INSIGHT NEWS IS AUDITED BY THE ALLIANCE FOR AUDITED MEDIA TO PROVIDE OUR ADVER TISER PAR TNERS WITH THE HIGHES T LEVEL OF MEDIA ASSURANCE.
Insight News
August 1 1,, 2022 - August 7, 2022
Vol. 49 No. 31• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
SOMALIA
Russian-Ukraine war impacts East Africa food supply In April, the World Food Program raised an alarm that 20 million people are at risk of starvation this year as delayed rains worsen an already brutal drought in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.
By Nsenga K. Burton Ph.D. Al-Jazeera is reporting Russia’s war on Ukraine is drawing millions of dollars away from other crises including the food shortage crisis in Somalia. Funding that typically goes to the vulnerable nation are being diverted to the war on
Ukraine, devastating Somalia. To give some perspective, the U.N. reports Ukraine’s appeal for $2.2B has been 80 percent met, while Somalia’s much smaller appeal has been 30 percent funded. Somalia’s aid funding is at less than half of last year’s level even though Western donors have sent more than $1.7B to respond to the war in Europe.
Yemen, Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Palestinian territories are also being affected by this diversion. The Horn of Africa region where Somalia is located, is experiencing its worst drought in decades. In April, the World Food Program raised an alarm that 20 million people are at risk of starvation this
year as delayed rains worsen an already brutal drought in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. Experts and aid workers also say the war in Ukraine has contributed to rising costs of fuel and food in many countries across Africa. Wheat imports make up 90 percent of Africa’s $4B trade with Russia and almost half of the continent’s $4.5B trade
with Ukraine, according to the Africa Development Bank. “If we don’t manage this [food crisis] very quickly, it will actually destabilize the continent,” Africa Development Bank president Akinwumi Adesina warned. Al-Jazeera also reports, “In a single hospital in Somalia, more than two dozen children have died of hunger
in the past two months alone.” This article was written by Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., founder & editor-in-chief of The Burton Wire. Follow Nsenga on Twitter @Ntellectual. Follow The Burton Wire on Twitter or Instagram @TheBurtonWire. This article originally appeared in The Burton Wire.
How the omicron subvariant BA.5 became a master of disguise – and what it means for the current COVID-19 surge immunity. However, scientists do not yet fully understand what changes in BA.5 might allow it to do so.
By Suresh V. Kuchipudi Professor and Chair of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Penn State The omicron subvariant known as BA.5 was first detected in South Africa in February 2022 and spread rapidly throughout the world. As of the second week of July 2022, BA.5 constituted nearly 80% of COVID-19 variants in the United States. Soon after researchers in South Africa reported the original version of the omicron variant (B.1.1.529) on Nov. 24, 2021, many scientists – including me – speculated that if omicron’s numerous mutations made it either more transmissible or better at immune evasion than the preceding delta variant, omicron could become the dominant variant around the world. The omicron variant did indeed become dominant early in 2022, and several sublineages, or subvariants, of omicron have since emerged: BA.1, BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5, among others. With the continued appearance of such highly transmissible variants, it is evident that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is effectively using classic techniques that viruses use to escape the immune system. These escape strategies range from changing the shape of key proteins recognized by your immune system’s protective antibodies to camouflaging its genetic material to fool human cells into considering it a part of themselves instead of an invader to attack. I am a virologist who studies emerging viruses and viruses that jumped from animals to humans, such as SARSCoV-2. My research group has been tracking the transmission
The new BA.5 subvariant has caused a sharp rise in cases and hospitalizations throughout much of the United States. and evolution of SARS-CoV-2, evaluating changes in how well the omicron subvariants evade the immune system and the severity of disease they cause after infection. How is virus transmissibility in a population measured? The basic reproduction number, R0 – pronounced “R-naught” – measures the transmissibility of a virus in a yet-uninfected population. Once a proportion of individuals in a population become immune due to prior infection or vaccination, epidemiologists use the term effective reproduction number, called Re or Rt, to measure the transmissibility of the virus. The Re of the omicron variant has been estimated to be 2.5 times higher than the delta variant. This increased transmissibility most likely helped omicron out-compete delta to become the dominant variant. The larger question, then, is what is driving
the evolution of omicron sublineages? The answer to that is a well-known process called natural selection. Natural selection is an evolutionary process where traits that give a species a reproductive advantage continue to be passed down to the next generation, while traits that don’t are phased out through competition. As SARS-CoV-2 continues to circulate, natural selection will favor mutations that give the virus the greatest survival advantage. What makes omicron and its offshoots so stealthy at spreading? Several mechanisms contribute to the increased transmissibility of SARSCoV-2 variants. One is the ability to bind more strongly to the ACE2 receptor, a protein in the body that primarily helps regulate blood pressure but can also help SARS-CoV-2 enter cells. The more recent omicron sublineages have mutations that make them better
at escaping antibody protection while retaining their ability to effectively bind to ACE2 receptors. The BA.5 sublineage can evade antibodies from both vaccination and prior infection. Omicron sublineages BA.4 and BA.5 share several mutations with earlier omicron sublineages, but also have three unique mutations: L452R, F486V and reversion (or the lack of mutation) of R493Q. L452R and F486V in the spike protein help BA.5 escape antibodies. In addition, the L452R mutation helps the virus bind more effectively to the membrane of its host cell, a crucial feature associated with COVID-19 disease severity. While the other mutation in BA.5, F486V, may help the sublineage escape from certain types of antibodies, it could decrease its ability to bind to ACE2. Strikingly, BA.5 appears to compensate for decreased ACE2 binding strength through another mutation, R493Q reversion, that is thought to restore its lost
CDC
affinity for ACE2. The ability to successfully escape immunity while maintaining its ability to bind to ACE2 may have potentially contributed to the rapid global spread of BA.5. In addition to these immune-evading mutations, SARS-CoV-2 has been evolving to suppress its hosts’ - in this case, humans’ – innate immunity. Innate immunity is the body’s first line of defense against invading pathogens, comprised of antiviral proteins that help fight viruses. SARSCoV-2 has the ability to suppress the activation of some of these key antiviral proteins, meaning it’s able to effectively get past many of the body’s defenses. This explains the spread of infections among vaccinated or previously infected people. Innate immunity exerts a strong selective pressure on SARS-CoV-2. Delta and omicron, the two most recent and highly successful SARSCoV-2 variants, share several mutations that could be key in helping the virus breach innate
What’s next? BA.5 will not be the end game. As the virus continues to circulate, this evolutionary trend will likely lead to the emergence of more transmissible variants that are capable of immune escape. While it is difficult to predict what variants will arrive next, we researchers cannot rule out the possibility that some of these variants could lead to increased disease severity and higher hospitalization rates. As the virus continues to evolve, most people will get COVID-19 multiple times despite vaccination status. This could be confusing and frustrating for some, and may contribute to vaccine hesitancy. Therefore, it is essential to recognize that vaccines protect you from severe disease and death, not necessarily from getting infected. Research over the past two and a half years has helped scientists like me learn a lot about this new virus. However, many unanswered questions remain because the virus constantly evolves, and we are left trying to target a constantly moving goal post. While updating vaccines to match circulating variants is an option, it may not be practical in the short term because the virus evolves too quickly. Vaccines that generate antibodies against a broad range of SARS-CoV-2 variants and a cocktail of broadranging treatments, including monoclonal antibodies and antiviral drugs, will be critical in the fight against COVID-19. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
Page 2 • August 1, 2022 - August 7, 2022 • Insight News
insightnews.com
insightnews.com
Insight News • August 1, 2022 - August 7, 2022 • Page 3
Insight News
INSIGHT NEWS IS AUDITED BY THE ALLIANCE FOR AUDITED MEDIA TO PROVIDE OUR ADVER TISER PAR TNERS WITH THE HIGHES T LEVEL OF MEDIA ASSURANCE.
1, 2022 - August 7, 2022 August 1,
Vol. 49 No. 31• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com
Attorney General Keith Ellison reports
State protects residents of manufactured-housing at Northfield’s Viking Terrace
April Graves Family - Left to right: Timothy, Ayana, April Graves, Jasmine, and Isreal
aprilgraves.com
April J. Graves running for mayor of Brooklyn center
We need people like me Columnist
By Brenda Lyle-Gray April J. Graves, 42, the first person of color to serve on the Brooklyn Center City Council, in her second term has stepped down to run for Mayor of Brooklyn Center. She and three others are challenging incumbent MikeElliot. Graves, one of five siblings, grew up in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood. She was a teen mom who paid her way through college, became a homeowner in Brooklyn Center 11 years ago, and has raised four beautiful children. Graves works for the Minneapolis Health Department as a Public Health Specialist in the Office of Violence Prevention and is a yoga instructor and a Reiki healer.
aprilgraves.com
April J. Graves Over the past 20 years, the demographics of Brooklyn Center shifted from white bluecollar to a growing population of Liberian, Latinx, Hmong and Muslim immigrant, and African American, communities. Graves bought her home in the midst of the foreclosure crisis. It was her parents’ success as homeowners that motivated and still inspires her, she said. “When my parents bought their home in Rondo on Laurel and Oxford, they paid
$30,000. They eventually sold it for $300,000. That’s the power of owning property and securing generational wealth, she said. “As recent as five or six years ago, I was still struggling to make ends meet, was on food stamps, and getting medical assistance for health care for my family and me.” Graves describes the political climate of the state and the nation as intense right now and she debated for quite some time as to whether she wanted to stay in public service or
focus on other things important to her. Some had watched her successes on the City Council for the past seven years and encouraged her, saying now was the time to make the run for a higher office. But she knew it would be a part-time position with full-time responsibilities; that it wasn’t something she could turn off and on. “Brooklyn Center has a real strong staff. They are young and innovative professionals who have taken up the vision and mission of the city council. They have done an amazing job coming up with solutions, expanding our work with the community, and continuing to re-imagine and work with the residents as well as other stakeholder groups to think about how we want our city to grow and flourish in the years ahead,” she said. Graves has been a big advocate for small business and entrepreneurs, for more programming for youth, and was instrumental in helping to expand the summer jobs program helping young people
GRAVES 4
New book examines life of George Floyd in context of racism, oppression in U.S. By Ben Jealous George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer just over two years ago. His killing sparked a movement to end unjustified police killings and racist law enforcement practices. Sadly, the killings have not stopped. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was blocked by Senate Republicans last year. The struggle continues in communities large and small. During racial justice protests that sprung up after video of Floyd’s murder spread around the world, millions of people spoke his name as they demanded accountability and justice. Now, a remarkable book examines Floyd’s life and death in the context of our history and what one of the authors calls the “complex, tangled web” created by racism in this country. “His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice” was written by Washington Post reporters Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa. It draws on
the reporting of their colleagues and on intimate interviews with Floyd’s family, romantic partners, and circle of friends. At a time when politicians are making it illegal for educators to acknowledge that systemic racism exists, Samuels and Olorunnipa document in painful detail the ways in which racially discriminatory policies on housing, education, health care, addiction, policing and more contributed to “a life in which Floyd repeatedly found his dreams diminished, deferred, and derailed—in no small part because of the color of his skin.” “For example,” Samuels says, “you could not disentangle police departments’ disproportionate use of force against African Americans from the junk science that is still taught about Black people being more resistant to pain. We could not ignore that those same instincts led to the inadequate mental health treatment in George Floyd’s life, nor could we separate that society both encouraged George
Floyd to bulk up to pursue his athletic dreams and then stereotyped him as dangerous when he was off the field.” The book doesn’t try to make Floyd a saint. It doesn’t have to. He was a human being. He did nothing to deserve being murdered on the street by an abusive police officer who shouldn’t have been wearing a badge. “His Name Is George Floyd” is worth reading for many reasons. It gives us a fuller picture of the person George Floyd was. It introduces us to many people who loved him and sought a measure of justice for his murder. And it points to some important facts about policing in this country. One is the need for accountability. Chauvin had a record of violent behavior. When abusive cops are not held accountable, more people will be subjected to their violence. Another point is that policing is a local issue requiring local solutions. National policies, like those in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act,
Book Reviews
The Untold Stories of Reverse Racism by Rodney Cloud Hill
PAGE 5
can help. But holding violent cops accountable, getting them off the streets, or better yet, preventing them from getting hired in the first place, all require change at the local level. People For the American Way spent the two years since Floyd’s murder developing a road map for transforming public safety. We looked at the research.
JEALOUS 5
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison last week announced that his office has successfully gained compliance with the law from Lakeshore Management, Inc., the owner of Viking Terrace manufacturedhome park in Northfield. Viking Terrace contains more than 100 homes, with many residents who are largely low-income and speak Spanish as their primary or only language. Shortly after acquiring Viking Terrace in April 2022 from the prior owner of 20 years, Lakeshore Management, Inc. unilaterally imposed new leases and substantial, arbitrary, and sometimes cruel new rules on residents, some of whom had lived there for many years without these rules. Under Minnesota law, rules for manufactured-home parks must be “reasonable” and may not be “substantial modifications” of existing rules. Upon learning that Lakeshore Management had issued all residents new leases and new park rules that likely violated Minnesota law, the Special Outreach and Protection Unit of the Attorney General’s Office worked with Housing Justice Center and local community members to gather reports and evidence from park residents to understand the situation on the ground. After investigating the matter, the Attorney General’s Office contacted Lakeshore Management over what appeared to be multiple
wikipedia
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison
violations of Minnesota law related to manufactured-home park rentals and requested that Lakeshore cease and desist enforcing its new rules and leases. In response, Lakeshore Management has agreed to retract the new leases and rules and reinstate the prior leases and rules. Lakeshore has also committed that it will work with residents and Northfield City officials to update the park’s rules in compliance with Minnesota law and to address concerns that residents raised. This development is the latest in a string of wins for the Special Outreach and Protection Unit, which include the successful litigation against Minneapolis slumlord Steven Meldahl. “Manufactured-home parks are an important source of affordable housing and homeownership in Minnesota,
ELLISON 4
photo/Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File
This combo of photos provided by the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office in Minnesota, show Tou Thao, left, and J. Alexander Kueng. A federal judge on Wednesday, July 27, 2022, sentenced the two former Minneapolis police officers who were convicted of violating George Floyd’s civil rights to lighter terms than recommended in sentencing guidelines. Kueng was sentenced to three years in prison and Tou Thao was sentenced to 3 and a half years.
Ex-cops Kueng, Thao sentenced for violating Floyd’s rights By Amy Forliti Associated Press ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced two former Minneapolis police officers who were convicted of violating George Floyd’s civil rights to lighter terms than recommended in sentencing guidelines, calling one “truly a rookie officer” and describing the other as “a good police officer, father and husband.” U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson sentenced J. Alexander Kueng to three years in prison and Tou Thao to 3½ years for violating Floyd’s rights in the May 25, 2020, killing in which thenOfficer Derek Chauvin pinned Floyd’s neck with his knee for more than nine minutes as the 46-year-old Black man said he couldn’t breathe and eventually grew still. The killing, captured in bystander video, sparked protests worldwide and a reckoning of racial injustice. Kueng pinned Floyd’s back, Thao held back concerned
bystanders, and a fourth officer, Thomas Lane, held Floyd’s feet. Lane was sentenced last week to two years — also below guidelines and a sentence that Floyd’s brother Philonise called “insulting” — while Chauvin was sentenced earlier to 21 years. Floyd’s immediate family members did not attend Wednesday’s hearings or comment immediately afterward. The lower sentences for Kueng, who is Black, and Thao, who is Hmong American, raise questions about whether they would consider a plea deal or risk a state court trial on Oct. 24, when they face counts of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Lane, who is white, pleaded guilty to a state charge of aiding and abetting seconddegree manslaughter and is awaiting sentencing in that case. Sentencing guidelines on the federal counts called for 4¼ to 5¼ years for Kueng and 5 ¼ to 6 ½ years for Thao. For
EX-COPS 5
I2H
AP exposes the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: The 50th Anniversary
PAGE 6
Page 4 • August 1, 2022 - August 7, 2022 • Insight News
insightnews.com
Remembering the Moore’s Ford Bridge lynchings Hobb servation Point
By Chuck Hobbs Dorothy Malcolm arose on the morning of July 25, 1946—76 years ago today—and prepared to celebrate her 20th birthday with her husband, Roger Malcolm, and their best friends George Dorsey, a U.S. Army veteran recently returned home from World War II, and his wife, Mae. By nightfall, the quartet would be dead—victims of one of the most heinous mass lynchings in Georgia history. “Why” they were killed was typical of the Jim Crow era; on July 14th of that year, Roger Malcolm was arrested for stabbing Barnette Hester, a white male, following a dispute that led to fisticuffs between the two men. At the time, Roger Malcolm and
Graves From 3 build life skills as well as economic capacity to help them move closer to their personal and professional goals. She has also worked in collaboration with the Council and staff on transformational public safety after the murder of Dante Wright at the hands of Brooklyn Center police officer, Kim Potter. “But even before, the previous city manager and police chief, and I discussed increasing our ability to track traffic data. We created a dashboard on our website to really have some tangible data that we could analyze. The work is ongoing. Hopefully, the Council can be better at integrating their work through the mayor’s implementation committee,” she said. “With a city government like ours that is a city manager-led/ council form of government, one must learn to lean on the staff’s expertise and have some trust in the recommendations they bring forward. We must have consistency in our ability
Ellison From 3 and manufactured-home park residents, like all Minnesotans, deserve to afford their lives and live with dignity, safety, and respect,” Attorney General Ellison said. “When the residents of this close-knit community were pushed to the margins by the management company, they
George Dorsey worked as sharecroppers on a farm owned by J. Loy Harrison and after Malcolm was arrested, it was Harrison who drove his wife, Dorothy, and the Dorseys to the local jail to post the $600 bail. As the two couples and Harrison, the plantation owner, drove away, their vehicle was stopped by a mob of 15 to 20 whites on the Moore’s Ford Bridge along the Apalachee River near Atlanta, Georgia. Harrison later testified that as his car rolled to a halt that, “a big man who was dressed mighty proud in a doublebreasted brown suit was giving the orders. He pointed to Roger and said, ‘We want that n-word.’ Then he pointed to George Dorsey, my n-word, and said, ‘We want you, too, Charlie.’ I said, ‘His name ain’t Charlie, he’s George.’ Someone said ‘Keep your damned big mouth shut. This ain’t your party.’” After Harrison, the plantation boss, was told to shut up and mind his business, Dorothy Malcolm and Mae Dorsey were removed from the
Blacks to remember the price for self defense, which by all accounts is what happened when Roger Malcolm fought off his original attacker, Barnette Hester, on July 14th. Georgia’s Governor Ellis Arnall offered a $10,000 reward for information—to no avail! President Harry Truman established a commission on civil rights, urged the passing
to implement true systemic changes and have boots on the ground to sustain the work especially when leadership is frequently changing. The Council has implemented or re-implemented the return of first-time home buyers’ down payment assistance, as well as programs that will help people improve the upkeep and maintenance of their home. A few years back, the governing group implemented a living wage starting with part-time workers who were not eligible for benefits. I think that’s one of the benefits of having a city manager who isn’t politically motivated, who takes the vision of the collective council and then works to implement that vision with the directors of the different departments,” she said. Graves said she learned a lot from outgoing, long- time councilman, Dan Ryan. They both attended a ‘racial equity cohort’ made possible through the Minnesota League of Cities. For nine months, they learned different things about each other. “We’re not going to get anywhere pointing fingers and blaming each other. That’s just going to continue to create cycles of violence, of misunderstanding, and of fear.
Instead, I really want to try to build,” she said. “Ryan was able to eventually name issues such as racism that made him uncomfortable and he appeared to embrace a moderate level of empathy for often intentional discrimination causing further disparities within communities of color and those struggling with lower incomes.” And over the course of time they spent on the Council, a positive relationship of mutual respect was garnered, even when they didn’t agree, an example for the relationships communities across the state and country people need to have. In responding to the subject of mass transit, Graves says that the addition of the C-Line was beneficial in making the trips for Brooklyn Center residents easier in getting between Minneapolis and downtown, but she would like to see additional bus lines or more frequent bus connections. “The transit center in Brooklyn Center often draws positive and negative attention. The Council has worked with Metro Transit Police to increase their presence, and a little art has been added around that space. The elected officials have been engaged in environmental impact statements and review while
MDOT continues to engage with community residents, especially around highway 252. Concerted efforts are being made to find a balanced approach to not only create better safety, but protect the environment, the Mississippi River, and the health and wellbeing of the people who live in the impacted communities.” Graves said she does not agree with every approach the incumbent mayor has made, but believes it’s important to slow down and push more into hearing the voices of the people who should be an integral part of the process. All agree that having deeper community engagement and making sure those voices are included as part of that process. All agree that something needs to be done to make the location safer, she said. There’s no question that there’s a lot of distrust in government and policing, and understandably so, Graves said. Despite her own bad experiences with the police on many levels, Graves is proud of her nephew who is on the police force in Brooklyn Park. “He’s a Black man and he’s trying to do what he can to both keep the community safe as well as shift some of the cultural norms around bigotry and bias that is part of the law enforcement
culture and public safety systems since their inception. Still, as we’re implementing these transformational changes in public safety, we need our police officers to be able to respond to and catch people who are committing crimes. We also need our court systems to hold people accountable once they have been charged. And once they are charged, I would ask how we are actually working to rehabilitate and get people ready to be released and prepared to rejoin society as productive members,” she said. In her platform, three topics take precedence: Crime prevention, environmental protection and design, and trying to leverage Brooklyn Center’s diversity. The incumbent and first Black mayor, Mike Elliott, is being challenged by Laurie Ann Moore, Leng Xiong, and Graves. “Perhaps my approach differs from my fellow competitors in that I will stand up and call someone out when there is an injustice or misinterpretation of the facts, but I also empathize because I know lived experiences are far apart when it pertains to Black and white values, opportunities, disparities. One should do what they feel like they have the
capacity to do, but because of the lifestyle and the upbringing I’ve had, I do feel like I have that capacity. And I also believe we need people like me to stand in those spaces, to really move as many people forward on the spectrum of change as we can,” Graves said. What I’ve learned in working for the government as a staff person and as an elected leader is that huge transitional social changes cannot happen overnight and not with one champion either. It happens with intention over time, listening to each other and figuring out what works and what doesn’t work, and developing an understanding that can lead to viable solutions,” Graves said. She said communities are as divided as they have ever been across the Twin Cities and the country, and tend to operate in silos instead of thinking about the big picture and reaching over the line of ‘us’ and ‘them’. This civic and cultural anxiety is exacerbated by the state of our mental health, desperation around economics caused by COVID, as well as just a lack of having the resources and programs in place that we need to really support people that are struggling.
organized, and my office stepped in to protect them. I am pleased that Lakeshore Management has agreed to do the right thing.” Under Minnesota law, a park owner can modify park rules only if they are not “substantial modifications” of the existing rules. New rules substantially modify prior rules if they significantly diminish material rights, privileges, and freedom of action of the residents that they previously enjoyed. New rules must also be “reasonably related” to the purpose for which they
are adopted and not unfairly discriminate against residents. Viking Terrace residents reported to the Attorney General’s Office that the new rules felt like substantial modifications to prior rules and were being enforced against them aggressively. Each demand was accompanied with a threat that a failure to comply could result in an eviction. Even when they did not receive an eviction notice, the rules and threats alone terrified the residents. Examples of new rules that Lakeshore Management issued include: Barring residents from taking a “leisurely” walk after 10 p.m. (park rule 14.12) Forbidding children from “play[ing] in the yards of other residents” under any circumstances (park rule 14.2). Empowering Lakeshore to remove any guest from the park at any time without reason (park rule 9.2) Prohibiting residents from owning a vehicle that they do not drive daily (park rule 10.1.1) Prohibiting vegetable gardens without Lakeshore’s permission (park rule 8.2.4) Forbidding laundry lines (park rule 8.3)
meeting, Viking Terrace residents delivered heartfelt testimony (many through a Spanish interpreter) about the impacts the new rules were having on their lives: “A resident of Viking Terrace approached the Habitat for Humanity Director to make the application for a Habitat home to get out of Viking Terrace—a single mother with a child with cerebral palsy. The reason the single mother wanted to try to get out of Viking Terrace is because her son needs to use a wheelchair, which is kept on the front porch because it does not fit through the doorway to the trailer. She was told by the corporation management to remove the chair.” (21:50– 22:52) “The new management company came in very aggressive and started taking away the toys, games, anything for the children to entertain themselves. Trampolines, etc. They don’t want the kids to have anything to play with… So my children really like to enjoy the summer. They like to be outside, they like to play. But with the new management right now, always taking pictures, my children don’t feel comfortable.” (24:08– 25:10) In addition to issuing new rules, Lakeshore Management also unilaterally issued all residents new leases and informed the residents that the new leases would be enforceable even if the residents did not sign them. Under Minnesota law, a manufactured home lot lease must be signed by both the park owner and the resident to be effective. Moreover, Minnesota law makes resident homeowners’ original leases effective in perpetuity unless terminated for cause for a narrow set of allowable reasons that are defined in law.
Marshall, alleging among other counts that Schierholz charged residents unlawfully high late rent fees and persistently failed to maintain the park and its roads to the standards required by law. In July 2017, while a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Attorney General Ellison introduced H.R. 3256, designed to protect manufactured-home residents against the abrupt sale of their communities/parks.
www.insightnews.com
Editor-In-Chief Al McFarlane Publisher Batala-Ra McFarlane Associate Editor & Associate Publisher B.P. Ford Culture and Education Editor Dr. Irma McClaurin, PhD. Associate Editors Afrodescendientes Jesús Chucho Garcia Mestre Yoji Senna DaBahia Columnist Brenda Lyle-Gray Book Review Editor W.D. Foster-Graham Content & Production Manager Sunny Thongthi Yang Distribution/Facilities Manager Charles Royston Receptionist Lue B. Lampley Intern Naomi Thomson Photography Uchechukwu Iroegbu
identify any of of the murderers. In 1999, nearly seven years of newspaper articles by the Atlanta Journal Constitution led to the establishment of the Moore’s Ford Memorial Committee and the erection of a commemorative plaque near the lynching site shown below. Last, in 2001, then Governor Roy Barnes ordered the Georgia Bureau of Investigations to reopen its case (and the FBI followed suit in 2006). To date, no one has been arrested, indicted, or imprisoned for the lynchings of the Malcolm and the Dorseys, two young couples brutally murdered 76 years ago today. Lest we forget... Hobbservation Point is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Chuck Hobbs is a freelance journalist who won the 2010 Florida Bar Media Award and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.
vehicle and tied to a tree; soon afterwards, their husbands, Roger and George, were tied next to them and within minutes, the quartet were riddled with over 60 bullets shot at close range. To add further insult per Jim Crow customs, the four bodies were then strung over the bridge—dangling in the oppressive Georgia summer heat and humidity for the local
INSIGHT NEWS Insight News is published weekly, every Monday by McFarlane Media Interests.
of anti-lynching legislation, and the FBI’s reward for information was upped to $12,500—an enormous sum during that time—to no avail! Tr u m a n ’s “interference” in Southern lynch mob law was deemed so offensive down in Dixie that it is still considered one of several acts that led to a schism in the Democratic Party and the formation of the “Dixiecrats”— Southern Democrats who were bound and determined to stymie all federal efforts at Black civil rights. (Nota Bene: The racist Southern Dixiecrats of old would, within 20 years of the Moore’s Ford Bridge lynching, switch to the Republican Party after Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson, a southerner himself, signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law). A federal grand jury was convened into the Malcolm/ Dorsey lynchings, but after seven days of testimony, it concluded that the hundreds of witnesses that had appeared before it could not conclusively
Lou Michaels Roy Lewis - Washington D.C. Artist Donald Walker Contact Us: Insight News, Inc. Marcus Garvey House 1815 Bryant Ave. N. Minneapolis. 55411 Ph.: (612) 588-1313 Fax: (612) 588-2031 Member: Minnesota Multicultural Media Consortium (MMMC) Minnesota Newspaper Association (MNA) National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) Postmaster: Send address changes to McFarlane Media Interests, Marcus Garvey House 1815 Bryant Avenue North, Minneapolis,
Banning fences to contain dogs (while also banning dogs from being tied up outside) (park rule 11.5.4) Restricting residents’ guests from visiting for more than ten days (park rule 9.1) Viking Terrace residents informed the AGO that they received demands to remove a tricycle from their yard, tear down their sheds, stop parking their work trailers on their own driveway, and remove a fire pit that in their yard that had been used just the day before. One resident reported to the AGO, “It is absolutely infuriating and devastating for me to see that my family and community members are being treated this way. My community has lived here for many years and has worked to make their homes beautiful. This company is destroying our lives and is making us live in fear in our own homes.” Another resident reported the new 10:00 pm curfew that prohibited any movement in the park that looked like loitering scared them into not leaving their home at night. At a July 12, 2022 Northfield City Council
AG Ellison record of protecting manufacturedhome park residents Attorney General Ellison has a long record of protecting the residents of manufactured-home parks. In addition to his successful effort to enforce the law to protect the residents of Viking Terrace in Northfield: In August 2021, Attorney General Ellison sued the owners of Broadmoor manufactured-home park in
About the Special Outreach and Protection Unit The Special Outreach and Protection Unit that Attorney General Ellison founded is designed to expand the Office’s consumeroutreach and -protection efforts into historically disenfranchised communities. These communities are facing consumer-protection issues that make it hard for them to afford their lives and live with dignity, safety, and respect, but lack the resources to solve those issues on their own and often lack the awareness that they can contact the Attorney General’s Office for help. Staff of the Unit go into those communities to meet people in their languages where they live, find out directly from them what their consumerprotection needs are, and build enforcement around them. Recent actions of the Unit include: Winning a landmark court victory against Minneapolis landlord Steven Meldahl’s “brazen and deplorable” practices in violating tenants’ rights and a judgment of more than $1 million in legal fees. Reaching a settlement that requires a landlord in Kandiyohi and Lyon Counties to refund 877 tenant households for illegal utility fees. Suing Havenbrook Homes, one of the largest landlords in Minnesota, for failing to repair rental homes and violating Minnesota law. Attorney General Ellison encourages tenants who believe their landlord is violating their rights to submit a Tenant Report Form on the Attorney General’s website or call the Attorney General’s Office at (651) 296-3353 (Metro area) or (800) 657-3787 (Greater Minnesota).
insightnews.com
Insight News • August 1, 2022 - August 7, 2022 • Page 5
Black to the Future by Mizz Mercedez businesses in the community in terms of 1) finding a need 2) meeting the need and 3) doing it well. In reading this book, the inventors succeeded in meeting all of the above. In her creative
Sharing Our Stories
genius, Mercedez succeeded in making it relevant to children as well. Black to the Future is available at www. MizzMercedez.com. In the
meantime, thank you, Mercedez, for your creativity in bringing the past and future together in the present. I look forward to further editions.
By: W.D. Foster-Graham Book Review Editor Black to the Future By Mizz Mercedez As a Baby Boomer growing up in south Minneapolis, I for one had built up quite a collection of comic books. My favorites at the time were Superman, Batman, the Green Hornet, Green Lantern, and Flash. And no, there were no superheroes represented who looked like me back then. There was also the myth that African Americans were merely consumers who made no contributions to this country, when in fact so many of the products we use today were created by Black inventors; other than a very brief reference to George Washington Carver, these facts certainly weren’t taught in school during my childhood. That being said, it is my pleasure to bring to you Mizz Mercedez’s comic book Black to the Future. Black to the Future combines the vivid visuals of a comic strip drawing in children and adults alike, with short biographies of Black inventors past and present. Each story features a product we use,
followed by the inventor’s story. Featured inventors are Thomas J. Martin, Augustus Jackson, Alexander Miles, Dr. Patricia Bath, Frederick McKinley Jones, Gerald “Jerry” Lawson, Madame C.J. Walker, Lonnie Johnson, and Marie VanBrittan Brown. Mercedez’s comic book also gives a shout-out to contemporary inventors and entrepreneurs such as Semaj
Sheppard, Levelle Timberlake, Cameron Smith, Ebony Yarborough, Destiny Roberts, Michael and Stephanie Wright, MN Venom, Brian and Rdella White, and Margaret Sullivan. Don’t be surprised if you recognize local businesses in this list. The late Johnson Publishing Company founder John H. Johnson stressed the importance of the inventions and
The Untold Stories of Reverse Racism by Rodney Cloud Hill Hill welcomes readers into a work of fiction based on historical facts, a work in which he adroitly flips the script— presenting racism in reverse. In this shift, the “dominant race” (Whites/Europeans) becomes the oppressed and the “inferior race” (Blacks/ Africans) is now the oppressor. References, experiences,
Jealous From 3 We talked to criminologists, public officials, clergy and other community activists, and members of law enforcement. “All Safe: Transforming Public Safety” is a guide for public officials and community activists seeking to make their communities safer. Among the essetial steps to make policing more just and more effective at the same time: improving recruiting to weed out potentially dangerous cops, holding violent officers accountable, and getting unfit officers off the force. Also, importantly, restructuring public safety systems to
Ex-Cops From 3 both men, prosecutors argued for sentences within that range or longer, arguing in Kueng’s case that he “didn’t say a word” as Floyd lay dying. They also disputed that Thao’s role was minor, with prosecutor LeeAnn Bell saying he had “a bird’s-eye view of what was going on” with Floyd pinned to the pavement, and had “years on the force” that meant he should have known better. She said Thao sometimes looked directly at Floyd and at times had bystanders telling him exactly what was happening. The federal government brought the civil rights charges against all four officers in May 2021, a month after Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter in state court. They were seen as an affirmation of the Justice Department’s priorities to address racial inequities in policing, a promise made by President Joe Biden before his election. And they came just a week after federal prosecutors brought hate crimes charges in the killing of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and announced two sweeping probes
perspectives, and belief systems are flipped—hence, for example, the title Blackwash, instead of Whitewash. Names of individuals, places, events, laws, and so on, are altered to fit this fictional stage. However, the facts that shore up this imaginary scenario are only too real.
reduce the unnecessary involvement of armed officers in situations where they are not needed and for which they are not trained is good for cops as well as communities. The authors of “His Name Is George Floyd” describe optimism in the face of our history as both a defense mechanism and a means of survival. I am optimistic that we can end unjust police killings. I am optimistic that we can build the uncomfortably large coalitions it will take. “Our book makes the argument that if we can demonstrate step-by-step how this country’s history with racism continues to shape people today, then we can continue the good work of dismantling systemic racism,” Samuels told me in an e-mail. “We have to connect
the theory with the practice.” That job belongs to all of us. We know what kind of changes will make our communities safer. Let’s organize, city by city and town by town, to make it happen. Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and Professor of the Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. A New York Times best-selling author, his next book “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free” will be published by Harper Collins in December 2022. The post COMMENTARY: New Book Examines Life of George Floyd in Context of Racism, Oppression in U.S. first appeared on Post News Group. This article originally appeared in Post News Group.
into policing in two states. Magnuson said there was no question that Kueng violated Floyd’s rights by failing to get off him when Floyd became unresponsive. But he also mentioned what he called “an incredible number” of letters supporting Kueng that he said came from other officers. “You were truly a rookie officer,” Magnuson told Kueng. Thao was sentenced at a subsequent hearing, where he spoke for more than 20 minutes, frequently quoting scripture as he said his arrest and time in jail led him to turn toward God, but did not directly address his actions or offer any words to the Floyd family. Thao — like Lane and Kueng — remains free on bond, but spent several weeks in jail after his 2020 arrest on the state charges. Magnuson again acknowledged letters supporting the former officer, including one that he said had 744 signatures, and cited what he called Thao’s “completely clean record.” “You had a difficult childhood and have done well to become a good police officer, father and husband,” the judge said. Mark Osler, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law
and former federal prosecutor, said ahead of Wednesday’s sentencing hearings that Kueng and Thao would likely seek a plea deal on the state charges that would not exceed the federal sentence and would let them serve the sentences concurrently. Both men are due to report to federal prison on Oct. 4, though Magnuson noted that could change because of their state trial. Magnuson said he would recommend that they be allowed to serve their time at minimum-security federal facilities in Duluth or in Yankton, South Dakota, so they could be near family. The final decision is up to the Bureau of Prisons. Chauvin, who is white, was the most senior officer at the scene and was sentenced to a 22 1/2-year state sentence that he’s serving concurrently with his federal sentence. He’s been held in solitary confinement in the state’s maximum security prison at Oak Park Heights for his own safety since his murder conviction and will eventually be transferred to federal prison. Associated Press/ Report for America reporter Trisha Ahmed contributed. Find AP’s full coverage of the killing of George Floyd at: https://apnews. com/hub/death-of-george-floyd
Protect Your Child from
COVID-19 dŚĞ Ks/ Ͳϭϵ WĮnjĞƌ sĂĐĐŝŶĞ ŝƐ ŶŽǁ ĂǀĂŝůĂďůĞ ƚŽ ĐŚŝůĚƌĞŶ ϱͲϭϭ LJĞĂƌƐ ŽůĚ͘ ƌĞĐŽŵŵĞŶĚƐ ĐŚŝůĚƌĞŶ ϱͲϭϭ LJĞĂƌƐ ŽůĚ ƚŽ ŐĞƚ ǀĂĐĐŝŶĂƚĞĚ͘ ǀĞŶ ĐŚŝůĚƌĞŶ ĐĂŶ ŐĞƚ Ks/ Ͳϭϵ͕ ĂŶĚ ƚŚĞ ǀĂĐĐŝŶĞ ŚĞůƉƐ ƉƌŽǀŝĚĞ ƉƌŽƚĞĐƟŽŶ ƚŽ ŬĞĞƉ ĐŚŝůĚƌĞŶ ŚĞĂůƚŚLJ͘
COVID-19 vaccine is safe, free, and effective for children 5-11 years old.
COVID-19 vaccine builds protection.
COVID-19 vaccine does not cause infertility.
mn.gov/vaccine Minnesota Department of Health | health.mn.gov | 625 Robert Street North PO Box 64975, St. Paul, MN 55164-0975 651-201-5000 | Contact health.communications@state.mn.us to request an alternate format. 11/ /2021
Page 6 • August 1, 2022 - August 7, 2022 • Insight News
insightnews.com
Insight 2 Health
AP exposes the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: The 50th Anniversary By Jean Heller Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — EDITOR’S NOTE — On July 25, 1972, Jean Heller, a reporter on The Associated Press investigative team, then called the Special Assignment Team, broke news that rocked the nation. Based on documents leaked by Peter Buxtun, a whistleblower at the U.S. Public Health Service, the then 29-yearold journalist and the only woman on the team, reported that the federal government let hundreds of Black men in rural Alabama go untreated for syphilis for 40 years in order to study the impact of the disease on the human body. Most of the men were denied access to penicillin, even when it became widely available as a cure. A public outcry ensued, and nearly four months later, the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” came to an end. The investigation would have far-reaching implications: The men in the study filed a lawsuit that resulted in a $10 million settlement, Congress passed laws governing how subjects in research studies were treated, and more than two decades later President Bill Clinton formally apologized for the study, calling it “shameful.” Today, the effects of the study still linger — it is often blamed for the unwillingness of some African Americans to participate in medical research. In observance of the 50th anniversary of Heller’s groundbreaking investigation, the AP is republishing the original report and a recent interview with her and others on how the story came together. For 40 years the U.S. Public Health Service has conducted a study in which human guinea pigs, denied proper medical treatment, have died
of syphilis and its side effects. The study was conducted to determine from autopsies what the disease does to the human body. PHS officials responsible for initiating the experiment have long since retired. Current PHS officials, who say they have serious doubts about the morality of the study, also say that it is too late to treat syphilis in any of the study’s surviving participants. But PHS doctors say they are rendering whatever other medical services they can now give to the survivors while the study of the disease’s effects continues. The experiment, called the Tuskegee Study began in 1932 with about 600 black men mostly poor and uneducated, from Tuskegee, Ala., an area that had the highest syphilis rate in the nation at the time. One-third of the group was free of syphilis; two-thirds showed evidence of the disease. In the syphilitic group, half were given the best treatment known at the time, but the other half, about 200 men, received no treatment at all for syphilis, PHS officials say. As incentives to enter the program, the men were promised free transportation to and from hospitals, free hot lunches, free medicine for any disease other than syphilis and free burial after autopsies were performed. The Tuskegee Study began 10 years before penicillin was discovered to be a cure for syphilis and 15 years before the drug became widely available. Yet, even after penicillin became common, and while its use probably could have helped or saved a number of the experiment subjects, the drug was denied them, Dr. J.D. Millar says. He is chief of the venereal disease branch of the PHS’s Center for Disease
photo/HOGP_National Archives
photo/HOGP_National Archives
This 1950’s photo made available by the National Archives shows a man included in a syphilis study in Alabama. For 40 years starting in 1932, medical workers in the segregated South withheld treatment for Black men who were unaware they had syphilis, so doctors could track the ravages of the illness and dissect their bodies afterward.
In this 1950’s photo released by the National Archives, a man included in a syphilis study has blood drawn by a doctor in Tuskegee, Ala. For 40 years starting in 1932, medical workers in the segregated South withheld treatment for Black men who were unaware they had syphilis, so doctors could track the ravages of the illness and dissect their bodies afterward. Finally exposed in 1972, the study ended and the men sued, resulting in a $9 million settlement.
Control in Atlanta and is now in charge of what remains of the Tuskegee Study. Dr. Millar said in an interview that he has serious doubts about the program. “I think a definite serious moral problem existed when the study was undertaken, a more serious moral problem was overlooked in the post-war years when penicillin became available but was not given to these men and a moral problem still exists,” Dr. Millar said. “But the study began when attitudes were much different on treatment and experimentation. At this point in time, with our current knowledge of treatment and the disease and the revolutionary change in approach to human experimentation, I don’t believe the program would be undertaken,” he said. Syphilis, a highly contagious infection spread by sexual contact, can cause if untreated, bone and dental deformations, deafness, blindness, heart disease and central nervous system deterioration.
To Protect Yourself and Others from Covid-19 If you feel sick...
No figures were available on when the last death occurred in the program. And one official said that apparently no conscious effort was made to halt the program after it got under way. A 1969 CDC study of 276 treated and untreated syphilitics who participated in the Tuskegee Study showed that seven had died as a direct result of syphilis. Another 154 died of heart disease. CDC officials say they cannot determine at this late date how many of the heart disease deaths were caused by syphilis or how many additional deaths could be linked to the disease. However, several years ago an American Medical Association study determined that untreated syphilis reduces life expectancy by 17 per cent in black men between the ages of 25 and 50, a precise description of the Tuskegee Study subjects. Don Prince, another official in the venereal disease branch of CDC, said the Tuskegee Study had contributed some knowledge about syphilis,
particularly that the morbidity and mortality rate among untreated syphilitics were not as high as previously believed. Like Dr. Millar, Prince said he thought the study should have been halted with penicillin treatment for participants after World War II. “I don’t know why the decision was made in 1946 not to stop the program,” Prince said. “I was unpleasantly surprised when I first came here and found out about it. It really puzzles me.” At the beginning of 1972, according to CDC data, 74 of the untreated syphilitics were still living. All of them, Dr. Millar said, were men who did not suffer any potentially fatal side effects from their bouts with the disease. Some of them received penicillin and antibiotics in past years for other aliments, Prince said, but none has ever received treatment for syphilis. Now, both men agree, it’s too late Recent reviews of the Tuskegee Study by the
EDDIE 9V High-velocity Soul Vocals
AUG 12 HOT CLUB OF COWTOWN Western Swing Favorites
AUG 14
CHECK YOUR SYMPTOMS
GET TESTED
START WEARING A MASK
STAY HOME IF YOU TEST POSITIVE
GET VACCINATED For more information, visit northpointhealth.org/ coronavirus-updates
Scan this QR code for more vaccine information
CDC indicate that treatment now for survivors is medically questionable, Dr. Millar said. Their average age is 74 and massive penicillin therapy, with possible ill side effects, is deemed too great a risk to individuals, particularly for those whose syphilis is now dormant. However, Dr. Millar, added there was a point in time when survivors could have been treated with at least some measure of success. “The most critical moral issue about this experiment arises in the postwar era, the years after the end of World War II when penicillin became widely available. “I know some were treated with penicillin for other diseases and then dropped from the program because the drug had some positive effect on the primary disease (syphilis). Looking at it now, one cannot see any reason they could not have been treated at that time.”
ARETHA & HER MEN feat. Kathleen Johnson, Gwen Matthews & Friends
AUG 13
THE LARRY MCDONOUGH & JOEL SHAPIRA QUINTET Bill Evans’ Birthday Celebration
AUG 15
HONEYBUTTER Sunny Dreamy Pop
JANE MONHEIT A Voice of Phenomenal Beauty – NYTimes
AUG 16
AUG 17
CHARANGA TROPICAL Sizzling Cuban Sounds
SHABBY ROAD ORCHESTRA: PERFORMS “LET IT BE”
AUG 18
AUG 19
ANDREW WALESCH & HIS ORCHESTRA Songs of Cole Porter
COCO MONTOYA & RONNIE BAKER BROOKS Music of Albert Collins
AUG 20
AUG 23
JEARLYN & FRED STEELE Duos, Duets & Pairings
ARMCHAIR BOOGIE Feel-good Newgrass
AUG 24
AUG 25
612.332.5299 dakotacooks.com
1010 Nicollet Mall Minneapolis, MN
insightnews.com
Insight News • August 1, 2022 - August 7, 2022 • Page 7
Page 8 • August 1, 2022 - August 7, 2022 • Insight News
insightnews.com