Guilty plea in fatal NY stabbing of immigrant

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FILE - In this file photo of Jan. 28, 2009, Nicholas Hausch appears in court in Riverhead, N.Y. where he and six other Long Island teenagers are accused in the stabbing death of Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero. Hausch pleaded guilty Thursday, Nov. 2, 2009 to gang assault and hate crime charges. The agreement requires him to testify against the six other defendants. (AP Photo/Ed Betz, Pool. File)

Guilty plea in fatal NY stabbing of immigrant

By FRANK ELTMAN (AP) – 6 hours ago

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — A man who agreed to testify against his friends in a fatal gang attack on an Ecuadorean immigrant pleaded guilty Thursday to hate crime charges, telling a judge he knew from the start they wouldn't "get away with it."

"Throw away the knife," Nicholas Hausch says he pleaded with Jeffrey Conroy as they and five others ran from the scene.

Conroy insisted he had washed the blood off the weapon in a puddle, Hausch said, but he doubted they could fool authorities so easily — he had watched too many "Law and Order" episodes to believe that.

"I said, 'We're not going to get away with it,'" Hausch told the judge.

Hausch, 18, pleaded guilty to four counts to settle a nine-count indictment, including conspiracy, gang assault, assault as a hate crime and attempted assault as a hate crime in the Nov. 8, 2008, killing of Marcelo Lucero.

The case has focused attention on a decade-long animosity between the largely white population that settled on Long Island after World War II and

a growing influx of Hispanics, many from Central and South America suspected of illegally entering the United States.

He has agreed to testify in upcoming trials against the six others; the district attorney will then make a sentencing recommendation, but Hausch still could face a minimum of five years in prison.

The U.S. Justice Department announced in October that it has launched an investigation into hate crimes on eastern Long Island, focused particularly on police response. That followed a September report by the Southern Poverty Law Center that revealed "a pervasive climate of fear in the Latino community" in Suffolk County.

Lucero, 37, was walking with a friend near the Patchogue train station at about midnight when they were confronted by the teenagers tooling around town allegedly looking for targets, a somewhat routine avocation for them, according to prosecutors.

His friend ran away, but prosecutors say the teens surrounded Lucero, who tried desperately to fight back, smacking one of his assailants with his belt.

Conroy, 18, is accused of plunging a knife into Lucero's chest before running away. Prosecutors say the other six were unaware of the stabbing until Conroy told them.

Conroy, the only one facing murder charges, and the other remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty. His attorney did not immediately return

a telephone call for comment Thursday.

"Jeff told us he stabbed the guy," Hausch explained before entering his plea.

"No one said, `way to go,' or anything like that. It was more like `you're an idiot.'"

Although some of the teens discussed splitting up, according to Hausch, they remained together and were arrested a short time later, just blocks from where Lucero died.

"Nick has always accepted responsibility. He has enormous remorse," defense attorney Jason Bassett said after Hausch entered the plea before state Supreme Court Justice Robert W. Doyle. "Nick fell in with bigger guys, more popular guys and he wanted to impress them."

Besides his role in the Lucero killing, Hausch also pleaded guilty to participating in earlier attacks on Hispanics in the Patchogue-Medford area of eastern Long Island. He admitted that on several occasions, he and a number of other teens had attacked Hispanics merely because of their ethnicity. The assaults included peppering the victim with anti-Hispanic slurs, Hausch said. In one case, Hausch and others shot a BB-gun at a Hispanic man, he said.

Joselo and Isabel Lucero, the victim's brother and sister, arrived in the courtroom during Hausch's appearance.

"It's really a big surprise right now," Joselo Lucero said afterward. "I think it's a really successful moment."

Lucero said he was organizing a candlelight vigil Saturday night in Patchogue to mark the first anniversary of his brother's death. "I'm just trying to have a peaceful event," he said.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Zelaya's Hopes of Return Fade in Committee Vote By JOSé DE CóRDOBA

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125730077793427071.html

Zelaya's Hopes of Return Fade in Committee Vote By JOSé DE CóRDOBA

A Honduran legislative committee voted not to convene a special session of Congress to consider returning the country's ousted leader, in a move likely to dash chances of Manuel Zelaya's returning to power even temporarily under a deal brokered last week by the U.S.

On Tuesday, a committee of 13 legislators voted to not convene the special session, opting instead to wait until Congress receives nonbinding legal opinions on the issue from Honduras's Supreme Court, attorney general's office and other institutions. It set no deadline for when the reports had to be received.

The decision means a presidential election scheduled for Nov. 29 could take place before any vote on Mr. Zelaya.

Even if Mr. Zelaya pulls out of the U.S.-brokered deal, the interim government appears to have the upper hand. In announcing the deal, the U.S. made clear that it would respect any decision by the Honduran Congress, and would recognize the November elections even if Congress blocks Mr. Zelaya's return.

That may cause some friction with other countries in Latin America. Since the signing of the agreement, the Organization of American States and some Latin American countries have appeared to condition their support of the Honduran election on Mr. Zelaya's return to power.

Under terms of last week's deal, Honduras's interim government and Mr. Zelaya agreed to let Congress decide on Mr. Zelaya's return and set up a government of national unity. In return, the U.S. promised to renew suspended aid to Honduras and recognize the legitimacy of the Nov. 29 presidential poll. Mr. Zelaya isn't on the ballot.

While many interpreted the deal last week as a sign Mr. Zelaya would return to power, Honduran politicians appear in no mood to change their vote from June 28, when they overwhelmingly voted to replace the president. With the election little more than three weeks away, analysts say neither side wants to risk losing votes by reinstalling a controversial president.

"Zelaya is the kiss of death," says Miguel Angel Calix, a Honduran political analyst.

Honduras's rival political factions disagree on what the deal was meant to achieve. Mr. Zelaya says he will consider the deal broken if he isn't reinstated by Thursday. But the agreement itself offers no guarantee of reinstatement.

Write to José de Córdoba at jose.decordoba@wsj.com

 

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Education for Liberation! Venceremos Unidos!

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Lisa Baird: Activist-turned-lawyer fought for immigrants

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Posted on Sun, Nov. 1, 2009

Lisa Baird lived in Mount Airy.

Activist-turned-lawyer fought for immigrants

By Sally A. Downey

Inquirer Staff Writer

On the day she died, Lisa Baird, an immigration lawyer, called an immigration officer. Though weak and woozy, she left a detailed message carefully spelling out her client's name. When her brother Jonathan protested that she shouldn't exert herself, she said: "You don't understand. If this guy gets deported, his life is over."

Ms. Baird, 56, of Mount Airy, died of breast cancer Oct. 21. at her mother's home in Wynnewood.

"Lisa used her expertise to the great benefit of a marginalized and often despised group," said Jonathan Baird, also a lawyer. "She took cases that others would not take. Her fee scale was off the charts. If a client came in and said, 'Miss Lisa, I only have $250, but I'll pay you when I get some money,' she would take the case."

Ms. Baird represented a diverse group, including Chinese boat people, African victims of female genital mutilation, and persecuted Indonesian Christians, her brother said.

In 2002, she joined two other lawyers fighting for political asylum for Bernard Lukwago. At 15, Lukwago had been kidnapped from his African village by a rebel group who slaughtered his parents and forced him to fight in Uganda's civil war. He escaped after four months and began a long journey to the United States.

Immigration agents detained him upon his arrival and held him for two years in prisons in Pennsylvania while his application for asylum worked its way through courts. Jennifer Kramer and Danielle Beckwith became involved in Lukwago's case as students at Villanova Law School.

After the Board of Immigration Appeals revoked the protection Lukwago had been granted in an earlier proceeding and he faced deportation, the two women decided to take his case to the U.S. Court of Appeals. As new law graduates, however, they needed experienced assistance and contacted Ms. Baird.

She helped the women with the appendixes, tables, and exhaustive analysis involved in a federal appeal. In their brief, the women argued that Lukwago, if forced home, would be targeted by Uganda's government for becoming a rebel and by the rebels for escaping from their army.

In August 2003, Lukwago was granted political asylum. "If Jen and Danielle hadn't done this," Ms. Baird told an Inquirer reporter, "I don't know what would have happened. Bernard had no one."

Before becoming a lawyer in the mid-1980s, Ms. Baird spent more than a decade as an activist, including participating in anti-Vietnam War and civil-rights demonstrations, fighting for better public transportation and tenant rights in Philadelphia, working for the Council on Aging, and volunteering with the neighborhood Latino group Padres Unidos.

After earning a law degree from Rutgers University, she was an attorney for Lehigh Valley Legal Services and then for Philadelphia's City Council, drafting ordinances and conducting surveys. In 1993, she joined the staff of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and Council Migration Service of Philadelphia. She had maintained a solo practice in Center City since 1998.

Ms. Baird grew up in Lower Merion and graduated from the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr. She attended the University of Texas and earned a bachelor's degree from Temple University.

"She could be strident and bold when it came to social issues, but she had a great sense of fun and loved to giggle and laugh and was a great storyteller," said Sherri Grasmuck, who met her when they were students at Texas.

Ms. Baird had numerous friends from every facet of her life, including the "Texas Posse" - people she had known at the university, Grasmuck said.

"She was incredibly giving and interested in others," said Eva Gladstein, a friend of 30 years. "She was a terrific matchmaker and introduced me to my husband," Gladstein said.

In recent years, Ms. Baird's friends included other women fighting breast cancer who raced together in dragon boats on the Schuylkill. She was a good athlete and loved swimming off the Jersey Shore, her brother said. She was training for a triathlon even while fighting cancer, he said.

In 1988, Ms. Baird married Roger Ashodian. They had a daughter and a son before separating. She was devoted to her children, her brother said, and very close to her family, especially her father, Donald, who died in May.

In addition to her brother, Ms. Baird is survived by her children, Molly and Louis Ashodian; her mother, Deena; another brother, Robert; and her husband.

A memorial service will be held at noon Nov. 22 at the Germantown Jewish Centre, 400 W. Ellet St. A graveside service was held Oct. 23 at Roosevelt Memorial Park, Trevose

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Contact staff writer Sally A. Downey at 215-854-2913 or sdowney@phillynews.com.

Find this article at: http://www.philly.com/philly/obituaries/20091101_Activist-turned-lawyer_fought_for_immigrants.html

http://www.philly.com/philly/obituaries/20091101_Activist-turned-lawyer_fought_for_immigrants.html

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Comment: Surely Ms. Baird was a great humanitarian whose heart went  out to many people from different backgrounds. She must of had an open compassionate heart and believed in compassionate action.

We should be so fortunate to have a heart close to hers. She loved people I am sure and saw our common humanity in the human family. Earth's cry, Heaven's smile!

Education for Liberation! Venceremos Unidos!

Peter S. López, Jr. aka~Peta

Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com 

http://twitter.com/Peta51

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Come Together! Join Up! Get Involved! Seize the Time!

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Obama lifts HIV/AIDS travel and immigration ban

October 31, 2:34 PMLiberal Issues ExaminerWilliam Skordelis

Ryan White, Sping of 1989.

On Friday, in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, President Barack Obama signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009, a bill that lifts a 22-year-old travel and immigration ban on HIV-positive people and people with AIDS. Congress and the President completed a journey started during the Bush Administration which once finalized on Monday with publication in the Federal Register, will mean that at the beginning of next year, the United States will no longer be a member of the dirty dozen of countries that had banned HIV-positive travelers and immigrants, according to the advocacy group Immigration Equality, the remaining 11 homophobic countries are: Armenia, Brunei, Iraq, Libya, Moldova, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Sudan.

The signing ceremony was attended by Jeanne White-Ginder, mother of Ryan White, the Indiana teenager who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion at age 13. A severe hemophiliac since diagnosed at six-days-old, Ryan White received transfusions of Factor VIII, a blood product created from pooled plasma of non-hemophiliacs, an increasingly common treatment for hemophiliacs at the time.

On December 17th, 1984, at a time when very little was known about AIDS, White was diagnosed with AIDS during a partial lung removal surgery as a result of pneumonia. Despite public declarations by his doctor that Ryan posed no threat in cases of casual contact to anyone around him, Ryan White's diagnosis and subsequent losing fight to return to Western Middle School in Russiaville, Indiana pushed him into the national spotlight and began a national dialogue on the treatment of AIDS and HIV-positive people. Prior to the awareness Ryan White's story brought about, AIDS was widely considered primarily an LGBT problem that didn't affect the "normal" heterosexual community. He died five years later at the age of 18, in April of 1990.

In 1987, during the Regan-era of conservatism, led by the Department of Health and Human Services with support from Senator Jesse Helms, R-NC, and then passed unanimously in the Senate, AIDS was added to the list of diseases that could disqualify a person from entering the United States, reflecting the fear and ignorance about the disease and its transmission at the time. In 1991, the department tried to reverse its decision, but Congress opposed the action with intensive lobbying by conservative groups and two years later, made HIV infection the only disease specifically listed under immigration law as grounds for inadmissibility to the United States. This law has kept out students, tourists, refugees and even wanted adoptive children who are HIV-positive. But it has also kept any major international AIDS conferences from taking place in the U.S. since 1993 because HIV-positive activists and researchers could not be granted entry.

In August of 1990, the legacy of Ryan White's short life and tragic death four moths earlier prompted Congress to pass the Ryan White Care Act, which provided a funding mechanism for assistance to low-income AIDS patients as a "payer of last resort" for treatment and care not paid for by another means. The bill signed by President Obama on Friday, is the fourth reauthorization of the act, and extends it for another four years.

In 2008, the Senate in a bipartisan effort led by Senator John Kerry, D-MA, and then-Senator Gordon H. Smith, R-OR, voted to overturn the ban as part of legislation reauthorizing funding for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, (PEPFAR), signed into law on July 30th, 2008, by President George W. Bush.

President Obama said:

Now in the past policy differences have made reauthorizations of this program divisive and controversial, that didn't happen this year. For that, the members of Congress who are here today deserve extraordinary credit for passing this bill in the bipartisan manner that it deserves.

More excerpts from remarks by President Barack Obama at the signing of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009, October 30th, 2009:

You know, over the past 19 years, this legislation has evolved from an emergency response into a comprehensive national program for the care and support of Americans living with HIV/AIDS. It helps the communities that are most severely affected by this epidemic and often least served by our health care system., including minorities, the LGBT community, rural communities and the homeless. It's often the only option for the uninsured and the underinsured and provides lifesaving medical services to more than half-a-million Americans every year in every corner of the country. It's helped us to open a critical front on the ongoing battle against HIV/AIDS, but let me clear. This is a battle that's far from over, and it's a battle that all of us need to do our part to join. AIDS may no longer be the leading killer of Americans ages 25 to 44, as it once was, but there are still 1.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States, and more than 56,000 new infections occur every single year.

Tackling this epidemic, will take far more aggressive approaches than we've seen in the past, not only from our federal government, but also state and local governments, from local community organizations, and from places of worship. But it will also take an effort to end the stigma that has stopped people from getting tested, that has stopped people frfom facing their own illness and has sped the spread of this disease for far too long. A couple years ago Michelle and I were in Africa, and we tried to combat the stigma when we were in Kenya, by taking a public HIV/AIDS test and I'm proud to announce today, we're about to take another step towards ending that stigma.

Twenty-two years ago in a decision that was rooted in fear rather than fact the United States instituted a travel ban on entry into the country for people living with HIV/AIDS. Now we talk about reducing the stigma of this disease, yet we've treated a visitor living with it as a threat. We lead the world when it comes to helping stem the AIDS pandemic, yet we are one of only a dozen countries that still bar people from [sic] HIV from entering our own country. If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it, and that's why on Monday, my Administration will publish a final rule that eliminates the travel ban, effective just after the New Year. Congress and President Bush began this process last year and they ought to be commended for it. We are finishing the job. It's a step that will encourage people to get tested and get treatment, it's a step that will keep families together and it's a step that will save lives.

To view the video:

 

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons; This photo of Ryan White was taken by me (Wildhartlivie) in the spring of 1989 at a fund raising event in Indianapolis, Indiana. Author: Original uploader was Wildhartlivie at en.wikipedia
Wildhartlivie at en.wikipedia, the copyright holder of this work, has published or hereby publishes it under the following licenses: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

More About: Health Care · LGBT · HIV/AIDS

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Education for Liberation! Venceremos Unidos!

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