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Today is Saturday, April 11, the 101st day of 2026. There are 264 days left in the year.
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Russia’s Supreme Court has effectively criminalized the activities of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning rights group Memorial, the latest step in an unrelenting crackdown on dissent and civil society organizations. Separately, Moscow police raided the offices of the prominent independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, whose chief editor Dmitry Muratov was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2021. Memorial said in a statement earlier Thursday that the court's ruling would allow authorities to crack down on any Memorial projects, participants and supporters. Memorial is one of the oldest Russian human rights organizations. It was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, alongside Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties.
AP Wire
Sexual abuse allegations against the revered labor leader César Chavez have led to a swift fallout, leaving many to reconcile the legacy of a man who fought tirelessly for the rights of farmworkers. Latino leaders and community leaders have quickly condemned the alleged abuse by Chavez. Now they are weighing the impact of his actions on the labor rights movement and how to move forward acknowledging Chavez actions and the impact he had on Latino civil rights. Reconciling with a tainted legacy is something various civil rights groups have had to as accusations and rumors are unearthed. For many Chavez’s reckoning is an example of why movements should not be tied to one person.
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From California to Minnesota, elected leaders and civil rights groups are scrambling to distance themselves from César Chavez’s name in the wake of sexual abuse allegations. Efforts have been swift and widespread to rebrand events ahead of what typically was a day to celebrate the Latino rights advocate on his birthday, March 31. In Tucson, Arizona, a celebration was instead billed as a community and labor fair. In Grand Junction, Colorado, it’s now the Sí, Se Puede Celebration. The conversations behind the decisions have been anything but easy as supporters deal with conflicted feelings while sorting how best to honor the legacy of the farmworker movement.
AP Wire
32-year-old Taylor Tomlinson’s fourth Netflix special “Prodigal Daughter” is all about the comedian’s religious trauma. And while the special’s f-bombs and sexual content wouldn’t be welcome at most nondenominational churches, the historic Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan has a reputation for being radical. The historic congregation is known for its support of abortion access, free speech and LGBTQ+ rights. It’s also an interreligious community that rejects specific doctrines. “The charge that has been leveled against Fountain Street Church since the 1890s is that it’s not really a church,” said Fountain Street’s leader, the Rev. Nathan Dannison.
AP Wire
The Justice Department has filed a new lawsuit against Harvard University, accusing it of failing to address antisemitism on campus. The lawsuit, filed Friday, seeks to freeze existing grants and recover money already paid to the university. This is part of a long-standing conflict between the Trump administration and Harvard. The government claims Harvard has not protected Jewish and Israeli students from discrimination during pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Harvard insists it is committed to fighting bias. It argues the administration is violating its First Amendment rights by trying to limit campus activism and change some of its practices for hiring and enrollment. Negotiations have stalled, with the administration demanding large payments to restore funding.
AP
Dolores Huerta has dedicated her life to breaking down barriers and cemented her place in history as one of the nation’s most influential labor leaders, civil rights icons and feminist activists. Now she has shocked the world by revealing that she was among the women and girls who say they were sexually abused by César Chavez while he led the United Farm Workers union. Huerta says she was fearful of speaking out because she didn’t want the movement to be tarnished. While Chavez and Huerta's names were once inseparable, elected leaders and community members are initiating efforts to rename some buildings, schools and streets after Huerta alone.
AP Wire
The Grammy-nominated rapper Afroman has won a defamation lawsuit filed by seven Ohio sheriff’s deputies who sued him over music videos that used home security footage to mock them over a 2022 raid of his home. The verdict Wednesday evening follows several hours of deliberations. The Adams County deputies say they were publicly harassed over the videos. They show rifle-wielding deputies busting down his door, searching his shoes and eyeing a cake on the kitchen table, inspiring the song, “Lemon Pound Cake.” The 51-year-old Afroman, born Joseph Foreman, says the verdict is a win for free speech rights. No charges were filed in the drug and kidnapping investigation.