Month: December 2020

     The lawsuit alleges the state has not provided students or teachers with the devices, internet connection, training and support needed for remote learning. It asks the court to rule that the state’s education authorities violated students’ constitutional right to an education and that they must correct the inequities with the help of minority families and community organizations.

     The origin of this story goes back to 1975, when French director/screenwriter Romain Gary (ex-husband of actress Jean Seberg) worked under the pseudonym Émile Ajar and penned the classic novel La Vie Devant Soi (The Life Before Us): An orphaned Arab boy, Momo, is devoted to Madame Rosa, a dying and elderly survivor of Auschwitz and a former prostitute. The setting is Paris’ immigrant slum, Belleville, where ladies of the night, pimps, transvestites and petty thieves flourish. Gary’s book earned France’s Prix Goncourt—equivalent to a Pulitzer—firmly establishing the tale’s pedigree.

       “As a leading congressional advocate of debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries and a supporter of the Jubilee movement, I am especially proud of President Rawlings’ advocacy for African nations to have their international debts cancelled. Debt relief was critical to free more than thirty-five of the world’s poorest countries – including Ghana – from the burdens of international debts and enable them to invest their resources in health, education, poverty reduction, and infrastructure,” Waters said.

       Much of the public outrage has been directed at the officials who have been unable to prevent the fatal spread of COVID-19 in jails and prisons throughout the country. But in addition, there were too many governors who were unwilling to reduce prison populations by releasing individuals who posed no threat to public safety. As a result, nearly 200,000 incarcerated Americans have been infected as of November 2020 according to the Marshall Project.