Human rights supporters expect the Duluth City Council to make its opposition official against a proposed state immigration law tonight.
Opponents of the bill believe, if passed, the legislation will encourage racial profiling across the Northland.
The Duluth Immigration Rights Coalition (DIRC) says they feel the state proposal mirrors the controversial legislation Arizona passed about one year ago.
Read more at Fox 21 Online
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Anti-terrorism unit to probe discovery (UK)
Counter-terrorism intelligence officers and bomb disposal experts were called to a beauty spot after two suspect packages were found floating in a lake.
The discovery was made yesterday at Corby boating lake, in Cottingham Road, an area popular with families, walkers and anglers.
Police said although the contents of the two packages could potentially make up an explosive device, neither were viable.
The drama started at 8am when anglers fished an object from the lake, sparking an evacuation of the area. One package, wrapped in a black bin liner, contained a glass jar packed with nails, a lighter, gas canisters, batteries and a strong-smelling liquid. The other held similar contents.
Police were called and the area, including the boating lake cafe, was immediately evacuted.
Roadblocks were set up at the junction of Willow Brook Road and Cottingham Road and outside the nearby Willowbrook Health Centre. Officers cordoned off a large area around the lake and stopped people using the footpath which leads through the woods to the town centre.
Police, paramedics and firefighters were also on the scene as cafe staff waited to find out if they could collect their vehicles, parked behind the police cordon.
People turning up at the police roadblock, hoping to keep appointments at Willowbrook Health Centre, were turned back and told to get to the complex from the Westcott Way end of Cottingham Road.
Passers-by gathered during the morning to watch events unfold and at the end of the lake furthest away from where the packages were discovered men continued to fish and people sat on benches as emergency services carried out their investigation.
Carl McCardine was working in the cafe when the packages were found. He said: “There were about 20 customers in at the time, some of them were members of a walking group. We were told to evacuate the cafe and get out of the area. Everyone was very calm.”
At about 1.30pm Cottingham Road was re-opened and cafe staff were allowed to remove their vehicles from the car park.
Evening Telegraph
The discovery was made yesterday at Corby boating lake, in Cottingham Road, an area popular with families, walkers and anglers.
Police said although the contents of the two packages could potentially make up an explosive device, neither were viable.
The drama started at 8am when anglers fished an object from the lake, sparking an evacuation of the area. One package, wrapped in a black bin liner, contained a glass jar packed with nails, a lighter, gas canisters, batteries and a strong-smelling liquid. The other held similar contents.
Police were called and the area, including the boating lake cafe, was immediately evacuted.
Roadblocks were set up at the junction of Willow Brook Road and Cottingham Road and outside the nearby Willowbrook Health Centre. Officers cordoned off a large area around the lake and stopped people using the footpath which leads through the woods to the town centre.
Police, paramedics and firefighters were also on the scene as cafe staff waited to find out if they could collect their vehicles, parked behind the police cordon.
People turning up at the police roadblock, hoping to keep appointments at Willowbrook Health Centre, were turned back and told to get to the complex from the Westcott Way end of Cottingham Road.
Passers-by gathered during the morning to watch events unfold and at the end of the lake furthest away from where the packages were discovered men continued to fish and people sat on benches as emergency services carried out their investigation.
Carl McCardine was working in the cafe when the packages were found. He said: “There were about 20 customers in at the time, some of them were members of a walking group. We were told to evacuate the cafe and get out of the area. Everyone was very calm.”
At about 1.30pm Cottingham Road was re-opened and cafe staff were allowed to remove their vehicles from the car park.
Evening Telegraph
Far right groups may be fuelling increase in city race attacks (UK)
FAR right groups are thought to be one of the causes behind a rise in race hate attacks in Portsmouth, The News can reveal.
New figures show that 455 incidents were reported to the city’s Racial Awareness Service over a nine-month period – a 25 per cent year-on-year rise.
Police also say hate crime – which includes those targeted because of their race or religion – went up by 16 per cent in the city to 317 last year.
Fareham, Gosport, Havant and Waterlooville also saw a nine per cent rise in hate crime.
It comes as an investigation by The News on pages 12 and 13 today reveals how one man has been the victim of seven race attacks in less than two months since opening his store in Ludlow Road, Paulsgrove.
Nanda Vayanaperumal has been subjected to racist abuse, had paint thrown at his store, his car tyres slashed and windows smashed at the Danny Mart.
Sharon Furtado, who manages Portsmouth City Council’s Racial Awareness Service, said: ‘The rise (in race attacks) could be due to a whole host of reasons.
‘Last year we had the elections and the British National Party and far right groups had more of a platform to express their views.
‘Some times people listen to them and it touches a chord with them.
‘It could also be down to the recession and there being a feeling that immigrants are coming in and taking jobs. We don’t know what the trigger is that makes someone decide to act.’
Last November, up to 100 people were involved in a demonstration at the Jami Mosque in Victoria Road North, Southsea.
The protest was sparked after a small group of Muslim extremists – not from Portsmouth – burned poppies in London during the two-minute silence on Armistice Day.
The English Defence League was blamed for organising the protests, which resulted in several arrests and charges.
Criminals face more serious penalties if the crime is found to be racially aggravated. A person convicted of actual bodily harm faces up to five years in prison, but if it is racially aggravated the offender can be jailed for up to seven years.
Chief Inspector Karen Scipio said: ‘Crimes aggravated by racial hatred are not only upsetting for the victims they’re also damaging to our wider communities.
‘We will continue to work hard to engage with the public and encourage victims of hate crime and people who witness it taking place, to come forward and report all incidents to us.’
Portsmouth News
New figures show that 455 incidents were reported to the city’s Racial Awareness Service over a nine-month period – a 25 per cent year-on-year rise.
Police also say hate crime – which includes those targeted because of their race or religion – went up by 16 per cent in the city to 317 last year.
Fareham, Gosport, Havant and Waterlooville also saw a nine per cent rise in hate crime.
It comes as an investigation by The News on pages 12 and 13 today reveals how one man has been the victim of seven race attacks in less than two months since opening his store in Ludlow Road, Paulsgrove.
Nanda Vayanaperumal has been subjected to racist abuse, had paint thrown at his store, his car tyres slashed and windows smashed at the Danny Mart.
Sharon Furtado, who manages Portsmouth City Council’s Racial Awareness Service, said: ‘The rise (in race attacks) could be due to a whole host of reasons.
‘Last year we had the elections and the British National Party and far right groups had more of a platform to express their views.
‘Some times people listen to them and it touches a chord with them.
‘It could also be down to the recession and there being a feeling that immigrants are coming in and taking jobs. We don’t know what the trigger is that makes someone decide to act.’
Last November, up to 100 people were involved in a demonstration at the Jami Mosque in Victoria Road North, Southsea.
The protest was sparked after a small group of Muslim extremists – not from Portsmouth – burned poppies in London during the two-minute silence on Armistice Day.
The English Defence League was blamed for organising the protests, which resulted in several arrests and charges.
Criminals face more serious penalties if the crime is found to be racially aggravated. A person convicted of actual bodily harm faces up to five years in prison, but if it is racially aggravated the offender can be jailed for up to seven years.
Chief Inspector Karen Scipio said: ‘Crimes aggravated by racial hatred are not only upsetting for the victims they’re also damaging to our wider communities.
‘We will continue to work hard to engage with the public and encourage victims of hate crime and people who witness it taking place, to come forward and report all incidents to us.’
Portsmouth News
Nordic far-right seeps into political mainstream
April elections in Finland could see the rise of yet another Northern European anti-immigrant, nationalist rightwing party that flatly rejects the far-right label while using populist rhetoric.
The True Finns is the latest such party to show signs of gaining mainstream traction.
Opinion polls suggest its showing in the April 17 parliamentary election could leap from its 4.1 percent score in the 2007 election right up to 20 percent.
The True Finns, Sweden Democrats (SD), the Danish People's Party (DPP) and Norway's Progress Party (FrP) are all already represented in their respective national parliaments.
There, they emphasise the importance and of "lifestyle politics such as abortion, gay marriages, gender education, immigration," says Swedish political scientist Anders Hellstroem.
"They are authoritarian, pro-family, want law and order, and are opposed to immigration. In that sense, they are all far-right," he tells AFP.
At the same time, however, since they are all represented in parliament, "all are established. They are part of the mainstream," he says.
The far-right label, which signals extremism, is therefore not completely accurate.
In Finland, for instance, the True Finns are far from having a monopoly on anti-immigration rhetoric, says writer and political analyst Jussi Foerbom: better-established parties having long "used pretty merciless and harsh language in the discussion of immigration."
The party has however by far been the most successful in transforming the issue into popular support.
All the Nordic populist parties tend to oppose high taxation levels, while still backing the social welfare models associated with their countries.
They are also trying to gain respectability.
Sweden's SD, which with its neo-Nazi roots has the most dubious past of the Nordic parties, has for instance purged the most extreme elements from its midst.
A True Finns city councillor was convicted for blog comments linking Islam to paedophilia and saying Somalis were predisposed to mugging people and living on the dole.
But Raimo Vistbacka, a party founding member, told AFP his behavior could be attributed to the fact that "every party has these young radicals."
"They mellow out as they get more experience," he said.
When Sweden's SD entered parliament for the first time last September after elections that handed Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's centre-right coalition minority rule, all the other parties pledged to isolate it.
The party has nevertheless been able to play kingmaker in a line of important parliamentary votes, handing the win to the government or the left-leaning opposition as it sees fit.
And the True Finns party, which has been represented in parliament since 1996, could very likely become the first of the Nordic populist parties to actually make it into government.
Denmark's DPP has also secured widespread mainstream acceptance.
In its role as key ally to the centre-right coalition in power since 2001, it has helped shape government policies and push Danish immigration policies to become among the most restrictive in Europe.
The party's head Pia Kjaersgaard has said she sees the party as "rather close to French Gaullism".
The DPP has been an ally to the minority government for 10 years and is Denmark's third largest party.
Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen has said it represents "a fringe of the electorate we can't ignore."
It has "made a lot of efforts not to be affiliated with the SD (in Sweden)," Swedish political scientist Hellstroem says, stressing however that "SD is no further right than DPP."
The DPP is now considered a possible coalition partner after general elections in Denmark later this year.
In Norway too, where the FrP has long been the second-largest party, there are signs it could for the first time be allowed into a government coalition after the next vote in 2013.
Such high acceptance level might seem far away for the SD, as its roots are much more extreme.
Norwegian political scientist Frank Aarebrot at the University of Bergen argues however that the Swedish party does not really differ much from the other populist parties in the region.
"But they are at different stages in their development," he says, pointing out that "FrP, when it was as young as (the) SD, was at least as isolated."
ABC News
The True Finns is the latest such party to show signs of gaining mainstream traction.
Opinion polls suggest its showing in the April 17 parliamentary election could leap from its 4.1 percent score in the 2007 election right up to 20 percent.
The True Finns, Sweden Democrats (SD), the Danish People's Party (DPP) and Norway's Progress Party (FrP) are all already represented in their respective national parliaments.
There, they emphasise the importance and of "lifestyle politics such as abortion, gay marriages, gender education, immigration," says Swedish political scientist Anders Hellstroem.
"They are authoritarian, pro-family, want law and order, and are opposed to immigration. In that sense, they are all far-right," he tells AFP.
At the same time, however, since they are all represented in parliament, "all are established. They are part of the mainstream," he says.
The far-right label, which signals extremism, is therefore not completely accurate.
In Finland, for instance, the True Finns are far from having a monopoly on anti-immigration rhetoric, says writer and political analyst Jussi Foerbom: better-established parties having long "used pretty merciless and harsh language in the discussion of immigration."
The party has however by far been the most successful in transforming the issue into popular support.
All the Nordic populist parties tend to oppose high taxation levels, while still backing the social welfare models associated with their countries.
They are also trying to gain respectability.
Sweden's SD, which with its neo-Nazi roots has the most dubious past of the Nordic parties, has for instance purged the most extreme elements from its midst.
A True Finns city councillor was convicted for blog comments linking Islam to paedophilia and saying Somalis were predisposed to mugging people and living on the dole.
But Raimo Vistbacka, a party founding member, told AFP his behavior could be attributed to the fact that "every party has these young radicals."
"They mellow out as they get more experience," he said.
When Sweden's SD entered parliament for the first time last September after elections that handed Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's centre-right coalition minority rule, all the other parties pledged to isolate it.
The party has nevertheless been able to play kingmaker in a line of important parliamentary votes, handing the win to the government or the left-leaning opposition as it sees fit.
And the True Finns party, which has been represented in parliament since 1996, could very likely become the first of the Nordic populist parties to actually make it into government.
Denmark's DPP has also secured widespread mainstream acceptance.
In its role as key ally to the centre-right coalition in power since 2001, it has helped shape government policies and push Danish immigration policies to become among the most restrictive in Europe.
The party's head Pia Kjaersgaard has said she sees the party as "rather close to French Gaullism".
The DPP has been an ally to the minority government for 10 years and is Denmark's third largest party.
Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen has said it represents "a fringe of the electorate we can't ignore."
It has "made a lot of efforts not to be affiliated with the SD (in Sweden)," Swedish political scientist Hellstroem says, stressing however that "SD is no further right than DPP."
The DPP is now considered a possible coalition partner after general elections in Denmark later this year.
In Norway too, where the FrP has long been the second-largest party, there are signs it could for the first time be allowed into a government coalition after the next vote in 2013.
Such high acceptance level might seem far away for the SD, as its roots are much more extreme.
Norwegian political scientist Frank Aarebrot at the University of Bergen argues however that the Swedish party does not really differ much from the other populist parties in the region.
"But they are at different stages in their development," he says, pointing out that "FrP, when it was as young as (the) SD, was at least as isolated."
ABC News
Why aren't there more black football managers? (UK)
Is institutional racism in the boardroom the reason so few black players make it into management?
Glance at the average football pitch and you might conclude racism in Britain's favourite sport is dead. Team-sheets from the Premier League down have players of all ethnicities, and organising bodies host myriad anti-racism events. The discrimination bound-up with the game in decades past appears to be over. Until you look at the people shouting to the players.
In 2007, about a quarter of all players were black, but only two out of 92 league clubs had black managers. Today, there are still only two black managers in all four leagues: Paul Ince, manager of Notts County, and Chris Powell, of Charlton Athletic. Football management is still overwhelmingly white. Now academics at Staffordshire University, who have undertaken major research into the subject, report a strong call among black and minority ethnic (BME) football fans for the introduction of positive discrimination.
The research, by Ellis Cashmore, professor of culture, media and sport at Staffordshire, and his colleague Dr Jamie Cleland, senior lecturer in sociology, involved 1,000 football fans, professional players, referees, coaches and managers revealing their views on the dearth of black managers. More than 56% of those polled said there is racism at the top of football's hierarchy; among BME respondents, that figure was 73%. Most radically of all, over half of BME fans called for a policy similar to the Rooney rule in the US, which stipulates that all shortlists for management and coaching jobs in the National Football League must include at least one minority candidate. The Staffordshire academics report that a third of the polled football fans encouraged this type of reform.
"We didn't expect support for reform," admits Cashmore. "We thought that, as British culture tends to oppose any type of compulsion, the fans would resist a policy. But, in the event, they showed a clear recognition that the paucity of black managers has become an embarrassing anomaly that needs radical attention." The comments made by the surveyed football fans included: "Until you force something like the Rooney rule, the situation will not change"; "The US is now seeing the success of diversifying upper management"; "There are numerous white managers who have failed, but their name always crops up on a short list and they get given jobs. When you are black you get one chance and if you mess up, that's it."
The academics believe that while black former players like Ruud Gullit and Patrick Vieira helped combat racism in football by showing off their skills, football management escaped that development. "From the early 1980s, black players earned their place on teams on merit, and resentment subsided. But management is different. Skill isn't so self-evident – a manager needs an opportunity and a period of time to prove his worth," says Cashmore. "In the 1980s, football's upper echelons were tut-tutting about the unruly fans who still harboured racist views. Now the tide has reversed: over half of the fans are complaining that football's rulers are racist."
The academics report that fans believe "institutional racism" – where people do not consciously discriminate against minorities, but fail to challenge old assumptions and stereotypes, meaning a pattern of operations continues – is relevant in football management. One survey respondent said: "People appoint people like themselves. White chairmen appoint white, male managers. The cycle is not easily broken." Dismissing the idea that black managers will come through as the higher numbers of black players mature, another said: "Football boards have very few ethnic minorities on them – that's more likely to be the issue than the players or backroom staff. It's an old boys' club that is unlikely to bring in people from outside their peer group."
Cashmore agrees. "Succession in football management seems haunted by images of celebrated managers of the past and present – and they're all white," he says. Britain's first black football manager is believed to be Tony Collins, who managed Rochdale for seven years from 1960 – although most people assume it was Gullit, who managed Chelsea in 1996. Gullit, Cashmore adds, "retains the distinction of being the first football manager to have dreadlocks".
One insider response to the Staffordshire University research came from a black former league manager who no longer works in the UK. He said: "I had to keep reminding myself how much of a niche industry football management is – there are only 92 jobs. When a manger loses his job, within hours someone already on the management merry-go-round is installed as favourite without considering the merits of an outsider. That's the appeal of the Rooney rule – it opens up the field."
Evidence of continued racism came from the survey respondents' additional comments. One fan said: "The lack of black managers in football reflects the football view that while black men can play, they are not competent to manage."
"The research indicates that fans sense that there's an issue in British football," says Cashmore. "The majority is in no doubt that there is racism in the boardroom – that in itself demands attention." But he is gloomy about the prospect of change. "We sent the results of the our Topfan gay footballers project (on homophobia in football ) to the Football Association, Premier League, Football League and Professional Footballers' Association, but none expressed interest in acting on our results," he says. "So we don't hold out much hope that they will respond positively to the latest findings."
• Ellis Cashmore will discuss his research on BBC Radio5 Live's Total Blackout on Wednesday, 30 March at 8pm
The Guardian
Glance at the average football pitch and you might conclude racism in Britain's favourite sport is dead. Team-sheets from the Premier League down have players of all ethnicities, and organising bodies host myriad anti-racism events. The discrimination bound-up with the game in decades past appears to be over. Until you look at the people shouting to the players.
In 2007, about a quarter of all players were black, but only two out of 92 league clubs had black managers. Today, there are still only two black managers in all four leagues: Paul Ince, manager of Notts County, and Chris Powell, of Charlton Athletic. Football management is still overwhelmingly white. Now academics at Staffordshire University, who have undertaken major research into the subject, report a strong call among black and minority ethnic (BME) football fans for the introduction of positive discrimination.
The research, by Ellis Cashmore, professor of culture, media and sport at Staffordshire, and his colleague Dr Jamie Cleland, senior lecturer in sociology, involved 1,000 football fans, professional players, referees, coaches and managers revealing their views on the dearth of black managers. More than 56% of those polled said there is racism at the top of football's hierarchy; among BME respondents, that figure was 73%. Most radically of all, over half of BME fans called for a policy similar to the Rooney rule in the US, which stipulates that all shortlists for management and coaching jobs in the National Football League must include at least one minority candidate. The Staffordshire academics report that a third of the polled football fans encouraged this type of reform.
"We didn't expect support for reform," admits Cashmore. "We thought that, as British culture tends to oppose any type of compulsion, the fans would resist a policy. But, in the event, they showed a clear recognition that the paucity of black managers has become an embarrassing anomaly that needs radical attention." The comments made by the surveyed football fans included: "Until you force something like the Rooney rule, the situation will not change"; "The US is now seeing the success of diversifying upper management"; "There are numerous white managers who have failed, but their name always crops up on a short list and they get given jobs. When you are black you get one chance and if you mess up, that's it."
The academics believe that while black former players like Ruud Gullit and Patrick Vieira helped combat racism in football by showing off their skills, football management escaped that development. "From the early 1980s, black players earned their place on teams on merit, and resentment subsided. But management is different. Skill isn't so self-evident – a manager needs an opportunity and a period of time to prove his worth," says Cashmore. "In the 1980s, football's upper echelons were tut-tutting about the unruly fans who still harboured racist views. Now the tide has reversed: over half of the fans are complaining that football's rulers are racist."
The academics report that fans believe "institutional racism" – where people do not consciously discriminate against minorities, but fail to challenge old assumptions and stereotypes, meaning a pattern of operations continues – is relevant in football management. One survey respondent said: "People appoint people like themselves. White chairmen appoint white, male managers. The cycle is not easily broken." Dismissing the idea that black managers will come through as the higher numbers of black players mature, another said: "Football boards have very few ethnic minorities on them – that's more likely to be the issue than the players or backroom staff. It's an old boys' club that is unlikely to bring in people from outside their peer group."
Cashmore agrees. "Succession in football management seems haunted by images of celebrated managers of the past and present – and they're all white," he says. Britain's first black football manager is believed to be Tony Collins, who managed Rochdale for seven years from 1960 – although most people assume it was Gullit, who managed Chelsea in 1996. Gullit, Cashmore adds, "retains the distinction of being the first football manager to have dreadlocks".
One insider response to the Staffordshire University research came from a black former league manager who no longer works in the UK. He said: "I had to keep reminding myself how much of a niche industry football management is – there are only 92 jobs. When a manger loses his job, within hours someone already on the management merry-go-round is installed as favourite without considering the merits of an outsider. That's the appeal of the Rooney rule – it opens up the field."
Evidence of continued racism came from the survey respondents' additional comments. One fan said: "The lack of black managers in football reflects the football view that while black men can play, they are not competent to manage."
"The research indicates that fans sense that there's an issue in British football," says Cashmore. "The majority is in no doubt that there is racism in the boardroom – that in itself demands attention." But he is gloomy about the prospect of change. "We sent the results of the our Topfan gay footballers project (on homophobia in football ) to the Football Association, Premier League, Football League and Professional Footballers' Association, but none expressed interest in acting on our results," he says. "So we don't hold out much hope that they will respond positively to the latest findings."
• Ellis Cashmore will discuss his research on BBC Radio5 Live's Total Blackout on Wednesday, 30 March at 8pm
The Guardian
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