Latest news with #Advocacy
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Washington County wants your voice on mental health decisions
Washington County is seeking applicants for key roles on its Mental Health Authority Board. The board helps guide mental health advocacy and services for residents, according to a community announcement. Open positions were set to include Child Advocate, Family Advocate, Consumer Representative and Citizen-at-Large Representative, according to the announcement. The board meets at least four times a year, usually on the fourth Wednesday at 12 p.m. One of those meetings was expected to be the Annual Meeting in November. Additional meetings may be scheduled as needed. Those interested in applying or seeking more information were encouraged to contact Dawn L. Marcus, County Clerk, at 240-313-2204 or dlmarcus@ Details about the board and its responsibilities are available through the Washington County Board of County Commissioners. This story was created by David DeMille, ddemille@ with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Apply for Washington County Mental Health Authority Board vacancies
The Guardian
21-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Mahmoud Khalil reunites with family after more than 100 days in Ice detention
Mahmoud Khalil – the Palestinian rights activist, Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident of the US who had been held by federal immigration authorities for more than three months – has been reunited with his wife and infant son. Khalil, the most high-profile student to be targeted by the Trump administration for speaking out against Israel's war on Gaza, arrived in New Jersey on Saturday at about 1pm – two hours later than expected after his flight was first rerouted to Philadelphia. Khalil greeted reporters and cheering supporters as he emerged from security at Newark airport accompanied by his wife, Dr Noor Abdalla, and son in a stroller, as well as his legal team and the New York Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 'If they threaten me with detention, even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine,' he said at a brief press conference after landing. 'I just want to go back and continue the work I was already doing, advocating for Palestinian rights, a speech that should actually be celebrated rather than punished.' Khalil was released from a Louisiana immigration detention facility on Friday evening after a federal judge ruled that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter was unconstitutional and ordered his immediate release on bail. Khalil was sent to Jena, Louisiana, shortly after being seized by plainclothes US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents in the lobby of his university residence in front of his heavily pregnant wife, who is a US citizen, in early March. The 30-year-old, who has not been charged with a crime, was forced to miss the birth of his first child, Deen, by the Trump administration. Khalil had been permitted to see his wife and son briefly – and only once – earlier in June. In ordering Khalil's immediate release on Friday, federal judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey, found that the government had failed to provide evidence that the graduate was a flight risk or danger to the public. '[He] is not a danger to the community,' Farbiarz ruled. 'Period, full stop.' The judge also ruled that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter by detaining them was unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters outside the detention facility where an estimated 1,000 men are being held, Khalil said: 'Trump and his administration, they chose the wrong person for this. That doesn't mean there is a right person for this. There is no right person who should be detained for actually protesting a genocide.' 'No one is illegal – no human is illegal,' he said. 'Justice will prevail no matter what this administration may try.' The Trump administration immediately filed a notice of appeal, NBC reported. Khalil was ordered to surrender his passport and green card to Ice officials in Jena, Louisiana, as part of his conditional release. The order also limits Khalil's travel to a handful of US states, including New York and Michigan to visit family, for court hearings in Louisiana and New Jersey, and for lobbying in Washington DC. Khalil's detention was widely condemned as a dangerous escalation in the Trump administration's assault on speech, which is ostensibly protected by the first amendment to the US constitution. His detention was the first in a series of high-profile arrests of international students who had spoken out about Israel's siege of Gaza, its occupation of Palestinian territories and their university's financial ties to companies that profit from Israeli military strikes. Khalil's release marks the latest setback for the Trump administration, which had pledged to deport pro-Palestinian international students en masse, claiming without evidence that speaking out against the Israeli state amounts to antisemitism. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion In Khalili's case, multiple Jewish students and faculty had submitted court documents in his support. Khalil was a lead negotiator between the Jewish-led, pro-Palestinian campus protests at Columbia in 2024. And during an appearance on CNN, he said, 'The liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand, and you cannot achieve one without the other.' In addition to missing the birth of his son, Khalil was kept from his family's first Mother's Day and Father's Day, and his graduation from Columbia while held in custody from 8 March to 20 June. Trump's crackdown on free speech, pro-Palestinian activists and immigrants has triggered widespread protests and condemnation, as Ice agents ramp up operations to detain tens of thousands of people monthly for deportation while seeking – and in many instances succeeding – to avoid due process. Three other students detained on similar grounds to Khalil – Rümeysa Öztürk, Badar Khan Suri and Mohsen Mahdawi – were previously released while their immigration cases are pending. Others voluntarily left the country after deportation proceedings against them were opened. Another is in hiding as she fights her case. On Sunday, a rally to celebrate Khalil's release – and protest against the ongoing detention by thousands of other immigrants in the US and Palestinians held without trial in Israel – will be held at 5.30pm ET at the steps of the Cathedral of St John the Divine in upper Manhattan. Khalil is expected to address supporters, alongside his legal representatives. 'Mahmoud's release reignites our determination to continue fighting until all our prisoners are released – whether in Palestine or the United States, until we see the end of the genocide and the siege on Gaza, and until we enforce an arms embargo on the Israel,' said Miriam Osman of the Palestinian Youth Movement.
New York Times
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Marlee Matlin on Hollywood, Healing and Stories Still Untold
Marlee Matlin is a fighter. At 21, she became the first Deaf performer to win an Oscar for her role as a smart, stubborn custodian in the 1986 film 'Children of a Lesser God.' Though the win thrust her into the spotlight, it did not change the barriers she faced as a Deaf woman, nor did it afford her or other deaf actors the same opportunities as hearing actors. The next Oscar win for a Deaf performer did not occur until 35 years later, when Ms. Matlin's co-star Troy Kotsur won for the 2021 movie 'CODA,' in which they played loving parents to a hearing daughter. The documentary explores the challenges Ms. Matlin has faced throughout her life. The actress said that she battled drug and alcohol addiction and that she was in an abusive relationship with her 'Children of A Lesser God' co-star William Hurt, who died in 2022. After Ms. Matlin wrote about the relationship in her 2009 memoir, Mr. Hurt said in a statement: 'I did and do apologize for any pain I caused.' Throughout her career Ms. Matlin has pushed for more acting roles and has become an advocate on deaf issues such as improving accessibility and representation in mainstream media. When she was asked to participate in a documentary about her life, Ms. Matlin insisted on hiring a Deaf, female director. As a result, the documentary, 'Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore,' is not rooted in sound, and there are no voice-overs — there are only captions — for the American Sign Language conversations. The film's director, Shoshannah Stern, who is also an actress, said the project was an opportunity to show viewers how Ms. Matlin experienced the world. The documentary also calls on Hollywood to be more inclusive of stories like this one. 'I want to make people challenge their assumptions of who should be centered in stories and how we see the world,' Ms. Stern said. 'But that really requires people in positions of power to start saying yes to stories that are being told differently.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CBC
04-06-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Conference in P.E.I. urges Canada to ACT on basic income guarantee
Women's Network P.E.I. is hosting a conference at Holland College this week called ACT BIG, which stands for Advocating Canada Towards a Basic Income Guarantee. CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin sat down with Tracy Smith-Carrier, a professor at Royal Roads University in Victoria, B.C., who's one of the guest speakers at the event.
CTV News
04-06-2025
- General
- CTV News
‘Difficult and challenging': Consultations on Red Dress Alert pilot project underway
A report into a proposed alert for missing Indigenous women has been released, showing the benefits and challenges an alert would have.
