Latest news with #Leavell
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Uniquely Female Founded and Owned Award-Winning Organic Gin Brand, Astraea Spirits, Secures Prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition Double Gold Nod, Solidifying Wider Current Position as One of The Highest Rated London Dry Gin Globally
Latest award, paired with additional recent Masters Designation from The Gin Masters, Solidifies Astraea Mist Gin as One of The Highest Rated London Dry Gin Globally SEATTLE, May 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Astraea Gin, redefining American Gin, developed by Master Distiller Danielle Leavell, is pleased to announce the securement of Double Gold recognition for their Astraea Mist Gin via the globally-recognized San Francisco World Spirits Competition. The latest award, paired with the company's most recent Masters Designation from The Gin Masters solidifies their Mist Gin as one of the highest rated London Dry Gin globally. "We have been working hard to quietly and strategically build what we see as one of the forerunners in the emerging gin category which is incredibly gratifying to see come to life," states Danielle Leavell, Founder and Master Distiller of Astraea Spirits. Leavell continues, "This is really just the beginning of all of the very exciting upcoming milestones ahead for the business in 2025 and beyond, and we look forward to sharing more notable company updates like this one in the year ahead." About Astraea Spirits Astraea Spirits is redefining what American gin can be. Distilled in the style of a London Dry, crafted to exacting EU regulations, and made with certified organic botanicals, ours is the cleanest gin produced in the United States. We bring European craftsmanship to life through a bold American lens while elevating the category with nuance, integrity, and a deep sense of place. Each bottle of Astraea captures the wild beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Clean, floral, and herbaceous, our gins invite you on a sensory journey from the mist-covered Cascade Mountains to the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean. This is American gin, reimagined. To learn more about Astraea Spirits, check out or follow the company on social at @astraeaspirits. Company Contact Danielle Leavell Founder and Master Distiller Astraea Spirits 395744@ Communications Contact Taylor Foxman Founder and CEO The Industry Collective 609-432-2237 395744@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Astraea Spirits
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
How Big Country CASA helps foster kids navigate the court system
ABILENE, Texas () – A Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) is a special volunteer who works to ease the confusion that often occurs in the courtroom for children in the foster care system. Putting ease in the mind of a child can be a difficult task, and the struggles that foster children face in general can be a considerable challenge alone, but having to face those challenges in a courtroom can put greater tension on an already confused child. Defying Gravity: Best friends speak at ACU on life with Down syndrome This is where CASA advocates come into play. They help children with these stressors and seek to quell any fear the child may be experiencing. Board of Directors member and CASA volunteer Kasey Leavell spoke to some of the emotions these children face when sitting in a courtroom. 'They're anxious. They're nervous. They're not sure what's going to happen. A big part of being their advocate is shielding them from a lot of that. They are potentially seeing people that they don't really want to see. They don't have a good relationship with. In court, you're sitting right next to them, and often, they're either holding your hand or looking at you before a question is answered so that they can make sure they're good to answer. You're really there from a support perspective and to be able to help fill in the gaps around some of the situations,' Leavell explained. Remarkable Women: Liberty-Grace Bland, a heart for Abilene & the arts CASA volunteers do much more than just that. They spend considerable time with children outside of the courtroom, which, as Leavell explained, can be crucial in helping a judge decide a child's future. 'We write a court report due to the judge ten days prior to court. The judge is able to read that to get a real picture of what's really going on with the kid, not from a legal perspective, not from an education perspective. Holistically. So, he or she is reading that court report, and they're able to determine where we're at in the case and what's needed for the child,' Leavell said. The tremendous amount of care, effort, and time these volunteers endure culminate in the simple goal of ensuring the best outcome for these children in foster care. 'We're really trying for reunification, and so we're not there to bash the parents. We are not there to advocate for adoption. We want permanency, and we want what's best for the kid,' said Leavell. CASA is currently seeking more volunteers to help out with foster children in our community. Visit Big Country CASA online to find out how you can join. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Yahoo
Human rights group protests inequities in children getting tried as adults
Middlesex and Passaic counties have the highest rates statewide of prosecuting children as adults in New Jersey. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor) County prosecutors in New Jersey play an outsized role in whether children accused of serious crimes get tried as adults, with juveniles facing potentially vastly different sentences and treatment depending on where they're prosecuted, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. Many states, including New Jersey, require a judicial waiver for a child to be tried as an adult, and under that system, judges weigh evidence presented by both sides before deciding whether a case belongs in juvenile or adult court. But New Jersey's waiver statute 'sidelines judicial oversight' by giving so much discretion and power to prosecutors that they essentially call the shots, according to Amanda Leavell, a Human Rights Watch researcher who authored the report. That has created a 'justice by geography effect,' Leavell said. Middlesex and Passaic counties have the highest youth waiver rates statewide, with Passaic's rate seven times higher than nearby Union County, Leavell found. 'Your fate is basically completely dependent on how harshly the prosecutor is going to pursue your case,' she said. Black youth also get disproportionately waived to the adult system, Leavell found, perpetuating racial disparities in a prison system that already has among the highest racial disparities in the nation. When juveniles get waived to adult court, they move to a system that prioritizes punishment over rehabilitation and into adult prisons where they face higher risks of violence, trauma, and recidivism, causing lifelong harm, Leavell added. She found they also languish in pretrial detention longer because of lengthy hearings and the reset of trial timelines triggered by their transfer to adult court. New Jersey's waiver statute applies to juveniles aged 15 to 17 who are accused of homicide, sexual assault, certain drug or firearm-related crimes, and several other serious crimes. Leavell made more than 20 recommendations for changes to legislators, county prosecutors, the Attorney General's Office, the Juvenile Justice Commission, and more. She urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would reduce and ultimately end the prosecution of children in adult court. Until then, lawmakers should restore and strengthen judicial oversight of waiver motions and pass legislation that would require hearings in which prosecutors who want to try a child in adult court must prove that child could not be rehabilitated in the juvenile system, she recommended. She also urged the state attorney general to review and assume decision-making authority over waiver requests in counties that send youth into the adult system at significantly higher rates than other counties. She thinks the attorney general should issue statewide guidelines that ensure waiver decisions are uniformly applied across counties and emphasize prosecution in the juvenile justice system as the default approach. The attorney general and Juvenile Justice Commission should publicly report on juvenile waivers, as they are required by law to do every two years, on a more timely basis and include demographic information, charges, case outcomes, and other details, she added. Those agencies' most recent report — posted online Tuesday, the same day Leavell issued her report — was a half-year late. The data in the biennial reports is also several years old; this week's report examines juvenile waivers in 2020 and 2021. Tara Oliver, a spokeswoman at the Attorney General's Office, said they will review the report's findings. 'Our office is committed to ensuring public safety while also treating people fairly. This is what we have done for two decades across administrations,' she said in a statement. Leavell also called on county prosecutors to seek waivers to adult court only as a last resort, considering a youth's developmental capacity, trauma history, disability status, and potential for rehabilitation. Prosecutors and judges should undergo regular training on adolescent brain development and the effects of trauma on youth, she added. Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone, who heads the County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey, did not respond to a request for comment. Former New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin applauded the findings, saying uniformity in any system is important. 'It is a basic concept of justice that similarly situated people should be treated the same,' Albin said in a statement. 'One problem with having prosecutors be the primary decision-maker in waiver cases is a lack of uniformity across the state. You have 21 counties and 21 prosecutors, and they may have 21 different philosophies about how to prosecute waiver cases.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
