LA Times Article: Actress Lindsay Lohan May Be Released In Jail After Serving Only 14 Days Of Sentence.
Lindsay Lohan to serve 14 days of 90-day jail sentence, according to Sheriff’s Department document [Updated]
The booking document lists Aug. 2 as the “projected release date.” A Sheriff’s Department spokesman could not immediately reached for comment. It’s possible Lohan could serve more time because judge ruled out work release or electronic monitoring in the probation-violation case.
[Updated, 3:10 p.m.: Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said Lohan could possibly serve only 13 days in jail instead of 14.
“Her projected release date is Aug. 1 or Aug. 2,” he said, explaining that information initially posted on the sheriff’s inmate information website was based on one 30-day sentence because a clerk missed Lohan’s other two 30-day sentences.
The website was changed to reflect Lohan serving 51 days after factoring in time for good behavior. As a nonviolent female inmate, Lohan is eligible to serve only about 25% of the 51 days because of overcrowding, which brings the final figure to 13 or 14 days, Whitmore said.]
Officials said Lohan was completely cooperative when she was booked into the Century Regional Detention Facility on Tuesday morning.
After the booking, Lohan entered the jail’s triage, where she was to receive a standard medical and psychological evaluation, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Whitmore told media members gathered outside the jail.
State guidelines for handling prisoners would apply to the actress, although “people with notoriety are kept away” from the general jail population for security purposes, he said.
Although earlier there had been confusion over which attorney would represent Lohan in court, Holley said Robert Shapiro, who at one point had said he was Lohan’s new attorney, was only a consultant to the actress.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Judge Marsha Revel last month sentenced Lohan to 90 days in jail for violating probation on a drunk-driving conviction.
Deputy Dist. Atty, Danette Meyers, who prosecuted Lohan, said the sentence was “was appropriate in this case.”
“The message to the public is don’t drink and drive,” she said. “If you do drink and drive, and you’re punished for it, complete the programs.”
— Richard Winton
Toronto Sun Article: Why Are The TTC Too Lazy To Clean The Washrooms?
Beach bathrooms brutal: Levy
Washrooms at Kew … P.U., a sign of a city that doesn’t work
By SUE-ANN LEVY, Toronto Sun
Last Updated: July 19, 2010 7:31pm
- Michael Visser gives Sun columnist Sue-Ann Levy a tour of Toronto’s Kew Beach washrooms. (Stan Behal/Toronto Sun)
- Buy This Photo from Sun Media
- View larger version in photo gallery
Michael Visser was walking along the Boardwalk with his wife two Sunday evenings ago when he decided to pop into the washrooms at Kew Beach.
What he encountered was so appalling he complained to the city’s parks and recreation department and to the local councillor, Sandra Bussin.
“The (men’s) washroom was filthy, badly maintained and incredibly run-down,” he wrote in his July 6 e-mail to both parks and rec officials and Bussin. “I have seen better public washrooms in Third World countries.”
Other than cursory replies from Bussin’s office — asking if he is a resident of her ward (he is not) — and from parks promising to get back to him, Visser heard nothing until Monday afternoon after I contacted parks officials and Bussin herself.
When I met him at the washrooms in question Monday morning, little had changed.
They were, to put it bluntly, downright skanky.
Where a sink once was in the women’s washroom, there were screws and pipes poking out from the wall — a definite safety hazard. The other sink basin was black and rusty from age.
In one washroom stall, the industrial-looking toilet continued to flow onto the cracked concrete floor after flushing.
The urinals in the men’s loo were rusty and black from age, too, as were the sinks.
Outside the washrooms, the trash cans were nearly full — with melted ice cream dripping from one.
When we arrived, a city parks employee was heard loudly chatting on his cell phone about an upcoming golfing date and then spotted yakking for 10 minutes with the lady staffing the equally seedy-looking Kew Beach concession.
As our photographer was snapping pictures, a 4×4 parks and rec truck with two other employees in it — and loaded with green garbage bags — ventured by. After stopping to look at what we were doing, the truck took off down the Boardwalk.
“The washrooms are embarrassing,” said Beach resident Beth Bolton, down showing the area to visitors from out of town. “I’ve been in better toilets in northern Ontario.”
Visser figures the cost of renovating the washrooms is not that high considering the huge cost overruns on the $11-million Peter St. shelter — and is something that should have been done years ago.
He’s especially concerned that thousands of people taking in next weekend’s Beaches Jazz Festival will be forced to use them, however seedy they may be.
“It’s just that nobody cares and nobody looks after them,” he said. “It speaks a lot about the mismanagement of funds (at City Hall) and project mismanagement. This is just not acceptable.”
Andy Koropeski, acting director of parks, agrees the Kew Beach washrooms needed to be replaced years ago and the fixtures have “seen better days.”
He said they’re trying to focus on renovations to washrooms on the waterfront and hope to include this one in next year’s capital budget. The washrooms in Allen Gardens were completely redone last year — a renovation that cost $90,000, he added.
Bussin told me she was asking why brand new washrooms — a series of steps away from the washroom in question in a facility called the Boathouse — are locked.
“I’m furious that they are locked,” she said. “I want to know why.”
She said she’s managed to exact a community benefit of $200,000 from the TTC’s new $345-million Ashbridge’s Bay LRV storage facility to be used next year to refurbish the Beachfront.
Bussin said she will ask that some of the money be put toward upgrading the heavily used Kew Beach washrooms.
“They are deplorable,” she said. “I’m very, very unhappy about the state of the washrooms.”
Margaret Miall, visiting Canada from France, told me she’s spent the past three weeks touring Montreal, Halifax, New Brunswick and P.E.I., and Toronto is by far the “scruffiest” city they’ve seen.
The garbage and the empty bottles on the Beach are not nice and neither are the washrooms, she said.
“All of Canada we’ve seen has been absolutely spotless except for here,” Miall said. “Spend some money on it … tidy it up.”
Xtra West Article: Are Men That Have Sex With Men Being Ignored By The International AIDS Conference In Vienna Austria?
Vienna AIDS pre-conference on men who have sex with men a great idea INTERNATIONAL AIDS CONFERENCE / But also a missed opportunity
Phillip Banks / Vancouver / Monday, July 19, 2010
Last night marked the opening of the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria. From July 18-22 more than 20,000 people from all over the planet will converge to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of the global HIV crisis.
In the next few days, research findings will be shared, interesting programs and services will be presented, and more models, frameworks, and strategies than you can shake a stick at will be unveiled to the world.
And if Bill Clinton was telling the truth, we can expect some good news to come out of all of this too. Unfortunately, I’m not so sure the good news is going to apply to gay men.
Too many International AIDS Conferences have come and gone in the last decade without enough attention being given to the situation facing gay men and other men who have sex with men.
This isn’t unique to gay men. Over the years many different groups have had to fight to get the world’s attention.
It seems scientists, world leaders, international organizations, donors, and the conference host itself — the International AIDS Society — are all unable or unwilling to practice what they preach: to respond to the HIV epidemic based on the best available evidence.
If they did, they would be hard pressed to continue to ignore the new, growing, and resurgent HIV epidemics among gay men and other men who have sex with men around the globe.
In an effort to give some serious attention to HIV among gay men, the Global Forum on Men who Have Sex with Men (MSMGF) organized BE HEARD, a pre-conference event on July 17 here in Vienna.
At this one-day event 650 men and women from all corners of the globe came together to address the worsening global AIDS crisis among gay men.
The day featured presentations, workshops, and discussions among activists from every continent and more than 100 countries. Topics covered government denial and neglect; inadequate funding; limited access to prevention, treatment, and care; heartbreaking human rights abuses; and the resulting HIV-related deaths among gay men.
This situation was reiterated throughout the day by a number of high-level experts in the HIV field. Plenary speakers included Michael Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS; Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of The Global Fund; and Stephen Lewis, the previous United Nations Special Envoy on HIV in Africa.
One after another they stepped up to the podium and told the crowd how bad the situation is for us, how it is made worse by a serious lack of human rights in jurisdictions around the globe, and how, finally, we could count on their support as we fight on.
BE HEARD gave men a chance to get together and hear about challenges of HIV in our communities. It was an incredible opportunity to connect with men on the frontlines from around the world.
But it was also a missed opportunity.
This gathering of global gay activists did not need to spend the limited time they had together presenting statistics and program models to each other. If we really want to be heard, we should have spent that time strategizing about how we are going to use this international platform to demand action to end HIV in our communities.
Gay men need to dust off their whistles and take a page from the playbook of sex work activists, treatment activists, or the emerging activists from Eastern Europe. They aren’t afraid to make some noise because there’s too much at stake for them.
As the 18th International AIDS Conference starts, there’s too much at stake for gay men too.
Only one in five gay men on the planet has access to HIV prevention, care, and support. Top level officials pay lip service to epidemics among gay men but they offer us no good news.
George Ayala, executive officer of the Global Forum, said only 2 percent of scheduled events at this year’s AIDS conference will address the needs of men who have sex with men.
Gay men have been silenced at this conference and if we don’t make some noise, we’ll remain invisible.
There was a time when gay men refused to sit quietly while people in positions of power and authority apologized for our situation but provided no solutions or commitments.
In those days, gay guys demanded action. We demanded money. We demanded laws to protect our dignity and our human rights.
In those days we refused to be silent.
There is an opportunity for leadership here from the MSM Global Forum. It needs to decide if it wants to play nice with the big boys and girls, or throw down the gloves.
The conference is just getting started. Before it’s over I hope gay men do what needs to be done to Be Heard.
Vancouver Sun Article: HIV Rising Fastest In Europe & Central Asia.
A doctor examines a patient of an AIDS/HIV clinic during a protest in front of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers in Kiev, on July 7.
Photograph by: Sergei Supinsky, AFP/Getty Images
VIENNA – Nowhere in the world is the HIV virus spreading faster than in eastern Europe and Central Asia, where more than 80 per cent of those infected are under 30 years old, UNICEF said Monday.
“Eastern Europe and Central Asia are the only parts of the world where the HIV epidemic remains clearly on the rise,” it said in a report published Monday at the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna.
In parts of Russia, the rate of HIV infections has gone up by 700 per cent since 2006, said the report, “Blame and Banishment: The underground HIV epidemic affecting children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.”
And a third of new infections in the whole region affected teenagers and young adults between 15 and 24, the UN’s child protection agency noted.
One of the main causes for this drastic increase was drug use and the sharing of needles in a region that counts 3.7 million injecting drug users: about 25 per cent of the world’s total, said the report.
And the drug users were starting as early as 12 years old, it added.
Sexual transmission had also turned recently into a major cause of the HIV spread: some 80 per cent of sex workers in eastern Europe and central Asia were young people, said UNICEF.
Many of them were selling sex to support their drug habit.
The report thus painted a picture of those most at risk being young, marginalized people uncared for by their families or living in the street.
And according to UNICEF, this figure amounted to some 1.3 million children in the region.
Compounding the problem was the fact that many did not seek treatment for their condition because of the social stigma associated with HIV: they feared being judged or even facing criminal prosecution.
And that pushed them further into the margins of society, the report noted.
A young interviewee from Tadjikistan told researchers she had only visited an HIV prevention and treatment centre after being taken there by a social worker: until then, she did not believe the medical check-ups and condoms would be free, fearing it was just a police trap.
Traditionally authoritarian attitudes in the post-Soviet countries of eastern Europe and central Asia gave little attention to marginalized groups and young people, UNICEF noted.
The report called for more prevention and treatment centres, and friendlier services to respond to the epidemic.
“This report is a call to protect the rights and dignity of all people living with or at risk of exposure to HIV, but especially vulnerable children and young people,” UNICEF chief Anthony Lake said in a statement.
“We need to build an environment of trust and care, not one of judgment and exclusion.”
“Only by reversing discrimination against people living with HIV, can Eastern Europe and Central Asia begin to reverse the spread of the epidemic.”
Article: AIDS Movement Must Fight Gender Inequality For Girls & Women.
To Fight AIDS, Fight Gender Inequality
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Jul 16, 2010 (IPS) – Under the banner that gender inequality is one of the main drivers of the spread of AIDS, women from around the world are uniting to demand a stop to the epidemic among all females — whether adults or girls.
“There is too much written, too many declarations and laws. We need to move from words to action,” said Argentine activist Mabel Bianco, coordinator of Women ARISE, a new collective of 35 women’s networks from all parts of the globe.
Founded in March in New York, Women ARISE is ready to bring its proposals to the XVIII International AIDS Conference, taking place Jul. 18-23 in Vienna.
The women want their governments to comply with the “Agenda for Accelerated Country Action for Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV (2010- 2014),” launched in March by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
UNAIDS states that HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is the principal cause of illness and death among child-bearing-age women in the world.
The agenda is a response “to the pressing need to address the persistent gender inequalities and human rights violations that put women and girls at a greater risk of HIV” through specific actions, focussing at the groups most at risk.
Included under the Women ARISE umbrella are the International Women’s Health Coalition, World AIDS Campaign, Global Network of Sex Work Projects, International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS, and the African Treatment Access Movement, among many other entities.
The new collective points out that nearly half of the people with HIV in the world are women, and that in many regions the spread of the AIDS-causing virus occurs more quickly among women due to vulnerabilities arising from gender inequalities.
This reality means the activists will demand in Vienna full recognition of women’s rights, a halt to violence against women, and promotion of women’s participation and leadership. They will make their voices heard by participating in plenary sessions, but also through some surprise actions intended to make an impact.
In building momentum towards the Vienna conference, Women ARISE brought together feminists, women with HIV, sex workers, young women, lesbians, drug users, transvestites, AIDS health workers, as well as experts and researchers on the issue.
The groups represent women from a wide variety of cultures and regions, but what they have in common is that they are working to boost visibility of women’s greater vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.
The International AIDS Society, which has convened the Vienna Conference, unites approximately 14,000 health professionals, researchers and experts from 190 countries. Civil society organisations will attend the conference to influence the global AIDS agenda.
“In Mexico City (the previous AIDS Conference, in 2008), we saw a lot of work about women, but it was very disonnected,” said Bianco, who is a physician and in Argentina heads the Foundation for Women’s Studies and Research (FEIM).
To overcome that incohesive approach, the women agreed to work together. “We formed an alliance to see if all of us together could make more noise,” she said.
They will demand that governments comply with commitments for universal treatment for people with HIV/AIDS and for comprehensive sexual education plans. They also want to see progress in policies for reducing the spread of the disease amongst intravenous drug users, and in policies focussing on HIV/AIDS in young women and girls.
“In Argentina, Brazil and neighbouring countries, the epidemic is growing among women 15 to 24 years old. That is the only age group in the region today where infection predominates among women,” said the Women ARISE coordinator.
Bianco attributes this phenomenon to lack of women’s empowerment, which prevents them from demanding that male sex partners use a condom, as well as to violence against women, and their economic and physical subordination.
The physician explained that semen is the body fluid with the second highest quantity of HIVpresent, after blood, and if there is contact during sex with a lesion in the vagina, mouth or anus, there is a higher risk of infection.
More than 20,000 people are expected to attend the Vienna Conference, but Bianco predicts there will be a much smaller Latin American presence than last time: “In Mexico, 50 percent were from this region. In Vienna we’ll be 10 percent.”
There may be fewer from Latin America and other developing regions, attributed in part to the high cost of accommodations in Vienna, but a great influx of experts and civil society organisations from Eastern European countries is expected.
The Vienna Declaration will call upon governments “to incorporate scientific evidence” in their illicit drug policies and to decriminalise drug users.
The recommendations are based on some 30 studies that indicate the current policies to fight drugs are actually fueling the HIV epidemic, with highly negative social and health consequences.
Gayblackcanada 