Latest news with #Lehrer
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- South China Morning Post
8 killed in Austrian school attack in city of Graz, media reports
Eight people have been confirmed dead after a school shooting in the Austrian city of Graz, Kronen Zeitung newspaper reported on Tuesday. Citing local police, Austrian state media ORF said several people had been seriously injured, including students and teachers. Police said they deployed to the school after shots were heard there. It was not immediately clear whether the suspect was among the reported victims. The Interior Ministry said there were several fatalities but did not specify how many.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Advocates demand answers after ICE agents allegedly tase, detain Providence man
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer coordinates with other officials during an enforcement operation in San Antonio, Texas, on Feb. 5, 2025. (Photo by ICE) Immigration rights advocates plan to gather outside the federal building and courthouse in downtown Providence at noon Sunday to protest the Trump administration's mass deportation policies. The demonstration follows the detention of a man who was hospitalized Thursday after being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who came to his Providence home. Officers allegedly used a stun gun and the unnamed man appeared to have a medical episode and was taken to Rhode Island Hospital for treatment, said Maya Lehrer, an organizer with the Rhode Island Deportation Defense Coalition. A crowd of 85 people protested outside Rhode Island Hospital for over three hours. The coalition says an attorney for the man was denied entrance to see him. 'Deportations are not new to Trump,' Lehrer said Friday. 'But this particular kind of fearmongering and extreme racism has come along with it, and ICE feels empowered to do whatever they have to outside the legal means to seize our community members.' Lehrer said the coalition received a call around 11:08 a.m. Thursday reporting that a man was being detained by ICE agents at his home on Parade Street. At some point, officers used a stun gun and the unnamed man suffered a medical episode. City spokesperson Josh Estrella confirmed the Providence Fire Department responded to a call for service on Parade Street for a person who had been tased, but said officials are unaware of any details of the investigation by any federal agency. Providence Police were not involved in the detainment, as Mayor Brett Smiley's administration has made it clear that city officers will not act as immigration agents. 'We're never going to collaborate, and we're never going to interfere,' Estrella said. ICE did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Among the demonstrators gathered outside the hospital Thursday afternoon, was Providence City Council Chief of Staff June Rose, who attended on behalf of Council President Rachel Miller, whose ward includes the address where the man was detained by ICE. 'This community will not stand idly by as the Trump administration disappears our neighbors off the street,' Rose said in an interview Friday. 'ICE shouldn't be in our city at all.' Shortly after the man arrived at Rhode Island Hospital, Central Falls-based immigration attorney Kelvin Santos said he was contacted to represent him. However, Santos said he was denied the opportunity to meet with his client, despite the man having signed a form confirming Santos as his legal representative. 'ICE wasn't allowing us to go and see him and the hospital wasn't trying to supersede what ICE was saying,' he said. Brown University Health spokesperson Kelly Brennan declined to comment on the case, citing patient privacy. 'Rhode Island Hospital is committed to providing care to all our patients,' Brennan said in an emailed statement. 'We follow the same protocols for all patients, including those concerning patient rights and access.' Lehrer said multiple demonstrators had called ICE and claimed federal officials 'seemed alarmed' when told that the man was denied his legal right to counsel. Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos issued a statement Thursday evening saying she and her office were 'closely monitoring' the situation and called on ICE to immediately allow the man they detained to speak with his attorney. 'The rights enshrined in our Constitution, especially the right to due process, are our only safeguard against authoritarianism,' Matos said. 'If we do not immediately and vocally protect the first people to be stripped of those rights, then eventually all people will be stripped of those rights.' Thursday's demonstration wrapped up around 4 p.m., the same time Rose said the man was discharged by the hospital. He now remains in ICE custody, but Santos said his client's whereabouts are unknown. 'It's in limbo right now,' Santos said. 'We're going to do our best to get in contact with him.' The coalition claimed the man was taken in an unmarked van being driven by officers from the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls. But Wyatt officer Jim Louis told Rhode Island Current that no vans from the facility were dispatched to Rhode Island Hospital on Thursday. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Rhode Island environmental nonprofits sue Trump administration over funding freeze
Downtown Providence is visible in the distance viewed from Neutaconkanut Hill. Urban tree plantings in the city have been impacted by the federal funding freeze, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island. (Photo by Dominique Sindayiganza/Providence Neighborhood Planting Program) Urban tree plantings, lead pipe education for landlords and local composting are already suffering from the Trump administration's federal funding freeze, a new lawsuit filed in federal court in Providence contends. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island on March 14, followed by an amended complaint filed Monday, is the latest legal dispute over federal grants and aid rendered inaccessible since mid-January. Led by a group of Rhode Island and national nonprofits, the lawsuit centers on federal funding under the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act set aside for environmental, health and safety projects. Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council Eastern Rhode Island Conservation District Childhood Lead Action Project Codman Square Neighborhood Development Corporation Green Infrastructure Center National Council of Nonprofits In the wake of Donald Trump's Jan. 20 order 'Unleashing American Energy' seeking to pause funding approved under a pair of spending packages, nonprofit recipients have been forced to halt projects and contemplate layoffs, the complaint states. 'The result of Defendants' unlawful funding freeze has been real and irreparable harm to the recipients of that funding in this District and across the country, as well as to the people and communities they serve,' states the complaint filed by D.C. nonprofit Democracy Forward and Providence firm DeLuca, Weizenbaum, Barry & Ravens. Just ask Alicia Lehrer, executive director of the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council, which was suddenly unable to collect a $1 million subgrant authorized by Congress in 2022. The watershed council, one of the leading plaintiffs in the lawsuit, had already signed a contract to hire new staff, buy and plant trees and develop a stewardship training to serve the 7-mile Woonasquatucket Greenway. Now, Lehrer is stuck in limbo, unable to access the funds needed to start buying products and developing the training program in time for a spring tree planting. Even a fall start date looks uncertain. 'Everyone is pretty stressed,' Lehrer said in an interview on Tuesday. 'It's mostly about the uncertainty. We have been planning this for a year.' The abrupt halt to the project has created ripple effects for Watershed Council partners, including the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program, which collaborates with the Council on urban forestry projects in Providence, Lehrer said. 'This is not just about adding a tree to the greenway,' Lehrer said. 'We already have a lot of trees, but we need a team of people who can take care of them. Trees are critical especially as we face summers of extreme heat and can help with managing stormwater runoff.' The Providence Neighborhood Planting Program is not named in the lawsuit, even though $700,000 in federal funding for the PVD Tree Plan was abruptly halted two months ago, said Cassie Tharinger, executive director. 'We are a tiny organization with four staff, so we're just in scramble mode,' Tharinger said in an interview Tuesday. 'We're just trying to be like, how do we not lay anyone off and not let down people in the community who were poised to be community ambassadors and tree liaisons.' A separate U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant awarded to the Watershed Council just before the November election to create an environmental justice education program has also been pulled, Lehrer said. She has been unable to get more details since the EPA has put its environmental justice workers on leave and closed its D.C. offices in early February. 'Congress voted to support the work of nonprofits like the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council,' Miriam Weizenbaum, one of the lawyers for the nonprofits, said in a statement. 'Our Constitution gives our representatives and senators, and not the executive, the authority to do exactly that job.' Weizenbaum previously served as the Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General's Civil Division Chief until April 2024. The Watershed Council has other projects and funding sources to stay afloat. But that's not the case for other nonprofits. Roughly 80% of the budget for Green Infrastructure Center comes from federal funding now in question, the complaint states. The Virginia-based tree planting and conservation group, which has offices and employees in Rhode Island, has already furloughed some of its new workers after funds dried up; if the funding freeze continues, they will have to lay off their entire staff, according to the complaint. Meanwhile, the Eastern Rhode Island Conservation District can't forge ahead with plans to set up the first municipal composting site in Bristol and Newport counties due to the on-again, off-again nature of a $350,000 federal grant, the complaint states. And Providence-based Childhood Lead Action Project can't access a $500,000 award for worker and landlord training about lead safety laws. Nationwide, consequences have hit nonprofit projects dealing with wildfire prevention, protecting national parks from invasive species, and weatherization training classes for low-income residents looking to lower their utility bills, the complaint states. 'Across the country, congressionally-approved infrastructure resources are being held up by this lawless Administration,' Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward said in a statement. 'This administration is literally taking money away from the communities who have been waiting for needed infrastructure improvement. We are fighting back on behalf of the nonprofit organizations and communities that rely on these critical investments to improve public health, create jobs, and protect our environment. The law is clear: these funds must be released, and we will hold this administration accountable in court.' Attorneys for the nonprofits have asked U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy to order federal cabinet agencies to unfreeze funds now as the case proceeds through court. The U.S. Department of Justice, which is representing the host of federal agencies named as defendants, has until March 27 to respond to the request for a preliminary injunction under court orders issued Tuesday. The DOJ did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment on Tuesday. Already in federal court in Providence, Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. has ordered federal agencies to make funding available to state governments, following a Jan. 28 lawsuit filed by 23 Democratic attorneys general, including Rhode Island's Peter Neronha. Despite McConnell's March 6 order, some federal funds, including 215 grants through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, were inaccessible as of March 12, according to new court filings by the AGs. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Grand Chute election: Anthony Lehrer and Walt Nocito contend for Supervisor 3 seat
GRAND CHUTE — Political newcomer Anthony Lehrer and former Town Supervisor Walt Nocito will compete in the April 1 election for a two-year term on the Town Board. The winner of the nonpartisan race for Supervisor 3 will succeed Beth English, who didn't seek reelection as supervisor. English is running for town chair against incumbent Jason Van Eperen. Nocito has campaigned for supervisor previously. He lost to incumbent Travis Thyssen in the April 2021 election and then was appointed to the Town Board in October 2021 after Thyssen resigned. Nocito served until April 2023, when he was defeated by English. As part of The Post-Crescent's election coverage, Lehrer and Nocito were asked to complete a questionnaire to explain why they're running for office, what makes them the better candidate and how they would address the most important issues facing the town. Their answers are published below. Grand Chute voters can cast an absentee ballot in person, known as early voting, on weekdays from March 18 to March 28 at Town Hall, 1900 W. Grand Chute Blvd. The hours are 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. but shortened to 11 a.m. on March 21 and extended to 5 p.m. on March 28. For information about registering to vote, visit the MyVote Wisconsin website at Address: 2646 W. Spencer St. Age: 47 Occupation: Stay-at-home parent, working construction when time allows Highest education: Graduate of Appleton West High School Relevant experience: I have grown up and am raising a family in this community. Campaign website: Anthony Lehrer Address: 3260 N. Spruce St. Age: 80 Occupation: Retired Highest education: Master's degree in business administration from Widener University Relevant experience: Town supervisor (2021-2023) Campaign website: Friends for Walt Nocito Lehrer: I am running to improve the transparency and integrity of the board. Nocito: As a previous Grand Chute supervisor and as a former small business owner, I have the experience needed to understand the workings of municipal government operations, including our financial systems. This knowledge will help us to operate more effectively and efficiently in the services we provide to our residents. Lehrer: I feel that the role of government is to be responsive to the voters. As a lifelong member of this community, I am invested in the long-term growth of the town. I will prioritize the improvement of deteriorating roads and infrastructure. Nocito: My experience and my desire to contribute positively to our community will enable me to work effectively for our town. Lehrer: Voters I am talking to are asking about fixing roads and getting rid of lawsuits. I think asking businesses to pay their special assessment for the roads in front of their businesses is a good start. Having open meetings and listening to Human Resources will help, too. Nocito: I have spoken with many residents. Summing up their perspective, residents want a cost-effective government that they can trust and that makes good decisions, fulfills our needs as a community and doesn't burden them financially. Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@ Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DukeBehnke. This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Grand Chute election: Anthony Lehrer, Walt Nocito vie for board seat
