Latest news with #GeraldoRivera
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Geraldo critiques ‘rebellion movement' proposed by Cenk Uygur
(NewsNation) — Cenk Uygur is trying to recruit Democrats who will lean into left-wing populism, which he says is the only way for the party to rebound after the bruising 2024 election. Also joining 'CUOMO' is Geraldo Rivera, NewsNation correspondent-at-large, who offers some thoughts on the idea. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Washington must close this facility to protect our rights
After I was born, my father and mother had to make a difficult decision about where I would grow up. I was born in 1979 with a rare form of cerebral palsy that affected my nervous system, left me unable to walk and affected my speech. My parents could either put me in one of Washington State's developmental disability institutions, known as Residential Habilitation Centers (RHCs), or they could take me home and raise me as a valuable member of my family and community. They chose the latter. I will be forever grateful for their choice. Due to their support, I graduated from a state university, have a job and get to experience all that community living has to offer. Although I was spared the alternative of growing within the walls of a state institution, over 450 individuals are currently housed within four state-funded RHCs. After years of planning for the future and decades of demands for closure from people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), it is time to move into the future and provide these individuals with the choice of community living. The legislature should stand with disability rights advocates and consolidate our state institutions by closing Rainier School RHC so that we may better invest in meaningful alternatives. Many families have struggled with decisions like the one my parents made. For many years, RHCs felt like the only viable option to provide adequate care because of the lack of community-based services. In the 1970s, when institutional admission was at its highest, approximately 4,000 people lived in six Washington RHCs. Over the last 50 years, that number has fallen to 454 individuals and four institutions. For those of us at risk of being institutionalized, the closure of these facilities represents Washington's ongoing commitment to moving away from segregated living and our willingness to invest in care that centers the humanity of people with disabilities. The movement to end institutionalization of people with disabilities gained notoriety after the 1972 exposé of Willowbrook State School in New York by Geraldo Rivera, who found that youth there were riddled with disease and subjected to widespread abuse and neglect. Closer to home, Disability Rights Washington reports in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021 have revealed recurring examples of RHCs being out of state and federal compliance, leading to numerous residents suffering from neglect, abuse and exploitation. These reports show repeated incidents of residents being victimized by RHC staff through sexual assaults, choking and malnourishment. Although there are undoubtedly people who have had positive experiences with these institutions, the ongoing reports of abuse are more than enough to warrant our state's transition away from RHCs. Over the last 20 years, community advocates have created more residential options for people with higher support needs. Many individuals like myself choose to receive in-home care support to help with personal tasks in the bathroom, bedroom and kitchen. Others may receive services from a Supported Living agency or live in Adult Family Homes, state-operated living alternatives (SOLAs), or companion homes. We have seen RHC populations plummet accordingly. Rainier School dropped from 318 residents in 2018 to just 84 today. As a result, costs per person have significantly increased. Care for those living in RHCs costs an average of $1,676 per person per day, while those in supported community living cost $625 per person per day. This congregate model of care is simply unsustainable and cannot meet the needs of our state budget or our community. People with IDD overwhelmingly choose community care because of the independence, autonomy and freedom. In the community, we can make friends, stay in better contact with loved ones, work, go to church, garden and more. Living in the community often leads to an improved quality of life. People can also access community doctors, dentists and licensed therapists. In short, people choose community because, if you had the choice, why wouldn't you? I am a proud member of Self Advocates in Leadership (SAIL), People First of Washington, and Allies in Advocacy, three organizations with over 1,200 members and run by those with IDD. I stand with advocates with disabilities and encourage our state legislators to close Rainier School. We ask to be believed. We ask to be prioritized. We want Washington State to follow the example of 18 other states and give people the choice to move into the community. It's where we belong. Shawn Latham is the public policy coordinator for Self Advocates in Leadership (SAIL), a coalition of over 200 people with developmental disabilities interested in shaping public policy in Washington State. He is also the executive director at Allies in Advocacy and a member of People First of Washington. He has been a vocal advocate for people with disabilities for over twenty years.
South China Morning Post
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Meet Geraldo Rivera's 5th wife, 31 years his junior: Erica Michelle Levy married the Trump critic and ex-Fox News personality in 2003 after meeting him on Rivera Live – and they share a daughter, Soli
Former Fox News personality and friend of Donald Trump, Geraldo Rivera, turned on the president late last year, saying he cannot be 'trusted to honour the constitution'. Since then, he has publicly criticised the president and his administration several times, including calling him 'an ill-mannered bully' for his treatment of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky – and saying that if he had the chance, he'd punch Trump's adviser Stephen Miller in the nose. Advertisement 'You know, I'm an old man now. I've been a boxer all my life. I've given it up because of my frailty,' the 81-year-old told MSNBC's The Beat in an interview in January. 'But I would come back to punch Stephen Miller in the nose because he is the most hideous, in terms of his [immigration] policy.' Rivera may describe himself as an 'old man' but that hasn't stopped him dating – and marrying – younger women, including wife Erica Michelle Levy. Here's what you need to know about her. What is Erica Michelle Levy's background? There is a 31-year age gap between Erica Levy and Geraldo Rivera. Photo: FilmMagic Erica Levy is a television producer known for working at NBC Universal. She was born to Nancy Malevan and the late Howard Levy in Shaker Heights, Ohio, per IMDb. When did Erica Levy and Geraldo Rivera marry? Erica Levy and Geraldo Rivera married at New York's Central Synagogue in 2003. Photo: FilmMagic The couple met in 2001 when Levy was 26 and working as a producer on the show Rivera Live, according to Heavy. Despite their 31-year age gap, they hit it off and tied the knot in a Jewish ceremony in New York just two years later. Levy was 28 and Rivera 60 at the time of their wedding.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Yahoo
Dismantling Education Department threatens to push people with Down Syndrome back into the Dark Age
In 1972, 29-year-old journalist Geraldo Rivera filmed an expose revealing the atrocities inside Willowbrook School, a state-supported institution on Staten Island for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Children whose only crimes lay in looking and acting slightly different from their nondisabled peers were sentenced to life in a filthy, reeking room where they huddled naked on the floor in their own feces or rocked and howled in terror or sat slack-jawed and vacant-eyed day after day while a single staff member tried to attend to the basic needs of 50. Contrast these images with a recent New York Times photo of Rachel Handlin, 30, resplendent in a black lace top and smiling beside the field camera she used to shoot photos for her solo exhibition 'strangers are friends I haven't met yet' at New York City's White Columns Gallery. In May 2024, Handlin became the first person with Down syndrome to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree. The exhibition depicts other people with her genetic condition who've graduated from two- and four-year colleges and universities around the world, including Spain's Pablo Pineda, 51, who left his acting career to earn a B.A. in Educational Psychology and a teaching certificate; community college graduate Kayla McKeon, 38, who — in 2017— became the first Capitol Hill lobbyist with Down syndrome; and Adam DeBacker, 27, who earned a B.S. in Theater and a recording arts graduate certificate at Missouri State University where he now works as a recording engineer. On Thursday, President Donald Trump held a showy ceremony at the White House to mark his signing of an executive order attempting to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency canceled dozens of DOE contracts, including an 11-year study of youths with disabilities that was supposed to identify which programs are effective in improving employment and educational outcomes for these students after high school. 'Over 1,000 students with disabilities were supposed to receive special instruction and support in 2025 and 2026 through this study, which has now been terminated,' the nonprofit Hechinger Report notes. Earlier this month, the Department fired more than 1,300 of its employees including over half of the staff in the Office for Civil Rights—the department responsible for fielding student and parent complaints about discrimination in schools. The National Down Syndrome Congress responded by issuing this statement: 'This action will have very negative consequences for students, educators, and the future of our education system, and especially students with disabilities.' In 1975 when my brother was born in Southern California, the pediatrician told my parents that because he'd never be able to walk or talk, they should put him in an institution. 'Over my dead body,' my mother replied, and brought him home and enrolled him in infant physical therapy and later, in special education classes at schools separate from the public school I attended—the only option he had back then. I'm here to tell you that he can walk and talk just fine, and also hold down a job at his local steakhouse, compete on his Special Olympics bowling and track teams, and do a spot-on impression of The Three Stooges. Inspired by my brother, I've spent a year and a half researching and interviewing people with Down syndrome all over the world for my forthcoming book 'Down Syndrome Out Loud: 20+ Stories about Disability and Determination' . I listened as designer Isabella Springmuhl Tejada, 28, who presented her collection at London Fashion Week, recounted how she graduated from college in Guatemala but was denied entrance into fashion schools by teachers who worried she couldn't keep up with the curriculum. I spoke with Charlotte Woodward, who graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and now works as Education Program Associate for National Down Syndrome Society. She told me how she'd been popular and happy, enrolled in general education K-8 classes until the first day of high school, when she found herself placed in a special class for people with intellectual disabilities far away from her friends. She advocated for her right to access the general education curriculum and won. 'But that's not the reality for many people with disabilities,' she told me. Over and over, as I spoke with the subjects in my book, I heard stories of people having to fight for the right to mainstream education, people who literally had to sue their schools for the same educational opportunities as their non-disabled friends and peers. They've relied on the support of investigators in the Office for Civil Rights—employees who were placed on administrative leave Friday—ironically, World Down Syndrome Day. What will become of our youngest students with Down syndrome and other intellectual and developmental disabilities without the backing of skilled and compassionate educators at the government's highest levels? More and more people with Down syndrome are graduating from mainstream high school, college, and university classes and going on to be of service in the world. I'm thinking of Cody Sullivan, 23, who earned a Certificate of Achievement in Concordia's College of Education and works as a teaching assistant in Portland, Oregon. I'm thinking of Dr. Karen Gaffney, 47, who earned her teacher's aide certificate at Portland Community College and received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Portland for her activism as president of the Karen Gaffney Foundation. And I'm picturing Mexico's Ana Victoria Espino De Santiago, 26, who, last year, became the first lawyer with Down Syndrome. In her graduation photo, De Santiago stares the camera down, resplendent in her black satin cap and gown. She told The Latin Times that her goal is to end discrimination for people with disabilities. We've come a long, long way from committing to institutions those who look and act slightly different from the majority and condemning them to a lifetime of fear and filth and isolation. Even those with the hardest hearts among us must agree that we cannot go back.
Fox News
20-02-2025
- Business
- Fox News
DAVID MARCUS: Fort Knox is the new Al Capone vault, but in reverse
DOGE administrator Elon Musk may soon be taking a page out of the book of legendary TV newsman Geraldo Rivera by hosting a livestream opening up Fort Knox to see if America's gold is really still there. Quite well, do those of us of a certain age remember that night in 1986 when Rivera cracked open a long-forgotten vault at a Chicago hotel where notorious gangster Al Capone had lived, only to find, with no small degree of embarrassment, that it was all but empty. In those days, without Netflix or 62,000 cable channels, 20 million Americans tuned in live, there were medical examiners present in case bodies were found, IRS agents on hand to seize any ill-gotten treasure. But in the end, all they found was the biggest sad trombone moment in the history of television. Fast-forward to Fort Knox, where a reported $425 billion worth of government gold is reportedly stored. In 1936, the federal government decided to send about half of the physical gold that our nation owns to a fortified facility in Kentucky for safe-keeping. Almost instantly it became a metaphor for two things, one, wealth, as in, "all the gold in Fort Knox," and the other, security, as in, "harder to get into than Fort Knox." Nobody really doubts the security of the compound. It almost certainly remains as impregnable as ever, even to Musk. But are the guards there to protect the gold, or to hide an embarrassing secret? Now let's be clear, there is no reason, beyond conspiracy theories, to believe that the gold isn't there, or that Treasury employees are busy painting red bricks yellow in anticipation of the DOGE visit. Newly minted (so to speak) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has assured Americans that "All the gold is present and accounted for." But some Republicans, like Kentucky Senator Rand Paul want more, as he told Fox News, "the more sunlight the better, the more transparency the better." President Donald Trump concurs. At a gaggle on Air Force One on Wednesday, he told reporters, "We hope everything is fine with Fort Knox, but we're going to go into Fort Knox, the fabled Fort Knox, to make sure the gold is there." The fabled Fort Knox indeed. Get your popcorn. Lights, camera, action. It would be pure historical poetry if Geraldo Rivera was once again tapped to host the live coverage of the unearthing of the Fort Knox vault, and with such an amusing twist, for this time, it's not a full vault that would be the big story, but an empty one. It's actually difficult to comprehend what would happen if sometime in the next few days cameras show us that the gold is gone, not just for the financial system, but for our general faith in the government. It's the kind of lie that you can't really come back from. Hundreds if not thousands of people would have to be complicit in this canard, including powerful figures such as Bessent. If there's no gold at Fort Knox then Katy bar the door, because everything the government told us after would be deeply suspect, as if it isn't already. Even if the outcome of this special live event is banal and expected, even if we are simply treated to the vision of shimmering stacks of glorious gold that are supposed to be there, Sen. Paul is right that such transparency would put a lot of conspiracy theories to bed. In and of itself, Trump's dedication to radical transparency is a great move forward for a country that has lost faith that its leaders are telling them the truth, that will no longer simply take for granted that things really are the way they are supposed to be. It can be argued that this distrust of the government, so pervasive on all political sides, is actually the greatest threat we as Americans face. Not the border, not China, not inflation, but a total lack of confidence that our will is being done in the halls of power. So bring on the telestream, live from Fort Knox, build up the fanfare and line up the pundits, let us all see together if the good word of The Treasury Department should be given our full faith and credit, or if the biggest scam of the past century has somehow occurred. And I'm serious, who better to guide us through it than the original himself? It's time for Geraldo to get another bite at the apple and see if this time he actually finds the treasure.
