February, 26 2020, 11:00pm EDT
More than 150 College Faculty Staff Sign Open Letter Against Facial Recognition on Campus
The letter comes days before a student led day national of action planned for this Monday
WASHINGTON
More than 150 college and university faculty members, staff, researchers, and others with academic positions have signed on to an open letter echoing the demands of students who are organizing to keep facial recognition surveillance off of higher education campuses. The letter was published online today, just days before students are planning a national day of action including protests and letter deliveries on campuses across the country.
See the letter and list of signers here: https://onezero.medium.com/an-open-letter-from-faculty-and-staff-against-campus-facial-recognition-5ee5cf47cdc6
"Facial recognition poses a unique threat to safety, civil liberties, and academic freedom on campus," the letter reads, "Facial recognition is invasive, enabling anyone with access to the system to watch students' movements, try to analyze facial expressions, monitor who they talk to, what they do outside of class, and every move they make ... We want to lend our support to students organizing to keep facial recognition off of our campuses. Students should not have to trade their right to safety and privacy for an education. Since facial recognition technology poses too many threats that cannot be avoided, it should not be used at all."
The signatories include prominent security expert and lecturer Bruce Schneier, facial recognition experts Evan Selinger and Woodrow Hartzog, and Dr. Kimberle Crenshaw, known for the theory of intersectionality, who was one of the UCLA faculty members falsely matched with a mugshot photo during a test Fight for the Future ran using Amazon's commercially available facial recognition software.
"Facial recognition has no place on college campuses," said Kimberle Crenshaw after UCLA caved to student pressure and abandoned its plan to implement facial recognition on campus, "I'm glad the administration listened to the community and is abandoning this plan. Other school administrators should follow suit. Racially biased surveillance does not make our communities safer."
Evan Sellignger, a professor of philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology who has written about facial recognition for the New York Times among other outlets, added: "Since higher education is a special institution where higher norms should prevail, a high standard of care is needed when considering whether to make changes that will fundamentally transform campus culture. Since adopting facial recognition technology will threaten academic freedom and student wellbeing, including the safety of those who are most vulnerable, there's only one responsible choice to make. The technology must be rejected."
Fight for the Future is a group of artists, engineers, activists, and technologists who have been behind the largest online protests in human history, channeling Internet outrage into political power to win public interest victories previously thought to be impossible. We fight for a future where technology liberates -- not oppresses -- us.
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'Out-of-Step With American Values': Newsom Vetoes Key Labor Bills
The California governor on Saturday rejected bills that would have given unemployment insurance to striking workers and OSHA protections to domestic employees.
Oct 01, 2023
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed too important pieces of labor rights' legislation on Saturday: one that would have given unemployment insurance to striking workers and another that would have extended protections to domestic employees.
Newsom's vetoes come as both California and the nation have seen a number of high profile strikes this year, including by Hollywood writers and actors.
"This veto tips the scales further in favor of corporations and CEOs and punishes workers who exercise their fundamental right to strike," California Labor Federation leader Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher said in a statement. "At a time when public support of unions and strikes are at an all-time high, this veto is out-of-step with American values."
Senate Bill 799, which passed in September, would have offered unemployment insurance to workers on strike for 14 days or more. It came while both the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) were out on strike in the first writer and actor double-feature work stoppage in 60 years.
In a statement, Newsom said he was vetoing the bill for economic reasons, arguing that the state's unemployment insurance had been governed by the same financial structure since the 1980s, was "vulnerable to insolvency," and already expected to be almost $20 billion in debt by the end of the year.
"Now is not the time to increase costs or incur this sizable debt," Newsom said.
However, The Sacramento Beepointed out that Newsom's veto might have been made politically easier by the fact that the WGA ended its strike Wednesday after reaching a tentative deal with the studios.
Democratic State Sen. Anthony Portantino, who introduced the bill, said he thought the summer's labor actions only showed how necessary the bill was.
"I am disappointed in the Governor's veto," he tweeted. But he said the fight wasn't over.
"The need continues and so will efforts to make this law in CA," he said.
Also on Saturday, Newsom delivered another blow to the state labor movement when he vetoed SB 686 to give domestic workers protections under the state's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
"I'm deeply disappointed that the governor doesn't recognize the inherent worth and dignity of those women who care for our homes and families by vetoeing SB 686," tweeted the bill's author Sen. MarÃa Elena Durazo. "That measure would've insured that domestic workers have the same occupational health and safety protections as others."
This is the second time that Newsom has vetoed a Durazo bill along similar lines, the Los Angeles Timesreported. The last was in 2020.
Newsom argued then and now that it is not possible to regulate private homes like businesses. For example, the bill would have required homes that asked cleaners to use bleach to provide eyewash stations.
"I am particularly concerned given that approximately 44% of the households that employ domestic workers are low-income themselves, that this bill creates severe cost burdens and penalties for many people who cannot afford them," he wrote in his veto message.
The bill was backed by the California Domestic Workers Coalition and immigrant rights groups like the Instituto de Education Popular del Sur de California.
Nancy Zuniga, a program manager for that group and a supporter of the bill, said she was inspired by her mother who is still cleaning homes at 63, though Zuniga hopes she can retire.
"If we don’t protect domestic workers, what condition will she be in when she reaches that moment?" she asked the LA Times. "A lot of them will do this until they pass."
According to a 2020 report from the University of California, Los Angeles, 85% of domestic workers live with muscular and skeletal injuries.
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'Meet the Needs of People': CBPP Pres. Parrott Tells Congress How to Avoid the Next Shutdown Showdown
"In divided government, appropriations bills must be bipartisan to pass," Sharon Parrott said, adding that the House must "shift its approach."
Oct 01, 2023
With a government shutdown narrowly avoided hours from the midnight Sunday deadline, Center for Budget and Policy Priorities president Sharon Parrott had advice for how lawmakers could move forward.
"With a stopgap measure in place, Congress needs to pass funding bills that meet the needs of people, communities, and the economy and eschew cuts already rejected in the debt ceiling agreement," Parrott wrote Saturday on the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
Parrott noted that the House was only able to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government temporarily funded Saturday when Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) abandoned attempts to pass partisan spending bills and instead pivoted to a bipartisan, clean CR with no additional social spending cuts or right-wing policies tacked on.
"They shouldn't repeat this mistake as Congress moves to complete full-year funding bills that meet the nation's needs."
"In divided government, appropriations bills must be bipartisan to pass," Parrott continued Saturday. "That's how the Senate has crafted funding bills this year, and today's House CR vote shows it is the only path forward. But that means the House needs to shift its approach."
In an August report, David Reich of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) observed that the House appropriations bills up until that point had been passed along partisan lines, with Republicans including steeper cuts to non-military spending than those negotiated in the debt ceiling agreement, rolling back Inflation Reduction Act funding earmarked for addressing the climate crisis and modernizing the Internal Revenue Service, and tacked on riders attacking LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, and reproductive freedom.
"The House's sharply partisan approach is likely to make it harder to reach an agreement on final funding bills," he predicted accurately.
Now that the House has passed a temporary clean CR, Parrott urged Republicans to learn from the experience.
"It took House Republicans too long to abandon their partisan approach of deep cuts and controversial riders in a CR," Parrott said. "They shouldn't repeat this mistake as Congress moves to complete full-year funding bills that meet the nation's needs."
If they return to pushing cuts and poison pills, she warned, "that would only waste more time and risk more shutdown drama."
Whether House Republicans will heed her advice remains to be seen. As of Sunday, most of the talk within the party revolved around whether or not the far-right flank would challenge McCarthy's speakership over Saturday's compromise.
Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) toldABC News' This Week that he planned to file a motion in the coming week to remove McCarthy.
"I am relentless and I will continue pursue this objective," Gaetz said.
In response, McCarthy told Gaetz to "Bring it on" when speaking withCBS's Face the Nation.
"Let's get over with it and let's start governing," he said.
In a Sunday appearance on CNN's State of the Union, however, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questioned the Republicans' ability to do that.
"The Republican Party right now is completely out of step with the American people," she said, observing that even self-described moderates had voted for spending bills that would cut funding for low-income schools by 80%.
"This is not a moderate party, period," she said. "There are not moderates in the Republican Party."
As a shutdown loomed, She said the party had "run around the House like a Roomba until they found a door that House Democrats opened."
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'If We Elect Clowns, We Get a Circus': Congress Narrowly Avoids Shutdown, For Now
Despite Saturday's reprieve, Sen. John Fetterman warned that "pushing the snooze button solves nothing, because these same losers will try to pull the same shit in 45 days."
Sep 30, 2023
A government shutdown was averted Saturday night after the Senate voted 89 to 9 to approve a stopgap spending measure passed by the House of Representatives that afternoon.
The agreement funds the government for 45 days and includes an additional $16 billion in disaster funding as New York City mops up from flash flooding following an extreme rain storm. It does not include aid for Ukraine.
"It has been a day full of twists and turns, but the American people can breathe a sigh of relief," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the Senate floor. "There will be no government shutdown."
"This is not entertainment, it’s governance. We must not allow the Freedom Caucus to turn our government into The Steve Wilkos Show."
The bill now heads to President Joe Biden for his signature.
"This is good news for the American people," Biden said in a statement. "But I want to be clear: We never should have been in this position in the first place."
Biden criticized far-right Republicans in the House for demanding cuts beyond what the president had negotiated with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a deal that progressives had already criticized for slashing programs for needy Americans and pushing through the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline.
"They failed," Biden said of the far-right bloc.
MoveOn executive director Rahna Epting pointed out on social media that "this entire crisis was a GOP manufactured one."
"The Republican controlled House of Reps couldn’t get their act together, and their endless infighting only transpired into bare minimum alignment at the 11th hour," Epting said.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) celebrated the fact that the far-right bid to enshrine even steeper cuts to the social safety net did not succeed.
"I’m delighted that Congress was able to avoid a painful and unnecessary shutdown," he tweeted. "I'm also pleased that programs working families need were not cut and that there was a good increase in funds for disaster relief which will help Vermonters rebuild from July’s terrible flooding."
Sen John Fetterman (D-Pa.), however, pointed out that the Republicans could force a similar crisis again on November 17 when the stopgap agreement expires.
"I voted at 8:30 pm on a Saturday night, that’s my job. But the American people should never have to worry about their government shutting down," Fetterman posted on social media. "Pushing the snooze button solves nothing, because these same losers will try to pull the same shit in 45 days."
"I voted yes tonight to keep the government open, but I’m done normalizing this dysfunction," he continued. "This is not entertainment, it’s governance. We must not allow the Freedom Caucus to turn our government into The Steve Wilkos Show."
Epting also expressed concern about what would happen when the deal expired.
"We do this all over again in 45 days, and Republicans will shut the government down then," Epting said. "This likely leads to more instability and extremism in the House as the far right will try to remove McCarthy over this. If we elect clowns, we get a circus."
Before the larger budget fight, Congress is now poised to take up the question of additional funding for Ukraine, something Biden, Schumer, and Sanders all flagged as a priority.
House Democratic leadership also said they expected a House vote on Ukraine funding soon in a statement reported by Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News.
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