6/13/2104::And in other news

SC gov. calls to ban ‘black biker week’ after shootings, but not white Harley week

Gov. Nikki Haley (R) has called on one South Carolina town to end an event for black bikers, but has not opposed a similar so-called “Harley Davidson” biker week that is predominantly white.

During the days of segregation, the town of Atlantic Beach began the Myrtle Beach-area Bikefest, which was one of the few events that allowed African-Americans to congregate. Even today, Atlantic Beach bills itself as “the only Black owned beach in the nation.”

White bikers riding Harley Davidson motorcycles are more likely to come a few weeks earlier for the “Myrtle Beach Bike Week.”

After three people were killed just 14 miles away from Bikefest over the Memorial Day weekend, Haley said that it was time for the African-American tradition to end.

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“If you’re going to stop the black bikers weekend, you should stop all biker weekends, regardless if nothing happened during that time,” Atlantic Beach resident Jennequa Miller told the AP. “That’s unfair.

This Lawmaker Complained Sex Education Was ‘Normalizing’ Homosexuality And His State Took Action

A middle school sex ed program will only be taught to Hawaii students if parents explicitly opt-in, the state Department of Education said today. The announcement was the culmination of a long campaign by a virulently anti-gay state legislator who objected that the program was “normalizing” homosexuality.

Hawaii State Rep. Bob McDermott considers gay sex “aberrant behavior” and has been fighting to eliminate the sex ed program, called Pono Choices, for months. McDermott believes that men should “not have anal sex” and “also has problems with oral sex.”

In January, McDermott produced an 18-page report lambasting the program. In the report, McDermott complained the sex ed curriculum was “simultaneously normalizing anal sex and homosexual behavior” and after taking the course students “might be under the impression that homosexuality and lesbianism are quite common.” He objected to the programs “implicit endorsement of homosexuality” and the presentation of “homosexual behavior as the equivalent of male-to-female relationships.”

Feds Rush To Provide Basic Supplies For Surge Of Migrant Kids Held In Makeshift ‘Warehouses’

Unaccompanied children entering the United States at almost double the rate of last year are testing the limits of Department of Homeland Security capacity, as some 1,000 minors who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on their own were transferred to an Arizona “warehouse” that has not been used to hold people in years, according to the Associated Press. The children — including pregnant teens and a 1-year-old with diarrhea — are sleeping in plastic containers and haven’t showered in ten days, according to the Honduras consul to the United States, who visited the site.

The Obama administration declared an “urgent humanitarian situation” this week, and is now ordering thousands of toilets, cots, and other basic provisions for the thousands of migrant children in federal custody. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson declared “a level-four condition of readiness” in the Rio Grande Valley in May after seeing a McAllen, Texas Border Patrol facility overcrowded with children earlier this month. Photos released by conservative news site Breitbart purport to depict packed processing centers in Texas.

Thus far in the 2014 fiscal year, about 47,000 children have been apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border — a 92 percent increase over the previous year, according to Customs and Border Patrol figures. Federal officials have been transferring minors from Texas to other states to handle the surge. Almost all of the 750 children already transferred to Nogales, Arizona this week are from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, where crime and corruption are associated with a surge in migrants fleeing the country. Another 300 were reportedly transferred to the facility by early Sunday morning.

Supreme Court: POM Wonderful Can Go Ahead And Sue Coca-Cola Over Lack Of Pomegranates In Its Juice

POM Wonderful snagged a legal win today in one of its two ongoing cases: The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the juice maker in its decision, which said that POM can proceed with a lawsuit alleging that the label on Coca-Cola’s “Pomegranate Blueberry” is misleading because most of the drink is actually made of grape and apple juice.

It was a unanimous vote for POM (though Justice Stephen Breyer sat this one out), and one that could mean more lawsuits like this against food makers who perhaps fudge it a bit on labels, reports the Associated Press. And if there’s something we consumers hate, it’s fudging. Unless that means eating actual fudge, because yum.

Leading up to this decision, other courts had come down on Coke’s side because the label complies with Food and Drug Administration laws and regulations.

But that’s not enough, the Supreme Court said — just because the label technically conforms to the rules doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not misleading to consumers.

Do we really need Angelina Jolie?

A couple years ago, I met Jolie briefly in the UK. I’d been asked to present our work documenting sexualized violence in Syria to Hague and others dedicated to this issue. She listened intently and said nothing. Since, I’ve heard her speak out multiple times for survivors who are not able to speak for themselves or able to obtain the global reach their stories so dearly need. Whether they are living a difficult life trying to raise a baby from rape, as Mireille, or they are unable to even step outside a hospital room, as the girl in southern Turkey, or they are being forbidden from living a life of recovery and freedom as the woman in Idlib, she is speaking for them by saying she supports this cause.

Jolie’s stratospheric visibility is making these women and girls visible.

For that simple fact alone, I believe we need Angelina Jolie, just as we need the investigators, the prosecutors, the philanthropists, the advocates, and the journalists. Because the attention economy for truly caring about suffering is tiny (as is the funding for efforts to help), we need Angelina Jolie. It is with her help, her devotion to the suffering of women who cannot leave their houses because of the intense stigma of rape, that we can bring attention to this issue. Now we just need governments to take on the complex problems that lead to rape in war and the needs of survivors after the fact. Until they do, Angelina Jolie, we need you.