Center for Disabilities Rights,Inc. Wins 2 Week Stay for CDPAS Program
On August 2, 2010, Judge Richard Dollinger of the NYS Supreme Court awarded Center for Disability Rights, their consumers and their attendants a 2 week stay for the CDPAS program. The stay is in effect until August 13, 2010, preventing Monroe County from moving forward with its plan to close CDR’s CDPAS and transition every one of CDR’s consumers to other agencies.
The Judge's decision also ordered Monroe County to send letters to consumers in English and Spanish. The original letters that Monroe County sent out to the CDPAS consumers were only in English, causing confusion for consumers who only read in Spanish.
“We were confident going in to court this morning that we had enough evidence that Monroe County’s decision to end this contract is both arbitrary and capricious,†said Bruce Darling, President/CEO of CDR. “In layman’s terms, what they’ve done is potentially illegal.â€
The Center for Disability Rights, Inc. stated they will continue to fight Maggie Brooks' decision. The Center filed briefs in NYS Supreme Court for permanent reinstatement of funding of the CAPAS by Monroe County.
additional information: Center for Disability Rights, Inc.
Disability Rights Advocates Continue Encampment to Protest De-funding Center for Disability Rights
Disability Rights Activists, CDR (Center for Disability Rights) staff and consumers, and community supporters continued their encampment in front of the Monroe County Leg Building on Main Street in Downtown Rochester on Friday. This enters the 5th day of the round-the-clock encampment.
Letter to County Executive Maggie Brooks written by one of the participants in the encampment.
Video of Speak out and March to County Building
Rochester Indymedia Back Up!
As our regular readers know, the Rochester Indymedia site has been down for nearly the entire month of July. On July 4th, our server was stolen from our office at the Flying Squirrel Community Space.
Fortunately, we have started a new collaboration with the MayFirst/PeopleLink- a media cooperative that is very much in line with our goals at Rochester Indymedia. This collaboration will address security issues as well as facilitate broadening our national networking.
The rocus lists and sites were backed up and will be functioning at full speed in the very near future. Please consider donating to help us continue to provide tech infrastructure such as lists and websites to the community, as well as to continue our work at indymedia.
Rochester Indymedia 285 Clarissa St Rochester, NY 14608
The Numbers Are In, Mayoral Control Is Out: Community Members Testify Against Mayoral Control
With all the hoopla in the media regarding yesterday's spectacle of a "public hearing", it's important for those who were not able to attend (after all, most people work on Friday mornings and/or afternoons or have other daytime obligations) to understand clearly what actually went down, what was said, and perhaps most importantly, who said it.
Based on close listening and note-taking throughout the first six hours of the seven-hour forum, here are some interesting numbers I recorded on the subject of "who said what."
Of the 43 people I witnessed speak, only twelve spoke in favor of the legislation. But what's most interesting is the fact that of those twelve who spoke in favor of the legislation, six were elected officials/politicians, and three were affluent CEOs. Only three community members and/or parents or RCSD students, with no financial and/or political ties to mayoral control spoke in favor of the legislation.
On the other hand, 31 spoke against the legislation. Of those 31, eight were elected officials/politicians. Twenty-three community members and parents spoke against the mayoral control legislation.
Read the Testimonies!
Elizabeth Brown , Carrie Peetluk , Crystal Johnson , Tim Adams, Lori Thomas, Rev. C. Michael Tillman, Sr., Mary Adams, Ricardo Adams, Chris Edes,
Previous R-IMC Coverage: THE EXPERTS SPEAK: Parents' and Students' Perspectives on Mayoral Control | Community Asks Duffy, "Why Avoid Open Debate?" | Students March Against Mayoral Control | Indy TV #33: Community Education Task Force on Proposed Mayoral Takeover of Schools | Opponents of Mayoral Control Picket David Gantt's Office | Community Education Task Force Press Conference Opposing Mayoral Control of RCSD | Stop Mayoral Control!
THE EXPERTS SPEAK: Parents' and Students' Perspectives on Mayoral Control
While Bob Duffy and friends have been promoting a mayoral takeover of the Rochester City School District, the Community Education Task Force has been busy organizing to keep school board elections.
Watch video from THE EXPERTS SPEAK, a panel discussion organized by the community education task force. The task force reversed the usual format for panel discussions and put those with the most at stake and most personal experience (parents and students) on stage, while elected officials were invited to listed and ask questions.
Bikeit! Rides through Rochester!
Come out Monday June 14th at 6pm for a potluck at the Flying Squirrel Community Space to meet bicycle riders on their way out to the US Social Forum in Detroit. This will be a great opportunity to learn more about what activists in the upstate NY area are working on and to learn more about the US Social Forum.
The Finger Lakes BikeIt Ride is open to all residents in the Finger Lakes area who are passionate about biking to the US Social Forum in a large group of people committed to social & environmental justice, community service and mutual aid. We will likely have riders from Ithaca, Syracuse, and Binghamton, as well as from several smaller towns in the area.
Atypical Tea Partier A Typical Tea Partier
I was recently talking to a neighbor of mine about the role of race in politics, and about, more generally, the status of race relations in the United States. He told me a short anecdote about his job at a city school. He said he met the school’s newest principal who asked him (he cooks there) whether he “Only cooked Black, or [if he could] cook American, too.†Stories like these aren’t difficult to find. In the minds of many white Americans, such questions seem legitimate and inquisitive, rather than horribly offensive, and implicitly derogatory towards Black Americans. Debates in the public sphere have given rise to the worse sort of reactionary politics. The most recently awakened activists have tended to expend their energies quibbling over what constitutes viable citizenship, rather than focusing on issues that are actually affecting our communities. The Tea Party is not least among the notable movements to spring up in the wake of the election of Barrack Obama to a post held only by wealthy, white males for the previous 220 years of this country’s existence. Tea Party members are mostly white, mostly wealthy, and overwhelmingly conservative. .
Video: Raw Footage from Tea Party Rally on May 15 in Rochester, NY
From the Indymedia Network: Protesters greet Sarah Palin at book signing | December 16, 2007: Portland Tea Party! | Independence Hall Tea Party PAC Rally fell short | April 15: Crash The Tea Parties! | Chicago Tea Party Draws Rightwingers and Grassroots Counterprotest | Tea Party Leader to Racist Doctor: "We've Got Your Back, My Friend" | Single Payer Health Plan Advocates Face Angry "Tea Party" Protesters
Additional Information: Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated | How Your Tax Dollars Are Spent | H.R. 1388 Passed “Behind Our Backs?†| Busting a Myth: Does Facebook Water Vapor Comment Disprove Global Warming? | History of the Separation of Church and State in America
Indy TV #36 Fight to Keep Walmart Out of Northgate Plaza in Greece, NY
The town of Greece, NY had allowed Northgate Plaza, a once vibrant shopping mall with stores like McCurdys, JC Penny, and Woolworth to deteriorate despite citizens’ complaints. In 2007, the citizens of the town found out why the town had not forced the plaza owners to fix the deteriorating mall., Walmart had a lease with the plaza owner, Widewaters Group, to build a Super WalMart.
Click the "More" link below for a detailed report on the campaign
AARM Newsletter, May Edition: OUT NOW
The latest edition of the AARM Newsletter is out and waiting to be read! This issue discusses mayoral control of the city schools, the so-called "race riots" of the 60's, police brutality, and more.
Read below for the editor's introduction, or just read the entire newsletter. You can also print out the newletter and distribute it using the printer-friendly PDF.
Breaking News! Israelis Attack Gaza Humanitarian Sea Convoy; At Least 10 Dead, Over 60 Injured, Chicagoan Activist Missing
From Chicago Indymedia: "Solidarity activists aboard one of six relief vessels traveling to Gaza [by sea] with humanitarian aid report that they have been attacked by Israeli forces, with three aid workers killed and more than 50 injured, according to live updates from the flotilla.
"[P]eople aboard the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ship with hundreds of aid workers and activists aboard, report.. that they have been attacked. At least three aboard one ship have been killed and dozens more wounded, including at least one European Parliament member…Midwest U.S. activists have been unable to reach Chicagoan Fatima Mohammadi, traveling aboard the Mavi Marmara." Read more; click here!
An emergency protest against the massacre will happen today, May 31, in Rochester, NY from 3PM-5PM at the Federal Building on State Street.
Video: Israeli Defense Force Boarding Gaza Aid Flotilla
Additional Coverage: Watch Live Stream of Commando Attack | Witness Gaza | Free Palestine Digital Ship
Background: With Sea Confrontation Looming, New Yorkers Say ‘Break the Blockade’
Related: NYC Activists Drop Banner In Max Brenner, Israeli-Owned Chocolate Store | Protesters Condemn Israeli “Ambassador of Apartheid†Michael Oren + Activists Protest Jerusalem Day Event at BPL | Don't Allow Israel to Stop Humanitarian Aid to the Impoverished and Blockaded Gazans