Mexico Offers Support to Hurricane Victims
Mexico says nope to Trump's wall but offers Harvey disaster relief 'as good neighbors do'. DailyKOS: "Mexico has reasserted that their nation 'will not pay, under any circumstances and under any circumstances, a wall or physical barrier built on US territory along the Mexican border' in response to Donald Trump taking a vacation from his weekend vacation to tweet about what is apparently the most pressing item in his brain as Texas reels from a disastrous hurricane... but Mexico has offered, 'as good neighbors should always do in times of difficulty,' to provide disaster relief following Harvey’s trail of chaos."
Mattis Allows Trans Troops to Stay, For Now
Mattis allows transgender troops to serve as Pentagon studies Trump's ban. Politico: "Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday that transgender troops would continue serving in the military while the Pentagon studied the issue, a decision that delays the implementation of President Donald Trump’s recently signed directive. Mattis said he would establish a 'panel of experts serving within the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security' to provide advice and recommendations on putting into effect the president’s order to bar transgender individuals from serving in the armed forces. The presidential guidance, which Trump signed on Friday, gave the defense secretary until Feb. 21 to submit a plan for implementing the new policy."
ICE Destroys Records of Abuses in Custody
ICE to destroy records of immigrant sexual abuse and deaths in custody. Alternet: "ICE has submitted the new request on recordkeeping to the National Archives and Record Administration, which oversees the handling of federal records. Under the new terms, ICE would be allowed to destroy 11 types of records, 'including those related to sexual assaults, solitary confinement and even deaths of people in its custody,' as well as 'regular detention monitoring reports, logs about the people detained in ICE facilities and communications from the public reporting detention abuses.' The ACLU report indicates that ICE now wants to destroy records on sexual abuse after 20 years, while those related to solitary confinement would be removed after just three years."
March From Charlottesville to DC Against Hate
Marchers head from Charlottesville to Washington to protest white supremacy LA Times: "Singing spirituals and protest songs from the civil rights era, a group of clergy and activists from across the country began a 118-mile march to Washington on Monday to protest white supremacy and demand that President Trump be removed from office. The long walk will last 10 days and take the marchers across the heart of Virginia — a road of solidly red counties — then straight to the seat of American power, where they plan to engage in protests and nonviolent civil disobedience."
