Author: TSA Press

It’s not surprising that there’s an organization like the Romance Writers of America. What’s surprising is that they have an ethics committee. While the Supreme Court continues to operate without any defining code of conduct, goddamned romance authors have an oversight board.

Heidi Bond became the former Ninth Circuit clerk to publicly outline sexual harassment claims against former Judge Alex Kozinski, claims that brought other women forward and ultimately resulted in Kozinski’s resignation. One of the low-key tragedies of Bond’s role in the Kozinski’s fall is that she only had the professional freedom to speak out because she had left the profession already. So many other former clerks who spoke out later had understandable career concerns about crossing one of the stars of the federal bench. But Bond, who had launched a literary career under the pen name “Courtney Milan” could and did get the ball rolling.

Now Bond is embroiled in a dispute with the Romance Writers of America where an ethics complaint accuses her of being the harasser… specifically a cyber “bully.” While the RWA vacillates over whether or not to expel Milan, who once chaired the ethics committee, the whole affair is blowing the lid off a seriously fucked up industry about writing about fucking.

From The Guardian:

The fact that Milan was then serving as the chair of RWA’s ethics committee was “akin to putting a neo-Nazi in charge of a UN human rights committee”, Tisdale wrote in her complaint, alleging that Milan had “continually and repeatedly” launched “disgusting attacks” against other authors and RWA members.

That’s some throbbing hyperbole. What would possibly make Bond a neo-Nazi?

“She is accusing me of being a racist simply because I am white,” Tisdale wrote.

There are not enough eyerolls in the world for this one.

Bond is in hot, bubbling water barely covering her supple Tweeting thumbs because she pointed out that the romance novel industry is replete with racist stereotypes. As a half Chinese woman, Bond took to social media to label another author’s book a “fucking racist mess” for its depiction of Asian women with “slanted almond eyes” and faces that were “almost yellow.” Defenders of the novel argue that had Bond read more of the book she would have “themes and plot points that establish precisely the opposite of what she claims” which undoubtedly means the heroine — who has blue eyes in the book? — grows beyond these Orientalist stereotypes, which as an arc, is also kind of racist. Normally one would assume that the Asian woman would have a better handle on what might constitute a negative Asian stereotype than a bunch of white women, but that’s apparently not a given within the RWA.

HelenKay Dimon, a past RWA president, previously told The Guardian that she regularly received letters from white RWA members expressing concern that “now nobody wants books by white Christian women”.

There is “a group of people who are white and who are privileged, who have always had 90% of everything available, and now all of a sudden, they have 80%. Instead of saying: ‘Ooh, look, I have 80%,’ they say: ‘Oh, I lost 10! Who do I blame for losing 10?’” Dimon said.

The RWA originally ruled that Milan “would be suspended from the group for a year, and barred for life from holding a leadership position.” After an outcry that led to multiple board members of color resigning, the group has rescinded its decision “pending a legal opinion.”

Look, discrimination — both structural and overt — is still rampant throughout the legal profession, but it might well be a diversity utopia compared to the romance novel industry. Bond is like a discrimination fire jumper parachuting from one awful hellscape of a profession into another. Get this woman some kind of medal.

A romance novelist spoke out about racism. An uproar ensued [The Guardian]
The Wrong Kind Of Racy [The Economist]

Earlier: Judge Kozinski Accused Of Sexual Misconduct

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

Mary Chiwenga’s lawyer Slyvester Hashiti speaks on her client bail applications – VIDEO

CALEDONIA Mining defied difficult operating conditions in Zimbabwe to unveil a 9% lift to its quarterly dividend – an increase it said was motivated by an increase in production and the stronger dollar gold price.

Steve Curtis, CEO of Caledonia, said the improvement in the dividend was also a reflection of the firm’s increased confidence in its business. “As we approach the end of the five-year investment programme at Blanket Mine, we anticipate the rate of capital expenditure will begin to reduce from the middle of 2020, which gives us greater flexibility to consider deploying some of our cash reserves on an increased dividend,” he said.

“As we reported in mid-November 2019 when we published the results for the third quarter of 2019, our financial performance has improved due to increased production and the continued higher gold price. This improvement has continued through the final quarter of 2019,” Curtis said.

Trading couldn’t be more difficult in Zimbabwe with power supply from the national grid under constant threat whilst foreign exchange restrictions imposed by Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration has hampered the expansion of Blanket. Just over a year ago, Caledonia was saying the expansion programme was under threat.

By November, however, Caledonia said it was benefiting from a revised electricity tariff which allowed for the funding of imported electricity provided it is used exclusively to supply participating mining companies.

The increased dividend – equal to 7.5 US cents per share – is 9.1% better than the 6.875 cents paid quarterly previously.

Curtis said the central shaft of Blanket, to be commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2020, which would take production to 80,000 ounces a year of gold by the firm’s 2022 financial year. Production for the nine months ended September came in at 38,306 oz.

Curtis said the firm’s board would review future dividend distributions “as appropriate” whilst considering the balance between delivering returns to shareholders and pursuing new growth opportunities in Zimbabwe.

Caledonia said in March that it was considering investing in new opportunities in Zimbabwe once it had completed the Blanket expansion. “If you believe things will be better in five years’ time, you have to get in now,” Mark Learmonth, Caledonia’s CFO, told Reuters.

“We’re not talking about a big, producing mine,” he said. “We’re talking about advanced exploration or brownfield, but with good prospectivity. We plan to redeploy some of the surplus cash to be generated by the Blanket Mine,” he said.

Post published in: Business

▶️ The electricity system is broken: at one time we had no power for over forty-eight hours.

▶️ The water system is broken: in some parts of the city, they have had no water for over five years and have to buy their water every day. Getting a decent shower each morning was a battle which I didn’t always win!

▶️ The roads are broken: the potholes are unacceptable!

▶️ The fuel provision is broken: people are spending days and nights in mile-long queues that snake around blocks and blocks!

▶️ The people themselves are broken: law and order have deteriorated to unacceptable levels. It’s not uncommon to have a traffic jam with only a handful of cars at an intersection! Everybody wants to go at the same time and will force their way into the middle of the intersection without any consideration of other road users! Add to this unworking traffic lights and you have total chaos that takes hours to untangle! I take my hat off to the vendors on some major intersections who though unpaid, volunteer to direct traffic enabling smooth flow.

At one point, I came across tree branches on the road that was obstructing the flow of traffic badly. I immediately stopped to remove them only to realise there was a guy on top of the tree with an axe helping himself to some firewood from a municipal tree by the side of the road! I was SO mad I ordered him down with a threat of arrest! He didn’t know who I was so he complied! People are now a law unto themselves.

▶️ The wage system is broken: the local currency went from 1:1 (to the greenback) to 1:20+ with no wage adjustment. By and large, supermarket prices have remained stable in US$ terms but totally out of reach for the common man on the street who earns in the local currency.

▶️ The health sector is broken: the mortality rate has spiked as a result of avoidable deaths and yet no one seems to care! Doctors have been on strike for more than 100 days! There’s a silent genocide going on.

▶️ The government itself appears clueless by its apparent inaction in the face of one crisis after another, the inability to resolve the doctors’ strike being a case in point.

Yah! This is a broken nation!

As I boarded the plane to leave, my heart was heavy. CRY MY BELOVED COUNTRY! What shall I do for you? Where is the remedy for your healing to be found?

Post published in: Featured

This followed the brutal murder of a security official by a group of machete-wielding artisanal gold miners at the weekend. The official was guarding the premises of a gold mine owned by a senior member of Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party.

Zimbabwe’s government decriminalised artisanal gold mining three years ago in an effort to create jobs. The latest statistics from the government’s gold-buying entity Fidelity Printers and Refiners show that small-scale miners produced more than 50% of the country’s gold with the government giving full support to the informal operations through loans and authorisations, said BusinessLive.

However, the move has resulted in an outpouring of violence with hundreds killed in 2019 alone as a result.

“The ZHRC unreservedly condemns the callous and unwarranted attack by the unruly and greedy, machete-wielding mob,” the commission said in a statement. “The law, of course, must take its full course in barbaric instances of this nature.

“The commission condemns all similar, past and present, barbaric and intentional murders with the contempt they deserve and exhort law enforcement agencies to ensure the law takes its full course in such instances,” it said.

In November, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) NGO said 105 people had been killed in the mining town of Kadoma in the three months from August to October of 2019, while hundreds of others were severely injured in machete attacks.

A few weeks ago, justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi directed police “… to shoot to kill the marauding gangs”. However, police have largely failed to stop or control the mob violence. Police officers have also been accused of colluding with the gangs after receiving bribes, said BusinessLive.

Post published in: Business

A federal appeals court ruled in favor of the Affordable Care Act’s risk adjustment methodology, overturning a case brought forward by a New Mexico-based insurance cooperative.

New Mexico Health Connections (NMHC) originally filed suit in 2018, saying the risk adjustment methodology penalized small insurers. District Judge James Browning ruled in NMHC’s favor, saying the Department of Human Services’ approach to risk adjustment was “arbitrary and capricious.”

A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10^th Circuit unanimously overturned that decision on Tuesday, saying HHS justified its methodology for risk adjustment in making the program “budget neutral.”

The risk adjustment methodology is used for health plans that operate on the federal exchanges. Intended to discourage insurers from passing on patients with pre-existing conditions, it redistributes funds from plans with healthier members to those with sicker enrollees.

The Department of Health and Human Services redistributes the funds based on the statewide average premium. New Mexico Health Connections and other insurance cooperatives have challenged the methodology.

“Rather than create competition, they are crushing the small, innovative new entrants like NMHC,” the complaint stated.

NMHC would have paid more than $5 million in risk adjustment charges in 2018, the majority of which the co-op said would go to large insurers, such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico.  In the complaint, NMHC called the payments an “upside-down his upside-down system of reverse Robin Hood.”

NMHC can bring the case before the 10^th Circuit Court again or appeal to the Supreme Court. The case is New Mexico Health Connections v U.S. Department of Health & Human Services et al.

Photo credit: artisteer, Getty Images

Last year, 3000 votes were cast in our annual holiday card contest which was an impressive showing for attorneys mostly disengaged from anything but their bonus memos that time of year. This year, over 19K votes were cast to crown this year’s champion.

The uptick in voting is assuredly the result of a back-and-forth contest where multiple entries vied for the top prize keeping everyone engaged. Ultimately, one firm pulled away from the pack and came close to doubling up second place when all was said and done.

This year’s champion is Goodman Allen Donnelly, who brought us an animated based on cartoons drawn by founding partner Michael Goodman. Three-time champion Wolf Greenfield came in second with another stop-motion masterpiece and Heyman Enerio Gattuso & Hirzel rode the BoHEGHian Rhapsody joke all the way into third.

Congrats to Goodman Allen Donnelly on joining the ranks of champions. Here’s a look back at how firms have finished in the past:

2018: Wolf Greenfield
2017: Wolf Greenfield
2016: Gowling WLG
2015: Wolf Greenfield
2014: Haynes & Boone
2013: Akin Gump
2012: Van Winkle Law Firm
2011: Haynes & Boone
2010: Proctor Heyman
2009: Akin Gump

Congrats to all the finalists, and thanks to everyone who nominated a card or voted in the contest. It’s never too early to start work on the 2020 cards!

Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

Wang is visiting at the invitation of Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Djiboutian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Mahamudu Ali Youssouf, Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh, Burundian Foreign Minister Ezechiel Nibigira and Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Sibusiso Moyo, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang announced Thursday at a press briefing.

This is the 30th consecutive year since 1991 for a Chinese foreign minister to visit Africa at the start of every year, Geng said, adding this fine tradition fully reflects China’s high priority on developing its ties with Africa, which is strong proof of the time-tested solid friendship between China and Africa.

Noting this year marks the 20th anniversary of the inception of the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and an important year to implement the outcomes of the 2018 FOCAC Beijing Summit, Geng said Wang will strengthen communication and alignment with the African side to promote the joint construction of the Belt and Road, uphold China-Africa traditional friendship, and move forward bilateral ties and China-Africa ties during his upcoming visit.

Post published in: Featured

Ten students drawn from Cyclone Idai affected regions of Zimbabwe took group photos after coming back from China in Harare, Zimbabwe, Dec. 29, 2019./ PHOTO: Xinhua/ Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe.

A group of students from Zimbabwe’s regions affected by Cyclone Idai visited China in the festive period as a means of providing therapy for the trauma they underwent in the wake of the tropical storm.

The ten students were drawn from different schools within the Southern African country, with the six-day trip co-organized by the Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe and Zhejiang provincial government.

“I wish a prosperous new year to the people of China and Zimbabwe,” said Wimbainashe Zviuya, one of the students.

Besides experiencing Chinese cuisines for the first time and visiting many scenic spots, the Zimbabwean students also used the opportunity to learn about Chinese culture and ancient history.

Zviuya noted that the trip was important in restoring hope for herself and her fellow students.

“Children were affected psychologically, some of their friends and relatives were taken by the floods. Some of them had nowhere to stay because their houses were washed away by the floods,” Zviuya said.

“The trip helped them get fresh air since they had not been able to travel away from the district. It also showed them that life can go on and they can still experience good things after the destruction of their schools and their homes,” she added.

Cyclone Idai caused catastrophic damage in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. The Zimbabwean government reported some 299 deaths and 300 people missing in Cyclone Idai.

It is estimated that 250,000 people were affected by the floods in nine districts in the southeastern regions of Zimbabwe, with Chimanimani and Chipinge being the most affected.

Among them, about 48 percent are under 18 years, with many in need of psychosocial support.

Hou Yuehan, an attache at the Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe, said the Chinese government wanted to show kindness and solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe.

“We invited these children, because they are the future of the country,” she said.

Post published in: Featured

Harare — The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) warned this week that the rise of gangs fighting over the spoils of artisanal gold mining threaten to destablise the country.

Violence perpetrated by machete-wielding artisanal miners is on the rise in Zimbabwe with hundreds of people killed in 2019 in battles to control small-scale mines.

In a statement on Tuesday, the ZHRC said the gangs must be apprehended. This followed a brutal attack on a police officer guarding a mine owned by a senior official in the ruling Zanu-PF at the weekend, who was hacked to death by gangs armed with machetes and axes.

“The ZHRC unreservedly condemns the callous and unwarranted attack by the unruly and greedy, machete-wielding mob. The law, of course, must take its full course in barbaric instances of this nature. The commission condemns all similar, past and present, barbaric and intentional murders with the contempt they deserve and exhort law enforcement agencies to ensure the law takes its full course in such instances.”

Gold is one of Zimbabwe’s largest earners of foreign currency, raking in more than $1bn in exports annually. With many large-scale miners shunning the country, the government has turned to informal mining to boost production.

The government decriminalised gold-digging three years ago to allow tens of thousands of unemployed people to work on small-scale mines around the country. The latest statistics from the government’s gold-buying entity Fidelity Printers and Refiners show that small-scale miners produced more than 50% of the country’s gold with the government giving full support to the informal operations through loans and authorisations.

The relaxation of laws on illegal mining has given way to an outpouring of violence as the gangs have become a law unto themselves. Police say hundreds of people have been killed across the country in wars as rival gangs fight for control of gold mines.

The gangs are known to use extreme violence to take over mining sites, and sometimes steal gold ore from those they find already operating in a particular area.

In November, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) NGO said 105 people had been killed in the mining town of Kadoma in the three months from August to October of 2019, while hundreds of others were severely injured in machete attacks.

Links to top government officials

In its report “Who will protect citizens from their ‘supposed’ protectors?”, ZPP said the majority of the machete hit squads, known as MaShurugwi, and al-Shabaab, come from President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s home province of Midlands.

In October 2019, the US imposed sanctions on state security minister Owen Ncube, a close ally of Mnangagwa, over what it said was credible information of his involvement in “gross violations of human rights”, reported to be linked to armed gang violence. Ncube has denied the allegations, calling them “the work of my enemies”.

On several occasions, Mnangagwa has threatened action against the gangs, but to no avail. A few weeks ago, justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi directed police “to shoot to kill the marauding gangs”. However, police have largely failed to stop or control the mob violence. Police officers have also been accused of colluding with the gangs after receiving bribes.