Latest news with #CathyHarris
Daily Mail
01-08-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Seniors forced to ride wheelchairs on busy streets in Oakland
A trio of terrified disabled seniors say the sidewalks in their Oakland neighborhood are so squalid that they're being forced to dice with death and ride their wheelchairs on the main road. Cathy Harris, Shaaron Green-Peace and Rose Luster-Brooks all use motorized wheelchairs and live at a senior living facility off International Boulevard at 105th Avenue. They all told KTVU that the sheer amount of garbage is making it impossible for them to get around safely in their own community. 'We have to ride in the street as if we're cars. It's unsafe,' Luster-Brooks said. And they claim it's not all down to the homeless people in the area. They say that since the trash heap has grown so much, even regular passers by have been casually contributing to it. 'People are dumping, I mean everything in the world you can find right here on this corner,' Luster-Brooks said. The women have said that the garbage has even stopped them from being able to use a bus with East Bay Paratransit, a transportation method funded by the city that specifically serves disabled residents. 'They no longer can pick us up there. A couple of them have tried and we're like, "how are you going to let us out in this trash?"' Luster-Brooks said. The bus driver now picks them up at the next corner of the intersection, which the women said is riddled with oncoming traffic and isn't as safe. City spokesperson Sean Maher confirmed to KTVU that the location has received repeated requests from constituents for clean-ups and that Oakland's Encampment Management Team is aware of the site. Houston, who represents deep East Oakland in the city council, said the encampment has been removed twice but keeps returning. 'It's on the radar and we're going to come out, and these seniors should be protected,' Houston said in front of the pile of trash. One thing that could be hamstringing cleanup crews is that they're generally not allowed to remove people's personal property from encampments under city policy, Maher said. According to a regulation passed in 2020 by the city council, employees tasked with 'deep cleaning' encampments must 'make reasonable efforts to mitigate any individual or group property loss.' They're allowed to clean up 'debris, trash, waste, illegal dumping, hazmat' and other items, but any personal property they come across that doesn't appear abandoned needs to be stored. 'The City will make reasonable efforts to store up to one (1) square yard of such property per individual,' the regulation states. Oakland had the eighth largest homeless population of all major cities in the US last year, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The number of homeless people in Oakland has jumped nearly 18 percent since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the problem in most US cities.
Daily Mail
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Dem-run city that's so squalid terrified seniors now have to ride their wheelchairs on busy STREETS
A trio of terrified disabled seniors say the sidewalks in their Oakland neighborhood are so squalid that they're being forced to dice with death and ride their wheelchairs on the main road. Cathy Harris, Shaaron Green-Peace and Rose Luster-Brooks all use motorized wheelchairs and live at a senior living facility off International Boulevard at 105th Avenue. They all told KTVU that the sheer amount of garbage is making it impossible for them to get around safely in their own community. 'We have to ride in the street as if we're cars. It's unsafe,' Luster-Brooks said. And they claim it's not all down to the homeless people in the area. They say that since the trash heap has grown so much, even regular passers by have been casually contributing to it. 'People are dumping, I mean everything in the world you can find right here on this corner,' Luster-Brooks said. The women have said that the garbage has even stopped them from being able to use a bus with East Bay Paratransit, a transportation method funded by the city that specifically serves disabled residents. 'They no longer can pick us up there. A couple of them have tried and we're like, "how are you going to let us out in this trash?"' Luster-Brooks said. The bus driver now picks them up at the next corner of the intersection, which the women said is riddled with oncoming traffic and isn't as safe. Luster-Brooks said this has been going on for around a year and in that time, they've called the city, the mayor's office and their city councilmember Ken Houston. None of their requests for help have been answered, they said. 'They say they're for us. We voted for these people, and we're not being recognized,' Luster-Brooks said. 'You go further into Piedmont, Dimond District, all of that's fine, but what about us?' City spokesperson Sean Maher confirmed to KTVU that the location has received repeated requests from constituents for clean-ups and that Oakland's Encampment Management Team is aware of the site. Houston, who represents deep East Oakland in the city council, said the encampment has been removed twice but keeps returning. 'It's on the radar and we're going to come out, and these seniors should be protected,' Houston said in front of the pile of trash. One thing that could be hamstringing cleanup crews is that they're generally not allowed to remove people's personal property from encampments under city policy, Maher said. According to a regulation passed in 2020 by the city council, employees tasked with 'deep cleaning' encampments must 'make reasonable efforts to mitigate any individual or group property loss.' They're allowed to clean up 'debris, trash, waste, illegal dumping, hazmat' and other items, but any personal property they come across that doesn't appear abandoned needs to be stored. 'The City will make reasonable efforts to store up to one (1) square yard of such property per individual,' the regulation states. Oakland had the eighth largest homeless population of all major cities in the US last year, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The number of homeless people in Oakland has jumped nearly 18 percent since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the problem in most US cities. The problem has gotten so bad that gigantic shantytowns have formed in certain parts of the city. Oakland is also prone to crime sprees, with residents growing quite accustomed to chaotic smash-and-grab robberies. The city also has a high rate of car theft, with a civil grand jury recently finding that 9,400 vehicles were reported stolen in 2024.
New York Times
25-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Justice Dept. Officials File Suit, Saying They Were Dismissed Unlawfully
Three former Justice Department employees who were fired as part of the Trump administration's politicization of the agency have pushed back in a new lawsuit, arguing that they were dismissed unlawfully and in violation of normal civil service protections. The three individuals, including a federal attorney who earned regular distinctions for his work prosecuting rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, contended that the Trump administration disregarded the standard protections for civil servants that prohibit arbitrary firings. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Washington, is predicated on the paralysis at the Merit Systems Protection Board. The board typically adjudicates claims of improper firings and has the power to reinstate improperly fired workers. But President Trump fired its head, Cathy Harris, a Democrat, in February, leaving the traditionally bipartisan board without a quorum and effectively paralyzing the only venue where civil servants can fight on their own behalf. 'In a normal course of proceedings, plaintiffs would be able to seek recourse through the Merit Systems Protection Board,' the lawsuit says. 'But because of the government's own actions, any complaint filed before the M.S.P.B. will be futile.' Under federal statute, fired workers have the right to appeal their firings to the board, and then to a federal appeals court. 'However, due to the government's own actions to stymie the board, the M.S.P.B. currently cannot function as intended,' the complaint states. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
02-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Asks Justices to Let Him Fire Consumer Product Safety Regulators
President Trump asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to let him fire the three Democratic members of the five-member Consumer Product Safety Commission, which monitors the safety of items like toys, cribs and electronics. A federal law shields the officials, allowing them to be terminated only for 'neglect of duty or malfeasance.' Mr. Trump gave no reasons for removing them when his administration revealed his intentions in May, and has said that congressional limits on his ability to fire leaders of independent agencies are an unconstitutional check on his power to control the executive branch. In an interim order in May concerning the leaders of two other agencies, the Supreme Court appeared to agree. The majority wrote that Mr. Trump could remove officials who exercise power on his behalf 'because the Constitution vests the executive power in the president.' The earlier cases concerned Cathy A. Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, and Gwynne A. Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Board. Those cases are pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The lower-court judge who ruled that the consumer agency's leaders could not be fired, Judge Matthew J. Maddox of the Federal District Court in Maryland, cited a 1935 Supreme Court ruling in his decision in June. Judge Maddox, who was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., said the 1935 precedent, Humphrey's Executor v. United States, barred the firings. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., rejected the administration's request for a pause of Judge Maddox's ruling in an unsigned ruling on Tuesday. In a concurring opinion, Judge James A. Wynn Jr., who was appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote that Humphrey's Executor had not been overruled and governed the case. In the administration's emergency application, D. John Sauer, the solicitor general, said the court's emergency order in May 'squarely controls this case.' 'If anything,' he wrote, 'this is an even stronger case for a stay. President Trump decided to remove three commissioners who would otherwise make up a majority of the C.P.S.C., and whose actions since their putative reinstatement only underscore their hostility to the president's agenda.'
Zawya
23-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
US Supreme Court says Fed is unique, easing worries over Trump's ability to fire Powell
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday in a legal battle over President Donald Trump's firing of two federal labor board members contained a line that eased, for now, worries that the cases could open the door for Trump to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at will. The court's order allows Trump to keep the two Democratic labor board members sidelined while they challenge the legality of their removal. Lawyers for Gwynne Wilcox, who was removed from the National Labor Relations Board, and for Cathy Harris, who was dismissed from the Merit Systems Protection Board, had argued that a ruling in favor of the Trump administration could undermine legal protections for Fed policymakers long seen as being insulated from presidential dismissal for reasons other than malfeasance or misconduct. "We disagree," a majority of justices said in the court's brief, unsigned ruling. "The Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks." The two cases have been closely watched as proxies for whether Trump has the authority to fire officials at the Fed. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 that created the nation's third and still existing central bank stipulates that Fed officials may be dismissed only "for cause," not for political or policy disagreements. "This view of the Supreme Court really does ease my worries about their inclination to extrapolate from the NLRB cases to the Fed so I breathed a sigh of relief," said LH Meyer analyst Derek Tang, who has followed the cases closely. Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Powell, whom he nominated to the post during his first term and who was renominated to a second term by Democratic President Joe Biden, and said he wants to see him gone from the central bank. Though Trump, who has attacked Powell over the Fed's decision to not lower interest rates, recently said he has no intention of trying to fire Powell, the possibility has unsettled financial markets that bank on an independent Fed's ability to do its job without political interference. Powell has said he believes his firing would not be permitted under the law. The Fed system's seven governors, including the system chair, are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Powell's term ends in May 2026, and Trump is expected to nominate a successor in the coming months. Krishna Guha, a vice chair at Evercore ISI, said the Supreme Court's opinion was encouraging but not definitive. "It strictly only addresses whether a ruling on Wilcox would 'necessarily' implicate the Fed," he said
