21 Jun 2024

NHL draft: ‘Patient’ Wild willing to wait their turn for player they’ll be ‘thrilled with’

by | posted in: Politics | 0

As one of 16 teams that missed the NHL playoffs this spring, the Wild were part of the draft lottery that can randomly improve a team’s pick. But nothing happened for Minnesota, which will carry the No. 13 overall pick into Las Vegas for next weekend’s draft.

That’s OK, said Judd Brackett, the Wild’s director of amateur scouting since 2020-21.

“We’ve identified players that I think we’d be thrilled with,” he said during a teleconference Friday. “Now, we’ll see how it unfolds.”

That last part is big, of course, because as Brackett noted, “the draft will be dictated to us a bit.” The reality is, Brackett and his staff will be hoping that 12 other teams pass on at least one player they really like.

The Wild’s scouting department has been working on its own mock drafts, and even contacting other teams ahead of them in the draft to set the groundwork for a potential trade if the opportunity presented itself.

That, however, while not impossible, is unlikely, Brackett said.

“Typically, if you’ve got one of the top 10 picks, you’ve done your homework, too, and there’s a player that you’re happy with,” he said. “Especially when, as we mentioned earlier, there’s some depth in this draft in the first round.”

About the only thing draft watchers seem to agree on is that Boston University center Macklin Celebrini will be picked first by San Jose. Even an apparent can’t-miss scorer like Ivan Dimidov — who would seem to be the consensus No. 2 pick — could fall because teams aren’t confident he won’t stay in Russia for several more years.

Among those Top 10 players any team would be happy with: OHL wing Beckett Sennecke, defensemen Artyom Levshunov (Michigan State) Anton Silayev (Russia) and Zeev Buium (University of Denver), and WHL center Cayden Lindstrom.

The Wild have been collecting centers, and have some good young ones to show for it, from Marco Rossi — who had 21 goals and played in 82 games as a rookie last season — to CHL prospects Riley Heidt and Hunter Haight, who just won a Memorial Cup with Saginaw, and rookie Marat Khusnutdinov.

Khusnutdinov and rising left wing Liam Ohgren are expected to make the club out of camp this fall, and there are some promising defensemen playing for the AHL club in Des Moines, including Ryan O’Rourke, David Spacek, Carson Lambos and Daemon Hunt.

There doesn’t appear to be urgency to fast track a player, and Brackett said the team has not focused on a particular position in this draft, which appears particularly deep on the blue line. One of those prospects, Zayne Parekh, might be of particular interest because he had 107 points in 79 total games playing with Haight last season in Saginaw.

“Our list is going to be different than 31 other teams’ (lists),” Brackett said. “So, even at 13, there is a chance” to get a player higher than 13 on Minnesota’s chart.

“We’ve got to sit there and patiently wait, and sometimes we get impatient and start calling teams ahead of us to see if we can get up here,” Brackett said. “But unless you have a dance partner, it’s hard to get there.”

Briefly

Last year’s top pick, Rosemount forward Charlie Stramel, has transferred to Michigan State, where he will be reunited with his national team coach, after a difficult sophomore season at Wisconsin (3 goals, 8 points). “We’re excited that he has this opportunity,” Brackett said. “He now has to grab it and make the most of it. But we’re still very happy with Charlie. … We know the player that he can be, and we’re going to provide all the resources that we can.”

A PLEASANT FALL?

Three high-end prospects that, according to several mock drafts, could be available when the Wild use their No. 13 pick Friday in the first round of the 2024 NHL entry draft at the Sphere in Las Vegas:

Konsta Helenius, C, Finland — Helenius, 18, has been a member of Finland’s international junior teams and last season scored 16 goals among 40 points in 57 games (regular and postseason) total points for Jukurit in Finland’s top professional league.

Zayne Parekh, D, OHL — Parekh, 18, scored 33 goals in 51 regular-season games, up from 21 in his first junior season. He and Wild center prospect Hunter Haight won the CHL’s Memorial Cup with the Spirit this spring.

Tij Iginla, C, WHL — Another center, this one the son of former Calgary nemesis, and Hockey Hall of Famer, Jarome Iginla. Only 17, he already is 6 feet and 185 pounds and scored 56 goals among 99 points in 75 regular season and postseason games for Kelowna this season.

Related Articles

Minnesota Wild |


Wild trade prospect Adam Beckman for AHL all-star Graeme Clarke

Minnesota Wild |


Wild release 2024-25 preseason schedule

Minnesota Wild |


Wild coach John Hynes will be U.S. assistant for 4-Nations Face-Off

Minnesota Wild |


Out as PWHL Minnesota GM, Natalie Darwitz proud of team she built and ‘championship we brought home’

Minnesota Wild |


PWHL Draft: Ken Klee and staff will make Minnesota’s picks after GM Natalie Darwitz’s dismissal

21 Jun 2024

As Presidential Election Nears, Advocates Renew Call for Poll Sites in NYC Jails

by | posted in: News | 0

Voter education is one hurdle. But a bigger one, advocates say, is the cumbersome voting process itself for people behind bars. “There are impediments and obstacles that create real and serious concerns about the viability of an absentee ballot,” said Cesar Ruiz, associate counsel at LatinoJustice.

Mikel Bragham

Members of the Vote in NYC Jails Coalition rallying for a Rikers Island-based poll site February.

With this year’s presidential election expected to be a neck and neck competition between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, every vote will matter. Mike John, who is voting for the first time, is proud that he’ll be able to weigh in.

During the nine years he was incarcerated in New York State’s prison system, John, 33, said he never had a full grasp on what his voting rights would be when he was released. “The individuals that were part of the carceral system, they looked at it as a myth,” he said.

All individuals convicted of a felony lose their right to vote while serving time in New York State correctional facilities. However, they now regain that right once they are released, as a result of a law passed in 2021.

But John says that information was never relayed to him or others during his time behind bars. When he was released in February of this year, he finally got those answers. “It only took nine years to understand if it was a myth enough or not,” he said.

According to the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), upon release, individuals incarcerated at state prisons go through what’s called the Transitional Services Program, during which they are given the opportunity to complete a voter registration form.

Those leaving local jails are also given voter registration forms, thanks to a law passed in fall 2023 by Assemblymember Edward Gibbs and State Sen. Jamaal T. Bailey, part of a larger legislative package to protect and expand voting rights. Gibbs, who was formerly incarcerated himself, said the law is “near and dear to his heart.”

While registering people to vote is important, it’s just the first step, according to the Vote in NYC Jails Coalition, which says that even after years of advocacy and legislative advancements, serious gaps remain when it comes to voting education and access for incarcerated people.

Unlike state prisons, people can still vote in New York jails if they are awaiting trial or if they have a misdemeanor charge. About nine out of 10 people in custody on Rikers Island, for example, have not yet been convicted of a crime, according to The Center for Justice Innovation.

“Rikers has a long history of discrimination, of dehumanization, and just abhorrent conditions. When you talk about the right to vote, that can seem not only so foreign, but so far removed from the realities that people are experiencing,” said Cesar Ruiz, associate counsel at LatinoJustice.

“These people are very much interested in getting involved in politics,” Ruiz added, but most are unaware of their right to vote while awaiting trial.

One person who works in criminal justice and who spoke to City Limits on background said that incarcerated people often don’t receive accurate information about their voting rights, and aren’t always up to speed on individual candidates or races. “I was only incarcerated myself and information is really hidden from you,” the source said.

In response to request for comment, a spokesperson from the city’s Department of Corrections (DOC) told City Limits that the agency provides non-partisan information about voting and upcoming elections, voter registration forms in various languages, absentee ballot applications, and offers assistance in filling out forms upon request.

Voter education is one hurdle. But a bigger one, advocates say, is the cumbersome voting process itself. Because there is no physical polling site in New York City jails and people housed there hail from many different election districts, they have to request an absentee ballot if they want to vote.

The DOC then has to pick up those ballots in person from the New York City Board of Elections (BOE), deliver them to individual voters, have them fill it out, and then return the ballots to the BOE. The catch, according to advocates: there is only one person designated to do all of the ballot pickup and dropoff, a tall order when you consider the New York City’s jail population currently sits at over 6,300 people.

The circuitous process results in too many absentee ballot requests and completed ballots being rejected. Rigodis Appling, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society, said local BOE offices don’t always give the reason for the rejection. When it does, it could be because the forms are not filled out correctly, are missing certain information like the voter’s political party, or because the person who requested the ballot has already left Rikers.

But from the advocates’ point of view, the rejections often feel arbitrary. “With each step, you kind of see that there are impediments and obstacles that create real and serious concerns about the viability of an absentee ballot,” said Ruiz.

A spokesperson from DOC said they cannot comment on why a ballot is rejected and that they’re only in charge of voter education and delivery.

During New York’s April 2 presidential primary, there were 296 absentee ballot requests, but the DOC only received 171, meaning more than a third were rejected, according to Appling.

The fact that the majority of the city’s jail population is people of color raises the stakes, advocates say. Black and Hispanic people made up almost 90 percent of New York City’s more than 16,000 jail admissions in 2021, according to a report from John Jay College’s Data Collaborative for Justice.

“We are systematically disenfranchising Black and Latinx people, we should be really clear about that,” Appling said.

Adi Talwar

Rikers Island.

According to a DOC spokesperson, for that same primary, the department provided 119 completed ballots to the BOE. “It is important to keep in mind that we submitted many more applications but some Persons in Custody (PICs) don’t get ballots for various reasons,” the spokesperson said.

An absentee ballot could get rejected if a person doesn’t select a party, the spokesperson explained, while those who do get a ballot may not be able to fill it out if they get transferred to state prison or released into the community before it arrives. 

If a completed absentee ballot has any sort of error, the BOE is supposed to give the person an opportunity to cure it. But that isn’t always the case.

“That process has never happened at Rikers,” said Appling. 

To address these perennial issues, LatinoJustice, along with the Vote in NYC Jails Coalition, has been working with lawmakers on a statewide bill that would establish a polling site in Rikers and other local detention facilities. Direct access to voting would streamline the process and reduce procedural hiccups, they say. The bill would also create an enforcement mechanism for the BOE and DOC. 

Ruiz says the coalition plans to introduce it during next year’s legislative session. 

“In this moment of rampant voter suppression that swept the South…we firmly believe that this is one of the ways that [New York] can lead,” he said.

This story was produced as part of the 2024 Elections Reporting Mentorship, organized by the Center for Community Media and funded by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

21 Jun 2024

Seeing is believing? Not necessarily when it comes to video clips of Biden and Trump

by | posted in: Politics | 0

By MELISSA GOLDIN and ALI SWENSON (Associated Press)

NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden’s simple act of sitting down while commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France, gained more attention than the ceremony itself in some circles as social media users shared a shortened version of the clip to falsely claim he was reaching for a nonexistent chair.

The clip was the first of at least three out-of-context or trimmed videos shared widely over less than two weeks in June to fuel a narrative that Biden is mentally and physically unfit for office.

It’s long been standard practice in politics to spin real moments to make an opponent look bad. Yet the recent spate of misleading videos — which amassed millions of views and were picked up by right-leaning outlets around the world — shows how the reach of social media and real concerns about Biden’s age have made the tactic especially powerful in 2024.

Experts say voters can expect to see both Republicans and Democrats weaponizing unflattering, out-of-context moments to label each other’s presidential candidates as weak, confused or senile — especially considering their ages of 81 and 78. Indeed, edited and misrepresented clips have also circulated about former President Donald Trump.

“Any misinformation that seems to reinforce or resonate perceptions or dominant narratives, whether they’re accurate or not, is very effective,” said Erik Nisbet, a professor at Northwestern University who studies media, public opinion and public policy in democracy and elections.

At the G7 summit in Italy, where Biden headed after Normandy, a clip of the president watching a skydiving demonstration was cropped to make it appear as though he wandered off for no reason. A wider view of the video shows he was greeting paratroopers who had just landed. And at a Los Angeles fundraiser last weekend, a pause by Biden as he left the stage amid cheers was used to say the president froze, while Biden’s campaign said he was only stopping to take in the applause.

The clips have been especially effective at activating concerns about Biden’s competency, according to Nisbet, because he is the oldest sitting president the U.S. has ever had, and he moves with more difficulty than he once did.

Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s physician, wrote in a February memo after the president’s annual physical that he “continues to be fit for duty” and that his stiff gait is the result of arthritic changes in his spine. He said that Biden has reported additional hip pain and started using a new device for his sleep apnea, but that he showed no signs of stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s or other similar conditions.

After the fundraiser clip spread online, Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer blasted such negative characterizations as a tactic from those who “are so scared of losing to Joe Biden, they’ll make anything up” to distract voters from Trump’s misdeeds.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a press briefing called the videos “cheap fakes,” a term for videos edited using cheap video editing software rather than artificial intelligence.

Trump’s campaign has doubled down on the clips and circulated a meme that defined a “cheap fake” as “any unedited video of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline that the Biden administration does not want the public to see.”

Experts say these attacks can be iterative, with social media influencers and campaigns piling on one another.

“The attention economy within conservative media helps perpetuate these cycles of circulation and these sorts of misinformation and campaign messaging,” said A.J. Bauer, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama who studies conservative news.

For example, the Republican National Committee posted a cropped version of the video of Biden at the G7 summit in Italy shortly after it happened, captioning the post, “What is Biden doing?” The RNC’s post was then shared by right-leaning media outlets — among them, Sinclair Broadcast Group syndicated stations and the New York Post, which embedded the RNC’s post in its story.

This clip was also picked up by publications abroad, including the tabloid The Sun in the U.K. and the newspaper Corriere della Sera in Italy. A pro-Trump super PAC highlighted the latter coverage on social media as proof that “the world is laughing at us.”

Joshua Tucker, a politics professor and co-director of the Center for Social Media and Politics at New York University, said that Republicans will likely run aggressively on concerns about Biden’s age, but they should expect Democrats to strike back at Trump, who is only a few years younger.

“Given some of Trump’s behavior of late, the RNC is playing with fire a little bit here,” Tucker said.

Biden’s campaign has begun reciprocating with attacks on Trump through its rapid response account on the social media platform X. On Thursday, it posted a montage of clips it claimed showed Trump “getting confused, lost, wandering off, and waving to nobody.”

The out-of-context post followed other left-wing efforts to use videos to paint Trump as confused, senile or attention seeking.

For example, social media users earlier this month used an image of Trump holding Donald Trump, Jr.’s hand at a rally last fall in Hialeah, Florida, as alleged proof that the former president needed to be escorted offstage. The original video captured the moment in full context, showing the father and son only briefly clasped hands in a greeting as Trump departed without help.

The fact that these images and videos have only simple edits or are misrepresented, rather than manipulated with editing software or artificial intelligence, gives them even more power in a moment when Americans are concerned about high-tech fakes, experts said.

“It’s persuasive because it’s not fabricated,” Nisbet said. “It’s simply distorted visual cues to create a false impression about what happened.”

At the debate next week — the first this cycle between the two leading candidates for president — both Trump and Biden will face pressure to show they remain healthy, sharp and fit to be president.

Both men have made public verbal gaffes, flubbing names, dates or facts. Health experts caution that such mix-ups can be common and exacerbated by stress. They also point out some cognitive aging is normal, including delay in memory retrieval. And Biden has fought a stutter since childhood, a challenge that critics have seized on to attack and ridicule him.

Experts agree that most voters are unlikely to switch candidates based on misleading videos, but they said such misinformation could further entrench people in their beliefs or dampen their enthusiasm to participate in the political process.

“This election will not be about persuasion,” said Nisbet. “It’s about mobilizing — the Democrats mobilizing Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters, Trump and Republicans doing the same. And it’s going to be a close election.”

___

Associated Press writer Stephen Groves in Washington contributed to this report.

___

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

21 Jun 2024

Migrantes detenidos por ICE en Nueva York inician breve huelga de hambre por suspensión de llamadas telefónicas gratuitas y condiciones en detención

by | posted in: Society | 0

El programa de “minutos gratis” se remonta a principios de la pandemia del COVID-19, cuando los centros de detención de todo el país cerraron sus puertas a las visitas. “Las llamadas telefónicas son un instrumento vital para las personas detenidas”, afirma Rosa Santana, de Envision Freedom Fund.

Josh Denmark/DHS

Centro de detención federal Batavia-Buffalo de ICE, al norte del estado de Nueva York.

Este artículo se publicó originalmente en inglés el 20 de junio. Traducido por Daniel Parra. Read the English version here.

La tarde del 6 de junio, un inmigrante detenido en el centro de detención federal de Buffalo, en Batavia (Nueva York), recibió un mensaje en la tableta que utiliza para comunicarse con su familia y sus abogados: el programa de llamadas gratuitas al que había tenido acceso durante los últimos años había llegado a su fin.

“Cuando la abrí [la tableta] cayó un mensaje”, dijo el hombre por teléfono, contando a City Limits que el servicio fue eliminado a principios de la semana pasada. “Varias personas se indignaron tras ver el mensaje”.

El programa de “minutos gratis” se remonta a principios de la pandemia del COVID-19, cuando los centros de detención de todo el país cerraron sus puertas a los visitantes. En mayo de 2020, el Servicio de Control de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE por sus siglas en inglés) puso en marcha la iniciativa para ofrecer llamadas telefónicas nacionales o internacionales gratuitas cada mes a las personas detenidas. En Batavia, los migrantes recibían 520 minutos al mes para hacer llamadas dentro del país. 

Según el migrante detenido, quien pidió que no se publicara su nombre por temor a represalias, el fin del programa —junto con otras condiciones deficientes como comida y agua de mala calidad— desencadenó una breve huelga de hambre durante el fin de semana del 8 de junio. 

Unos 40 detenidos en la misma unidad en Batavia se negaron a comer a partir de la tarde del viernes 7 de junio, explicó el migrante. Él y otros siete continuaron el sábado, y una persona siguió hasta el lunes 10 de junio. Él alegó otros problemas en el centro de detención: tener que pasar hasta 18 o 19 horas en una pequeña celda compartida con otra persona, cuatro descargas diarias por inodoro y breves períodos al aire libre.

“Hicimos una huelga de hambre, llegando al extremo de poner en peligro nuestras vidas para que nos escucharan”, dijo el hombre en una declaración compartida por defensores de inmigrantes. Los defensores afirman que también han recibido informes de represalias contra quienes participan en protestas en huelga de hambre.

ICE no respondió a City Limits sobre el programa de llamadas al cierre de esta edición, ni a las acusaciones de malos tratos y malas condiciones en sus centros de detención.

Un portavoz no negó la huelga de hambre en Batavia, pero tampoco respondió a preguntas sobre detalles concretos, limitándose a decir que la agencia respeta el derecho de los inmigrantes a la autoexpresión y a la autonomía para negarse a comer. ICE afirmó que la seguridad de las personas bajo su custodia es una prioridad y que el personal que trabaja en los centros de detención de ICE ha recibido entrenamiento sobre cómo tratar a las personas en huelga de hambre y cómo remitirlas a evaluaciones médicas.

Batavia no fue el único centro que ha perdido el servicio de llamadas gratuitas. Según Setareh Ghandehari, director de defensa de Detention Watch Network, se han recibido mensajes anunciando el fin del programa en varios centros.

El grupo recibió informes de que estaba terminando en al menos otros 15 lugares que ICE utiliza en todo el país, incluyendo en la cárcel del condado de Orange en Goshen, Nueva York (la Oficina del Sheriff del Condado de Orange, que supervisa la cárcel, no respondió a las solicitudes de City Limits para hacer comentarios sobre el programa de llamadas). 

A Rosa Santana, directora de bonos y codirectora ejecutiva interina de Envision Freedom Fund, los inmigrantes en Goshen le dijeron que el 7 de junio vieron un papel en la cartelera de anuncios de la cárcel en el que se decía, tanto en inglés como en español, que ya no tendrían acceso a las minutas gratuitas.

“Para todos, esto fue básicamente de la noche a la mañana”, dijo Santana, añadiendo que allí no había huelga de hambre. “Las llamadas telefónicas son un instrumento vital para las personas detenidas”.

Los defensores de los inmigrantes y las organizaciones que prestan servicios jurídicos a estas personas están haciendo sonar la alarma, diciendo que las personas se quedarán sin la oportunidad de hablar con sus familias o representantes legales.

“Es un golpe muy duro”, dijo el inmigrante detenido en Batavia, y añadió que ya ha visto el impacto del recorte en otras personas que no pueden ingresar dinero en sus economatos para pagar las llamadas. “Hay mucha gente que emigra y no tiene familiares en el país que puedan mantenerles económicamente”.

Los detenidos en espera de procesamiento suelen participar en el Programa de Trabajo Voluntario de ICE, realizando diversas tareas como limpieza, cocina, lavandería y jardinería en sus instalaciones, mientras reciben un par de dólares de compensación.

“Estamos oyendo que la gente siente que no tendrá más remedio que participar en estos programas… para poder hacer llamadas telefónicas”, dijo Ghandehari.

ICE no respondió a las preguntas sobre por qué finalizó el programa de llamadas telefónicas gratuitas y no especificó en cuántos centros del país terminará el programa o ha terminado.

“Están pasando el coste a la gente que no puede permitírselo”, dijo Santana. “Todo esto es como ganar dinero a costa de la miseria humana, y de la gente que no puede permitirse todas estas cosas”.

Para ponerse en contacto con el reportero de esta noticia, escriba a Daniel@citylimits.org. Para ponerse en contacto con la editora, escriba a Jeanmarie@citylimits.org.