“One concrete action—NY State Assembly Bill 2025-A767—would establish a Youth Justice Innovation Fund to make funds available to community-based organizations for services and programs with the purpose of preventing youth arrest and incarceration and promoting positive youth development.”

The Bronx Criminal Courthouse. Photo by Jarrett Murphy.

The vile, brutal beating death of 22-year-old Messiah Nantwi by officers at Mid-State Correctional Facility must catalyze a very different and courageous response, as opposed to the default response, which is more imprisonment in rhythm with election cycles.   

Commonly, after a high-profile tragedy involving young people, there’s a default button which leads to knee-jerk justice system legislation and policy, with little attention paid to the long game of positive outcomes.

Often short-sighted and costly—with human and financial tolls—those defaults neither solve nor sustain the needs of justice and public safety, and are inadequate responses to trauma, pain, and loss.

Those default responses put young people in harm’s way through more imprisonment, fewer parole opportunities, and harsher sentences for adolescents. When New York and the nation promoted these approaches beginning in the 1970s, it led to the disproportionate mass incarceration of Black and brown young people. It would be 30 years before we sought to reverse those trends. 

At age 16, Messiah Nantwi was a hopeful, soft-spoken, intelligent teenager who devoured books and had a sparkle in his eyes. He would come around and sit with his mentors at Youth Justice Network, a leading Harlem-based non-profit which breaks cycles of incarceration through individualized advocacy, mentorship, and youth development services.  

Messiah would talk about how he wanted to travel the world, and he would ask his YJN mentors for books to read. At one point he would ask why “[a kid] had to get in trouble to be able to get this program.” He once told his YJN teacher that, “Where I live, it’s easier to get a gun than a book.” 

At age 18, Messiah was arrested in a Bronx incident that started as a graffiti stop in which he was shot multiple times by police officers in the Bronx. As his case proceeded through the court system, he worked on his physical rehabilitation and recovery.  He worked hard to do well and try to get his life back on the right track. With support from his YJN mentors, he took coding classes, was admitted to college and filled out his financial aid forms.  

But by then the inequity in the justice system had done its job, and the joy in his eyes had faded, his mental health was severely compromised, and his pain was palpable. He ultimately pled guilty to criminal possession of a weapon and was sentenced to a five-year period of imprisonment that eventually brought him to Mid-State Correctional facility.  

At age 22, instead of getting a college diploma, he was beaten to death on March 1, 2025 in a New York State prison by correction officers. At the time, Messiah was also awaiting trial, indicted for the shooting death of two people, one of whom was only 19.  

We need to lift our communities and each other up by prioritizing young people’s safety and wellbeing through opportunity, access to support and services, and positive community networks.  

One concrete action—NY State Assembly Bill 2025-A767—would establish a Youth Justice Innovation Fund to make funds available to community-based organizations for services and programs with the purpose of preventing youth arrest and incarceration and promoting positive youth development. If appropriated, it would fund violence prevention services, diversion, alternatives to detention, placement and incarceration, post-release support, and education and employment for young people up to the age of 25.

Young people grow, gain a voice and can realize their power only when they can feel safe, cared for, learn, play, and experience a world outside themselves. We as a society must commit to leverage their promise before it turns to pain they cannot return from—as it did for Messiah Nantwi.  

Christine Pahigian is the executive director of the Youth Justice Network. Assemblywoman Michaelle C. Solages, is the deputy majority leader and chair of the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus.   

The post Opinion: Courageous Response Must Follow New York’s Latest Prison Death appeared first on City Limits.

By WILL WEISSERT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was signing an executive order Monday that he says will help curb ticket scalping and bring “commonsense” changes to the way live entertainment events are priced.

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Designed to stop “price-gouging by middlemen,” the order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to ensure that scalpers offering tickets at higher prices than their face value comply with all Internal Revenue Service rules, according to a fact sheet released by the White House.

It also orders the Federal Trade Commission to ensure “price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process” and to “take enforcement action to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct in the secondary ticketing market,” which the Trump administration argues can restore sensibility and order to the ticket market.

“America’s live concert and entertainment industry has a total nationwide economic impact of $132.6 billion and supports 913,000 jobs,” the fact sheet said. “But it has become blighted by unscrupulous middle-men who impose egregious fees on fans with no benefit to artists.”

The push marks a rare instance of policy crossover with the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden, which used the FTC to target “ junk fees,” or levies tacked on at the end of the purchase process that can mask the full price of things like concert tickets, hotel rooms and utility bills.

Under Biden, the Justice Department also sued Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, last year. It accused them of running an illegal monopoly over live events and asked a court to break up the system that squelches competition and drives up prices for fans.

Those companies have a history of clashing with major artists, including Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift. whose summer 2022 stadium tour was plagued by difficulty getting tickets. Country music star Zach Bryan even released a 2022 album titled “All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster.” A representative for Bryan said he had “nothing to add” when asked to comment on Monday’s executive action.

The Biden administration used such initiatives as a way to protect consumers from rising prices that were already inflated. Trump, meanwhile, campaigned on combating high ticket prices, calling them “very unfortunate.”

“Ticket scalpers use bots and other unfair means to acquire large quantities of face-value tickets, then re-sell them at an enormous markup on the secondary market, price-gouging consumers and depriving fans of the opportunity to see their favorite artists without incurring extraordinary expenses,” the White House face sheet said, adding, “By some reports, fans have paid as much as 70 times the face value of a ticket price to obtain a ticket.”

It also noted that higher prices don’t mean additional profits for artists but instead go “solely to the scalper and the ticketing agency.”

Trump’s order also directs federal officials and the FTC to deliver a report in six months “summarizing actions taken to address the issue of unfair practices in the live concert and entertainment industry and recommend additional regulations or legislation needed to protect consumers in this industry.”

Associated Press writer Maria Sherman contributed to this report from New York.

By ALI SWENSON

NEW YORK (AP) — Two election watchdog organizations sued President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday over his executive order seeking to overhaul the nation’s elections through a proof-of-citizenship requirement, new mail ballot deadline restrictions and other sweeping changes.

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The lawsuit, filed by the Campaign Legal Center and the State Democracy Defenders Fund in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asks the court to declare the order unconstitutional and stop it from being implemented.

It names three nonprofit voter advocacy organizations as plaintiffs that it alleges are harmed by the order: the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Secure Families Initiative and the Arizona Students’ Association.

“The president’s executive order is an unlawful action that threatens to uproot our tried-and-tested election systems and silence potentially millions of Americans,” said Danielle Lang, senior director of voting rights at the D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center. “It is simply not within the president’s authority to set election rules by executive decree, especially when they would restrict access to voting in this way.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Monday’s lawsuit marks the first major legal challenge to last week’s executive order, which election lawyers have warned may violate the U.S. Constitution and asserts power they say the president does not have over an independent agency. That agency, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, sets voluntary voting system guidelines and maintains the federal voter registration form.

New voting tabulators are pictured at the Registrars of Voters Office, Thursday, March 27, 2025, in Vernon, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

It comes as Congress is considering codifying a proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration into law, and as Trump has promised more actions related to elections in the coming weeks.

The lawsuit draws attention to the Constitution’s “ Elections Clause,” which says states — not the president — get to decide the “times, places and manner” of how elections are run. That section of the Constitution also gives Congress the power to “make or alter” election regulations, at least for federal office, but it doesn’t mention any presidential authority over election administration.

“The Constitution is clear: States set their own rules of the road when it comes to elections, and only Congress has the power to override these laws with respect to federal elections,” said Lang, calling the executive order an “unconstitutional executive overreach.”

The lawsuit also argues the president’s order intrudes on Americans’ right to vote.

Trump, one of the top spreaders of election falsehoods, has argued this executive order will secure the vote against illegal voting by noncitizens. Multiple studies and investigations in individual states have shown that noncitizens casting ballots in federal elections, already a felony, is exceedingly rare.

Monday’s lawsuit against Trump’s elections order could be just the first of many challenges. Other voting rights advocates have said they’re considering legal action, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Democratic attorney Marc Elias. Several Democratic state attorneys general have said they are looking closely at the order and suspect it is illegal.

Meanwhile, Trump’s order has received praise from the top election officials in some Republican states who say it could inhibit instances of voter fraud and give them access to federal data to better maintain their voter rolls.

If courts determine the order can stand, the changes Trump is demanding are likely to cause some headaches for both election administrators and voters. State election officials, who already have lost some federal cybersecurity assistance, would have to spend time and money to comply with the order, including potentially buying new voting systems and educating voters of the rules.

The proof-of-citizenship requirement also could cause confusion or voter disenfranchisement because millions of eligible voting-age Americans do not have the proper documents readily available. In Kansas, which had a proof-of-citizenship requirement for three years before it was overturned, the state’s own expert estimated that almost all the roughly 30,000 people who were prevented from registering to vote during the time it was in effect were U.S. citizens who had been eligible.

Monday’s lawsuit is the latest of numerous efforts to fight the flurry of executive actions Trump has taken during the first months of his second term. Federal judges have partially or fully blocked many of them, including efforts to restrict birthright citizenship, ban transgender people from military service and curb diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives among federal contractors and grant recipients.

The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about the AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

MINNEAPOLIS — A University of Minnesota graduate student who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement was taken into custody because of a drunken driving infraction, not for being involved in protests, federal officials said Monday.

“This is not related to student protests,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. “The individual in question was arrested after a visa revocation by the State Dept. related to a prior criminal history for a DUI.”

News of the student’s detention — and the lack of an official explanation — sparked student protests and expressions of concern from university and political leaders. Gov. Tim Walz told reporters Monday that he spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about it Friday and was still waiting for further details.

Meanwhile, officials at Minnesota State University Mankato said Monday that one of their students had been detained by ICE as well.

President Edward Inch said in a letter to the campus community that the student was detained Friday at an off-campus residence.

“No reason was given. The University has received no information from ICE, and they have not requested any information from us,” Inch wrote. “I have contacted our elected officials to share my concerns and ask for their help in stopping this activity within our community of learners.”

The Mankato school did not name the student, nor give the student’s nationality or field of study. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for details on that case.

“This is becoming a deeply concerning pattern, where ICE detains students with little to no explanation … and ignores their rights to due process,” U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in a statement. “I will keep pressing the administration for answers about these arrests and work to get answers from federal immigration authorities about this case.”

The University of Minnesota has not named its student either.

That student, who was detained at an off-campus residence Thursday, was enrolled in the business school on the Minneapolis campus. University spokesperson Andria Waclawski said the school had no further updates Monday. She said earlier that they were following the lead of the student and respecting their request for privacy, while providing the student with legal aid and other supports.

The governor said Monday that, “A deep concern is, here, that no matter what the situation was, in this country, everyone has due process rights and our concern is whether those due process rights are being followed.”

The Trump administration has cited a seldom-invoked statute authorizing the secretary of state to revoke visas of noncitizens who could be considered a threat to foreign policy interests. More than half a dozen people with ties to universities are known to have been taken into custody or deported in recent weeks. Most of those detainees have shown support for Palestinian causes during campus protests over Israel’s war in Gaza.