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For Immediate Release
November, 20 2015, 11:45am EDT
Contact:
Jessica Aiwuyor, 478-696-2061, Jessica@fitzgibbonmedia.com
Get Equal: Elle Hearns, 614-290-8270
Hundreds to Deliver More Than 200,000 Signatures to Prosecutor Tim McGinty Calling for Special Prosecutor for Tamir Rice Police Killing
ColorOfChange joins Tamir Rice’s Family in Demanding Accountability 1 Year After Police Killing
CLEVELAND
On Monday, Tamir Rice's family and a number of racial justice organizations will deliver more than 200,000 petitions to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty's office demanding a special prosecutor. The delivery is part of a weekend of action in honor of 1 year since Tamir was brutally killed and in protest of Prosecutor McGinty's inability to oversee the case. For more information on the #YearWithoutTamir action weekend please see: www.JusticeForTamir.com.
WHEN/WHERE: Monday, November 23. Press should arrive at Willard Park, Cleveland, Ohio 41144 at 12:00 for pre-march interviews. March begins at 1:00pm EST Petition delivery at the The Justice Center, Courts Tower, 1200 Ontario Street, 9th Floor Cleveland, Ohio 44113. MAP will occur at approximately 1:45 pm.
SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Latonya, Tamir Rice's cousin, possibly other family members and racial justice activists.
VISUALS: Boxes of petitions and posters.
"More than 200,000 ColorOfChange members and their allies are outraged at Prosecutor McGinty's mishandling of this case," said Executive Director Rashad Robinson. "Instead of the timely justice Tamir's family deserves, McGinty has taken an entire year to investigate this tragedy. He also recently berated the family in public and released pro-police testimonies by discredited officials saying that Tamir's killing was justified. It's unconscionable, yet totally in line with McGinty's long history of failing to hold abusive police accountable or secure justice for Black families. We join Tamir's family exactly one year after his killing to say enough. It's long past time McGinty acknowledged his lost credibility and requested a special prosecutor. We will not rest, until he is off this case."
Color Of Change is the nation's largest online racial justice organization. We help people respond effectively to injustice in the world around us. As a national online force driven by over one million members, we move decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people in America.
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As the clock winds down on Democratic control of the U.S. Senate, upper chamber lawmakers on Thursday confirmed President Joe Biden's nomination of David Huitema, head of the State Department's ethics program, to lead the Office of Government Ethics for a five-year term.
Senators voted 50-46 in favor of Huitema's confirmation to head the OGE through the duration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump's tenure, averting at least temporarily a scenario in which the winner of the 2024 election—who has refused to sign required transition-related ethics agreements and whose first term saw thousands of conflicts of interest—would be empowered to fill or stonewall the post.
The OGE has been without a director for more than a year, ever since the term of Trump appointee Emory Rounds expired. In September, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) blocked Senate Democrats' attempt to confirm Huitema via unanimous consent until after the presidential election, alleging "political weaponization of the U.S. government against Donald Trump by the Biden-Harris administration."
As the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen said ahead of Huitema's confirmation:
One of the most important roles of the Office of Government Ethics is to oversee and advise the presidential transition process. The selection and nomination of most new administration officials takes place during the transition, in which OGE's vetting of pending nominees for conflicts of interest is most critical. The office needs to be fully staffed and operational during the course of the transition period.
However, Walter Shaub, who led the OGE during the Obama administration and resigned in 2017 after months of conflict with the Trump White House, warned in a Thursday interview with Government Executive that "it might be a hollow victory for government ethics if Trump fires Huitema after the inauguration."
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U.S. lawmakers, government watchdogs, and other critics responded with alarm to President-elect Donald Trump's long-anticipated announcement on Thursday that he wants Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a clear and present danger to the nation's health," declared Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman. "He shouldn't be allowed in the building at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), let alone be placed in charge of the nation's public health agency."
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The RFK Jr. decision continued a trend of Trump choosing Cabinet secretaries who have demonstrated loyalty to him, even if their qualifications are questionable. After running for president as a Democrat and then an Independent—without support from many members of his political family—Kennedy suspended his campaign and endorsed the Republican in August.
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Leading up to the election last week, Trump acknowledged plans to let Kennedy "go wild on health," sparking speculation that he would let the lawyer and conspiracy theorist lead HHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration, or National Institutes of Health.
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Trump—who is known for his love of McDonald's—said in his statement about RFK Jr. that "for too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health."
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Noting Kennedy's previous pledge to halt research on drug development and infectious diseases, Slate's Mark Joseph Stern called his selection "just a massive 'fuck you' to the millions of families relying on advancements in treatment for loved ones with ALS, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cancer, and so much more," adding that "confirming this lunatic would amount to killing people."
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On the fourth day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP29, in Azerbaijan, green groups highlighted how fossil fuel companies "enable and profit from Israel's genocide in Gaza," continuing "a long history of the industry's complicity in mass atrocities worldwide."
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The BTC pipeline runs from Baku—the Azeri capital and COP29 host city on the Caspian Sea—through Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey and, according to Oil Change, supplies Israel with 28% of its oil, belying Thursday's claim by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that the country has severed all ties with Israel.
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Oil Change continued:
BP has also been granted gas exploration licenses in occupied Palestinian waters. By providing it with fuel, BP enables the Israeli government to commit genocide in Gaza. Chevron operates and partially owns the two largest Israeli-claimed fossil gas fields, Tamar and Leviathan, making it the main international actor extracting fossil gas claimed by Israel in the Mediterranean. In 2022, 70% of Israel's power was generated from fossil gas extracted by Chevron. Through the millions of dollars it pays Israel for its gas extraction licenses, Chevron is also directly contributing to financing Israel's regime of genocide, apartheid, settler colonialism, and occupation.
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Tipping Point U.K. organizer Sadie DeCost said that "BP originated as a key enabler of the British empire, and continues as one of the top 10 largest carbon emitters in the world."
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Oil Change noted that while many governments have prioritized profit and national interest over human rights in Palestine, Colombia—which is led by leftist President Gustavo Petro—"has set a strong precedent and issued an embargo on coal exports to Israel" as part of a broader suspension of relations due to the Gaza onslaught.
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