goodson
November 2, 2013

Washington, D.C. - On Saturday, many Democrats and Republicans, including President Barack H. Obama can now concede that any bill proposed for immigration reform in the U.S. House of Representatives, especially the U.S. Senate's version is dead for 2013. Today in many parts of the U.S. and Mexico, el Día de los Muertos, Day of the Dead is traditionally celebrated in recognition and remembrance of those who passed away. Unfortunately, any hope of introducing and passing a just comprehensive immigration reform bill in the U.S. House for the remainder of the year is dead. The U.S. Senate's immigration bill that was passed earlier is destine to expire as the year comes to an end.
In the last days of October, a major push by Republican business owners, law enforcement and corporate CEO's to influence conservative House Republicans to support an immigration reform bill seems to have failed. 
The U.S. House 113th second session begins on January 3, 2014, which could include new elected members of the House. It was believed that at least 28 GOP House members would support an immigration reform bill with a path to citizenship for at least 11 million of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Within the last two days, three House Republicans joined Democrats in sponsoring a bill. If an immigration bill would have been introduced and debated earlier, it would have had at least  228 votes, including the 28 Republicans surpassing the 218 votes needed to pass a bill. But House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-OH) failed to bring up a similar version of the Senate immigration reform bill that would have had a bipartisan support. None was negotiated or introduced before the end of the House 113th first session.
Hispanic News Network U.S.A. (HNNUSA) has learned from a reliable source that nationwide activists for immigration reform, clergy, unions, immigrant rights organizations and other supporters will engage in a massive coordinated national action of civil disobedience, including other attempts to get attention for the need to pass an immigration reform bill.
One key initiative that hasn't been adopted yet by the organizers planning for the November 8th national civil disobedience action is a 16-day economic shutdown, which would allow Hispanics and supporters for immigration reform to control their $2T spending and buying economic power to influence change.
An immigration reform bill is definitely needed, including another to reshape and reorganize the most known corrupt immigration enforcement agency, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The U.S. Congress, the Obama administration, U.S. Department of Justice and ICE have failed to hold accountable those agents and supervisors that deliberately violated the rights of undocumented immigrants. Many ICE violation cases have been exposed and documented. Lawsuits have been filed by defendants and ICE have lost many of them for engaging in illegal activities and violating department policies. But ICE continues to denied any illegal activity or rogue agents that act outside of the law.
Another fact is that ICE continues to detain and deport undocumented immigrants in the U.S., which the agency was designed to do. But in recent years, ICE has engaged in illegal activity in many parts of the country. One significant case was the Moises Roger Mory-Lamas case in 2010, where Mory-Lamas was forced by three ICE agents to go to a Peruvian consulate and made him sign an ACT document to be removed from the U.S. Mory-Lamas was in the process of trying to get legal status. 
Mory-Lamas accused, Peruvian Consul Beoutis, and three ICE agents identified in the ACT signatures as Juan Mezarina, Oscar Torres and James Laforge of violating his rights, under immigration law and the U.S. Constitution.
A Peruvian citizen has a right to enter a Peruvian Consulate for official purposes, but with U.S. agents as escorts is considered illegal, and they have no diplomatic status to sign such an Act inside the Consulate, considered foreign soil.
ICE agents deported Mory-Lamas to Peru, despite a pending immigration appeal case and a petition for amnesty, including residency and work authorization until 2011. 
In November 2010, Mory-Lamas received a letter from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) in his residence in West New York informing him of an interview for November 16, but he was all ready deported on September 9.
Mory-Lamas had fought and challenged his deportation for more than 11 years.
ICE spent more than $400,000 in the Mory-Lamas case alone, including flight passages for two ICE agents to accompanied him to Peru.
ICE isn't suppose to deport anyone while in the process of getting legal status. In the Mory-Lamas case, ICE deported Mory-Lamas, despite any pending case to seek legal status.
ICE deportation data indicates that a majority were deported for non-criminal offenses contradicting the ICE current priorities. ICE's has said, that only those deemed to be a threat to the U.S., gang members, violent and drug related criminals are being deported. ICE has become the most corrupted agency engaging in rogue criminal activity in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its agents are never sanction, discipline, terminated or convicted of violating the Constitutional rights of detainees by coercion, illegal acts, warrant less home invasions including arrests at private properties and U.S. County courts. The U.S. Congress has yet to investigate such gross violations by ICE and to implement laws to hold ICE agents and its supervisors accountable for many widely documented and reported illegal acts by ICE agents.
Recently in Bakersfield, CA, the ICE office based agents have been illegally arresting non-criminal immigrants at the Kern County Court Houses while paying traffic citations, attending court hearings or getting married, according to the ACLU. The ACLU also claims that ICE agents have been arresting suspected undocumented immigrants in Santa Clara, CA County courts without warrants as in Kern County.
In Tucson, Arizona, an Operation Streamline Court managed by ICE gets to convict between 80 to 180 of undocumented immigrants at once. An immigration judge sentences all to 30-130 days in jail at private immigration prisons before they are removed from the U.S. Not1More activists who staged a protest in early October and blocked several immigration buses transporting undocumented immigrants to the Streamline Court say, the immigrants are denied due process, appeals, legal advice by attorneys or family members including the Mexican Consulate.
In 2012, a total of 409,849 were deported including 184,459 non-criminals; in 2011, 391,953 were deported including 203,571 non-criminals and in 2010, 385,100 were deported including 215,444 non-criminals were removed from the U.S. under the Obama administration. 

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Día de los Muertos, Day of the Dead

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Marla O. Anderson, in remembrance for the traditional Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)

By H. Nelson Goodson
November 2, 2013

Milw., WI - This brief remembrance is dedicated to my dearly departed mother, Marla O. Anderson, who in her life time became a role model to six children as one of the many college graduates after the 1970 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) takeover for higher education protests, helped countless people get their U.S. residency, instrumental in lowering the height requirement for Hispanics in the Fire and Police Departments, which prevented them from qualifying, marched to Madison from Milwaukee for enforcement of farm workers and migrants rights, helped break down the barriers of discrimination that prevented Hispanics from getting hired in the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicle, fought for bilingual education in public schools, welfare rights and countless other achievements that made Wisconsin a better place to live.
Anderson originally from Camargo, Tamaulipas, Mexico is well known for her leadership and instrumental role in the August 27, 1970 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) takeover of Chapman Hall, where she along with four men, Jesus Salas, Dante Navarro, Gregorio "Goyo" Rivera and Jose Luis Huerta-Sánchez were arrested in a peaceful protest. They along with 500 other educational activists were protesting UWM's discriminatory policy that prevented Latinos from enrolling.
In 1970, only 14 Hispanic students were enrolled compared to 25,000 White students and there were no Latino faculty at UWM. Anderson's role helped open the doors of education for thousands of Latinos in the state of Wisconsin UW-System. Enrollment of Hispanics also spread throughout statewide private colleges.
Their success helped create the Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute (SSOI) at UWM, which focus on recruitement, advicing and retention of Hispanic students. The SSOI was later renamed in 1996, the Roberto Hernández Center and since 1970, thousands of Hispanics have graduated.
Anderson enrolled at UWM and later graduated from the School of Education with a Bachelor of Science degree in May 1978, while raising six children. Today, more than 1,400 Hispanic students are enrolled per semester and at least 30 Latino faculty work at UWM.
Recently, Dante Navarro past away in April 2013.

Check out actual historical video footage of the August 27, 1970 UW-Milwaukee Takeover of Chapman Hall by Hispanics for higher education at link: http://tinyurl.com/3e6odcb
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