June 19, 2024

Wednesday, June 19th, 2024. Annette’s News Roundup.

I think the Roundup makes people feel not so alone.

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Happy Juneteenth to all.

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Joe is always busy.

Juneteenth. Today.

Juneteenth, officially Juneteenth National Independence Day, is a federal holiday in the United States. It is celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the ending of slavery in the United States. Wikipedia

Biden Gives Legal Protections to Undocumented Spouses of U.S. Citizens.

The new policy is one of the most significant actions to protect immigrants in years. It affects about 500,000 people who have been living in the United States for more than a decade. (New York Times).

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Kamala is always busy.

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Steve Bannon adds to Trump’s prediction of a “bloodbath” if he loses.

"If they steal this election...this republic ends. Are you prepared to fight? Are you prepared to give it all? Are you prepared to leave it all on the battlefield...it’s very simple: victory or death.”

Watch him. 👇

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NYS will have an “Equal Rights” law reinstated in the state if we all vote for it.

Associated Press.

“The New York Constitution currently bans discrimination based on race, color, creed or religion. The proposed amendment would add to that list ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes and reproductive health care and autonomy.

The proposed amendment wouldn’t explicitly preserve a woman’s right to have an abortion, but would effectively prevent someone from being discriminated against for having the procedure.”

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This action by the New York City Council may prove New York is the true representative of American fairness.

New York City Council pushes for IVF coverage for gay male city employees - POLITICO.

NEW YORK — The Adams administration is facing a legal and legislative battle over the meaning of “infertility.”

The New York City Council’s LGBTQIA+ Caucus is pushing Mayor Eric Adams to extend IVF coverage to gay men who work for the city but struggle to access the benefit.

That’s because, according to the caucus, the city health plan only covers cycles of in vitro fertilization for employees who can show documentation of infertility — defined as the incapacity to impregnate someone else or to conceive. The definition is memorialized in a 2020 state law that requires insurance plans to cover three cycles of IVF for people facing infertility.

“As members of the City Council, we strongly believe that the family building benefits should be offered to all employees, and it cannot be conditioned on a definition of heteronormative infertility,” the caucus wrote in a letter to Adams obtained by POLITICO. “Although the City’s discriminatory policy predates this Administration, the current Administration can solve this problem.”(Politico)

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Good for American Democracy.

Eugene Vindman is the slight favorite to win in November. If he’s inaugurated in January, he will become one of two Ukrainian-born members of the House. He will be the non-crazy one, since Indiana’s Republican Congresswoman Victoria Spartz is absolutely bonkers. #VA07

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A baseball giant is gone.

Willie Mays, one of the greatest baseball players of all time, dies at age 93.

Willie Mays, the iconic baseball legend whose remarkable career spanned 22 seasons, has died, the San Francisco Giants announced Tuesday. He was 93.

In a post to social media, the Giants said Mays "passed away peacefully this afternoon."

"All of Major League Baseball is in mourning today as we are gathered at the very ballpark where a career and a legacy like no other began," Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement Tuesday evening. "Willie Mays took his all-around brilliance from the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League to the historic Giants franchise. From coast to coast in New York and San Francisco, Willie inspired generations of players and fans as the game grew and truly earned its place as our National Pastime."

Nicknamed the "Say Hey Kid," Mays spent the majority of his career playing center field for the Giants, first in New York and then after the team moved to San Francisco. During Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, the only championship he would win, Mays made "The Catch" — an over-the-shoulder snag of a fly ball that is still considered the greatest catch in the history of the game.

From then on, Mays was a cultural icon.

As a child, Mays learned to play baseball from his father, Cat Mays, in Westfield, Alabama. A single dad and a steelworker, Cat played on the local steel mill's baseball team and made time to teach his son how to play the game he himself had aspired to play professionally.

At 16, Mays joined the Birmingham Black Barons. After graduating from high school in 1951, he was signed by the New York Giants.

"I arrived in New York City on a Friday at 4 o'clock," Mays recalled during his Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 1979. "Scared to death with three bats in my little briefcase, my glove, I didn't have a uniform, I didn't have a hat."

It didn't take long to find his footing. Mays was named National League Rookie of the Year after his first season.

His career was interrupted in 1952 when he was drafted by the Army during the Korean War. He was assigned to Fort Eustice in Virginia, and spent most of his time playing on military baseball teams, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

He was discharged in March of 1954, and rejoined the Giants for what would become a championship season, in which he also won his first of two MVP awards.

He moved with the team to San Francisco in 1958, led them to a World Series appearance in 1962 — losing to the New York Yankees in seven games — and became the team's captain in 1964. He won his second MVP award in 1965.

Mays was traded to the New York Mets for the 1972-73 season, which would prove to be his last.

He finished his playing career with 660 home runs, the sixth most of all time.

He was a 24-time All-Star, tied for second most of all time, and won 12 Golden Glove awards.

Mays was a first-ballot Hall of Famer, receiving 97% of the vote when he became eligible in 1979.

Despite the trade from the Giants, for the rest of his life there was always a special place for him in the San Francisco clubhouse, where a visit from Mays often inspired younger players.

A landmark statue was erected in 2000 in his honor outside of what is now called Oracle Park. The statue is surrounded by 24 palm trees, in homage to his number 24, which was also retired by the organization. The statue is a small reminder of a man who was long regarded as baseball's greatest living legend, even if that wasn't necessarily a label he cared for.

"I never like that," he said in 2011. "If you are the greatest ballplayer, you say, 'you're the greatest ball player.' Rather not the 'living ball player'. What good is that? When I first heard it, I said 'Wait a minute. You men I got to be passed away before you guys give me credit for doing something?'"

But throughout the years, Mays' combination of speed, power and defense led many to consider him the greatest of all time, living or dead. (CBS News )

Associated Press -

Over 22 MLB seasons, virtually all with the New York/San Francisco Giants, Mays batted .302, hit 660 home runs, totaled 3,283 hits, scored more than 2,000 runs and won 12 Gold Gloves. He was Rookie of the Year in 1951, twice was named the Most Valuable Player and finished in the top 10 for the MVP 10 other times. His lightning sprint and over-the-shoulder grab of an apparent extra base hit in the 1954 World Series remains the most celebrated defensive play in baseball history.

He was voted into the Hall in 1979, his first year of eligibility, and in 1999 followed only Babe Ruth on The Sporting News’ list of the game’s top stars. (Statistician Bill James ranked him third, behind Ruth and Honus Wagner). The Giants retired his uniform number, 24, and set their AT&T Park in San Francisco on Willie Mays Plaza.

For millions in the 1950s and ’60s and after, the smiling ball player with the friendly, high-pitched voice was a signature athlete and showman during an era when baseball was still the signature pastime. Awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2015, Mays left his fans with countless memories. But a single feat served to capture his magic -- one so untoppable it was simply called “The Catch.”

In Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, the then-New York Giants hosted the Cleveland Indians, who had won 111 games in the regular season and were strong favorites in the postseason. The score was 2-2 in the top of the eighth inning. Cleveland’s Vic Wertz faced reliever Don Liddle with none out, Larry Doby on second and Al Rosen on first.

With the count 1-2, Wertz smashed a fastball to deep center field. In an average park, with an average center fielder, Wertz would have homered, or at least had an easy triple. But the center field wall in the eccentrically shaped Polo Grounds was more than 450 feet away. And there was nothing close to average about the skills of Willie Mays.

Decades of taped replays have not diminished the astonishment of watching Mays race toward the wall, his back to home plate; reach out his glove and haul in the drive. What followed was also extraordinary: Mays managed to turn around while still moving forward, heave the ball to the infield and prevent Doby from scoring even as Mays spun to the ground. Mays himself would proudly point out that “the throw” was as important as “the catch.”

“Soon as it got hit, I knew I’d catch the ball,” Mays told biographer James S. Hirsch, whose book came out in 2010.

“All the time I’m running back, I’m thinking, ‘Willie, you’ve got to get this ball back to the infield.’”

Mays was Rookie of the Year in 1951, twice was named the Most Valuable Player and finished in the top 10 for the MVP 10 other times.

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Your Daily Reminder.

Trump is a convicted felon.

On May 30th, he was found guilty on 34 felony counts by the unanimous vote of 12 ordinary citizens.

He will be sentenced on July 11th.

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Yesterday this happened.👇

New York’s top court dismisses Trump’s appeal of gag order in hush money case.

NEW YORK — New York’s highest court on Tuesday dismissed Donald Trump’s appeal of the gag order imposed in his Manhattan criminal trial, dealing a setback to the former president’s efforts to strip the restrictions in the wake of his conviction.

In a decision list, the Court of Appeals wrote that Trump’s appeal was dismissed because “no substantial constitutional question is directly involved.” (Politico).

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