• A decade ago, during a peak in Colombia’s 50-year civil war, the Army lured young men into the city of Ocana, 400 miles from the capital city Bogota. Once there, the young men were killed by soldiers and declared rebel fighters, in order to boost the headcount of the number of leftist insurgents killed. (“Colombian Army Killed Thousands More Civilians Than Reported, Study Claims,” The Guardian, May 8, 2018; “Colombian Civilians Caught in Crossfire as Rebel Factions Fill Violent Vacuum,” The Guardian, April 30, 2018)
• Kentucky, a red state that embraced Obamacare is changing course under Republican Governor Matt Bevin. The Bluegrass State is set to be the first state in the U.S. to enforce work and community engagement requirements for some Medicaid recipients. (“Kentucky Tests How Much to Demand of Medicaid Recipients,” Christin Science Monitor, Feb. 27, 2018)
•During a rally of affordable housing activists on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall, a white counter protester Sonja Trauss, a leader in the Bay Area YIMBYism movement (Yes, in my backyard) moved through the crowd and got involved in a confrontation with veteran activists from the city’s communities of color. (“A Water Contamination Crisis without Boundaries” In These Times (not published yet))
