Protest on police brutality—
A small unannounced group of protestors arrived on the Seattle University campus with a Seattle Police escort in the afternoon of April 14. The protestors were decrying police brutality in relation to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y. and Walter Scott in North Charleston, S.C. They began their demonstrations with a walkout rally at Seattle Central Community College from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and then made their way downtown, making a stop at Seattle U. They eventually arrived at the Seattle Police Department where they staged a die-in. The events were a part of a nationwide day of protest called for by Cornel West and Carl Dix, co-founders of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network.
HILLARY CLINTON RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT—
Hillary Rodham Clinton announced on Sunday, March 12 that she is running for President of the United States in the 2016 election. Clinton has been in the political spotlight for decades, as first lady to President Bill Clinton, as a U.S. Senator representing New York, as President Obama’s biggest competition for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2008 presidential race and as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.
In a three-minute video posted on Sunday afternoon, Clinton confirmed the rumor of her bid for the presidency.
“Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion,” she said.
Clinton will begin her campaign this week in Iowa. Major themes of the campaign will include increasing wages and fighting income inequality. Though critics say she is not as popular in the public eye as she was when she first ran in 2008, it looks as though she may not have any big competition for the Democratic nomination.
At this point, Clinton is the only Democrat to have officially kicked off her campaign. Sen. Ted Cruz from Texas, Sen. Rand Paul from Kentucky and Sen. Marco Rubio from Florida are the only Republicans who have announced
their candidacy.
PRESIDENT OBAMA MEETS WITH CUBAN PRESIDENT RAUL CASTRO—
President Barack Obama met with Cuban President Raul Castro on Saturday, April 11 for the first formal discussion between the two country’s leaders in 50 years. They spoke in a convention center in Panama City where the Summit of the Americas was being held. The talk reflected a step forward for the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba, two countries that have not associated with one another since the Cold War. President Castro explained he is open to a new beginning with the United States, and Obama agreed, saying, “The Cold War has been over for a long time.”
Castro requested during the talk that the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba be lifted, which Obama has called on Congress to do. One conflict, however, was not resolved: Cuba remains on the U.S. list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. Castro said that while he is willing to discuss everything, “we need to be patient, very patient.”
Castro also said he believes Obama is an honest man and praised him for his behavior, which he attributed to the Obama’s humble background. The talk on Saturday began what many believe to be a new era of relations between the
two countries.
SEATTLE UNIVERSITY STUDENT PAY RAISE—
Seattle University and the University of Washington both announced last week that they are increasing the minimum wage for student workers to $11 per hour. This complies with Seattle’s new minimum wage law that requires large employers to pay workers at least $11 per hour, and at least $15 per hour by 2018.
Before this change, which went into effect April 1, the salary for a Level 1 job at Seattle U was $9.90 an hour.
Seattle’s new minimum wage is based on the theory of “middle-out economics,” a method of growing the economy by paying middle-class workers more money. As President Obama put it in 2013, “When middle-class families have less to spend, businesses have fewer customers.”
Seattle is the first city in the country to raise its minimum wage as high as $15 an hour. The federal minimum wage as of now is $7.25 per hour.
Rolling Stone Magazine Retracts Rape Article—
Rolling Stone Magazine writer Sabrina Rubin Ederly apologized for the inaccuracies in an article she wrote about a gang rape at the University of Virginia. Last week, the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism released a report commissioned by Rolling Stone detailing the failures on the magazine’s part to verify that the story of the rape was even true. Ederly’s 9,000-word article appeared in the magazine’s Nov. 2014 issue and sparked a national conversation about rape on university campuses. When the story became viral, Charlottesville, Va. police began an investigation of the crime, and came up with nothing. After further research, other parts of the story began to unravel. The fraternity at which the rape was supposed to have taken place said in a statement that there had been no event on the night the story took place, and friends of the story’s victim said they doubted she was telling the truth.
It is suspected that the victim of the alleged assault, who was given an anonymous name in Ederly’s article, was not entirely truthful—if at all truthful—in her telling of the story. Even so, the Columbia report says that Rolling Stone failed to take even the most basic journalistic measures in verifying the source’s story.
