TWENTY SXTH DAY

California becomes first US state to ban discrimination over natural hairstyles

The law prohibits employers and schools from enforcing rules against styles that would unfairly target
black people
California became the first state in the US to ban discrimination over natural hair on Wednesday.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Creating a Respectful and Open Workplace (Crown) Act into law,
prohibiting employers and schools from enforcing rules against hairstyles including afros, braids, twists, and
locks. Workplace policies that prohibit such styles have serious economic and health consequences, especially for
black individuals, the bill said.
“In a society in which hair has historically been one of many determining factors of a person’s race, and whether
they were a second-class citizen, hair today remains a proxy for race,” the bill said. “Therefore, hair
discrimination targeting hairstyles associated with race is racial discrimination.”
Instances of people of color facing discrimination in school and the workplace over their hair have gained
visibility in recent years, as a movement among black women to wear natural styles has grown.
In 2013, BP fired a top executive for wearing what one colleague called “ethnic hairstyles” including twists,
braids, and cornrows. In 2018, an Alabama woman sued after a company required her to cut her locks to get a job.
Also that year, a woman said her 14-year-old son was sent home from his school in Fresno, California, because of
the way his head was shaved. And in December, a white referee sparked outrage by requiring a black student to
cut his dreadlocks off before a wrestling match.
The bill passed in California will also provide protections under the Fair Employment and Housing Act and the
California Education Code to protect people of color beyond the workplace. It was backed by a national alliance
compromised of the National Urban League, Western Center on Law & Poverty, Color of Change, and Dove.
Holly J Mitchell, the state senator who introduced the bill, told colleagues: “Many black employees – including
your staff members – will tell you, if given the chance, that the struggle to maintain what society has deemed a
‘professional image’ while protecting the health and integrity of their hair remains a defining and paradoxical
struggle in their work experience, not usually shared by their non-black peers.
“Members, it is 2019. Any law that sanctions a job description that immediately excludes me from a position, not
because of my capabilities or experience but because of my hair, is long overdue for reform.”
Other jurisdictions have taken measures to prevent discrimination based on hair in recent years. The US army
revised regulations to allow black soldiers to wear natural hairstyles in 2017. In February 2019, the city of New
York banned restrictions on natural hair and hairstyles. The US army revised regulations to allow black soldiers
to wear natural hairstyles in 2017.

Teen accused of rape deserves leniency because of his 'good family', judge says
Boy, 16, allegedly raped girl while recording incident on phone
New Jersey judge praised suspect’s ‘very high’ academic scores
A judge suggested that a teenage boy accused of raping a drunk girl at a party should be treated leniently because
he came from “a good family”, and cast doubt on whether such an attack amounted to rape at all. Judge James
Troiano in New Jersey made the remarks while ruling that the boy, who was identified only as “GMC”, should
not face trial as an adult for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl while recording the incident on his mobile phone.
“This young man comes from a good family who put him into an excellent school where he was doing extremely
well,” Troiano said. “He is clearly a candidate for not just college but probably for a good college. His scores for
college entry were very high.” Troiano, 69, also noted that the boy was an Eagle Scout.
Investigators said GMC sent a clip of the alleged rape to seven of his friends, and later sent a text adding: “When
your first time having sex is rape.” Yet Troiano suggested that, in his view, the alleged incident was a sexual
assault rather than a rape.
Troiano’s remarks, which he delivered at a family court hearing in July 2018, were highlighted this week in
a sharply worded overturning of his decisionby an appeals court. Prosecutors told NJ1015.com they would now
seek an indictment from a grand jury so they may prosecute GMC as an adult.
Prosecutors had alleged that GMC’s attack had been “sophisticated and predatory” and that he showed “calculated
and cruel” behaviour by filming the incident, sharing the footage and then lying about it.
Adult cases are heard by a jury and typically involve harsher punishments for those convicted. Records of
juvenile cases are largely kept secret from the public.
But Troiano refused, pointing to GMC’s background and saying that, in his view, a “traditional case of rape”
involved more than one attacker using a weapon to take advantage of a victim in a remote location.
The judge also cast doubt on allegations GMC’s victim was too drunk to understand what was happening,
asserting that she “walked hand-in-hand” with GMC to a basement area where the alleged rape took place.
And he dismissed the significance of GMC’s boastful text messages, describing this as “just a 16-year-old kid
saying stupid crap to his friends”.
The appeals court panel said Troiano had exceeded his role and “decided the case for himself” rather than
properly reviewing the application by prosecutors to try GMC as an adult.
In one drily scathing passage, the appeals court judges said they hoped juveniles would not be made to stand trial
as adults if they “do not come from good families and do not have good test scores”.

Outcry after reports Brazil plans to investigate Glenn Greenwald

Federal police reportedly asked money laundering unit to investigate the ‘financial activities’ of the US
journalist
Brazil’s Bar Association, journalists and opposition lawmakers have reacted with outrage to reports that the
country’s federal police plan to investigate the bank accounts of an American journalist who published leaked
conversations between prosecutors and the graft-busting judge who is now Jair Bolsonaro’s justice minister.
The rightwing site the Antagonist (O Antagonista) reported on Tuesday that federal police had asked a money-
laundering unit at Brazil’s finance ministry to investigate the “financial activities” of Glenn Greenwald.
Police declined to comment on the allegation but confirmed an investigation had been launched into the hacking
of cellphones that led to the leaks.
“This seems to me like an attempt to intimidate the journalist,” said Kennedy Alencar, a leading political
commentator on CBN Radio.
“If there is an investigation for doing journalism it is illegal and it is an attempt at intimidation,” said Pierpaolo
Bottini, a professor of penal law at the University of São Paulo who heads the press freedom unit at the Brazilian
Bar Association.
Greenwald, who lives in Rio de Janeiro, won a Pulitzer prize for leading the Guardian’s reporting on National
Security Agency (NSA) spying revealed by Edward Snowden before co-founding the Intercept website in 2014.
Last month, the publication’s Brazilian edition launched the first in a string of bombshell articles which appeared
to show prosecutors in the sweeping Operation Car Wash corruption inquiry colluding with Sérgio Moro, the
judge who became a hero in Brazil for jailing powerful businessmen, middlemen and politicians.
The leaked records – which the Intercept said it received from an anonymous source – have had an explosive
impact on Brazilian politics and dominated headlines for weeks.
On Sunday, leaks published in the Folha de S Paulo newspaper cast fresh doubts over key testimony in the case
against former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for graft and money laundering. Lula’s conviction removed
him from last year’s presidential race.
After the far-right candidate Bolsonaro won, he made Moro his justice minister.
Moro refused to say whether federal police – which he controls – were investigating Greenwald during a
tumultuous hearing on Tuesday at Brazil’s congress.
He defended the corruption investigation, attacked “sensationalist” reporting and said the Intercept leaks were an
“empty balloon” that failed to prove any wrongdoing.
“There is a criminal attempt to invalidate convictions,” Moro said.
A spokesman for the federal police said he could not confirm nor deny they was looking at Greenwald’s finances.
“The investigation we have is to investigate the hacking of the data,” he said. A spokeswoman for the money-
laundering unit said they did not comment on specific cases but had “no knowledge” of the request.
But reports of the alleged investigation prompted anger among press freedom groups and opposition politicians.
“We see this as a brutal violation of press freedom,” said José Guimarães, a congressman from Lula’s Workers’
party.
“It’s not only an outrageous attack on press freedom, but a gross abuse of power,” said Trevor Timm, executive
director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, in a statement.
The leaks have enraged Bolsonaro’s supporters – crowds of whom demonstrated across Brazil on Sunday in
support of Moro.
Greenwald and his husband David Miranda, a congressman for the leftist Socialism and Freedom party, have
faced a barrage of threats, slander and homophobic abuse.
“This is what Bolsonaro and Moro are now doing: using the Federal Police they control to investigate me in
retaliation for my reporting,” Greenwald tweeted.
Uber co-founder buys record-breaking LA mansion for $72.5m as drivers fight for wages
Los Angeles sees a spike in the homelessness population while homes the size of football fields are selling
for more than $100m
Two massive luxury real estate deals in Los Angeles have shone a harsh light on the wealth gap in a region where
tens of thousands of people live on the streets while mansions the size of football fields sell for more than $100m.
On Monday, Variety reported that the Uber co-founder Garrett Camp and his partner Eliza Nguyen
have purchased a Beverly Hills mansion for a record-breaking $72.5m, in what is believed to be the largest-ever
sale of a home in the neighborhood.
It wasn’t even the biggest Los Angeles luxury real estate deal reported this week. A 56,500-square-foot Holmby
Hills chateau, once home to television producer Aaron Spelling, sold for $120m, according to the Los Angeles
Times, making it the highest home price in Los Angeles county history.
The extraordinary mega-mansion sales come at a time when Los Angeles is faced with widening inequality and
escalating concerns about the housing crisis and a dramatic rise in homelessness, prompting intense debate about
who gets to benefit from the growing economy.
The Holmby Hills property, known as the Manor, is 4.7 acres and is considered the largest single-family home in
Los Angeles. It was built in 1991 for the television producer Aaron Spelling and now has 123 rooms, according to
the LA Times’ report on the sale, which has not yet been made public. It’s the fourth sale of $100m or more in LA
history, the paper reported.
The Beverly Hills mansion purchase by Camp was completed mere weeks after Uber’s IPO further enriched its
wealthy investors and founders. Camp, a Canadian entrepreneur with an estimated net worth of $4.2bn, already
owns a portfolio of luxury properties in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Manhattan.
Camp’s purchase has drawn the ire of activists and drivers who have long been protesting about Uber’s labor
practices and advocating for better working conditions
“This is a perfect example of the 1% stealing from the rest of us,” Nicole Moore, a ride-share driver in Los
Angeles, said of Camp’s $72.5m purchase. “Drivers are living in their cars. We’re fighting for fair wages. At least
share that wealth with the people who have actually built your company.”
Moore, who is also an organizer with Rideshare Drivers United, told the Guardian she works as a part-time driver
in addition to a full-time job in healthcare because housing costs are so expensive in Los Angeles: “It’s an
abomination. Income inequality has gone rampant.”
“This guy is buying lavish houses with our money, our hard-earned money that they are unjustly taking from us,”
added Karim Bayumi, another Los Angeles Uber driver and organizer. “It’s exploitation.”
The purchase by Camp is particularly eye-popping given that Uber continues to lose money and has also
aggressively opposed drivers’ efforts to organize and improve their working conditions, said Veena Dubal, an
associate law professor at the University of California, Hastings, who is an expert on labor rights in the gig
economy.
“It’s a slap in everyone’s face,” she said, arguing that Uber was built on the idea of breaking labor laws and
violating existing regulations. “The capitalist system we have has unduly rewarded him with extraordinary, in-
your-face wealth.”
Citing drivers’ ongoing fights for workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, minimum wages and other
rights, Dubal said that $72m could go along way: “This amount of money could change people’s lives.” She also
noted that many Uber drivers rely on public benefits and government assistance since their wages are so low,
meaning taxpayers in effect contribute to Camp’s exorbitant wealth.
“It’s our money that went into that house,” she said.
News of the $120m Holmby Hills sale came the same day that officials carried out another major sweep of
a homeless encampment in downtown Los Angeles, the epicenter of the humanitarian crisis of people living on
the streets. Last month, authorities revealed that Los Angeles has experienced a 16% increase in the homeless
population over the last year, with more than 36,000 people now homeless in the city.
The Rev Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission, a Los Angeles homeless organization, said $120m could be
used to shelter thousands of people living on LA’s streets.
“Everyone just wants to sweep human beings away,” said Bales, noting that he encountered four homeless
families desperate for shelter on Monday, including a pregnant mother with three young children. “It doesn’t do
any good to sweep people, when there is nowhere to sweep them to. There are no shelters, no services where we
can direct people.”
Pete White, executive director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network, a housing rights group, said it
was painful to read articles glorifying the huge mansion sale: “There is definitely a crisis of values in Los
Angeles.”
Camp’s Beverly Hills estate is now reportedly home to a 12,000-square-foot residence with seven bedrooms and a
new guesthouse. The Manor in Holmby Hills is said to include a large aquarium in a study, a nightclub in a
basement level, a tanning room, a solarium, a spa, a tennis court, koi ponds, rose gardens and more.

'A narcissistic travesty': critics savage Trump's Independence Day jamboree

More than $2.5m has reportedly been diverted to pay for Trump’s military parade featuring jets, tanks –
and at the centre, himself
When Donald Trump holds an Independence Day celebration with fireworks, flyovers and battle tanks at the heart
of American democracy on the Fourth of July, critics fear that he will be unable to resist turning it into a
vainglorious and politically divisive campaign rally.
They are also demanding that the US president foots the bill for any damage caused to Washington’s roads,
bridges and monuments by his “authoritarian-style” display of military pomp.
The US president will deliver an Independence Day speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial, which honours the
president who won the civil war and helped end slavery and was the site of civil rights leader Martin Luther
King’s “I have a dream” speech a century later.
The Rev William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral
Revival, tweeted: “Trump is creating a spectacle of tanks & missiles on the National Mall where the great protests
for civil & human rights have been held at a time when 140 million Americans are poor & low income. He thinks
this is the sign of strength, but it’s a damn narcissistic travesty.”
Trump was in exuberant mood about the event on social media on Wednesday.
“It will be the show of a lifetime!” he tweeted.
The event takes place in a politically hostile environment: Hillary Clinton took more than 90% of the vote in the
District of Columbia in the 2016 election, whereas Trump secured just 4.1%. The Trump International Hotel on
Pennsylvania Avenue is one of the few outposts in the capital where his supporters are conspicuous.
And for decades, presidents have kept a low profile during Washington’s annual celebration of the
1776 Declaration of Independence, as typically hundreds of thousands of people gather at the National Mall for a
nonpartisan concert and fireworks.
But ever the disrupter, Trump its putting himself centre stage this year. He tweeted on Tuesday: “Big 4th of July
in D.C. ‘Salute to America.’ The Pentagon & our great Military Leaders are thrilled to be doing this & showing to
the American people, among other things, the strongest and most advanced Military anywhere in the World.
Incredible Flyovers & biggest ever Fireworks!”
The National Park Service is reportedly diverting nearly $2.5m in entrance and other fees, which are usually used
to improve parks, to cover the cost, according to The Washington Post.
The celebration will feature military bands and flyovers from the US navy’s Blue Angels and Air Force One, the
modified Boeing 747 that transports presidents, as well as M1 Abrams battle tanks. It could also include a B-2
bomber, F-35 and F-22 fighter jets and the Marine One helicopter, according to the Pentagon. Air traffic at nearby
Ronald Reagan national airport will be suspended during the flypasts and the fireworks.
The fireworks display will be held near the Lincoln Memorial instead of its usual location by the Washington
Monument. A ticket-only area in front of the memorial is being set aside for VIPs, including members of Trump’s
family, friends and members of the military.
The display of military muscle is seen by some as a show not of strength but of weakness. In response to a photo
of tanks on train tracks heading to the event, Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia, posted on
Twitter: “This photo reminds me of parades I used to attend in the Soviet Union. Not the right look for the 4th.”

The White House has not said how much the celebration will cost. The Pentagon postponed a military parade
planned for last November after it estimated it could cost $90m. Tom Udall, a Democratic senator, said: “The
American people deserve to know how much of their money the president is spending to turn their July 4th
celebration into a de facto campaign rally.”
In addition, the District of Columbia council has warned of the damage that tanks could do to city streets. It
tweeted on Monday: “We have said it before, and we’ll say it again: Tanks, but no tanks.”
The Democratic congressman Don Beyer, who represents nearby suburbs in Virginia, wrote on Twitter: “The
authoritarian-style trappings he demands, including tanks, will come at a great cost to taxpayers, and threaten
significant harm to local roads and bridges. I am deeply concerned by the suggestion that the president’s
insistence on displaying tanks could subject Arlington Memorial Bridge to strains grossly exceeding its weight
restrictions.”
Beyer added: “If Trump is going to turn this event into another partisan rally to boost his own frail ego, he must
reimburse US taxpayers for any damage he causes.”
Trump will deliver his speech as the 19ft-high marble statue of Lincoln, whose clarion call “to bind up the
nation’s wounds” is carved into the memorial, looks on. He previously spoke there, amid chants of “Make
America great again”, at a pre-inauguration concert in January 2017.
White House officials insist that he will avoid partisan politics and stick to patriotic themes in his speech, but
opponents fear he will use the elevated, taxpayer-funded platform to lambast Democrats ahead of next year’s
presidential election. Spokeswoman Hogan Gidley told Fox Business Network on Tuesday: “That’s absolutely
ridiculous. This is all about a salute to America. The president is not going to get political.”