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The California woman shown on video tackling the teen son of Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Keyon Harrold after falsely accusing the child of stealing her phone pleaded guilty to the heaviest charge against her, a felony hate crime. Miya Ponsetto pleaded guilty specifically to the charge of unlawful imprisonment in the second degree as a hate crime though she was also charged with aggravated harassment, District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced on Monday.

“Under the terms of the plea, Ponsetto will be required for two years to abide by the terms of her California probation stemming from a separate case, continue counseling, and avoid further interaction with the criminal justice system,” the district attorney’s office wrote in a news release. “Under the terms of the plea, Ponsetto will be required for two years to abide by the terms of her California probation stemming from a separate case, continue counseling, and avoid further interaction with the criminal justice system.”

RELATED STORY: Supervised release handed down after Keyon Harrold’s son falsely accused of stealing iPhone

It’s only if Ponsetto doesn’t comply with the terms of her plea agreement that she faces state prison; the term would be between one-and-one-third and four years—a leniency she hasn’t exactly earned. 

Ponsetto had three open cases in California in 2020 alone, Naomi Puzzello, a spokeswoman with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, confirmed last year. Ponsetto was charged with public intoxication when she, her mother, and a third person were involved in a physical altercation at a hotel on Feb. 28. She was charged with driving under the influence when a witness saw her drive away from a supermarket “clearly intoxicated” and responding officers spotted open containers of alcohol and marijuana in her car on May 29, Puzello said. Ponsetto was also charged with driving with a suspended license and, in a separate incident, resisting arrest, driving under the influence, and driving with a suspended license.

When questioned specifically about attacking the Black teen on Dec. 26, 2020, at Arlo SoHo hotel in Manhattan, she told journalist Gayle King: “I’m a 22-year-old girl. How is one girl accusing a guy about a phone a crime?”

King pushed Ponsetto on her defense. “You have to at least understand your actions that day,” the journalist said. “You seem to have attacked this teenager about the phone. And then it turned out he didn’t even have your phone. That’s the thing. You’re 22 years old, but you’re old enough to know better.” At that point, Ponsetto, seated next to her attorney, extended her hand forward and said, “Enough.”

District Attorney Bragg said in a statement: “Ms. Ponsetto displayed outrageous behavior. As a Black man, I have personally experienced racial profiling countless times in my life and I sympathize with the young man victimized in this incident. This plea ensures appropriate accountability for Ms. Ponsetto by addressing underlying causes for her behavior and ensuring this conduct does not reoccur.”

Both Ponsetto and the hotel later admitted their regrets in the incident, Ponsetto saying in her interview with King that she “could have approached the situation different.” The hotel apologized to Harrold and his son days after the initial incident in a statement emailed to Daily Kos. 

“We’re deeply disheartened about the recent incident of baseless accusation, prejudice, and assault against an innocent guest of Arlo hotel,” the hotel said in the statement.

“In investigating the incident further, we’ve learned that the manager on duty promptly called the police regarding the woman’s conduct and that hotel security intervened to prevent further violence; still, more could have been done to de-escalate the dispute.

“No Arlo guest—or any person—should be subject to this kind of behavior. We want to apologize to Mr. Harrold and his son for this inexcusable experience, and have reached out to them directly to express our sincere regret and to offer help in dealing with this traumatic event.”

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump represents Harrold and his son in a lawsuit against the hotel, which initially allowed Ponsetto to make demands of the teen despite her having checked out of the hotel and no longer being a guest.

“When Miya Ponsetto couldn’t find her cell phone, she defaulted to blaming and assaulting an innocent Black teenager and was aided by the Arlo Hotel staff, who backed her up instead of defending their Black guest,” Crump said in his statement. “It’s highly disappointing that she was permitted to plea down, only receiving probation. We won’t change the culture until we hold people accountable for their outrageously bad behavior.”

RELATED STORIES: 

Woman shown attacking son of Grammy Award-winning trumpeter was arrested before

Woman who falsely accused black teen of stealing her cell phone in NYC hotel identified

‘He is a child!!!’ Teen son of Grammy Award-winning trumpeter wrongfully accused of stealing

Investigation underway after Keyon Harrold’s son falsely accused of stealing iPhone

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In a major disappointment to immigrant families and advocates in the state, Kansas’ Democratic governor this week signed Republican-pushed legislation that majorly rolls back a Wyandotte County ordinance that sought to limit collaboration between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials.

The Safe and Welcoming Act had passed the Unified Government of Wyandotte County’s Board of Commissioners by a 6-4 vote just this past February, and had the support of a wide coalition of groups across the state. It’s a fact that this type of policy makes communities safer. The legislation also opened up municipal cards for local residents who lack IDs.

But Gov. Laura Kelly’s likely GOP opponent this fall, state attorney general Derek Schmidt, has supported legislation that would roll back the ordinance. The Kansas City Star reported Kelly initially seemed to oppose the bill pushed by Schmidt and Republicans, but apparently flipped, approving the bill on Monday. Advocates slammed it as “political cowardice” and “moral betrayal,” the report continued.

The report notes that if Kelly had decided to veto the bill, GOP lawmakers would’ve likely had enough votes to override her. Kelly in fact did veto three other bills this week, but not this one. “Kelly’s decision was met with immediate outrage from Wyandotte County activists,” including Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity organizer Marcus Winn, The Kansas City Star said.

“It’s clear that there are Kansas political leaders from both parties guided more by personal ambition than the common good of our state,” Winn said in the report. “Moving forward, we plan to remind all our elected officials, regardless of party or position, that they work for the people and hold them accountable.” 

Listen and subscribe to Daily Kos Elections’ The Downballot podcast with David Nir and David Beard

The report also notes that the legislation passed this week would “clarify that those ID cards could still be issued but couldn’t be used to satisfy state law for identification purposes, including voting.” It’s unclear if this means that lawmakers were pushing the right-wing trope that undocumented immigrants vote, but just to be clear, they can’t vote. In fact, it’s the GOP that’s frequently behind shocking reports of voter fraud.

Local residents had expressed optimism and joy when Wyandotte County passed the ordinance in January. Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation organizer Yazmin Bruno Valdez told KCUR at the time that one-fifth of residents in the region lack a photo ID. She’s lacked one for two decades.

“I felt very like, you know, like not a part of society. I felt like there were several things that I couldn’t do,” she said in the report. “When I had to go to my senior prom, they didn’t let me in ’cause I didn’t have an ID. Despite being a student at my school, I needed a driver’s license or a state-issued ID. That was something I just didn’t have as an immigrant. And these are just small snippets of my life, small snippets of everybody’s life here in Wyandotte County.”

Advocates in states like Texas have successfully enacted enhanced library cards that can be used as IDs. “That’s something that we need, whether we need to pick up a prescription or pick up our kids from our schools, get a library card, simple everyday activities,” Valdez continued to KCUR. “Without an ID, we can’t get these things done.”

Kansas state Sen. David Haley, a Democrat, called Kelly’s approval “a real kick in the teeth,”The Topeka Capital-Journal  reported. “I understand it is an election year but that’s a kick in the teeth.” Kelly had notably defeated the notoriously anti-immigrant Kris Kobach in 2018. But this move unfortunately appears to be the latest in Democratic lawmakers apparently succumbing to GOP-pushed fears and narratives during election season.

While President Biden’s decision to end Stephen Miller’s debunked policy that has for more than two years used the pandemic as an excuse to stomp on U.S. asylum law is a just and moral decision, two Senate Democrats who are up for reelection, Mark Kelly and Maggie Hassan, are among those who have joined a group of Senate Republicans to delay the president’s action. Hassan, who represents New Hampshire, also released a widely-panned ad from the southern border:

Another Senate Democrat who is up for reelection, Raphael Warnock, is not part of the group that introduced legislation to delay the end of Title 42, but did release a statement opposing the Biden administration’s action. “Your statement is deeply concerning to us, considering our commitment to supporting policies that ensure the humane treatment of migrant communities,” Latino and immigrant groups told the senator, in a statement reported  by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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As we celebrate the recent win by Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York, we thought it only fitting for The Good Fight column to speak with the international president of the two million-member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Mary Kay Henry.

Known for a number of successes, Henry may be most celebrated for the historic “Fight for $15 and a Union” movement, which has helped 24 million working Americans win increased wages.

In 2010, Henry was the first woman elected to lead SEIU and has since earned numerous honors for her tireless work.

RELATED STORY: ​​‘The day I found Harvey Milk’s dead body was the moment I knew’: Cleve Jones, famed LGBTQ activist

Henry spoke with Daily Kos via email, answering questions about the future of unions,  President Joe Biden and holding him to his promises of support, and what inspires her to keep pushing forward and fighting the good fight.

Henry tells Daily Kos that workers across the country have walked off the job, raised their voices, and demanded more over the last two years. She says approval ratings of unions in America are at a 60-year high, and younger workers are coming together to unionize at millennial media companies such as Starbucks, Amazon, video gaming companies, and beyond.

“Young people and workers of color are leading a national movement, refusing to return to the status quo and making bold demands to be respected, protected, and paid a living wage.”
But to understand unions, Henry says, it’s also important to understand workers.

“The problems facing unions are one and the same with problems facing workers, because workers are the union,” Henry says.

She explains that gig companies, such as Uber and Lyft, have denied workers minimum wages and essential benefits by “abusing the law” and “misclassifying drivers as independent contractors.” She adds that unions have additionally sustained a “40-year attack from corporations,” and “some politicians who are set on putting corporate profits ahead of the workers who make those profits possible.”

When it comes to the conversation around what’s been dubbed the “Great Resignation” in the last couple of years, Henry calls it the “Great Reckoning,” saying that workers are “exercising their power in creative ways” to “improve their workplaces and demand more from their employers.” She applauds workers, saying they have shown “tremendous courage and determination” as companies have continued to “squeeze workers” and tried to shut down unions.

When I ask Henry about Amazon specifically, she writes that “the workers in Staten Island stood up to one of the largest, most powerful companies in the world and won—even in the face of their bosses’ relentless, multimillion-dollar union-busting campaign. This victory will spread like wildfire and continue to fuel the passion and the fight of workers everywhere demanding a voice on the job.”

Of course,  we all know that there’s no comparison between President Trump and President Biden. But Henry reflects that while on the campaign trail, Biden promised to support unions and has since been the “most pro-union president in history,” joining with workers to put companies such as Amazon and McDonald’s on notice.

“The Biden Administration has delivered real change, from signing an executive order raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour for federal contractors to flipping the switch at the NLRB [National Labor Relations Board], to passing serious investments that support the creation of good, union jobs—despite extremist opposition from members in the Republican Party hell-bent on destroying unions and our democracy. It’s astounding that not one single Republican is backing efforts in Congress to lower costs for American families, create good union jobs and invest in the caregiving economy that all of us depend on.

“Yet, even with a supportive President and Congressional leadership, we know we need to fully transform the rules for workers to build power. And we know what real recovery looks like: It means seizing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in care solutions that will lift up the Black, brown, and immigrant women who power our economy and our families. We need good jobs, with good pay, and workplace protections for those who have been traditionally excluded. With these investments, we can create an economy that can support the needs of all in our country. It’s up to our leaders to make the choice to build a strong foundation for an equitable recovery.”

Despite the many challenges to unionizing some of the nation’s largest companies, Henry says she remains hopeful and inspired by the workers themselves.

“Even in the face of unyielding corporate opposition, are mobilizing every day to create an economy that works for working people. Nearly ten years ago, fast-food workers with the Fight for $15 and a Union laid a marker by walking off the job to demand $15 and a union, and their relentless mobilizing continues to this day and is being carried forward by a renewed generation of working people at Starbucks, Amazon, across major airports and hospitals, and so much more. If you are paying attention to the voices of working people exercising their power, you will always find inspiration and hope for the future.”

The Good Fight is a series spotlighting progressive activists around the nation battling injustice in communities that are typically underserved and brutalized by a system that overlooks them.

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If you happened to catch last month’s debate-stage chest-bumping altercation between two Ohio GOP candidates running for the state’s open Senate seat, then you have a point of reference for the man who apparently thinks middle-class Americans aren’t paying enough in taxes.

Mike Gibbons, who narrowly leads the Republican primary, remarked last fall that “the middle class is not really paying any kind of a fair share.”

Gibbons, a millionaire investment banker, made the comment during a September podcast produced by the local business journal, Crain’s Cleveland Business. But the remark is being newly scrutinized due to a recently released 11-point Republican agenda in which Senate GOP campaign chief Rick Scott said Republicans plan to raise taxes on working families by more than $1 trillion over the next decade.

In the video, Gibbons, seated in front of a campaign backdrop, explained, “The top 20% of earners in the United States pay 82% of federal income tax—and, if you do the math, and 45% to 50% don’t pay any income tax, you can see the middle class is not really paying any kind of a fair share, depending on how you want to define it.”

It’s one of those comments that doesn’t read any better in context. Gibbons goes on to accuse Democrats of spinning a narrative that “the middle class is getting screwed” because they need middle class votes to win elections, according to the Washington Post. Gibbons states he has nothing against a progressive structure but concludes, “How much of the total tax bill can a very small percentage of the nation pay and still be a democracy?”

Gibbons’ comments have a similar feel to Scott’s declaration that everyone needs “skin in the game” on taxes, although his campaign was quick to deny that he has any intention of raising taxes on middle-class Americans.

“Mike Gibbons does not support tax increases on any American—and never has,” campaign spokesperson Samantha Cotten said in a statement.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is likely dying a slow death over the whole situation. Scott released the tax hike agenda in defiance of McConnell, who had explicitly planned to release exactly no information about what Republicans planned to do if they won back the Senate Majority this fall.

Now the Ohio Senate race, which in regular times should be a gimme for Republicans, is awash in the debate over raising middle tax classes. If Scott hadn’t released his memo, Gibbons’ interview might have gone unnoticed—or simply been considered a singular gaffe. But in the context of Scott’s GOP agenda, the question of Republicans raising taxes on working Americans has become a focal point for the moment.

One of Gibbons’ opponents has even reposted the video to his YouTube account under the caption “Tax Hike Mike Gibbons.”

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We seem to be having Russian History Month. There has been the head of the Russian orthodox church reaching back 900 years to claim that neither Ukraine nor the Ukrainian church is “real.” Vladimir Putin has insisted that Ukraine is not a country because it “illegally left” the USSR. And on Tuesday, Russian diplomats insisted that Japan pay them back for gold supposedly stolen in 1920.

Over the last few weeks, Kos has written several times about the importance of logistics and how Russia’s issues on this front ensured that their plans to march into Kyiv didn’t just fail, but were doomed to fail. Kos has also taken a look at Russia’s multiple issues of communications and why it doesn’t have the experienced NCOs to hold together things on a tactical basis. Russia is also short of clear lines of command to maintain strategic goals, is saddled with a lot of poorly maintained equipment, and is utterly lacking in the intelligence necessary to predict the actions of their opponent at any scale.

On Tuesday, as ever more Russian forces are crowded into eastern Ukraine, President Zelenskyy desperately seeks the materials to keep his nation afloat, and everyone braces for a battle that will define the future. Let’s take a quick look at two battles where all those issues facing Russia were true. Except we’re not looking at Russia, we’re looking at the United States. And we’re not looking on the European steppes but at the Pacific Ocean.

On August 7, 1942, a massive U.S. fleet approached the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomon Islands. There the fleet successfully landed Marines, captured two airfields under construction, annihilated a small Japanese base, and drove construction workers into the jungle. After two days of hard fighting, U.S. forces stepped down from high alert on the evening of August 8. They had control of the islands, two large naval forces standing in the strait between Guadalcanal and Tulagi, a screen of destroyers guarding the entrance to the area, a carrier fleet providing air cover, and reconnaissance planes making loops to warn of any Japanese approach. The admiral in charge even expressed a wish that someone would attack, showing confidence in their position.

That night, a much smaller Japanese fleet sailed into the area under cover of darkness, opened fire on the southern half of the fleet, and either sunk or sent into flight every major ship. Then it turned to the north, did the same to the northern fleet, and escaped beyond small Savo Island after taking only light damage. On the U.S. side, four heavy cruisers were utterly lost. Another was seriously damaged and left adrift. Two destroyers were also left with serious damage, unable to continue the fight. 1,077 men were killed—almost as many as the Marines would lose on Guadalcanal over the course of that whole infamously terrible campaign. And all those troops onshore would be left without air cover, without cover from the sea, and short on supplies, setting up everything that was to come.

What went wrong? What didn’t. A U.S. spotting plane had seen the Japanese fleet—in fact, two planes spotted them while approaching. But those planes were under a different command. Since the naval operations were secret, the planes didn’t know the U.S. ships were off to their east and weren’t all that concerned about the course the Japanese fleet was taking. It took more than 8 hours for the first message to reach the U.S. ships. Even when it did, everyone misinterpreted what the spotting planes had seen. 

It wasn’t just the planes that were under a different command. The naval fleet was actually split up among different admirals, and after the landing, the commander of the carrier fleet unexpectedly announced he was taking his ships and leaving the area. Surprised, the overall commander of the landing fleet called in his next in command for a conference. That next in command failed to put anyone in charge of the southern fleet, where he had been stationed, and no one bothered to notify the northern fleet of what was happening. In fact, no one bothered to notify the northern fleet that anything was wrong even after the Japanese sailed into the strait and attacked the southern fleet. The Japanese got to stage two separate surprise attacks because no one on the U.S. side thought to pick up a radio. And all during the fight, the two guys really in charge were somewhere else, complaining about the other admiral and the carrier fleet. They didn’t even see the action.

Command, control, logistics, communications … they failed every test. And the result may have added a year to the war in the space of just minutes.

What may seem stranger is that this battle came just after the resounding U.S. victory at Midway, a battle where combined groups of bombers operating from multiple carriers came together to sink three Japanese carriers and genuinely turn the tide of the war. How is it possible that the U.S. could be so coordinated at Midway and so utterly hapless at Savo Island? The answer is that it wasn’t.

There’s one more big factor in warfare that Kos hasn’t really discussed: luck.

As Kos has covered, Russia’s lack of NCOs, inexperienced soldiers, and top-heavy management style makes it hard for them to coordinate more than two or three battalion tactical groups (BTGs) at a time. In fact, most of Russia’s actions seem to be single BTGs, or even partial BTGs, being flung around Ukraine without the support they need to actually hold a position, or contest a position against dug-in opponents.

At Midway, the U.S. had exactly that same problem. The U.S. kept trying to get off waves of planes, but each carrier was having its own set of difficulties, resulting in planes going up in small clusters all morning, rather than forming a coordinated attack. A handful of fighters here. A slightly larger grouping of attack bombers over there. Some dive bombers who took a wrong turn and came from another direction.

None of it was working as designed, and the Japanese defenses took out these flights almost as soon as they arrived. Throughout most of the morning, not one bomb or torpedo reached a single Japanese ship, while several of the U.S. flights were wiped out to a plane.

However, that chaos turned out to be just what the U.S. needed. The Japanese had already launched half their planes and needed a 45-minute window to recover them, get them stowed away, and get another flight ready on deck. U.S. planes kept hitting them every time it seemed they were about to get that window. Not by design. By luck. 

And when the Japanese finally managed to get all their planes landed, stowed, fueled, and re-armed for a response, that was when two separate flights of U.S. bombers—launched in different directions at different times—just happened to show up at once, hitting the Japanese fleet from opposite sides of the sky. Exhausted and frustrated by a morning of constant attacks, the Japanese watched as a handful of bombs went right through openings in the Japanese carrier decks and found all those planes. With their fuel. And their bombs. Japan lost three carriers, lost any chance at taking Midway, and may have lost the war. In about eight minutes.

That happened despite U.S. issues with command, control, and communication. Sometimes, things just do.

As all those tanks in the Donbas get ready to roll, just hope that Russia has all Savo Islands, no Midways.

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As Daily Kos has covered in the past, The Walt Disney Co. is finally taking a stand against the hateful, discriminatory Don’t Say Gay law in Florida. While at first the company’s response to the legislation was quite lackluster, CEO Bob Chapek has recently come around and promised more advocacy and action to repeal the legislation, in addition to putting a pause on all political donations in the state. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis seems unconcerned with Disney’s promise to better the state of Florida.

Sadly, this hateful legislation is not an outlier. We’ve seen countless anti-trans bills pop up around the nation, as well as several copycat bills eerily similar to the Don’t Say Gay legislation. We’re also seeing conservatives push the grooming angle in a way that’s deeply reminiscent of decades past. With all of this in mind, Charlee Disney, an heir to Disney, recently publicly came out as transgender and promised to do more to help their community. 

RELATED: Family service investigators are resigning instead of doing Greg Abbott’s dirty work

Disney, who is thirty years old and works as a biology teacher, told the Los Angeles Times they’ve been openly trans for the last several years, but came out more publicly last month while at a gala for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). 

“I don’t call senators or take action,” Disney told the outlet, saying they felt they hadn’t done much to help the community previously, and knew they could be doing more as an activist. Disney pledged a donation of $250,000 to the HRC, and from there, Disney’s parents (Roy P. Disney and his wife, Sheri Disney) promised to double their child’s donation. 

While Charlee is very brave for coming out, and no one is ever obligated to do so, it’s also worth addressing that privilege exists across identities. Clearly, the Disney family is extremely well-positioned both financially and socially, and not standing up for your community in spite of your privilege is a choice. It’s great they’ve come around and are working to fight this legislation in a real way now, but it’s important to keep in mind that, say, a trans sex worker or a trans unhoused person does not have the same access to living peacefully.

In the bigger picture, the Tennessee Senate recently passed two bills seeking to oppress and discriminate against trans folks, as reported by the Tennessean. Both bills are sponsored by Republican Sen. Joey Hensley and both target trans girls who want to participate in girls’ sports. SB 2153 bans trans women from participating in sports at the college level and SB 1861 establishes financial consequences for public schools that opt out of determining a student’s gender as assigned at birth when it comes to what sports team they can play on. 

He admitted he did not discuss the legislation with any trans people. He also admitted he does not know of situations in Tennessee that the bills would actually address.

If you’re thinking, “Wait, doesn’t Tennessee already have anti-trans legislation signed into law?” It does! These bills are efforts to make it even harder for trans people. 

Times are dark right now when it comes to trans rights, but people are still fighting. For example, as highlighted by the Alabama Reporter, families in Alabama have already filed a federal lawsuit over the anti-trans law in their state banning safe, age-appropriate, gender-affirming health care for trans youth. The suit alleges that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by denying trans youth health care, the absence of which will lead to mental and physical distress.

Republican Governor Kay Ivey signed the legislation into law last Friday, so it’s heartening to see the suit move quickly, though we continue to have a long fight ahead of us. 

Sign the petition: Demand the Senate pass the Equality Act and protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination.

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Today on The Brief, my and Kerry Eleveld’s weekly show/podcast about politics, our guest is Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, and the nation’s foremost expert on the pernicious effects Fox News has on our democracy. 

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You can watch the show live right here on Tuesdays at 1:30 PM PT/4:30 PM ET, while the podcast version goes live Wednesday mornings at all the usual places, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. A full list of places to download the show is available here.

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s retribution for the Biden administration’s just decision to stop enforcing Stephen Miller’s anti-asylum Title 42 policy at the southern border is resulting in massive delays for commercial truckers, rotting food, and worries from businesses leaders that disrupted trade will lead to empty shelves.

The right-wing official last week claimed that he would forcibly bus asylum-seekers from Texas to Washington, D.C., to punish the administration for its correct move to end use of the white supremacist policy. This was a cruel, disgusting stunt that Abbott then quickly backed down from, stating that it would actually be voluntary. Thanks for the free rides, Greg.

But in another part of his retaliation, Abbott announced that commercial vehicles would have to undergo additional inspection at ports of entry, even though these vehicles are already inspected by the federal government. But even these added checks are a stunt, because The Texas Tribune reports troopers can only do mechanical checks, not cargo checks.

RELATED STORY: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott peddles horrific plan to kidnap immigrants, then backtracks

The unnecessary checks have now resulted in delays lasting for as long as several days, and warnings that consumers may soon pay the price of Abbott’s politicking.

“’One of our customers canceled the order because we didn’t deliver on time,’ said Modesto Guerra, sales manager for Sterling Fresh Inc., which imports broccoli from Central Mexico via the Pharr bridge before shipping it to the Midwest and East Coast,” The Texas Tribune reported in another recent piece. One Mexican trucker told a Spanish-language outlet that would normally make “two crossings into the U.S. a day,” the report continued. “Now, he’d be lucky to have one or two a week given the long delays at the bridges.”

“We are losing just as much as them,” he said in the report. “When they start needing more produce, the prices are going to go up.

The Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge has been the site of a protest by Mexican truckers, who have blocked traffic in both directions over Abbott’s shenanigans. We’ll see if mainstream media touts and promotes this protest as much as the one at the northern border. In one photo shared by The Monitor reporter Dina Arévalo, a handful of state vehicles and one commercial truck are seen on an otherwise empty port that the reporter said is usually one of the busiest in the nation. 

“For the 6th day, @GovAbbott has disrupted trade, which will affect businesses & lead to higher prices,” tweeted Rep. Joaquin Castro. “These political stunts have already militarized the border & harmed Texas guard members. Now, he’s going to make it harder for families to put food on the table.”

Similar warnings came from conservative Democrat Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who told The Texas Tribune that Abbott’s “unnecessary secondary inspections are killing business on the border.” Both Gonzalez and Rep. Henry Cuellar had previously joined Republicans in opposing the Biden administration’s Title 42 decision.

Abbott’s Democratic opponent for governor, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, shared a nearly 20-minute video from the Laredo-Colombia Solidarity International Bridge. Behind him was a very visible line of trucks, all stuck due to Abbott’s policies. Another video shared by O’Rourke showed truck after truck after truck. “This is inflation,” he tweeted. “Higher prices at the grocery store. A supply chain crisis that is killing businesses along the border. This is what Greg Abbott is doing to Texas.”

A concerned Texas International Produce Association (TIPA) issued a letter to Abbott on Friday that complained of hours-long delays, noting lines “at a stand-still” and that “many carriers and brokers are reporting hours of non-movement.” TIPA President Dante Galeazzi said he fears that business will get sick of Abbott’s bullshit (my words, not his) and move operations to Mexico or neighboring states.

”Warehouses have staff sitting idle, with no trucks to unload,” Galeazzi said. “Buyers in other parts of the country cannot understand why their product is not available. US trucking companies are losing money as they sit around for days with no loads to haul. I have even heard from a member that a trucking company is refusing to send trucks south of San Antonio out of concern there will be no cargo available. This is destroying our business and the reputation of Texas.”

But that’s Greg Abbott, who has sunk $2 billion in state taxpayer money (and counting) into his Operation Lone Star border scheme, which has been such a supposed success that the governor’s office won’t hand over all the data proving it’s been such a success.

What we can say the Operation Lone Star border scheme has done is continue to illegally imprison asylum-seekers and other migrants without any charges (which he doesn’t give a shit about) and force deployed soldiers to deplorable conditions. Some soldiers tied to the operation have also died, some by suicide. But Abbott’s reaction was to blame President Biden and to scapegoat a department leader. 

“If a person is a soldier or a migrant, he doesn’t care,” El Paso Rep. Veronica Escobar recently told Border Report. “For him, they represent an opportunity to advance his politics of hate and cruelty. He’s not focused on solutions or on working with Congress to really help Texans; he’s focused on winning (re-election) at any cost.”

RELATED STORIES: Escobar says Abbott’s plan to get asylum-seekers out of Texas is more ‘politics of hate and cruelty’

Texas refuses to be transparent about Operation Lone Star. Probably because it’s all a scheme

Texas’ corrupt attorney general is using the courts to sabotage Biden’s immigration agenda

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The three former Minneapolis cops convicted of violating George Floyd’s federal civil rights turned down plea deals in the state case against them, the Minnesota attorney general’s office told CNN after The Associated Press reported the news on Monday. Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane were charged with aiding and abetting manslaughter and murder when they assisted their former peer, Derek Chauvin, in responding to a call regarding a twenty-dollar bill that a teen clerk suspected was fake. 

Chauvin ended up kneeling on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes in a murder—recorded in a witness video that went viral—on May 25, 2020, outside of the Cup Foods store in Minneapolis. Kueng held Floyd down with Lane, while Thao blocked bystanders from providing Floyd with any aid. The office of Attorney General Keith Ellison told CNN the accused men were offered plea deals on March 22, but prosecutors would not detail the specifics of those deals.

RELATED: Three ex-cops who watched Derek Chauvin murder George Floyd convicted of violating his civil rights

Earl Gray, Lane’s attorney, told The Associated Press the delayed federal sentencing hampered his ability to negotiate a deal. The news wire reported that all three former cops remain out on bail with no sentencing date scheduled. Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill, the presiding judge in the case, told lead prosecutor Matthew Frank to file the proposed plea deals after the jury is seated, a process that is expected to take about three of the estimated eight trial weeks, according to the AP.

The offered pleas came up during a hearing Cahill held primarily to determine whether the officers’ state trial would be livestreamed. Federal court rules prevented the option in the ex-officers’ federal case, but the decision rests with Cahill in the state case. The judge allowed Chauvin’s trial to be livestreamed in a rare exception to normal court rules because of the pandemic.

“COVID-19 is less of a pandemic and more of an endemic issue now,” Cahill told the AP. He also emphasized that while he has publicly stated he believes televised trials should be allowed, that is not the rule of the court yet and he is “still sworn to uphold the law.”

Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu told The Star Tribune she initially opposed allowing a livestream of the trial of former Brooklyn Center officer Kimberly Potter, but she changed her position because of the pandemic. Chu wrote in a court order that her decision to allow the livestream was “based solely on concerns for public health and safety given the ongoing pandemic.” After the trial, she told the newspaper that she didn’t regret the decision and that cameras weren’t disruptive to Potter’s or Chauvin’s trials.  

“I thought it was appropriate in the two cases and it went very smoothly, but I’m going to leave it to others as to what the parameters should be,” Chu said. “I forgot they were even there.”

Potter was ultimately convicted and sentenced to two years in the death of Daunte Wright, despite claims she was reaching for her Taser when she accidentally shot Wright with a gun. Chu called the case “the saddest” she has had in 20 years. 

The judge turned in a letter announcing her retirement on Feb. 15, three days before she sentenced Potter, The Star Tribune reported. Chu could have pursued a re-election bid for another six years on the bench, but Minnesota’s mandatory retirement age of 70 years old would have forced her to retire only a year and a half into her term, according to The Star Tribune.

She said her fellow judges have been “so supportive” during and after the Potter trial. Cahill, too, seems to be relying on his peers and other court administrators, specifically regarding whether he will allow the live recording of the state trial for Thao, Lane, and Kueng. The judge said he wouldn’t make a decision until the Minnesota Judicial Council meets on Thursday to weigh in.

Attorney Leita Walker, who represents several media organizations including the AP, asked Cahill to allow video coverage. “The public is just not going to understand why they got to watch that one gavel to gavel and they won’t be able to watch this one,” Walker said.

The state trial for Thao, Lane, and Kueng is set to begin in June, the AP reported.

RELATED STORY: ‘Mob rule and politics’ are to blame for indictments in Floyd’s death, defense attorneys claim