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Nearly ayear after Breonna Taylors death, manypeopleare remembering her as an iconic symbol of the BlackLives Matter movement: a youngfirst-responderinnocent of any crimewho lost her lifein a hail ofpolicebullets in her own home. Photos and illustrations of her have been on magazine covers, spotlightingher as a victim ofoverzealouspolicing, with accompanyingarticles demanding justice and change.

But when JuNiyah Palmer thinks about Breonna Taylor, she calls her sister. She remembers her sister as a confidante and friend.

She was lovely, she was caring, said Palmer.

In a December interviewwithUSATODAY, Palmer, 21,recalled the summers she and Taylor spentwith their grandmother in Grand Rapids, Michigan.One moment etched in her memory is the car ride back home to Kentuckyone year.Theydusually taken the ride with their mother, Tamika Palmer, but thistimethey were driving the route by themselves.

It started to pour down rain. Taylor, who was driving,couldntsee.The carinched along in the middle of the highway.It was just really funny, because she really stopped and started crying because she couldnt see, and called my mama, Palmer said.

Their mothertold them to pull over to the side of the highway and put the hazardlights on, but theydidntmove.They stayed in the middle of the highway for about 20 minutes, until the rainpassedandTaylorfelt fine to drive again.

To Palmer,Taylor was playful, yet vulnerable in otherwordsvery much like any otheryoung Black woman.

Tamika Palmer, left, embraced her daughter Juniyah Palmer during a vigil for her other daughter, Breonna Taylor, outside the Judicial Center in downtown Louisville, Ky. on Mar. 19, 2020. Taylor was killed during an officer-involved shooting last week. The family chose the vigil site because it is across the street from the Louisville Metro Police Department.1-Vigil01 Sam [Via MerlinFTP Drop](Photo: Sam Upshaw Jr., Courier Journal/ USA TODAY Network)

Astheanniversary of her deathapproaches,Palmer andsocial justiceactivists areworking to keep her legacy aliveby pushing for police reforms and public policies that would prevent more needless deaths like hers.

Breonnas life mattered,saidBrittany Packnett Cunningham, founder ofthe social impact firmLove & Power Works and host ofaMeteor/Pineapple Street Studiospodcast,Undistracted.We have to wake up every day and ask ourselves what we owe her.

Taylor, 26, was killed in her home at about 1 a.m. March 13, by Louisville Police who had a "no knock" search warrant for her apartment. Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker III, were in the apartment that morning when they heard loud pounding at the door. According to Walker, the police did not announce themselves before breaking down the door. Fearing a home invasion, Walker fired one shot, hittingSgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the leg.

Police responded by firing 32 shots. Taylor was hit multiple times and died on the floor of her hallway whileMattingly, whowas wounded, was rushed to surgery.

In September, a grandjury charged Sgt. Brett Hankison with wanton endangerment because some of the 10 shots her firedwent into a neighboring apartment. But none of the three white officers involved were charged with Taylor's death.

This undated file photo provided by Taylor family attorney Sam Aguiar shows Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky. In news reported on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020, Louisville police have taken steps that could result in the firing of an officer who sought the no-knock search warrant that led detectives to the apartment where Taylor was fatally shot.(Photo: Taylor Family attorney Sam Aguiar via AP)

"Breonnas Law," legislation banningno-knock search warrants, was adopted in June by the city of Louisville. Similar measures were passed laterin Florida, Oregon andVirginia., But such laws haven't been universally adopted, not even inKentucky.Soactivists worry thissame scenario could play out elsewhere.

You owe it toher tosee Breonna in every Black woman you encounter at work, schoolor delivering your groceries, andtreather like her life is worth living before she dies, Packnett Cunningham said.

Activists in Louisville and beyond arepushing for police reforms and accountability for police officers. They continue to demandcharges against the officers involved in Taylors death despitethe refusal of the Kentucky Prosecutors Advisory Council last December to appoint someone to pursue the case.

Imani Smith, a native of Kentucky and sophomore at Centre College, said she owes her activism to Taylor. After learning about her, Smith formed her own organization called the Youth Resistance Collective.

She is also collaborating with organizations like Change Today, Change Tomorrow;Play Cousins Collective and The Louisville Urban League, and pushing forward in social justice work by bringing awareness toTaylors story. The work involves changing policies, creating strategies that sustainthe Black dollarand teaching Black history.

Right now we are still in that process of still pushing, but also being conscious that we have to heal too because this was traumatic for a lot us, Smith said.

Protesters demonstrate on the steps of the Tennessee Capitol on Sept. 26, 2020, in Nashville in response to a Louisville grand jury decision about the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.(Photo: Mark Zaleski, The Tennessean/ USA TODAY Network)

During last yearsBreonnaConevent in Louisville,convenedto inspire activism in the wake of Taylors death, young Black women like Jaida Hampton,22, Youth & College President of the Kentucky NAACP State Conference, heldvoter education and registration sessions and legal roundtables.

Being a Black woman myself, living in Kentucky alone, (I know) that could potentially happen to me, and I have older sisters as well that are the same age as Breonna Taylor, Hampton said.

Black women are not safe at all in this country(if)you can innocently be sleeping in your own home and all it takes is for someone to make a life decision for you. That is just scary, Hampton said.

If Palmer could have told Taylor one thing on March 12last year,she would have told her to go to their moms housethat night, or to work some overtime. If this was adream,I would literally tell hertogo to pick up that shift at work that you planned on picking up, or go to moms house, and go out like you planned,Palmer said.

The days are longer than normal for Palmer, who shared the apartment with Taylor just as she had shared a room with her growing up.She wasused to coming home and seeing Taylor getting ready to leave for work. Taylor workedeveningsas an emergency room technician at the University of Louisville HealthJewish Hospital and Norton Hospital,and wanted to become a nurse.

Rosie Henderson tries to protect a Breonna Taylor memorial from rain Sept. 27, 2020, in downtown Louisville, Ky.(Photo: Max Gersh, Courier Journal/ USA TODAY Network)

Other times Palmer would come home and gointo Taylors room toplayfully bother her sister as she watched TV.Little memories like this,ormundane tasks like cleaning her room or washing her car, make Palmer miss Taylor the most.My outlook of the future has changed, any day could be really anybodys last day, Palmer said.

When Palmerseesimagesof her sisterpainted on muralsin brighthues or printed on the cover of magazines it makes her feel joyful.

It makes me feel like people are still thinking about her, were no longer lonely about the whole situation, Palmersaid.

Walker talked about protests in Breonna Taylor's name, and how his life has changed since her death. Louisville Courier Journal

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2021/02/03/breonna-taylor-sister-black-lives-matter-symbol/6574063002/

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Breonna Taylor: A beloved sister becomes a symbol of pain, an icon of hope - USA TODAY

In retrospect, the zany-keen ideas behind productions spawned by indie opera company Heartbeat Opera appear to be no-brainers. Celebrate the 250th birthday of a classical music composer who lost his ability to hear (yes, Beethoven) with the sound of revoked-by-incarceration and often-silenced voices of singers and volunteers from six prison choirs? Simple concept!

But the concept goes deeper than that. Engage professional vocalists and dancers to join the choirs and an exceptional eight-member band (with instrumentalists from the prisons featured in given selections) to create nine interconnected music videos? Yeah, sure thing! Add a contemporary slant by curating the cast and crew with an ear to young talent and eyes aiming to rectify historical imbalances when it comes to presenting people of color in classical music? For repertory, choose excerpts from Beethovens Fidelio, Negro spirituals, and musical works or words by Harry T. Burleigh,Florence Price, Langston Hughes,and Anthony Davis andThulani Davis?

Certainly, we could have thought of all of that ... except we didnt, and Heartbeat Opera not only thought of it all, they made the visual album project titled Breathing Free happen during a pandemic that had the artists rehearsing remotely on Zoom. The cast recorded individual audio tracks and videos that were filmed in separate locations. A music team compiled the recordings and a team of cinematographers led by filmmaker Anaiis Cisco collaborated on the videos that complete and connect the nine episodes forming the 45-minute work.

Presented with support from Santa Monicas The Broad Stage in a series of West Coast virtual premieres during Black History Month, Breathing Free is directed by Heartbeat Opera co-founder Ethan Heard. The song cycles Black voices arrive unfiltered and emerge without pretense from the rubble of events in 2020. Speaking raw truth to power, the lyrics and texts echo most unforgettably with the pain of George Floyds murder or arrive textured with the reverberations of a contentious political environment. In other sections, powerful unity demonstrates a people equipped to counter the forces of systemic bias perhaps these voices strengthened by the Black Lives Matter movement and how it spread around the world yet the music is rarely without grief-stricken tones lamenting twin pandemics COVID-19 and racial injustice that continue to disproportionately devastate the lives of black, brown and indigenous bodies. From the guest artists, the singers inside these six prisons and the voices of protest and resilience heard in traditional spirituals and newer compositions, the song cycles themes include strength, pain, dignity, honor, protest, betrayal, grace, and most hopefully, future dreams of justice and equity.

The program is presented Feb. 10 and 13 by The Broad Stage, and Feb. 2027 by the Mondavi Center. Follow the venue links for more details.

Each screening of Breathing Free is followed by a live panel discussion with the artists and advocates speaking on themes introduced by the film. Prison choirs participating in the project include Oakdale Community Choir, KUJI Mens Chorus, UBUNTU Mens Chorus, HOPE Thru Harmony Womens Choir, East Hill Singers and Voices of Hope.

Repertory presented in Breathing Free includes:

Balm in Gilead traditional,arr. Sean Mayes

Lovely Dark and Lonely music by Harry T. Burleigh, words by Langston Hughes

Malcolms Aria from X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X music by Anthony Davis,libretto by Thulani Davis, story by Christopher Davis,arr. Sean Mayes

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child traditional

Songs to the Dark Virgin music by Florence Price, words by Langston Hughes

Four excerpts fromFidelio music by Ludwig van Beethoven, libretto by Joseph Sonnleithner and Georg Friedrich Sonnleithner,arr. Daniel Schlosberg

Abscheulicher! (Abominable one! Leonores aria)

O welche Lust (Oh what a joy prisoners chorus)

Gott! Welch Dunkel hier! (God! what darkness here Florestans aria)

Euch werde Lohn (You shall be rewarded Act II trio)

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Beethoven Meets Black Lives Matter in Heartbeat Opera's Breathing Free - San Francisco Classical Voice

Special Report

Special Report

What began as a call to action in response to police violence and anti-Black racism in the U.S. is now a global initiative to confront racial inequities in society, including environmental injustice, bias in academia and the public health threat of racism.

Medicine

Minority patients are diagnosed later, stay on dialysis longerand are added to transplant lists less quickly. Why?

Policy & Ethics

Those who argue that the system will magically self-correct are kidding themselves

Policy & Ethics

Accountability, demilitarization and the transfer of responsibilities to social workers are needed to remake our overly antagonistic law-enforcement agencies

The aftermath of the Springfield, Ill., rampage led, in part, to the NAACP

December 29, 2020 Rob Hotakainen and E&E News

Lower-income residents and people of color are more likely to live in the hottest neighborhoods

December 10, 2020 Chelsea Harvey and E&E News

Amid multiple crises, science and medicine cannot stand aloof from politics

Challenging racisms deleterious effects requires first identifying its many forms

The common, chronic inflammation of the airways may help explain why deaths in custody are so high among African-Americans

Frederick Douglass, Antonio Maceo and the outrages of racial science

A gay, African-American physician relied on personas to endure his medical training

September 22, 2020 Chase T. M. Anderson

Theyre a story about racism

Moviemakers have perfected the art of rendering skin and hairbut only for white people

Contrary to the sanitized version we sometimes hear about the civil rights movement, change was not achieved solely by protest marches and people singing We Shall Overcome

An incoming medical student points out that the field has always been political, prioritizing some bodies over others

Biases in the system put the lives and well-being of women and minorities at risk

Racial minorities and those with underlying health conditions may be at a greater risk from coronavirus infection, but have historically been less likely to be included in clinical trials...

July 27, 2020 JoNel Aleccia and Kaiser Health News

A study of nearly 200 U.S. medical centers found that even apparently healthy kids suffer racial disparities in complications associated with surgery

July 20, 2020 Jim Daley

And stop letting hospital security guards carry guns; there are better ways to keep patients and staff safe

As physicians, we believe that recognizing it begins with understanding our own privilege and biases

From Frederick Douglass to George Floyd, photography has been key for racial justice. But cameras have also been used to hurt

Management researcher Modupe Akinola explains on how stereotypes hurt Black Americans and what we can do to counter them

July 8, 2020 Katy Milkman and Kassie Brabaw

Statues are ideological powerhouses that compress whole systems of authority into bodies of bronze or marble

Systemic inequities such as credit scores mean Black home and business owners receive fewer federal relief loans than white ones

July 2, 2020 Thomas Frank and E&E News

Demonstrators face tear gas, flash bangs, coronavirus and surveillance

June 26, 2020 Karen Kwon

Academic institutions and scientific organizations must embrace collective action

One of the forces behind #BlackInAstro week shares her optimism for the future

June 25, 2020 Karen Kwon

Rubber bullets and tear gas are not as innocuous as they sound

June 23, 2020 Kelsey D. Atherton

Large crowds, tear gas and jail cells could contribute to transmission of the virus. But it would not be easy to separate that danger from the risks of states reopening businesses and workplaces...

June 22, 2020 Tanya Lewis

Pairing the practice with greater accountability, better oversight of law enforcement and efforts to reimagine the role police play in communities could help reduce officers use of force...

June 17, 2020 Stacey McKenna

Public health specialist and physician Camara Phyllis Jones talks about ways that jobs, communities and health care leave Black Americans more exposed and less protected

June 12, 2020 Claudia Wallis

Some scientists call for police to stop using the chemical irritants, which could increase the risk of spreading COVID-19

June 8, 2020 Will Stone and Kaiser Health News

Antiracism in science must be about much more than challenging the bigoted graybeards of our past

Air pollution disproportionately impacts minority communities, and proposed changes would stymie efforts to address the disparity

June 12, 2020 Jean Chemnick and E&E News

Here are 10 ways to reduce adverse outcomes

An academic strike is planned for this week, alongside marches and demonstrations worldwide

June 9, 2020 Nidhi Subbaraman and Nature magazine

June 10 is a day off from business as usual for non-Black academics and a day of rest for Black students, staff and faculty

June 9, 2020 Gary Stix

Some scientists and politicians have invokedbaseless ideas about unknown genes, ignoring systemicinequality andoppression

June 7, 2020 Clarence Gravlee

The weaponization of medical language emboldened white supremacy with the authority of the white coat. How will we stop it from happening again?

June 6, 2020 Ann Crawford-Roberts, Sonya Shadravan, Jennifer Tsai, Nicols E. Barcel, Allie Gips, Michael Mensah, Nichole Roxas, Alina Kung, Anna Darby, Naya Misa, Isabella Morton and Alice Shen

Columbia University attorney Alexis J. Hoag discusses the history of how we got to this point and the ways that researchers can help reduce bias against black Americans throughout the legal system...

June 4, 2020 Lydia Denworth

Co-organizers of the first Black Birders Week talk about the joy of the natural world and the work outdoor-focused groups need to do to reduce racism and promote inclusion

June 5, 2020 Andrea Thompson

Such reviews are intended to allow community input and minimize harm to the environment

June 5, 2020 Adam Aton, Scott Waldman and E&E News

Prescribingweight loss to black womenignoresbarriers to theirhealth

June 4, 2020 Sabrina Strings and Lindo Bacon

Experts and affected communities say environmental justice must be a key component of efforts to address climate change

June 4, 2020 Daniel Cusick and E&E News

Discover world-changing science. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners.

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Read more from this special report: The Black Lives Matter Movement - Scientific American

Democrats may be forced to scale back their ambitions for a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package as one key senator, West Virginias Joe Manchin, has said he wont support trying to stretch the rules governing the budget process.

At issue is the so-called Byrd rule, named after Robert Byrd, a former senator also from West Virginia. The rule prohibits material from being in filibuster-proof bills that has a merely incidental budget effect, would raise the budget deficit after 10 years or affects Social Security.

Were not going to bust the filibuster, were not going to bust the Byrd rule that basically protects the filibuster, Manchin said in an interview on CNN Tuesday night.

In an appearance on MSNBCs Morning Joe Wednesday, Manchin said he had told Biden the same thing.

I said, Fine Mr. President. Im happy to start this process but Im not going to bust the Byrd rule, Im not going to basically get rid of the filibuster. We are going to work in a bipartisan way,' he said.

The House is expected to adopt the fiscal 2021 budget plan Wednesday that would set in motion the budget reconciliation process, which allows later spinoff bills to be immune to the filibuster in the Senate. Those bills, which would be subject to the Byrd rule, will be written by congressional committees by Feb. 16 to meet deficit targets in the budget resolution.

Passing a budget requires only 51 votes in the Senate and the follow-on reconciliation bills would also require only 51 votes, which Democrats would have with Vice President Kamala Harris vote. That makes the later reconciliation bill an attractive vehicle for Democrats to use to pass Bidens $1.9 trillion plan.

But the Byrd rules restrictions will likely make some priorities, like a direct boost to the minimum wage, drop out, unless Democrats break a long-held norm and vote on the Senate floor to overrule the parliamentarian who arbitrates Byrd rule challenges.

Overruling the parliamentarian also only takes 51 votes, but if Manchin sticks to his position, Democrats would be one vote shy. Republicans wont support waiving one of the ways to limit what Democrats can put into a reconciliation bill and have warned that overruling the parliamentarian would be seen as the same as getting rid of the filibuster,

The Senate is expected to adopt the budget on Thursday and the committees will have about two weeks to report back with the spinoff filibuster-proof legislation. While the White House has said it wants to take a bipartisan approach, the gulf between a first offer by a group of Senate Republican moderates $618 billion and Bidens plan will be hard to bridge.

Manchin on Wednesday said Republicans will agree to more. Theyll go farther than that. They know they have to, he said.

And Manchin said hes open to spending less.

If its $1.9 trillion, so be it. If its a little smaller than that, if we find a targeted need, then thats what were going to do, he said.

More:
Democrats may have to lower ambitions for relief bill as Manchin stands firm - MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden told Democratic lawmakers Wednesday hes not married to an absolute number on his $1.9 trillion COVID rescue plan but Congress needs to act fast on relief for the pandemic and the economic crisis.

Biden also said he doesnt want to budge from his proposed $1,400 in direct payments promised to Americans. But he said he is willing to target the aid, which would mean lowering the income threshold to qualify for the money.

Look, we got a lot of people hurting in our country today, Biden said. We need to act. We need to act fast.

Biden said, Im not going to start my administration by breaking a promise to the American people.

He spoke with House Democrats and followed with a meeting at the White House with top Senate Democrats, deepening his public engagements with lawmakers on pandemic aid and an economic recovery package. Together they are his first legislative priority and a test of the administrations ability to work with Congress to deliver.

Bidens remarks to the Democratic House caucus were relayed by two people who requested anonymity to discuss the private conference call.

While Biden is trying to build bipartisan support from Republicans, he is also prepared to rely on the Democratic majority in Congress to push his top agenda item into law. Objecting to the presidents package as excessive, Republicans proposed a $618 billion alternative with slimmer $1,000 direct payments and zero aid for states and cities. But Biden panned the GOP package as insufficient even as he continues private talks with Republicans on potential areas of compromise.

In his meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and 10 top Senate Democrats in the Oval Office, the president expressed confidence that the relief package would still win over GOP votes and be bipartisan.

I think well get some Republicans, he said at the start of the meeting.

With a rising virus death toll and strained economy, the goal is to have COVID-19 relief approved by March, when extra unemployment assistance and other pandemic aid measures expire. Money for vaccine distributions, direct payments to households, school reopenings and business aid are at stake.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the president fully recognizes the final package may look different than the one he initially proposed.

She said further targeting the $1,400 payments means not the size of the check, it means the income level of the people who receive the check. Thats under discussion, she said.

As lawmakers in Congress begin drafting the details of the package, Biden is taking care to shore up his allies while also ensuring that the final product fulfills his promise for bold relief to a battered nation.

House Democrats were told on the call with the president that they could be flexible on some numbers and programs, but should not back down on the size or scope of the aid.

We have to go big, not small, Biden told the Democrats. Ive got your back, and youve got mine.

As the White House reaches for a bipartisan bill, House and Senate Democrats have launched a lengthy budget process for approving Bidens bill with or without Republican support. Voting started Tuesday in the Senate and was set for Wednesday and Thursday in the House.

We want to do it bipartisan, but we must be strong, Schumer said after the 90-minute session at the White House. Democrats are working with our Republican friends, when we can.

The swift action follows Tuesdays outreach as Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen joined the Democratic senators for a private virtual meeting, both declaring the Republicans $618 billion offer was too small.

Both Biden and Yellen recalled the lessons of the government response to the 2009 financial crisis, which some have since said was inadequate as conditions worsened.

Schumer said of the Republican proposal: If we did a package that small, wed be mired in the COVID crisis for years.

Earlier in the week, Biden met with 10 Republican senators who were pitching their $618 billion alternative, and told them he wont delay aid in hopes of winning GOP support even as talks continue.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell criticized the Democrats for pressing ahead largely on their own as the GOP senators try to provide bipartisan alternatives.

Theyve chosen a totally partisan path, McConnell said. Thats unfortunate.

The two sides are far apart. The cornerstone of the GOP plan is $160 billion for the health care response vaccine distribution, a massive expansion of testing, protective gear and money for rural hospitals, similar to what Biden has proposed for aid specific to the pandemic.

But from there, the two plans drastically diverge. Biden proposes $170 billion for schools, compared with $20 billion in the Republican plan. Republicans also would give nothing to states, money that Democrats argue is just as important, with $350 billion in Bidens plan to keep police, fire and other workers on the job.

The GOPs $1,000 direct payments would go to fewer people those earning up to $40,000 a year, or $80,000 for couples. Bidens bigger $1,400 payments would extend to higher income levels, up to $300,000 for some families.

The Republicans offer $40 billion for Paycheck Protection Program business aid. But gone are Democratic priorities such as a gradual lifting of the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The Delaware senators Tom Carper and Chris Coons, both Democrats from Bidens state, were at the White House earlier Wednesday and discussed with the president the need for state and local aid and the possibility of narrowing who qualifies for another round of direct payments.

Coons said hes in conversations with Republicans about on what terms are they willing to increase the amount significantly for some state and local aid. Without that, he said, its a nonstarter.

Winning the support of 10 Republicans would be significant, potentially giving Biden the votes needed in the 50-50 Senate to reach the 60-vote threshold typically required to advance legislation. Vice President Kamala Harris is the tie-breaker.

But Democrats pushed ahead with Tuesdays vote, laying groundwork for eventual approval under the budget reconciliation process that would allow the bill to pass with a 51-vote Senate majority.

Continued here:
Biden flexible on who gets aid, tells lawmakers to 'go big' - The Associated Press