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Jon-Adrian Velazquez spent close to 27 years caught in the criminal justice system — nearly all of it behind bars in New York's Sing Sing prison, convicted of a murder he insisted he did not commit. Andrew Cuomo granted Velazquez executive clemency, citing his work in Sing Sing on an educational initiative by those incarcerated to combat gun violence, and he was freed after serving almost 24 years of a 25-year-to-life sentence. The results determined Velazquez's DNA was not on the key evidence. Since his release from prison, Velazquez has used his experience to become an advocate for criminal legal reform and even played himself in the 2023 drama "Sing Sing," based on an actual Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at the prison. The podcast "Letters from Sing Sing" was a finalist for a 2024 Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting and Slepian's book about the case, "The Sing Sing Files: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice," was released this month.

Persons: Jon, Adrian Velazquez, Velazquez, —, Mr, Abraham Clott, Dan Slepian, Velazquez's, NBC's, Andrew Cuomo, JJ, Lester Holt, I've, Adrian, Velasquez, Maria Velazquez Velazquez, Albert Ward, Attorney Alvin Bragg, Bragg, ” Velazquez, Holt, Dan, I’d, didn't Organizations: New York, NBC, New York Gov, NBC News, Attorney, Justice Locations: Manhattan, New, New York City, Sing, Harlem, attorney's, reinvestigations

Rodney Cornett got up at 4:30 a.m. on Friday, hopped in his F-150 pickup and reported as usual for a morning shift at the Ford Motor plant in Wayne, a gritty city just west of Detroit. But this morning Mr. Cornett, 56, a veteran union member who has worked at Ford for 28 years, wasn’t heading to the axle assembly area where he’s a team leader. “We really haven’t had much of a raise in 15 years,” Mr. Cornett said, holding a sign that read, “Fair Pay Now!” while cars and trucks constantly whizzed by, honking in support of the strikers. “We’ve gone through several contracts, and the company keeps saying how they’re hurting, but they’re making record profits. has been negotiating a new labor contract with the three Detroit automakers, but since the sides remain far apart on wages and most other issues, the union called a strike that began when the current bargaining agreement expired at midnight.

Persons: Rodney Cornett, Cornett, “, ” Mr, “ We’ve Organizations: Ford, United Auto Workers, Detroit Locations: Wayne, Detroit

☆ Inside the Delirious Rise of ‘Superfake’ Handbags
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Amy X. Wang | Grant Cornett | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Once upon a time, the legend goes, Theseus slew the Minotaur and sailed triumphantly home to Athens on a wooden ship. What if, Thomas Hobbes wondered, someone rustled up a second boat out of the discarded planks; would you now have two original vessels? Not long ago, I found myself wandering through Paris with a fake Celine handbag slung over my shoulder. In France, a country that prides itself on originating so much of the world’s fashion, punishments for counterfeiting are severe, to the point that I technically risked three years in prison just by carrying my little knockoff around. My plunge into the world of fantastically realistic counterfeit purses — known as “superfakes” to vexed fashion houses and I.P.

☆ Rattlesnake Roundup: a Texas tradition runs into criticism
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Evan Garcia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SWEETWATER, Texas, March 22 (Reuters) - The Texas town of Sweetwater claims fame as home to the world's largest annual "rattlesnake roundup," where thousands of pounds of slithering venomous snakes are forced out of their dens and put on display. But the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup, which dates back to 1958, is drawing criticism - not just for the killing, but also for the method employed to draw out the snakes: hunters inject gasoline into rocky crevices where the serpents spend the colder months. [1/2] Members of the Jaycees skin rattlesnakes at the World's Biggest Rattlesnake Round-up in Sweetwater, Texas March 14, 2009. Matt Goode, a rattlesnake expert and research scientist at the University of Arizona, said such roundups were "absolutely horrific." The Rattlesnake Conservancy director of operations Tiffany Bright said Texas could learn from other states that regulate rattlesnake roundups, like Pennsylvania.

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