Dear Commons Community,

The news media are reporting that the special prosecutor investigating the death of Trayvon Martin announced earlier this evening that George Zimmerman, who told police he shot the teen in self-defense, has been charged with second-degree murder. Zimmerman faces up to life in prison if convicted.

The Huffington Post reported that:

“Authorities said that Zimmerman, who has been in hiding for weeks, was in police custody. Special prosecutor Angela Corey said during a news conference that she would not reveal where Zimmerman was out of concern for his safety. “He is within the custody of law enforcement officers in the state of Florida,” Corey said.

The murder charge indicates that prosecutors believe that they can prove Zimmerman shot Martin with malice, though without premeditation. A manslaughter charge would have required prosecutors only to prove that Zimmerman acted unlawfully and with criminal negligence in shooting the teen. “

A first step has now been taken to resolve this tragedy!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times has an article on the two faces of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  A month ago he rallied for the public disclosure of evaluations of 18,000 school teachers claiming “the public [has] a right to know” even though there were flaws in the evaluation system and had wide margins of error. In the past few days, he has sung  a different tune and  has fought hard to keep secret a continuing evaluation of the 911 system, which is rumored to be critical of its operation after the city spent $2.1 billion to overhaul it. Mr. Bloomberg maintained that “the public was better off not seeing a draft of a report that he commissioned after the December 2010 snowstorm, when the city couldn’t keep streets cleared and ambulances got stuck in the snow while critically ill people waited for help.”

It is typical of the way Bloomberg has run the city, he knocks and kicks down workers while scrupulously guarding anything negative about himself and senior staff.

Tony