1950’s Brooklyn is sumptuously captured in John Crowley's wonderful story of an Irish immigrant trying to choose between two lands. Saoirse Ronan is pure delight as Eilis, who gets a job in New York and quickly falls in love with blue-collar worker Tony (Emory Cohen), a charming Yankees fan with eyes set on marriage.

When family tragedy calls Eilis back to Ireland for a spell, she’s forced to decide between Tony and Jim (the ever-so-busy Domhnall Gleeson), a hometown boy who is also trying to win her over. The film does a splendid job depicting and immigrant’s life, from the woozy boat trip over, to the derogatory remarks in diners.

Ronan finally gets the role she deserves, and will certainly be a frontrunner for an Oscar. Crowley has not only put together one of 2015’s best acted films, but one of it’s best looking ones, and the score is a true winner.

This is a great movie for anybody looking to experience a little bit of New York history in a truly romantic way.

The Department of Justice issued new guidance to law enforcement agencies today, pointing out that certain police responses to domestic violence and sexual assault complaints violate victims' civil rights.

These suggestions document the "systematic failure" of police departments in Maricopa County in Arizona, New Orleans, Puerto Rico, and Missoula, Montana, to properly investigate domestic abuse and sexual assault cases, as well as to hold cops accountable when they commit domestic or sexual abuse, according to a press release from the American Civil Liberties Union. DOJ is currently investigating gender-biased policing in those regions. 

The department has found that victims of domestic and sexual abuse are denied equal protection under the U.S. Constitution in cases when these complaints are deal with "less seriously than other offenses based on gender bias."

"Victims’ due process rights are also violated when police commit acts of violence, such as sexual assault, or when a victim is put at greater risk as a result of police conduct," the ACLU says. 

The DOJ guidance asks local police departments to look into their policies and practices pertaining to domestic and sexual violence, and breaks down the following eight principles that they should follow:

Recognize and address biases, assumptions, and stereotypes about victims.

Treat all victims with respect and employ interviewing tactics that encourage a victim to participate and provide facts about the incident.

Investigate sexual assault or domestic violence complaints thoroughly and effectively.

Appropriately classify reports of sexual assault or domestic violence.

Refer victims to appropriate services.

Properly identify the assailant in domestic violence incidents.

Hold officers who commit sexual assault or domestic violence accountable.

Maintain, review, and act upon data regarding sexual assault and domestic violence.

The ACLU, as well as several other civil rights and anti-violence groups, have led the effort pressuring DOJ to issue these new guidelines. More than 180 national, state and local organizations joined the demand.

According to the ACLU, "domestic violence and sexual assault are two of the most prevalent forms of gender-based violence. In the U.S., over one million women are sexually assaulted each year, and more than a third of women are subjected to rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime, with women of color disproportionately affected."

Survivors often face disbelief and victim-blaming from law enforcement—all of which is detailed in the ACLU report, "Responses from the Field: Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, and Policing."

President Barack Obama today talked to the press about efforts against ISIS after meeting with military leaders at the Pentagon. USA Today reports:

President Obama said he's dispatching Secretary of Defense Ash Carter to the Middle East to help secure more help to fight the Islamic State, promising that his administration is "moving forward with a great sense of urgency" against the terrorist group.

"ISIL leaders cannot hide, and our message to them is simple: you are next," Obama said from the Pentagon Monday following a strategy session with top generals and national security advisers. Obama rattled off a litany of successes — more bombs being dropped, more territory being regained, more allies joining the fight — but acknowledged that it's not enough.

"All that said, we recognize that progress needs to happen faster," he said. He said there's a particular problem in urban areas controlled by the Islamic State, where militants are entrenched and often use civilians as use human shields. "Even as were relentless we need to be smart, targeting ISIL surgically and with precision," he said.

A key part of the U.S. strategy in recent weeks has been to attack the oil smuggling that gives the Islamic State much of its revenue. "As we squeeze its heart, we'll make it harder for ISIL to pump its terror and propaganda into the rest of the world," he said.

Southern Arizona Congresswoman Martha McSally responded to Obama's comments in a press release:

People I speak with in Southern Arizona are rightfully concerned with the Administration’s slow and reluctant approach to ISIS. We have been missing leadership with resolve, and still lack a bold, aggressive strategy to take out ISIS’s critical capabilities, put them on their heels, and keep Americans safe.

ISIS declared a Caliphate 18 months ago, and last week before the House Armed Services Committee, the Secretary of Defense admitted that meetings with the State Department and Pentagon to coordinate efforts began only months ago. ISIS has been bringing in at least $1 million a day from black market oil sales to fund their global terrorist operations, yet we have just now started hitting their oil trucks a few weeks ago. Last week, I participated in a two hour classified discussion with Pentagon officials about the Command and Control and Rules of Engagement. Their responses only validated my concerns of a weak and ineffective military approach.

I have been calling on the Administration to completely revamp its military strategy and hoped President Obama's visit to the Pentagon today was the start of something new. Unfortunately, we heard about the same failed tactics, just used more frequently, with the same detached tone from the president.

I’ll continue to work in Congress to call for a stronger approach and put forward solutions that will address our security vulnerabilities, but Congress cannot do it alone. We need presidential leadership, and we’re just not seeing it.

Sen. John McCain responded via Twitter:

Former state lawmaker Demion Clinco is the newest board member at Pima Community College.

Pima County School Superintendent Linda Arzoumanian appointed Clinco to the District 2 seat formerly held by David Longoria, who resigned in October.

Clinco, who now serves as president and executive director of the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation, told The Skinny that he believes Pima has a key role to play in the region’s economic development because “it’s the gateway for so many people into higher paying jobs.”

The college has been through a rough patch that included claims that members of PCC’s board looked the other way rather than investigate sexual harassment claims against former chancellor Ray Flores and a host of other violations of administrative rules and procedures. After a lengthy investigation, the Higher Learning Commission announced in 2013 that Pima was on probation and in danger of losing its academic accreditation. Earlier this year, the HLC removed Pima from probationary status, although the college remains On Notice that it must continue to shape up or risk losing its accreditation.

Clinco said new Pima Chancellor Lee Lambert, who took over in 2013, has been moving PCC in the right direction “to remove those impediments that have left a cloud over the college. I’m looking forward to working with him.”

Clinco added that his legislative experience could help the college as it lobbies lawmakers on a number of issues, including efforts to adjust a spending limit could tangle up Pima’s efforts to expand in high-tech programs such as aviation training that require upfront investment by PCC.

He plans to run for a full term on Pima’s board in 2016, so Clinco is giving up plans on making a return to the Legislature next year. Clinco had been considering both Legislative District 2, where he lost his seat, and Legislative District 9, where there’s an open House seat with state Rep. Victoria Steele making a run for Congresswoman Martha McSally’s District 2 seat.

“I think it would be pretty hard to do both,” Clinco said.

Democratic state Rep. Randy Friese is seeking reelection to one of the two LD9 House seats. Democrat Pamela Powers Hannley and Republican Ana Henderson have both launched campaigns for the House in District 9.

A group of Tucson's clergy interrupted Operation Streamline in federal court this afternoon in what seems to be an on-going protest against the criminal immigration proceedings. 

"Tu no eres culpable, esta corte es culpable," “You are not guilty, this court is guilty," said Southside Presbyterian Church's the Rev. Alison Harrington roughly 15 minutes after Operation Streamline began at 1:30 p.m at the Evo A. DeConcini U.S. District Court. She then started to read scriptures from the Bible, according to a press release. 

Operation Streamline began in Del Rio, Texas back in 2005. Actually, its 10th anniversary is on Wednesday, and more protests are planned for that day. The proceedings made their way to Tucson three years later, and now operates in a total of seven border cities. After migrants are apprehended by the Border Patrol, oftentimes while crossing the Sonoran Desert, some are put in temporary detention facilities and others forced to sign paperwork in English, which many do not understand, resulting in their immediate deportation back to Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and other countries.

The ones who are "chosen" to be prosecuted in federal court get less than 20 minutes to talk to a public defender. These people are shackled and, pretty much, given no option but to plead guilty to illegal entry. Judges sentence them to up to six months in prison, and they are then deported, except now with a federal criminal record.

"Despite long histories of human rights abuses and substandard conditions, private prison companies receive millions of taxpayer dollars for incarcerating immigrants through Streamline," a handout by the End Operation Streamline Coalition, the American Friends Service Committee and No More Deaths says. 

The Hollywood blacklisting that led to the imprisonment of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was a travesty, and it’s high time somebody made a movie about it. Director Jay Roach eschews his comedy-making skin for this riveting look into the tribulations Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) and fellow artists faced during the Red Scare early days of the Cold War.

Cranston does his best movie work yet as Trumbo, a confessed member of the communist party who did jail time and lost work due to his beliefs. He eventually started writing screenplays anonymously, even winning an Oscar under a different name.

The film’s best scenes involve Cranston and none other than Louis C.K. as writer Arlen Hird (a fictional composite character), who marvel at the injustices bestowed upon them. The film does a nice job of capturing the paranoia of the times, with nice touches such as John Wayne (David James Elliot) throwing his weight around, and Diane Lane as Cleo, Trumbo’s very patient wife. The film does a nice job balancing truth and fiction, and Cranston is marvelous.

Also, let it be said that C.K. continues to show surprising prowess as an actor. He’s building up an impressive resume for a guy who insists he can’t act. 

Hi I'm Zoey!

Doesn't my home look fun? I live in MEOWTROPOLIS with a couple other cool cats! We all love to play and snuggle.
When you're looking to adopt a kitty don't forget about us and don't be shy to ask to meet us! I've been available for adoption for two months now and am ready to find my forever home!

Stop by HSSA Main Campus at 3450 N. Kelvin Blvd. to meet me!

Love,
Zoey

Congressman Raul Grijalva hailed the climate agreement reached over the weekend in Paris. His statement to the press:

Today’s agreement is more than a legislative or diplomatic milestone. I sincerely hope and believe that it’s the beginning of a new phase in human history. I join the people of Southern Arizona in sharing my heartfelt gratitude to President Obama, Secretary Kerry and our entire team for the hard work and commitment they brought to this effort from the beginning.

Too many people have spent their careers pretending that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by shadowy environmental groups and Machiavellian research scientists. The American public knows full well that’s not the case. We all need to think beyond tomorrow’s political headlines and consider how our actions at this crucial moment in history will be remembered by our grandchildren. Serious leaders no longer consider sitting on our hands an option, especially with our allies agreeing to shared sacrifices and ambitious future targets.

I understand that today’s Republican congressional majority won’t approve enforceable climate quality standards. That shouldn’t stop us from setting them as soon as possible. As others have noted, today is the beginning rather than the end of our common efforts to reduce our emissions. I look forward to playing a productive role in the important work yet to be done to protect our country, our people and our planet for the sake of the many lives yet to be lived on Planet Earth.

The National Education Policy Center just published a research brief, The Business of Charter Schooling: Understanding the Policies that Charter Operators Use for Financial Benefit. The word "brief" is probably misleading, since this detailed, informative work is 56 pages long. The two college education profs who wrote it, Bruce Baker of Rutgers University and Gary Miron of Western Michigan University, have created an important resource for anyone who wants to learn the intricacies of charter schools funding and the underreported ways they spend their money.

The brief isn't about the educational quality of charters, which, like district schools, varies from excellent to poor. It's about the lack of transparency in the use of government funds whose purpose is to set up and run the schools and the potential for people and organizations to abuse the system for personal gain.

As the authors explain, the way charters use state funding isn't accounted for in sufficient detail. In Arizona, the financial reports submitted to the state are general to the point of being close to useless, unlike school districts which have to account for their expenditures in detail, and the same is true in most other states. Lots of charter schools use Educational Management Organizations (EMOs) extensively, sending them as much as 90 percent of the money they get from the state. Sometimes the EMOs run nearly every aspect of the schools, but we don't know how they spend the money because they don't have any responsibility to publicly account for their finances. Charter boards often have a too-close-for-comfort relationship with the EMOs and with companies that sell supplies and services to the schools, making for inevitable conflicts of interest. And the way charter buildings are purchased or leased can mean some people or corporations siphon off a whole lot of money to pay for the buildings which is supposed to be used for the students' educations.

The brief lists eight recommendations to improve the situation. which mainly come down to increasing financial transparency and accountability of charters. Large purchases as well as contracts with EMOs should be carefully reviewed, financial reporting to the state should be more detailed and precise, the board members and staff should be at arms length from the EMOs and contractors to minimize the possibilities of misappropriation of funds, etc.

Over the years, I've written a lot about charter school operators, EMOs and property management corporations that have misused state funds, often illegally, though in some cases the misuse of funds is perfectly legal, which is part of the problem. There are plenty of well documented horror stories out there, meaning there's a whole lot more waiting to be uncovered. Charter school supporters as well as skeptics should work to put in safeguards against the bad guys who go into the education business for the wrong reasons.

Last week, I left the US for six months of exploring Europe and Africa. My first stop is on Lesbos Island in Greece, working and living at a refugee camp. This is the first part of a weekly journal that I'll write while staying at the camp.

Dec. 4- Sometimes, despite all observable trends, humanity exhibits glimmers of hope. Since telling friends two weeks ago that I would be be volunteering at a refugee camp, I’ve had supplies shipped from all over the United States. I returned from a family vacation last week to find six large boxes waiting for me.

The rundown:

37 pairs of wool socks
85 pairs of normal socks
16 winter hats
12 pairs of gloves
7 scarves
10 t-shirts
3 sweatshirts
1 pair of moccasins
100+ toothbrushes
52 combs
60 pens
2 large backpacks
30 pounds of dehydrated, vitamin-fortified food
$225 in cash



Everything somehow squeezed inside the two backpacks and weighed in at over 75 pounds. I spent that night packing and saying goodbye to my family and friends as I would head across the Atlantic the next day and not return until June.

Dec. 5– I left for Greece today. I caught the shuttle to Los Angeles International Airport at 3:30 a.m., was in Houston at 11 a.m. local time, and waited there for 10 hours. Buying the cheapest flights isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. After lots of waiting and no real trouble from authorities, I was in Athens at 10 p.m. the night of the 6th. The city was beautiful and the weather was pleasant that night, but my internal clock was so warped that I went straight to bed.

Dec. 7– I met up for breakfast today with Joanna, an energetic New Yorker who just returned from Lesbos Island. We took the metro to an old olympic field hockey stadium that was being used as a refugee camp. The idea was that we would serve breakfast there as it had previously been undermanned.

The stadium’s press office was turned into a clothing depot, the food concourse into a kitchen and command & control center, and all other rooms were used as a dorms for refugees. The bleachers were mostly empty and the field never had more than two or three people playing at the same time. This was probably good, as an Iran-Iraq soccer match between hungry and impatient refugees is a remarkably poor idea.


Today, the camp had double the staff needed. I helped for about 10 minutes stirring a vat of tea, then helped pouring tee for a bit while others passed out croissants. I then mentioned that I studied Farsi. I immediately became an interpreter for the Iranian and Afghanis there, relaying valuable messages such as Stay out of the sun so you don’t get dehydrated and Pick up the trash, we can’t pass out clothes if the area is dirty.

Other conversations involved telling Iranians who had just traveled across the entire Middle East that they wouldn’t be allowed to enter the rest of Europe and were not eligible for Greek work visas. This was a depressing trend. The European Union was only allowing in refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq, while refugees were showing up in Greece’s open borders expecting to move on to Germany or Sweden. The result was buses full of Syrians going through to Macedonia while thousands of Algerians, Iranians, and Pakistanis got stuck in limbo in Greece.

With nothing else that needed immediate translating, I searched for Iranians and Afghanis to practice Farsi and Dari with.

I quickly struck up a conversation with Jawwad, who was sitting on a chair directly underneath a sign that said not to sit there. I liked him immediately. He was Afghani, but since he left Afghanistan and lived legally in Iran for several years, the European Union considered him Iranian and wouldn’t grant him refugee status.

I next spoke with another Afghani who was stuck in Greece despite his family being in Macedonia. He had lost his paperwork proving that he was a refugee, leaving him in limbo until the UN could finish sorting the other 1,000,000 refugees and try to find his information. Taliban-era Afghanistan apparently wasn’t great at keeping public records.

The final significant conversation was with an Iranian who wanted to settle in the United States. When I mentioned that there were large Persian communities in Los Angeles and San Jose, he took that as a cue that I worked for the government and could get him a visa. I backed out of the conversation as gently as possible, found Joanna, and set off for a lunch meeting she had set up later.

After a series of cabs, metros, and trains, we found ourselves at the IASIS headquarters. IASIS is a non-profit in Athens that deals with the homeless, mentally ill, and abused populations. IASIS has adapted to become a landing point for refugee women and children who were viewed as vulnerable. Its name is also sure to get Joanna’s assets frozen when she donates to it. Joanna worked for a very well-known bank in London and there to discuss where funding would be most needed. I was there because I had nothing better to do and wanted to learn more about the situation. We left the meeting with an understanding that Joanna would buy them industrial kitchen equipment and that I would work with them after Christmas. Smooth talkers they were.

Dec. 8– I’m spending today exploring Athens, finding waterproof boots for the shore rescues, and trying to finally defeat jetlag. Mostly, I’m relaxing. Tomorrow takes me to the island and a new adventure.