Politics, Policy & PowerAugust 22, 2023
New to URL Media? Subscribe below to receive our free Friday newsletter.
A View From the Ground
News and insights about politics, government, civic participation and engagement from the URL Media network.
A small group of people march for abortion rights near a Duane Reade in Union Square on March 8, 2023 in New York City. Credit: Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Out-of-state abortion care options are drying in the Southeast: In May, when 18-year-old Alyssa Roberts discovered she was pregnant, she took swift and careful action to access an abortion clinic out of state. Roberts, a resident of Alabama where getting an abortion is illegal, found a Planned Parenthood in Tallahassee to carry out the procedure, which meant that she needed to secure the funds to travel to Florida, secure temporary housing while there and undergo a mandatory ultrasound, lab work and education about the clinic’s abortion process prior to the procedure.However, approaching 16 weeks of pregnancy, Roberts didn’t have the time to wait. Additionally, the Planned Parenthood facility had rescheduled her appointment due to lack of air conditioning. But with the last-minute help of an abortion fund that covered travel and all other logistics, Prism reports that Roberts was able to secure an appointment in just five minutes. Read more here.
Credit: Michelle Urra/PropublicaNew York State’s $126M wage theft scandal: Between leasing a Toyota minivan for $700 every week, rent and groceries, Saprina James, a New York resident who often worked six days a week in 2016, was left with less than minimum wage. One year later, James quit her job and filed a wage theft claim with the state’s Department of Labor (DOL) accusing her former employer of violating the minimum wage law. It turns out the employer owed nearly half a million in back wages and double that in penalties. A recent investigation by Documented and Propublica reveals that of the total $126 million owed in stolen wages, the agency still has $79 million to recover. Read more here.
Drag performer Sasha Cassadine performed in front of a sold out crowd at Union Rooftop in Downtown Minneapolis on Saturday July 29, 2023. Credit: Aaron Nesheim/Sahan JournalMinn. queens of color shine despite national anti-drag blitz: With hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills sweeping the nation, some targeting drag performers and events like Drag Story Hour, the Minneapolis City Council recently adopted a resolution “honoring drag performance and culture as a form of free speech,” reports Sahan Journal.
“We know that drag, drag culture, and the LGBTQ community at large, and specifically our trans youth, are being attacked each and every day in legislatures and city halls all around America. So we are fighting back,” said City Council president Andrea Jenkins at meeting held last month. Hear from advocates who highlight the importance and legacy of drag culture in the state. More: Drag Story Hour Under Attack: What Can Media Do? (URL Media, The Laura Flanders Show)
Practioners salute the drums during Bwa Kayiman 2023 in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on Saturday, August 12, 2023. Credit: Tequila Minsky/The Haitian Times.A Haitian liberation ceremony for the ages, right in Brooklyn: For the past 32 years, vodou priest and visual artist Deenps ‘Gran Bwa’ Bazile has organized an all-day public gathering every August in New York City’s Prospect Park to honor the legacy of Bwa Kayiman — a historical site in northern Saint-Domingue or what is today Haiti — where 200 enslaved people launched a revolt against French colonizers that would lead to the birth of a free nation on August 14, 1791. “This [gathering] is important for me in New York because Haitian kids, and some old people, don’t know what this is,” Gran Bwa told the Haitian Times. “I feel I did my job to my ancestors.” View photos from the ceremony here.
Our Partners
