Showing posts with label Washington Post. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Washington Post. Show all posts

Thursday, June 3, 2021

Just another reason why Americans hate/loathe the U.S. news media of 2021... sheer laziness and an unwillingness to admit that facts that challenge media narrative will NOT be included. Asking hard questions about the mistakes unacknowledged in Washington Post story re Memphis moving remains of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, who led the early KKK


Just another reason why Americans hate/loathe the U.S. news media of 2021... sheer laziness and an unwillingness to admit that facts that challenge media narrative will NOT be included.

Asking hard questions about the mistakes unacknowledged in Washington Post story re Memphis moving remains of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, who led the early KKK, and the remains of his his wife. 

Forrest being one of the streets here in Hollywood that were changed in 2017 by the Hollywood City Commission.

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/arts/controversial-forrest-street-in-hollywood-florida-to-be-changed-to-savannah-street-9449073

Here's the story as it exists this afternoon on the Washington Post homepage. My comments follow.


The Washington Post

Memphis is digging up the remains of a Confederate general who led the early KKK

June 2, 2021 at 9:26 p.m. EDT

The remains of early Ku Klux Klan leader and Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest were finally being exhumed from a Memphis park, and the Black woman who led a long battle for the change was there to mark the moment.

But as activist-turned-elected-official Tami Sawyer prepared to address reporters, a man waved a Confederate flag behind her. Pacing back and forth, he called the Memphis city council member a “communist.” Then he started singing “Dixie,” the anthem of the Old South.

Read the rest of the story at https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/06/02/memphis-exhumes-confederate-remains/

The author of the original tweet (of a thread) that appears in a featured Washington Post article by former South Florida reporter Brittany Shammas -Miami New Times and South Florida Sun-Sentinel- that was posted last night at 9:39 p.m. is a Memphis TV reporter named Chris Luther.

Luther added additional information in his tweet thread of Tuesday noting that there were several mistakes in what he'd originally tweeted, and he publicly noted what those corrections were on Tuesdayhttps://twitter.com/cluther_wmc5/status/1399858172244992004

As of 4:00 pm today, two days later, despite those corrections having been known for more than 24 hours BEFORE the WaPo story ever got posted publicly, Shammas and The Post posted something that they knew or should have known was factually incorrect, and yet they have still NOT made any mention of those corrections.

Corrections which completely change the dynamic of that Luther's tweet, which I think almost any objective person would conclude was included in the WaPo article by Shammas
expressly for the purpose of inflaming readers, not educating or informing them.

Which, to me, is not actually what journalism is supposed to do, as opposed to the purpose served in newspaper or magazine columns, or essays in The New Yorker.

That's a perfect example of why Americans increasingly not only dislike the media, but resent them or loathe them: An unwillingness to publicly admit when they're wrong or have misinformed the public, either intentionally or by accident, because acknowledging it would distract from the media's narrative.

This sort of unprofessional behavior is an epidemic among the South Florida news media, but that's a story for another day.

By the way, some of you newer readers of the blog may not know, despite some previous posts of mine, that I lived in Memphis during the mid-1960's as a young child, and it's where the youngest of my two younger sisters was born. 
We were still living in Memphis in April of 1968 when Dr. Martin Luther King was shot, as I've also written about in some detail here previously, as well on Instagram three years ago.

We moved to Miami less than four months later.


1993 ELVIS PRESLEY STAMP -WATERCOLOR OF ELVIS BY MARK STUTZMAMN


It was in 1960's Memphis specifically, and the Mid-South in general, on my family's weekend (often-interminable) drives all around Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, where I first developed my deep and enduring love and preference for many things: the Mississippi River; rhythm 'n' blues; Al Green; The Andy Griffith Show; Dusty Springfield; Petula Clark; St. Louis Cardinals baseball in the summertime, knowing that their catcher Tim McCarver and his family lived in my apt. complex during the off-season; smoky sweet Memphis-style barbecue ribs; cornbread, and, of course, The King - Elvis

To a devout Elvis fan like me, who knows just about everything there is to know about him, the good and the bad, the best books ever written on Elvis -by far- are Peter Guralnick's masterful "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley" and the follow-up, "Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley." 
Each is written with honesty and empathy, free of the judgmental cant and analysis that doomed other books that purport to tell the tale.

It was also while living in The Mid-South, that I first became greatly interested in the American Civil War, following a summer day-trip to Shiloh, the site of the bloody April 1862 battle. 
It was on that summer day trip when I was seven years old that I had a chance meeting with a VERY old man on the battlefield itself. 
A man whose said own father had actually fought in the battle. 
And lived to tell the tale! 

For more info on Shiloh, see https://www.nps.gov/shil/index.htm
Spending a day there is an awesome experience and really puts things into their proper perspective, just as my later trips to Gettysburg, Harper's Ferry, Winchester, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania did as well.


Saturday, May 1, 2021

Stop the privatization of public beaches in #HollywoodFL. Get involved and vocal on May 5th and let the Hollywood City Commission know that you want Public Beach Access properly maintained, NOT weakened! Hollywood residents, please oppose Wednesday's agenda item #24. Ocean/beach access is for everyone, including sunrise and sunset.

Stop the privatization of public beaches in #HollywoodFL. Get involved and vocal on May 5th and let the Hollywood City Commission know that you want Public Beach Access properly maintained, NOT weakened!
Hollywood residents, please oppose Wednesday's agenda item #24. 
Ocean/beach access is for everyone, including sunrise and sunset.

Photo of Hollywood City Hall by me, March 2021



https://t.co/l6ht9n2Sxh?amp=1


Reminder: This Washington Post article is almost 4 years old.

The Washington Post

Free the beaches, before it’s too late
America's beaches are for everyone. Let's keep them that way.

By Andrew W. Kahrl
August 3, 2017 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Andrew W. Kahrl is associate professor of history and African American studies at the University of Virginia and author of “The Land Was Ours: How Black Beaches Became White Wealth in the Coastal South.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/08/03/free-the-beaches-before-its-too-late/


So here's the information on Agenda Item #24 for Wednesday's Hollywood City Commission: 

An Ordinance Of The City Of Hollywood, Florida, Amending Chapter 72 Of The Code Of Ordinances Entitled "Parking" To Revise The Parking Permit Program And Update Other Provisions; Providing For A Repealer Provision And A Severability Clause.
https://hollywoodfl.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4928396&GUID=6DB1CDE0-0ED5-4395-A27D-B00FCF8B1D4D&Options=&Search=

Below are the three most recent updates on the street parking situation on Hollywood Beach written by my friend and fellow Hollywood civic activist, Catherine "Cat" Uden:



The city is justifying the “Beach Residential Zones” as elderly residents on fixed incomes with disabled spouses having nowhere to park at night. If elderly residents need more parking, then the city should find a way to do that. But, that's not what this is. 

The ordinance says nothing about elderly or disabled people. The ordinance allows ANY condo resident to apply for more spots. Not only can they apply for more spots for themselves, but I think the ordinance states they can ALSO apply for special guest permits so that their guests can have special beach parking.
That is basically privatizing the beach and stealing good street parking from the rest of the Hollywood residents.

In addition, it seems the city won’t have to give the public any warning or allow us to make public comments on zones being created. 
They will just take away our sunrise/sunset parking, and that’s that.
This ordinance passed on first reading, and I’m hoping there’s a second reading where the public can make comments.


For those who enjoy Hollywood Beach- Please make a public comment by the deadline today 4/20. 
🌟Agenda item 14 is Citizen Comments. 

🌟The city plans to take away half of certain streets and turn them into zones for barrier island residents and their guests only from 6 pm until 8 am. No other Hollywood residents or members of the public would be able to park there. 
It’s possible that they could even leave their cars in those zones all day if they purchase another permit. It’s also possible they will be given this special parking even if they already have 2 spots per condo unit. 
The city could create these zones without any warning to the public and we would not get an opportunity or weigh in. 
The privileged who live at the beach could apply for up to 4 permits and 2 for their guests. Residents like me who have paid for a $160 annual sticker would be shut out of these zones.
Please oppose the “Beach Residential Only” parking zones. 
The beach is for all, we all paid for the sand, and they should not be taking away public access or public parking.

http://fl-hollywood2.civicplus.com/FormCenter/City-Clerk-12/2Regular-City-Commission-Meeting-Public--230

You can also choose to speak in person at 5 pm on 4/21 at city hall, agenda item 14.
Check out the @surfriderbroward Facebook event page for more details. 
The final vote is May 5th.
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Save our sunrise and sunset parking. Ask the @cityofhollywoodfl to oppose “Beach resident only” parking zones - agenda item 24. 
If this ordinance passes, even Hollywood residents with an annual resident sticker will be excluded from these zones for 14 plus hours every single day. (6 pm until 8 am). 
Beach residents who are already provided spots by their building could also apply for these zones and might get multiple permits and also guest permits. 👎🏾 Save our public street parking. 

May 5th city meeting. 
Make a public comment opposing Agenda item 24 here: Hollywoodfl.org 

-----

REMINDER: For your comment to be read aloud at the Wednesday meeting it must be received BEFORE 6 p.m. on Tuesday the 4th.


Submit a Public Comment:

  • Any member of the public wishing to comment publicly on any matter, including specific agenda items and/or Citizens Comments may do so via the City’s website at the links below or via telephone. 
  • Comments are limited to 400 words and/or 3 minute spoken maximum.
  • Staff will read the comments into the record during the meeting. All comments received during the submission period will become part of the public record.
-----------
For those of you who are new to this blog, I first wrote about Catherine "Cat" Uden in early 2019

The last time I mentioned Cat here on the blog, in June of last year, came in conjunction with  another matter, namely...
Hollywood residents deserve better than this completely inadequate effort at public engagement on big spending issues, via Hollywood General Obligation Bond Advisory Committee
I received roughly 3,000 views from concerned residents and stakeholders, receiving quite a few comments about how spot-on my comments were, and all wondering when the city was going to loosen things at Hollywood City Hall that prevents more of the public from actively participating, including opening up public Civic Association meetings again.

Just something to consider...

Thursday, August 20, 2020

#VoteByMail - The odd, 2020 political issue that nobody could've predicted last year would arouse so much anger and passion. But it's also the issue that, like the weather, everyone feels they're an expert on, even when they aren't. To say nothing of being in the dark about how the finances of the USPS, and why it's so in the red


#VoteByMail - The odd, 2020 political issue that nobody could've predicted last year would arouse so much anger and passion. But it's also the issue that, like the weather, everyone feels they're an expert on, even when they aren't. To say nothing of being in the dark about how the finances of the USPS, and why it's so in the red.

Today's blog post serves as a bit of a follow-up to my previous comments here of July 12th regarding the realities of #VoteByMail, with some links to some interesting articles and columns on an surprising political divide in the U.S. that almost no reasonable person could have imagined last year would cause anger among some Americans: Where do you stand on the issue of local and state governments deciding to send out election ballots to all registered voters regardless of whether or not they requested them, and the potential for abuse.

SUNDAY, JULY 12, 2020
#VoteByMail - A word or two or three about the reliability of absentee ballots, via Wisconsin's recent very negative experience; Friends don't let friends vote for #JenniferGottlieb
https://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2020/07/votebymail-word-or-two-or-three-about.html

Here's a Washington Post story that's likely to be driving much of the #VoteByMail media conversation for a while, despite very few people in America really knowing all the very gruesome financial details regarding the US Postal Service and how it got that way.

It's worth remembering that U.S. Senators from more rural states -including some I know- will always be forced by virtue of public pressure to insist that their constituents not receive any less service than residents in urban areas, i.e. Saturday mail, the one thing that most urbanites are willing to do without in order to reduce costs, both institutional and long-term.

The Washington Post
Postal Service tells 46 states that mail-in ballots may not arrive in time to be counted
The warnings point to a grim possibility: Even if people voting by mail follow all the election rules, the pace of delivery may disqualify their votes.

By Erin Cox, Elise Viebeck, Jacob Bogage and Christopher Ingraham
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/usps-states-delayed-mail-in-ballots/2020/08/14/64bf3c3c-dcc7-11ea-8051-d5f887d73381_story.html


FoxNews Channel
Tucker Carlson: Media go all-in on mailbox conspiracy
Uploaded August 17, 2020
No one is stealing mailboxes. #FoxNews #Tucker
https://youtu.be/KGvpaejsrkU























🗳 Fueled by mail ballots, Florida voters showed up this summer in remarkable numbers, turning out amid a pandemic at the highest rate seen in a presidential-year August primary since 1992. More than 3.8 million voters participated in Tuesday’s election, according to data posted late Tuesday by the Florida Division of Elections. In South Florida, more than 900,000 ballots were cast — more than two-thirds of them by mail. The increased participation generated expectations of a high-turnout presidential election between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden this November. And if Florida is expected to once again be a key electoral battlefield, mail ballots — one of Trump’s most controversial foils this year — will almost certainly play an unprecedented role. In Miami-Dade, where the number of votes in Tuesday’s election surpassed the number cast in the 2018 midterms by about 100,000, voter participation was up across the board this summer. But Democrats emerged from Tuesday’s election especially enthusiastic about mail voting, which helped boost turnout among voters between the ages of 18 and 34 and among voters who’d never before participated in an August election. Statewide, Democrats voted overwhelmingly by mail, casting more than 1.1 million mail ballots before Election Day began. Republicans, who once used absentee voting to build up pre-Election Day leads over Democrats, submitted at least 766,000 mail ballots, with results still being tallied Tuesday night. You can read more at the link in our bio // ✍️: David Smiley, 📸: @pportalphoto
A post shared by Miami Herald (@miamiherald) on   

South Florida Sun Sentinel
Editorial Board 
Big changes in Broward: Record turnout and a culture change in criminal justice  August 19th, 2020
Broward voters made history Tuesday, both in how we vote, and in who will likely lead the criminal justice system in this Democratic-rich, majority-minority county.
Contrary to elections of yore, when Broward became a national laughingstock for its untimely election results, appointed Elections Supervisor Pete Antonacci delivered a seemingly seamless election under the most trying of pandemic conditions.
Nothing speaks louder on election night than numbers. People want the results, quickly and accurately. And Antonacci's office delivered the rolling tallies without delays, far before Palm Beach County did. It also live-streamed its vote-counting and canvassing board's work. 
Also for the history books, almost 75% of Broward voters made clear that they prefer to vote by mail, which could lead to a record turnout in November's presidential election. This election proves that when government makes it easier and safer for people to vote, and people take sensible precautions, a lot more people will vote. About 25% of Broward voters turned out for this primary, up from 16% four years ago. That's a healthy sign for democracy.
And what's that about not trusting the Postal Service? The USPS delivered.
See the rest of the editorial at:
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-op-edit-florida-election-takeaways-20200819-27r4kt27ljddxe6qahmxtc5qwi-story.html






President Trump has already offered $10 billion to fix Postal as part of a COVID relief package. Democrats have said no. They’re holding up a relief bill (including stimulus checks and small business relief) until they get more of their policy wishlist demands included.
— Mark Meadows (@MarkMeadows) August 16, 2020





























Latest new re #VoteByMail at: https://twitter.com/hashtag/votebymail?f=live



Dave 
David B. Smith 

Monday, June 25, 2018

Hallandale Beach resolves litigation re 2014 shooting of Howard Bowe by the city's SWAT team, but facts that didn't add up in 2014, still don't in 2018. Beware of SJWs suddenly claiming to be civic activists when they were MIA when it really mattered


Last Wednesday night the City of Hallandale Beach City Commission voted to resolve the litigation involving the city as a result of the 2014 shooting of an African-American Hallandale Beach resident named Howard Bowe by the city Police Dept.'s SWAT unit in a bungled operation that smelled fishy and seemed dodgy from the get-go as far as I and many of my friends in the area were concerned.
Facts just didn't add up.
Didn't add up in 2014, still don't in 2018.

Below is my initial response to the publication on Thursday of Meryl Kornfield's article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
I've posted my tweets and explanatory comments in chronological order so that they make more sense. Especially for those of you who aren't active on Twitter and aren't used to reading comments from the bottom up.

Many of you reading this blog post today were among the 130-plus recipients of my May 28th, 2014 email that I reference in my tweets about the shooting of Howard Bowe in Hallandale Beach, and how the city seemed determined from the very start to do every single thing wrong in its aftermath.

Just think of how differently and better this all could have been handled years ago if someone in a position of leadership at Hallandale Beach City Hall had actually had its citizens and residents long-term best interests at heart.
Shown some savviness, a degree of compassion and some old-fashioned common sense.
Someone like then-Mayor Joy Cooper and City Manager Renee Morse.
But they didn't.
Just the opposite.

If you've been a longtime Small Business owner or resident of Hallandale Beach or a regular visitor of this fact-based blog you will be all too familiar with the various reasons why expecting Cooper and Morse to act responsibly and speak candidly to the community was never in the cards - it was common knowledge from their track records that they were deceitful to residents and stakeholders in ways that were and are shocking even by the very low ethical and moral standards of conduct common among South Florida's unsavory elected officials and highly-paid bureaucrats.

To quote myself from a few years ago: For Mayor Cooper, the truth is like water was to the Wicked Witch - something to be avoided at all costs!

When THAT is your default culture at City Hall, as it was at the time, and STRICTLY enforced, 
only very bad things can result.
And they did -over-and-over for over a decade.
Very bad things.

And for those of you who are new to the blog or reading this blog post from a distance and don't know the situation, in 2014, at the time of this shooting, Hallandale Beach, the city that is notable for being the poster child in South Florida for traffic gridlock and over-sized condominium towers and where 70% of its population lives east of US-1/Federal Highway, had a White Jewish female mayor, and an African-American City Manager, City Attorney and Police Chief.

That reality in 2014, far from an Old Boys Club-type environment, is an inconvenient fact for some people in the community suddenly trying to thrust themselves onto the scene who've never actually done anything selfless for residents and Small Business owners.

South Florida Sun Sentinel 
Family of man killed in police raid to get $425K
South Florida Sun Sentinel 
Meryl Kornfield, Staff writer
June 21, 2018

The Hallandale Beach City Commission voted unanimously to pay the family of a man who died after being shot by a SWAT team carrying out an early-morning search warrant in his home.
Howard Bowe, 34, died 11 days after the May 8, 2014 fatal raid when officers were serving a search warrant as part of a narcotics investigation but instead killed Bowe and his dog.
The family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court two years against the city and four police officers involved after the shooting of the father of three, alleging the "military-style raid committed a series of errors resulting in unnecessary confusion and chaos among the officers."
A resolution to pass the $425,000 settlement wasn't mentioned during the Wednesday night City Commission meeting, but the city clerk said it was passed unanimously, 4-0. The city isn't admitting liability by settling, and the officers were already cleared during an internal review.








Attorney Brian Stewart? Ever hear of him? There's a reason you likely haven't.
You haven't for the same reason that nobody who does closely follows or participates in Hallandale Beach politics or government, people who actually attend meetings and have a familiarity with the true facts and civic landscape of this city, like myself and many of my friends had ever seen or heard of him before 2017.
Last year Stewart showed up a few times at HB City Hall when I was there as usual in the back of the Chambers with my notepad, pen and camera, and as seems to be the case whenever I've seen him, he brought along some acolytes to cheer him on when he spoke.

While they were strong at barking out their agitprop on cue and showing everyone their anger, they were not so solid on the facts or the environment, as several well-informed friends and acquaintances told me during and after the meetings, when they walked up to me before I could slip away and get on my way home.
Enough people, mind you, that I could tell before they even said anything that they were genuinely peeved that someone was trying to portray himself as a genuine Hallandale Beach civic activist -yes, like that's a prestigious title, right- not just an attention-seeker.

The facts are that Stewart was someone who at City Hall and at public meetings as well as at informal occasional get-togethers where longtime concerned residents gather -often Panera Bread as a default for lack of enough good choices- was an unknown quantity because he was a no-show.
There's no there there.
Stewart had never actually done anything of note in Hallandale Beach public policy prior to 2017, not least, showing up and asking good hard questions at public places where the public has a chance to evaluate people based on their words an actions and judge who is a work horse and who is a show horse.

What you need to know is that he never showed up when it counted in the past. 
As it happens, Stewart is the guy behind http://blarg.legalmechanics.us/ and its associated Twitter feed, @LawBlarg, https://twitter.com/LawBlarg
At both, it's rather hard not to notice the rather self-congratulatory tone.

Where was Brian Stewart and his Identity Politics friends in 2014 when he and they could have made a positive difference? 
Could have held people like then-HB Mayor Joy Cooper, the city manager, the city attorney and the police chief to account?

It's tough to stroll into the City Chambers and act like an aggrieved Social Justice Warrior (SJW) when three of the most powerful people in the city are actually African-American, and another is 1 of the 4 other City Commissioners, no?
These facts made Hallandale Beach unique in Florida among non-Majority Minority cities.
(But none of them are in office or power now.)

Those facts, though, never prevented me from publicly criticizing them to their faces over the years in the Chambers or at contentious civic meetings, whether calling them out for their bad judgment or lack of oversight when it was justified, a fact that many people in Hallandale Beach are well aware of, when others were much less eager to do so.




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I strongly urge you to read Radley Balko's article in The Washington Post becase there is some highly-useful information and context there that will shock a lot of newcomers to Hallandale Beach, and give you an excellent idea of how shady things have really been there for decades. 
It also will give longtime residents, i.e. people who think they're longtime because they've been in the area for 10-15 years, something to think about: you should have gotten involved years ago.
Things are the way they are today because you thought you were too busy to hold people in local government to account the way you should've.

In my opinion, it's the very sort of piece we should have seen in the South Florida news media at the time, or since, but never do. 
Yes, not only giving some historical context but holding people in power or who used to hold power to account for their decisions and the logical consequences that followed. 
Yes, you rarely if ever see that now in Miami-based news coverage, as I am forever mentioning and decrying here on this blog.