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Richard Collins III, left, and Sean UrbanskiPhoto: U.S. Army, University of Maryland Police Department (AP, File)

Jury selection will begin today in the trial of Sean Urbanski, the Maryland man accused of fatally stabbing Bowie State University student Richard Collins III at a bus stop on the University of Maryland campus two years ago. The 23-year-old Collins was a freshly-commissioned U.S. Army lieutenant just days away from graduating.

Urbanski will be tried for first-degree murder and a state hate crime charge, which could bring him life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted. As WJZ-TV reports, the trial for the high-profile crime has already been delayed four times.

What wont be contested at the trial is the fact that Urbanski killed Collins on May 20, 2017. What prosecutors will try to prove in the next two weeks is that Urbanski killed Collins because he was black.

From the Washington Post:

The surveillance video of the stabbing is clear, according to prosecutors: Sean Urbanski stands in the shadows before approaching a group of three college students at a University of Maryland bus stop. He walks past another man, who, like Urbanski, is white. He bypasses an Asian woman. And then he confronts the only black person in the group.

To persuade a jury, prosecutors will point to the fact that he singled out the sole black person at the bus stop that night, as well as to the contents of his phone, which they say contains evidence of his racist beliefsracist memes, as well as posts on the now-deleted Facebook group Alt-Reicht: Nation.

Between Christmas Day 2016 and April 18, 2017, Urbanski interacted with content that included the image of a noose and a gun or with material that referred to black DNA or racist jokes, according to a judges description of the images detailed at a pretrial hearing for Urbanski.

Prosecutors are also expected to present 911 calls from eyewitnesses, who are also scheduled to testify, and recordings of more than a dozen phone calls Urbanski made from jail, WTOP reports.

Urbanskis defense team, meanwhile, says their client was out-of-his-mind drunk when he stabbed Collins, the Post reports: Eight hours after he was arrested in Collinss slaying, his attorneys said, Urbanski showed a blood alcohol concentration of .10, higher than the legal limit in Maryland of .08.

They also say Urbanski was never a member of the alt-right. Not only was Alt-Reicht not officially affiliated with any far-right groups, they add that the Facebook group was intended to be satirical.

Urbanskis fate will likely rely on what a jury thinks of the material on his phone, and whether they will be willing to dismiss months worth of content and exchanges that suggest Urbanski is racist. According to WTOP, the FBI declined to press charges against Urbanski for a federal hate crime, deeming there wasnt enough evidence to warrant the charges (the maximum sentence for a federal hate crime is the death penalty). Urbanskis defense did try to offer a plea deal for second-degree murder, but prosecutors held firm on the first-degree charge.

Jurors will be allowed to consider finding Urbanski guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter. Opening arguments are slated to begin Wednesday.

The rest is here:
Hate-Crime Trial Begins in Killing of Black Student on University of Maryland Campus - The Root

The Borgias: Power and Depravity in Renaissance Italy. By Paul Strathern. (Tantor, unabridged, 11 hours.)

At the center of Paul Stratherns nimble biography of this clan of power-hungry miscreants is Rodrigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI from 1492 to his death in 1503; his son Cesare, fratricidal cardinal turned syphilitic military commander; and daughter, Lucrezia, canny, capable power player and pawn. Vice chancellor to five popes before becoming pontiff himself, Rodrigo strove for a united Italy governed by a hereditary Borgia papacy. To this end, he employed diplomatic cunning, military aggression, assassination, treachery and the strategic marriages of his children. Lucrezias first husband was dispatched as impotent; the second was poisoned, then strangled; the third, though cuckolded, survived. Meanwhile, Cesare, a duplicitous, self-confident braggart, probably had a hand in his brother Juans murder and led the military campaigns to bring Italys city states under papal control. His preferred tactic: betrayal of his allies. This complex, though comprehensible, history a tale of deceit, cruelty, murder, lechery and geopolitical ambition is narrated at a clear, brisk pace by Julian Elfer, who gives special pleasure in the musical grace of his Italian pronunciation.

The Singapore Grip. By J.G. Farrell. (Random House Audio, unabridged, 25 hours)

More than 40 years after its print publication, the mordantly comic final volume of J.G. Farrells Empire Trilogy, is finally available. Set on the eve of the Japanese invasion of the British colony of Singapore in 1942, The Singapore Grip centers on Walter Blackett, a rubber plantation owner who is intent on celebrating his firms jubilee even as all hell is breaking loose in Southeast Asia. A ruthless businessman, Blackett takes the stringencies of making a profit as natural law and is astounded as his workforce abandons him. Narrator Mike Grady conveys the novels devastating irony and ghoulish surreality with dry perfection. He gives Blackett the blunt Midlands accent of the hard-nosed capitalist and provides subtly appropriate voices for the novels many other characters. Among them are Blacketts feckless, dissolute son, Monty, who is scheming to avoid military service; his daughter, Joan, a human viper; and the Human Condition, an elderly, mangy spaniel with his own preoccupations. In this production we have the union of a great narrator and a superb novel.

Elevator Pitch. By Linwood Barclay. (HarperAudio, unabridged, 13 hours)

Linwood Barclay takes one of the more frustrating aspects of modern city life waiting for the elevator in a high-rise building and turns it into horror and white-knuckle suspense. Suddenly the elevators in Manhattan seem to have minds of their own, whizzing up and down, stalling between floors, plummeting in free fall through the shaft, and killing people in a most gruesome way. Its a big headache for Mayor Richard Headley. Should he order the shutdown of this vertical citys 60,000-plus elevators? A fingerless, mangled-face corpse becomes a piece in the puzzle. A taxi explodes. An alt-right group may be implicated. Journalist Barbara Matheson begins her own investigations, as do police officers Jerry Bourque and Lois Delgado. Tense mother-daughter and father-son drama bubbles up. Johnathan McClain narrates the novel in a hard-edge, big-city voice deftly adjusted to capture men and women, New Yorkers and out-of-towners. The novels slightly improbable denouement may reassure us that this couldnt actually happen. Probably.

Katherine A. Powers, a Minnesota native, reviews books for the Wall Street Journal, the Star Tribune and elsewhere. She writes this column for the Washington Post.

See the rest here:
AUDIOBOOKS: The sordid tale of the Borgias and other great audiobooks for your playlist - Minneapolis Star Tribune

In an op-ed for The Washington Post this Monday, Jennifer Rubin highlighted President Trumps recent speech before the far-rightIsraeli American Council, where he unwittingly belted out various antisemitic tropes before the largely Jewish audience.

You have people Jewish people and they are great people and they dont love Israel enough, Trump said a comment that Rubin says uses American Jews as whipping boys for insufficient loyalty to him and his policies.

Rubin then cited another quote from Trumps speech:

Youre not going to vote for the wealth tax. Lets take 100 percent of your wealth away. No, no. Even if you dont like me and some of you dont; some of you, I dont like at all, actually and youre going to be my biggest supporters because youll be out of business in about 15 minutes, Trump said, which, according to Rubin, is an age-old antisemitic trope that claims all Jews are rich and only care about money.

According to Rubin, Trumps rhetoric when it comes to US Jews and Israel achieves two aims: to cater to the ears of evangelical Christians and to send a dog whistle to the alt-right who see in Trump confirmation of their negative stereotypes about Jews.

Despite being admonished by various Jewish leaders, Trump will not stop, Rubin writes.

He continues to single out Jewish lawmakers (e.g., House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) is shifty) and his Republican Party routinely invokes Jewish billionaire George Soros as a maniacal force behind progressive Democrats, writes Rubin, adding that Trumps antisemitism is just another reflection of todays Republican Party.

a cesspool of right-wing nationalist rhetoric, anti-Semitic tropes that find favor in certain circles (since America is a white, Christian nation in their eyes, Jews are outsiders), as well as anti-immigrant screeds and conspiracy theories.

Read her full piece over at The Washington Post.

then let us make a small request. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnstons DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. Weve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. Weve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. And unlike other news outlets, weve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

Raw Story is independent. You wont find mainstream media bias here. Unhinged from billionaires and corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

We need your support to deepen our investigative reporting. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click to donate by check.

then let us make a small request. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism and were investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnstons DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. Weve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. Weve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We need your support to do what we do.

Raw Story is independent. You wont find mainstream media bias here. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

We need your support to keep producing quality journalism and deepen our investigative reporting. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you.

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Trump has turned Jews into his whipping boys and proven the GOP is now a cesspool: conservative columnist - Raw Story

Russian disinformation actors active in the 2016 campaign, including both the Internet Research Agency (IRA) in St. Petersburg and Military Intelligence in Moscow (GRU), indeed boosted the Ukraine-interfered narrative. But they did so rather late in the game, about half a year after it had first appeared, IRA activity released by Twitter shows. Wheres the outrage over Clinton and her campaign teams collusion with Ukraine to interfere in the US election? tweeted @USA_Gunslinger on July 13, 2017, one of the IRAs main fake-conservative accounts. None of the IRAs Facebook ads mention Ukraine. One known GRU front, CyberBerkut, attempted to promote the Ukraine-interfered narrative with a blog post in June 2017. It would appear that Russian actors did not concoct this version of the theory; they parroted the American far right.

The Ukraine-hacked narrative has a murkier origin story. In a document release last month, the FBI revealed one notable detail: During an interview with the FBI, Rick Gates, Manaforts former deputy, recalled that Konstantin Kilimnik, one of Manaforts business partners with alleged links to Russian intelligence, advanced the narrative that Ukraine had a role in the DNC hack. Gates recalled Manafort saying the hack was likely carried out by the Ukrainians, not the Russians, which parroted a narrative Kilimnik often supported, according to an FBI document, which then adds, confusingly, that Kilimnik also opined the hack could have been perpetrated by Russian operatives in Ukraine. It is unclear from Gatess recollection when exactly this statement was made, and how persistently Manafort in turn repeated it.

Peter Beinart: Trumps fantasy world got him into this

The Ukraine-hacked conspiracy theory is usually combined with a version of the CrowdStrike conspiracy theory, in which the cybersecurity firm somehow engineered the DNC leak while framing Russian intelligence. Kilimnik, notably, does not appear to have advanced this far more common version of the theory.

Of all the Ukraine conspiracy theories, the Ukraine-owned narrative received the most attention early on. It appears to have originated in the first days of January 2017, both on the far right and the far left, almost at the same timein response to a Ukraine-related Department of Homeland Security intelligence release and a Ukraine-related CrowdStrike report from late December.

In the wee hours of January 3, Washingtons Blog, a popular, now defunct alt-right site, ran a rambling, 5,600-word piece titled: Why Crowdstrikes Russian Hacking Story Fell Apart. The piece quoted a litany of rumors, and then homed in on Dmitri Alperovitch, a founder of CrowdStrike: He isnt serving US interests. Hes definitely a Ukrainian patriot. Maybe he should move to Ukraine.

That same day, The Nation published its own article focused on CrowdStrike. The magazine pointed out that Alperovitch is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, and that the D.C. think tank was funded in part by the Ukrainian World Congress, and the Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk, thus insinuating that CrowdStrike was somehow linked to Ukrainian money and secret influence. Washingtons Blog picked up the Pinchuk allegation two days later, and Breitbart News also started looking into CrowdStrike.

See the article here:
Whos Really to Blame for the Ukraine Did It Conspiracy Theory? - The Atlantic

On my visit to Edgewood College in high school, it was amazing to walk past the offices inPredolinand see the resources that Edgewood has to offer to make students feel included. It was one of the main reasons I chose Edgewood over other colleges in the state. Working for the equality of all people is one of my core values and a value that I thought Edgewood believed in as well. Restricting health services information for students to accommodate the agenda of a transphobic, homophobic, alt-right hate group does not reflect this value and makes me embarrassed to call myself an Edgewood student.

Anonymous

Edgewood removing planned parenthood from the student resource page on the website at the push of a right-wing,anti trans, homophobic petition further illustrates not only the ignorance surrounding planned parenthoods services, but also confirms the fear of Edgewoods LGBT community. It is a loud, blaring sign from our interim president that we are not valued members of this community, and that we arent wanted.

Charlotte Williams, junior

For me this is not a call for open discourse, but rather a declaration of disappointment as analumnito be affiliated with this institution. While I attended Edgewood from 2012 to 2017, I was never a fan of the administrations decisions, but my positive experiences are with the faculty. To those who helped me grow through my education, my heart goes out to you as you never forced perspectives on me which allowed me to grow in my own way. Apparently, the current administration does not share this methodology.

Edgewood touts Partnership, Community, Truth, Justice, Compassion.Partnershipwith the select and neglecting those who live differently?Communitywith those who seek to target and ostracize others?Truthin that the college has become a circus run by clowns? Justicefor those we only approve of, but good luck if you dont fit the bill?Compassionwhere we see fit, not for all?

I decided to invest some of my word count on the broader scope of PPs services to contrast against the stark motivation behind the change at Edgewood.Below is taken from Wikipedia:

According to PPFA, in 2014 the organization provided 3.6 million contraceptive services, 4.5 million sexually transmitted infection services, about 1 million cancer related services, over 1 million pregnancy tests and prenatal services, over 324,000 abortion services, and over 100,000 other services, for a total of 9.5 million discrete services. PPFA is well known for providing services to minorities and the poor; according to PPFA, approximately four out of five of their clients have incomes at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty. Services for mens health include STD testing and treatment,vasectomyprocedures, and erectile dysfunction services. Education is available regarding male birth control and lowering the risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

Jacob Waskow, alum

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Letters to the Editor - On the Edge News