Currents News Staff
The countdown for the giant March for Life is underway.
On Jan. 24, hundreds of thousands of pro-lifers will take to the streets of the nation’s capital to fight for the rights of the unborn.
The head of U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, Archbishop Joseph Naumann, joins Currents News to discuss its impact over the years, the future of the pro-life movement, and where the momentum lies today in the case for the rights of the unborn.
Currents News Staff
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has declared a state of emergency ahead of a rally at the State Capitol.
Northam said law enforcement believes extremists, including people from outside Virginia, plan to flood Richmond protesting proposed gun control measures.
“We are seeing threats of violence, we are seeing threats of armed confrontation and assault on our capitol,” he said.
Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday also coincides with “Lobby Day,” a chance for Virginians to advocate for themselves.
Northam stressed the event is normally peaceful, but worries about a return to the violence in Charlottesville, Va. in 2017.
“Violence will not be tolerated,” said Col. Gary Settle, Virginia State Police Superintendent “And if that is your group and that is your intention on Monday, then you’re not welcome.”
Second amendment advocates insist they are there to simply exercise their rights peacefully
“I think it’s overkill at a certain level,” said Virginia gun carrier Michael Fouche. “I accept being prepared, but I believe this is beyond being prepared.”
“I just hope that people truly understand that Virginia gun owners are peaceful people,” said Tim Anderson, a Virginia Beach attorney. “We’ve peacefully demonstrated. This didn’t just start today.”
The proposals at the now-democratically controlled legislature include a ban on transporting and possessing an assault weapon and wider background checks.
The proposals prompted some localities to declare themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries,” where officials say they won’t enforce certain laws if passed.
By Jessica Easthope
Puerto Ricans of all faiths gathered Jan. 18 at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey, to celebrate the life and legacy of baseball player Roberto Clemente.
Clemente rose to fame as a sports star who has been credited with breaking down racial barriers within Major League Baseball.
When he died in a tragic plane crash in 1972, he was revered as one of the world’s greatest humanitarians.
Dozens braved the icy and snowy conditions to attend the Saturday Mass.
For the last 15 years, Newark Councilman Luis Quintana has been organizing the Mass, bringing Clemente memorabilia from his personal collection to set up on the altar.
In the wake of the devastating 5.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the island last week, Uintana spoke of the sad irony and connection Puerto Ricans have to Clemente’s death this year more than ever.
“He heard about the earthquake in Nicaragua and he said, ‘I have to go there and help the people of Nicaragua.’ And he loaded a plane,” Uintana explained. “And it was a touching day, because I heard the news that the plane had crashed in the sea after five minutes in flight.”
“Roberto Clemente was a great soul,” added Linda Cruz, who attended the Mass. “He was one of our great baseball players, and we have to remember all the good he did, and him as a person. He did a lot for all of the disasters, and if he were here today, he’d be doing the same thing.”
Puerto Rican’s in attendance expressed how Clemente’s legacy represents the importance of humanitarian efforts and, commemorative Masses represent the importance of faith, especially during the most difficult of times. This sentiment was also echoed by Newark Auxiliary Bishop Manuel Cruz, who celebrated the Mass.
“We’re family and we’re not alone and we’re grateful for our faith, knowing that our faith will never disappoint us,” he said.
As Puerto Ricans continue to recover from the earthquake, organizers of the annual Mass have pushed to have Clemente’s number, 21, retired from Major League Baseball.
Currents News Staff
Nearly 90 million Americans are on the lookout for some bad weather and a wintry mix across the country.
Some places, like Pollock Pines, California, are already feeling winter’s wrath. The town saw nearly a half-a-foot of snow on Jan. 16.
“I come home and there’s a berm to get in my driveway, so I have to shovel it out so i can get in,” explained resident Tim Munson.
Meanwhile Kansas City International Airport had closed temporarily due to a plane sliding off the runway and icy conditions.
“If you have to go out, and you shouldn’t, you really need use extreme caution,” warned Dan Luna of the National Weather Service.
Minnesota officials expect between eight to 12 inches of snow, and strong wind gusts.
“Road conditions will likely be terrible across most parts of the state,” said Col. Matt Langer, Chief of the Minnesota State Patrol.
The Minnesota-St. Paul international airport will likely work off two, instead of three runways. Delays are possible.
“We will close if we have to, or close service, because our department closes the airport,” explained Jeff Mattson of the Minnesota-St. Paul Airside Operations. “And if it’s a situation that’s not safe, we’re not going to go down that road.”
A swath of heavy snow and sleet will also affect the central plains and the upper midwest this weekend.
The northeast is not in the clear either. New York, Boston, and Maine will get a wintery mix as well, and parts of the region may get eight to 12 inches of snow by the end of the weekend.
Once the storm passes, it’s still not over. Some parts of the northeast will feel cold temps as low as 10 to 20 degrees below zero.
On the newscast: Protecting students from danger. We’re there as the Diocese hosts active shooter training drills at two academies; Why the Governor of Virginia declared a state of emergency before a gun rally in Richmond on Martin Luther King Day; Vice President Mike Pence is heading to the Vatican to meet with the Pope; And it’s a zoo in Saint Peter’s Square – literally. We’ll tell you why the animals are there!
Watch weeknights at 7:00 pm EST on NET-TV in the New York City area on Spectrum, Optimum, and Fios. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive notifications about new content.
By Emily Drooby
Teachers scattered into classrooms, barricade the doors, armed themselves with everyday items and hid — all as part of an active shooter drill designed to prepare them for the worst-case scenario.
Active shooter response training was conducted for some of Brooklyn’s diocesan schools. Staff gathered at either St. Francis de Sales in Queens, or at St. Joseph the Worker in Brooklyn, arranged by the Brooklyn Diocese and their school’s office.
The day started out with a presentation, where staff learned the three L’s of survival: lockdown, leave, live. As part of the program, educators learned how to use everyday classroom objects to make large, cumbersome barricades in the event of a shooter.
Next, staff was trained in an actual classroom, where they they took what they learned and implemented it during an active shooter drill.
“I have a chance, I have a chance to help out the children and protect themselves,” said Laura Pla, a teacher at Saint Joseph the Worker Catholic Academy. “With this training and proper planning, I feel empowered to try my best and to do all that I can do to protect the children.”
Now, she knows how to set up her classroom so that the furniture can become a barricade. Others, like Saint Joseph the Worker Catholic Academy’s principal, Stephanie-Ann Germann, have been through some of this training before.
“It really opened my eyes to some of the not necessarily hazards, but the things we need to plan for, in terms of the infrastructure in our building,” she said.
The drill was executed by two companies: Synergy and Ratio Risk Services.
Police Officer Brian Rojee, one of the instructors with Synergy, saw the effects of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting first hand. Now, he helps prepare people for active shooter situations.
“I think any way that we can mitigate the dangers that teachers and students face in school now-a-days makes the world a better place and that’s why I’m here,” he explained.
He taught preparations teachers called helpful, necessary but also sad.
According to Editorial Projects in Education, a non-profit that raises awareness and understanding of critical issues facing American schools, in 2019 there were 25 school shootings with injuries or deaths. 43 people were injured, and eight people were killed.
Active shooter drills help to mitigate the potential loss.
“Until you actually put these things into practice and plan and train, it’s really not worth much,” explained Doreen Rearden of Ratio Risk Services, who helped facilitate the program.
Currents News Staff
Around the world, millions of people of faith face persecution for practicing their religion.
In the United States there has been a spike in anti-semitic incidents, as well as attacks against churches.
As the issue continues to be on the rise at home and around the globe, the question arises: What is behind all this?
John Allen, editor of Crux, joins Currents News to discuss this pressing issue and share what the Vatican is doing to combat Christian persecution.
By Tamara Laine
January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month. It’s a world-wide problem where criminals are using violence, fraud and coercion to control some of society’s most vulnerable for profit.
In a Currents News special series, Human Trafficking Exposed, we breakdown the scope of the problem and introduce you to some of the warriors who have dedicated their lives to combatting this evil atrocity.
It is a silent epidemic. Young girls, women, and boys are trafficked and sexually exploited in neighborhoods across the country. Every new day is another day that millions are victimized in the estimated $150 billion-dollar industry.
Rachel Lloyd knows the damage being done first hand. She’s a survivor of human trafficking who broke free with the help of a church on a U.S. airbase all the way in Germany.
We rode with Llyod back to where she began doing her outreach – Hunts Point in the Bronx. For 20 years she has been fighting for the survivors lost in the hidden world of America’s modern-day slavery.
“At night, save for a drunk or two, there is no one out here. Right? The violence the girls experienced and still experience, but out here no one is going to hear you scream. The girls went through terrible stuff out here,” said Lloyd.
According to the latest report on forced labor by the ILO, there are 40.3 million people in modern slavery around the world.
The numbers are staggering:
24.9 million people in forced labor
15.4 million people in forced marriage
4.8 million people in forced sexual exploitation
10 million children
It’s a humanitarian crisis Pope Francis has not been silent about.
Although the scope of the problem is global, the dark underbelly of the crisis in the U.S. is often overlooked- a growing problem that many turn a blind eye to. To uncover the scope of the problem we spoke to local advocates like Carol Smolenski who’s been fighting for survivors’ rights since the 1990’s.
“People don’t think it happens here because frankly, we are the richest country in the world and we consider ourselves protective of our children,” said Smolenski.
It’s a fight Reverend David Schilling has also dedicated his life to. “We have an obligation as faith-based institutions. Protestant, Catholic, Jewish. and Muslim. And socially responsible investors to utilize our influence to address one of the most egregious human rights violations,” said Schilling.
It takes the combined effort of communities, faith-based institutions, law enforcement, and families to combat what Pope Francis has called a scourge on humanity.
Though New York City is a destination city for traffickers, what is less spoken about is the domestic trafficking that happens here in the Big Apple – young girls and children, targeted by predators. And it is happening right now in every borough.
We met with Jessica Melton, Chief of the Human Trafficking Unit at the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, and she says that Queens is an epicenter. “Basically, cultural and ethnic diversity paired with access in our geography make Queens a center for rampant trafficking both sex and labor,” said Melton.
The Violent Crimes and Crimes Against Children Division of the FBI works on this on a daily basis. Michael Osborn is the Assistant Special Agent in Charge. Most recently, his agents were a part of a sweeping raid, named ‘Independence Day.’
“New York is a transitory city,” said Osborn. “What we see commonly is people who don’t have a good understanding of human trafficking, that will say this is a situation where we have a complicit victim. They don’t understand how vulnerable this victim was,” he continued.
Melton echoes Osborn’s sentiments. “They target immigrants, children, people with little family or social support systems, people with psychological or emotional problems,” she added.
Catholic women of faith like Sister Ann Oestreich, part of the anti-trafficking network, Talitha Kum, walked with us outside the United Nations before heading in for a human trafficking symposium. She explains some common misconceptions.
“In this country I think we think that human trafficking happens somewhere else,” said Oestreich.
She never thought when she joined Talitha Kum she would be working with law enforcement, politicians, and organizations like Truckers Against Trafficking.
“Human trafficking is a very high profit and low-risk endeavor. We need to turn that on its head and make it a very high risk, lower profit industry,” Oestreich continued.
And though there is no official estimate on the number of victims in the United States or in New York, experts say the number reaches into the hundreds of thousands with reported cases rising.
Smolenski says, “We talk about protecting children. And how is it that our kids, American kids, are allowed to be bought and sold in the sex trade?”
Driving with Lloyd, we see just how the internet has changed the once crowded corners of Hunts Point, New York – an industrial graveyard that was once a destination for sex trafficking is now deserted.
“In the 90s and early 2000s, this whole avenue would be just packed with Johns’ cars. Sometimes on a Friday Saturday night just back to back to back. Like traffic jams – John jams,” said Lloyd.
But the demand has not died. It has just moved into a darker, less safe place and it is proliferating – making the need to combat it ever dire.
“This is a mandate of the gospel. And we have given our lives to living out their gospel and following Jesus Christ. If Jesus were here, he would be part of our networks,” said Oestreich.
And there are those that will never stop fighting. Taking the lead are the survivors. Brave women and men who with bold voices and determined hearts are stepping forward to end the evils of trafficking.
—
Part two of this five part series, Human Trafficking Exposed, will air next Thursday, January 23, on NET-TV at 7:00 p.m.
On the newscast: A special report on Human Trafficking. Here and across the globe — we expose the crisis that Pope Francis calls “modern-day slavery”; History on the Hill — The Senate trial of President Trump is underway. We breakdown the day and what’s to come; The White House releases billions in aid to Puerto Rico as another quake rattles the island; Plus, we’ll meet a rising Hip-Hop star… and Brooklyn Catholic who’s spreading the gospel to young people.
Watch weeknights at 7:00 pm EST on NET-TV in the New York City area on Spectrum, Optimum, and Fios. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to receive notifications about new content.
Currents News Staff
In the town of Guanica, Puerto Rico, what used to be a community library filled with books now holds supplies of desperately needed items.
Resident Edgardo Cruz Velez now spends his time gathering supplies and seeing what help he can provide.
“The concept is people come and we ask them, ‘What do you need?’” he explained.
This is part of the new normal for those in Guanica: they’re living in tents, outside.
“I would like to stay here, but because it’s constantly shaking, you know, the ground, it’s making me sick, emotionally sick,” he said. “These are people that are afraid of going back to their houses and rightfully so. They believe that the roof of their house is going to fall over their head, that their house is going to collapse.”
They don’t know when they’ll be able to return as the earthquakes keep happening.
People who were surveying a nearby building ran into the streets when a strong 5.2 earthquake struck.
“This is their new life. let me tell you what they need, first of all, they need counseling,” Edgardo said. “In terms of material things? What we need are things like if we’re going camping for two weeks, for two months or for a year.”