White House: Fact Sheet: Not Alone – Protecting Students From Sexual Assault
One in five women is sexually assaulted while in college. Most often, it happens her freshman or sophomore year. In the great majority of cases, it’s by someone she knows – and also most often, she does not report what happened. And though fewer, men, too, are victimized. The Administration is committed to putting an end to this violence. That’s why the President established the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault on January 22, 2014, with a mandate to strengthen federal enforcement efforts and provide schools with additional tools to combat sexual assault on their campuses.
"To anyone out there who has ever been assaulted: You are not alone. We have your back." —President Obama: NotAlone.gov#1is2Many
Today, the Task Force is announcing a series of actions to: (1) identify the scope of the problem on college campuses, (2) help prevent campus sexual assault, (3) help schools respond effectively when a student is assaulted, and (4) improve, and make more transparent, the federal government’s enforcement efforts. We will continue to pursue additional executive or legislative actions in the future. These steps build on the Administration’s previous work to combat sexual assault. The Task Force formulated its recommendations after a 90-day review period during which it heard from thousands of people from across the country — via 27 online and in-person listening sessions and written comments from a wide variety of stakeholders.
1 in 5 women is sexually assaulted while in college. That's unacceptable. Here's how we're taking action → go.wh.gov/dVx1tU#1is2Many
On Tuesday, we are launching a dedicated website –www.NotAlone.gov – to make enforcement data public and to make other resources accessible to students and schools. On the website, students can learn about their rights, search enforcement data, and read about how to file a complaint. The website will also help schools and advocates: it will make available federal guidance on legal obligations, best available evidence and research, and relevant legislation. Finally, the website will have trustworthy resources from outside the federal government, such as hotline numbers and mental health services locatable by simply typing in a zip code.
Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the release of the First Report of the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington.
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USA Today: Biden: Colleges Must Step Up To Prevent Sexual Assault
Vice President Biden said on Tuesday that the USA’s colleges and universities have a moral responsibility to “step up” efforts to prevent sexual assault on campuses. Biden’s remarks follow the White House Task Force to Prevent Students from Sexual Assault’s release of a series of recommendations late Monday, which detail the administration’s plan to improve reporting by universities and colleges of sexual assault incidents as well as bolster efforts to educate students about sexual and gender-based violence. “I understand all the excuses and I understand all the rationale …but colleges and universities can no longer turn a blind eye or pretend rape or sexual assault doesn’t occur on their campuses,” Biden said. “I understand that the good guys [that] report feel like they may be damaging the reputation of their schools. I get it. But it doesn’t matter. We need to provide survivors with support and we need to bring perpetrators to justice.”
"We need to send a message to victims everywhere -- we’re here for you...you’re not alone." – VP #1is2Manyhttp://t.co/7JchwWmVkM
The administration also announced that it would launch the website NotAlone.gov where enforcement data will be published and begin a push to require colleges and universities to conduct “climate surveys” to better understand how frequently incidents happen on campus but are not reported to authorities. “I challenge every college and university if they are really serious about protecting students to conduct anonymous surveys,” Biden said. “They have a moral responsibility to know what is happening on their campus.” the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights released released a new guidance document on students’ rights and schools’ obligations under Title IX, which require colleges and universities that receive federal funds to investigate claims of sexual assault and provide a timely and impartial grievance procedure to resolve those claims. Notably, the guidance extends Title IX protection for the first time to claims of discrimination based on gender identity.
President Barack Obama is kissed by 94-year-old Carolina Garcia Delfin, a Filipina nurse who fought in the resistance against Japanese forces during World War II. The President mentioned her in his remarks to American and Philippine troops at Fort Bonifacio in Manila, Philippines, April 29, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Sara Kliff: Republican Replacement For Obamacare Is Fauxobamacare
Scott Brown, who’s now running for Senate in New Hampshire, has found the perfect position on Obamacare. He’s for it. He’s just not for calling it Obamacare. In an interview with WBUR, he called Obamacare a “disaster.” Then he was asked what he’s for — and he went on to describe Obamacare. “I’ve always felt that people should either get some type of health care options, or pay for it with a nice competitive fee,” he said. “That’s all great. I believe it in my heart. In terms of preexisting conditions, catastrophic coverages, covering kids, whatever we want to do.”
He even said it could “include the Medicaid expansion [for] folks who need that care and coverage.” Oh, he also promises his plan won’t raise taxes, cut spending on Medicare, or make people drive very far to go to the hospital. So his plan will have more generous insurance options and no way to pay for them. In other words, his plan will be like Obamacare, but even better! Call it Fauxbamacare.
Brian Beutler: Buzzfeed Chronicles Paul Ryan’s Metamorphosis, Ignores His Frightening Budget
If I had to draw one conclusion from McKay Coppins’ latest Paul Ryan bildungsroman in Buzzfeed, it would be that Ryan wants public documentation of his metamorphosis from tough-love austerian into a tribune for the poor. But that he doesn’t want it captured in the context of everything else he’s done for his entire career.
…. House Republicans passed his budget on April 10. It proposes monumental cuts to social programs for the poor.
But most of that context is invisible in the profile, as is any indication that Ryan’s actually changed his thinking about how to reduce poverty. And it’s thus silent on the basic question of whether Ryan’s serious at all, or playing us for fools.
Amy Worden: Pa. Judge Won’t Reconsider Voter ID Ruling
A Commonwealth Court judge on Monday denied the Corbett administration’s request to reconsider his ruling overturning the state’s two-year-old voter identification law. In a 29-page decision, Judge Bernard L. McGinley said the law requiring Pennsylvania voters to produce photo ID at the polls failed “to provide liberal access to compliant photo ID” and, as a result, disenfranchised voters. “The evidence showed the voter ID provisions at issue deprive numerous electors of their fundamental right to vote, so vital to our democracy,” wrote McGinley, who struck down the law in January. The Corbett administration has 30 days to file an appeal to the state Supreme Court.
Joshua Maus, spokesman for the Office of General Counsel, said the office was reviewing the ruling. Lawyers representing plaintiffs in the case praised the ruling. “The court confirmed that the photo ID law is unnecessary and disenfranchises hundreds of thousands of people,” said Jennifer Clarke, executive director of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia. “We call on the governor, the attorney general, and the secretary of state to stop spending our precious state dollars on defending this law, so dangerous to our democratic system.”
If it seems every few months brings us another installment in the “Paul Ryan cares about poor people” series, it’s not your imagination. In November, the Washington Post helped get the ball rolling with a front-page article on the House Budget Committee chairman, celebrating the congressman for his efforts “fighting poverty and winning minds.”
The gist of the piece was that the far-right congressman is entirely sincere about using conservative ideas to combat poverty.
In December, BuzzFeed’s McKay Coppins ran a related piece, and today Coppins published another: Ryan is “trying to challenge the notion that his party is out of touch with poor people the old-fashioned way: by talking to some.”
Mark Berman: Why The World Finally Noticed Donald Sterling’s Appalling History
The Donald Sterling who is dominating headlines and drawing widespread condemnation for allegedly saying a metric ton of racist things is the same Donald Sterling who has a long, long, long history of being accused of saying or doing offensive things. So why is this time — and why are these particular remarks — different? Why has the world suddenly discovered Donald Sterling?
Consider that Bomani Jones wrote a story headlined “Sterling’s racism should be news” in 2006. Again: 2006. Eight years and 351 losses by the Clippers ago. Jones wrote this after Sterling was sued for housing discrimination. In the lawsuit, Sterling was accused of refusing to rent apartments to black people.
Yet, it took an audio recording allegedly capturing Sterling saying astonishingly bigoted things for the world to finally notice. This incident is clearly different, owing to a combination of what he said, the fact that people can hear it for themselves and the era in which he said it. In the past, Sterling’s comments were delivered through testimonies and depositions. Offensive statements made during a deposition and reprinted later can spark an outcry, as Paula Deen can attest to, but the Deen episode occurred with someone who was much more famous than Sterling. This episode with the audio recording combines offensive comments with an easy way for people to hear a real human being say these things.
Ishaan Tharoor: U.S.-Philippines Security Deal Shows That America Still Has Its Fans
The new 10-year defense agreement is perhaps the most significant achievement of Obama’s four-country tour of Asia, where the Philippines was the final destination. U.S. troops now have expanded access to Philippine facilities and will participate in an increased number of joint military exercises with the archipelago nation. There’s no plan at present for a permanent American troop presence nor a clear indication that the U.S. would come to the Philippines’ defense in the face of an external threat. But the pact represents something an about-face for Manila: more than two decades ago, the last U.S. naval base in the country at Subic Bay — a legacy of nearly half a century of American colonial rule — was shut down. (At the time, Aquino’s mother, Corazon, was the country’s President.)
Manila’s alliance with Washington has strengthened under Aquino.Aquino’s stance perceptibly hardened and he has become perhaps the most forthright statesman in Southeast Asia when it comes to confronting perceived Chinese aggression. Obama, meanwhile, reiterated that the new defense deal with the Philippines was not about containing China. But it’s hard not to view it in the context of a larger geopolitical chess match in the Pacific. The U.S. now has greater operational flexibility when contemplating maneuvers and actions in the South China Sea.
Reacting to a series of highly publicized rapes on college campuses, the White House on Monday released guidelines that increase the pressure on universities to more aggressively combat sexual assaults on campus. The recommendations urge colleges, among other measures, to conduct anonymous surveys about sexual assault cases, adopt anti-assault policies that have been considered successful at other universities and to better ensure that the reports of such crimes remain confidential. The guidelines are contained in a report by a White House task force that President Obama formed early this year, and
the administration is likely to ask Congress to pass measures that would enforce the recommendations and levy penalties for failing to do so. The government will also open a website, NotAlone.gov, to track enforcement and provide victims with information. “Colleges and universities need to face the facts about sexual assault,” Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said. “No more turning a blind eye or pretending it doesn’t exist. We need to give victims the support they need, like a confidential place to go, and we need to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
IN WASHINGTON, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) peddles one line on immigration reform that is transparently false. In his district in Ohio, he becomes a truth-teller. For months, Mr. Boehner has tried to justify the intransigence of his fellow House Republicans, who have refused to consider a Senate measure to overhaul the broken immigration system. His stated reason was that they could not trust President Obama to enforce any law passed by Congress. But on Thursday, at a meeting at a rotary club lunch in southwestern Ohio, an area Mr. Boehner has represented for more than two decades, he gave it to ’em straight. Asked about immigration reform, the speaker squarely blamed his GOP caucus, with more than a hint of derision.
“Here’s the attitude,” he said, scrunching up his face and delivering the real Republican excuse in a toddler’s whine: “ ‘Ohhhh, don’t make me do this! Ohhhh, this is too hard!’ ” The trouble is that this bracing shot of honesty from Mr. Boehner probably will not fix the underlying problem, which is a Republican Party that cannot see a future for itself, or for the nation, beyond its own predominantly white, aging electorate. House Republicans, rooted in parts of the country demographically distinct from an increasingly diverse nation, are loath to embrace the nation’s Hispanics in part because relatively few of them live or vote in their districts. As they cling to an older America, a new America is rising fast.
LA Times: White House Will Announce New Measures To Combat Sexual Assault On Campus
The White House will announce new measures Tuesday to deal with campus sexual assault, an issue that in recent years has inflamed college campuses from Yale to UC Berkeley. The recommendations from a task force of federal officials headed by Vice President Joe Biden include publicizing enforcement data, issuing guidelines about confidentiality, and requiring colleges and universities to survey students on their experiences with sexual assault. Colleges and universities will be asked to survey students next year to determine the prevalence of sexual assault on campus and may be required to conduct such a survey in 2016. A website, NotAlone.gov, will be unveiled to make each school’s enforcement data public, and to publish information about student rights and resources.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will release recommendations on how to prevent sexual violence, particularly on how to get bystanders to step in when students are at risk of assault. The federal government will also address the touchy issue of confidentiality. Often victims ask that their names not be revealed to their attackers or the police, putting campus authorities in a bind in conducting investigations. The government will clarify that students can talk to certain guidance counselors in confidence and will issue guidelines on how to deal with confidentiality in resolving reports of violence. Schools will be asked to improve their investigative and adjudicative procedures under guidance from the Justice Department. New guidance will be issued making clear that questions about a victim’s sexual history should not be permitted during school hearings and that a previous sexual relationship does not imply consent.
Ben Armbruster: Like Kerry, Seniors Israeli Officials Have Warned Of Israel Becoming ‘An Apartheid State’
he Daily Beast reported on Sunday that Secretary of State John Kerry said that Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state” should the Israelis and Palestinians fail to reach a two-state solution to their decades old conflict, a warning that many top Israeli officials themselves have issued. “A two-state solution will be clearly underscored as the only real alternative. Because a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second-class citizens—or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state,” Kerry reportedly said in a private meeting with world leaders. “Once you put that frame in your mind, that reality, which is the bottom line, you understand how imperative it is to get to the two-state solution, which both leaders, even yesterday, said they remain deeply committed to.”
Abbas calls Holocaust "the ugliest crime known to man in the modern era." Netanyahu welcomes this… oh wait. aljazeera.com/news/middleeas…
A number of very senior Israeli officials have also warned that Israel risks becoming an apartheid-like state absent a two-state solution: 2007 — then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert: “If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished.” 2010 — then-Israeli Defense Minister and Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak: “The simple truth is, if there is one state” including Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, “it will have to be either binational or undemocratic. … if this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.”
Zack Ford: United Church Of Christ Sues North Carolina For Right To Marry Same-Sex Couples
The United Church of Christ (UCC), joined by a group of LGBT-friendly clergy and same-sex couples, has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of North Carolina’s laws and constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Not only does the ban inhibit same-sex couples’ equal protection under the law, the complaint argues, but it also violates the religious liberty of these religious leaders.
That is because North Carolina has a separate law that prohibits ministers from solemnizing a marriage without a license for that marriage. If charged, a minister would be found guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor and charged a fee of $200. Thus, a religious organization like the UCC, which celebrates same-sex marriages, can not even honor that religious ceremony without violating the law. The complaint explains how this hurts both the UCC, as well as the other clergy and couples party to the suit
Kyle Roerink: Las Vegas Helping Lead Charge In Fight To Reform Minimum Wage
Dalven McClain, a 19-year-old fast-food worker, wants to make more money. McClain works at a Las Vegas McDonald’s to save up for classes at UNLV. He earns $8.79 an hour, 54 cents more than the state minimum wage and $1.54 more than the federal minimum. But he says it’s still not enough. He’s stuck living with his parents and hasn’t been able to afford college. McClain has helped make Las Vegas a hotbed in the national campaign to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10. The battle pits retail and restaurant workers against the businesses that employ them, and congressional Democrats against Republicans.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, introduced the Minimum Wage Fairness Act in November. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the bill would hit the chamber’s floor for a vote this week. The bill is part of the Democrats’ 2014 midterm election campaign that also includes immigration reform and pay equity between men and women. While workers rallied for bigger paychecks, partisan politics has so far stalled the bill in Washington. President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders say the bill would lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty, citing a February report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. To become law, the bill will have to pass the Republican-controlled House, where both mainstream conservatives and Tea Party backers assail the legislation.
First Lady Michelle Obama volunteers for Feeding America with congressional spouses at the Capitol City Food Bank in northeast Washington, D.C., April 29, 2009 (Photo by Samantha Appleton)
President Obama with senior advisors in the Blue Room after a prime time press conference which was held in the East Room of the White House, April 29, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama walks down the Cross Hall towards the East Room of the White House prior to a prime time press conference, April 29, 2009 (Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
President Obama approaches the podium prior to a prime time press conference in the East Room of the White House, April 29, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama speaks during a prime time news conference in the East Room of the White House, April 29, 2009 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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President Obama participates in a ceremony to recognize the National Teachers of the Year in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on April 29, 2010
President Obama hugs National Teacher of the Year Sarah Brown Wessling of Johnston High School in Johnston, Iowa
First Lady Michelle Obama paints a butterfly at a Congressional Club spouses service event at the Marie Reed Learning Center in the Adams Morgan community of northwest Washington on April 29, 2010
First Lady Michelle Obama gestures to Bo, the Obama family dog, on the South Lawn of the White House, April 29, 2010 (Photo by Samantha Appleton)
President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and Vice President Biden bow their heads during the funeral for Dorothy Height at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., April 29, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama returns to his seat after delivering the eulogy at the funeral for Dorothy Height at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., April 29, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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President Obama talks with participants from the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike, an iconic campaign in civil rights and labor rights history, during a meeting in the Map Room of the White House, April 29, 2011 (Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama comfort people at Holt Elementary School in Holt, Ala., April 29, 2011. The President and First Lady traveled to Alabama to visit storm damaged neighborhoods and meet with families affected by deadly tornados (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama inspect tornado damage with residents of the Alberta neighborhood in Tuscaloosa, Ala., April 29, 2011 (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, daughters Malia, left, Sasha, and Astronaut Janet Kavandi walk under the landing gear from beneath the nose of space shuttle Atlantis as they visit Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on April 29, 2011
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama meet with STS-134 space shuttle Endeavor commander Mark Kelly, right, and shuttle astronauts, from left, Andrew Feustel, European Space Agency’s Roberto Vittori, Michael Fincke, Gregory H. Johnson, and Greg Chamitoff
President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, daughters Sasha and Malia, and Marian Robinson, stand on the viewing platform where they would have watched the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavor at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., April 29, 2011. The launch was delayed due to an electrical heating problem (Photo by Pete Souza)
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President Obama talks with former President Bill Clinton before an event in McLean, Va., Sunday, April 29, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx delivers remarks after President Obama announced him to be his nominee as the next Transportation Secretary, during a ceremony at the White House on April 29, 2013
President Obama greets Jack Hoffman, 7, of Atkinson, Neb., in the Oval Office, April 29, 2013. Hoffman, who is battling pediatric brain cancer, gained national attention after he ran for a 69-yard touchdown during a Nebraska Cornhuskers spring football game. Hoffman holds a football that the President signed for him (Photo by Pete Souza)
President Barack Obama stretches to shake the hand of a young girl held aloft during a U.S. Embassy meet and greet at the Sofitel Hotel in Manila, Philippines, April 28, 2014 (Photo by Pete Souza)
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