Saturday, October 31, 2015

Richland County Schools held a special meeting concering a violent incident at Spring Valley High School.

"Attorney for the student, Todd Rutherford, clarified misinformation regarding her mother having died and being an orphan. He stated on the Joe Madison Show that both her grandmother and mother "are alive and well" and that he has also met with the teen, her mother and grandmother."

** Update **Attorney for the student, Todd Rutherford, clarified misinformation regarding her mother having died and...

Posted by Andrea Muhammad on Friday, October 30, 2015

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

URGENT CALL TO ACTION


URGENT ALERT
MAJOR TILLERY IN HOSPITAL!

Sometime yesterday Major Tillery, a 65 year-old man, was rushed to the hospital from SCI Frackville. Since hearing this yesterday evening through the prison grapevine, family and attorney have tried to learn more.
 Today, the only thing we have been told by Superintendent Brenda Tritt is that this was “a routine admission” and Major is “receiving the appropriate medical attention.” Nothing more to to Major Tillery’s daughter, Kamilah Iddeen--not the hospital, the reason for rushing Major to the hospital, no agreement for family and legal visits.
Major Tillery has liver disease and a liver shunt, arthritis with chronic back and hip pain, and a festering skin rash and open sores. Major Tillery has filed grievance after grievance objecting to the lack of medical treatment and refusal to renew needed medical devices.
Major Tillery has been imprisoned for 30 years, 25 in the hole and in the most severe super max prisons in the country. For prison officials his crime is his advocacy for other prisoners and leadership capabilities, including challenging abusive prison conditions and inadequate medical treatment. He has been subject to retaliation by prison authorities since he began his successful legal effort to stop the overcrowding and curb the inhumane conditions in SCI Pittsburgh over 25 years ago. 
    See, Tillery v. Owens (1990)
In early 2015, Major complained about the spreading skin disease at SCI Mahanoy, where he was then imprisoned. He stood up for Mumia Abu-Jamal and other prisoners who were suffering from this. For his acts of solidarity, Major Tillery was transferred to SCI Frackville and then put in the hole on falsified charges. After four months with limited food rations, deprived of commissary, contact visits and allowed less than one-hour a day of exercise, Major was released into general population. This was two months less than his prison sentence of six months in the hole – the prison’s response to an international campaign for Major! 
Now Major is in the hospital. He is not being allowed contact with his family or attorney. They are not being given any real information on his condition.
Call prison officials and demand:
  • Visits with Major Tillery by his family and lawyer. Full medical information and treatment should be provided to his family and lawyer.
  • Stop the Retaliation Against Major Tillery. He should be exonerated for the false charges of drug possession and this misconduct removed from his record.
  • Transfer Major Tillery from SCI Frackville back to SCI Mahanoy or to another facility in eastern Pennsylvania to remain near his family.
Dept. Of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel           (717) 728-4109 
Superintendent Brenda Tritt, SCI Frackville           (570) 874-4516 
Write to
Major Tillery AM 9786
SCI Frackville
1111 Altamont Blvd.
Frackville, Pa. 17931
For More Information, Go To: Justice4MajorTillery/blogspot
Call/Write:
Kamilah Iddeen (Major Tillery’s daughter) (717) 379-9009,Kamilah29@yahoo.com
Rachel Wolkenstein, Esq. (917) 689-4009RachelWolkenstein@gmail.com


Friday, October 23, 2015

RushCard -Thousands of Prepaid Debit Card Users Cannot Access Funds


"A woman in Philadelphia was turned away from a McDonald’s when her card was declined. Another woman, in Decatur, Ga., couldn’t pay for her husband’s heart medication. And an autoworker in Detroit accepted food from colleagues because she had no access to her money.

In 2012, the most recent year available, prepaid cards held $65 billion, more than double the amount from just three years earlier, according to a survey by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Nearly a quarter of these cardholders earn less than $15,000 a year. They are forced to turn to prepaid cards because they lack the standing to get a credit card or are unable or unwilling to open a traditional bank account.
In an email statement on Tuesday, Mr. Simmons said: “We will fix these problems and continue to serve the populations I care deeply about.”

The episode has now attracted the attention of regulators in Washington.
“It is outrageous that consumers have not had access to their money for more than a week,” said Gail Hillebrand, associate director for consumer education and engagement at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “We are looking into this very troubling issue. Consumers increasingly are relying on prepaid products to keep their funds, make purchases and manage their money.”
RushCard said that its customers’ money was covered by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insurance through its issuing bank, MetaBank, and that its accounts were compliant with federal regulations regarding electronic fund transfers.
The company won’t say exactly how many cardholders it has, except to say they number in the “hundreds of thousands.”
Still, the potential market is vast. In its most recent survey, the F.D.I.C. counted 25.4 million people in the United States in 2013 who had no bank account. Another 67.5 million had an account but also relied on nonbank financial services such as check-cashing stores or payday lenders.

Jonathan Mintz, a former commissioner of New York City’s Department of Consumer Affairs, said a lack of safe banking options threatened to worsen economic inequality.
“Without financial tools that are fair, all you can do is basically tread water,” said Mr. Mintz, who is now chief executive of the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund.
For T’Challa Williams in Decatur, Ga., the problems with RushCard became a matter of life and death. Her husband has heart disease, she said, and needs medication to regulate his condition.
Last Wednesday morning, Ms. Williams tried to withdraw money that her father had loaded onto her card to pay for the medicine. But the money he had loaded was not there.
When Ms. Williams called RushCard, she was on hold for an hour and a half, and on a second call for three hours. "  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/21/business/dealbook/after-technical-snag-fury-and-no-cash.html?smid=tw-share