Names and faces
Convicted classified document leaker Chelsea Manning will not be allowed to enter Australia for a speaking tour scheduled to start Sunday, her event organizer said Thursday. Think Inc. said it had received on Wednesday a notice of intention from the government to deny Manning entry. The transgender activist who recently lost a long-shot bid for a
U.S. Senate seat in Maryland is scheduled to speak at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday and has subsequent events in Australia and New Zealand. The group is calling on her supporters to lobby new Immigration Minister David Coleman to allow her into Australia. “Ms. Manning offers formidable ideas and an insightful perspective which we are hoping to bring to the forefront of Australian dialogue,” Think Inc. Director Suzi Jamil said in a statement. Manning was an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Army when she leaked military and diplomatic documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks. She served seven years of a 35-year sentence before then-President Barack Obama granted her clemency in 2017. Australia’s Department of Home Affairs said while it does not comment on individual cases, all noncitizens entering Australia must meet character requirements set out in the Migration Act. The reasons a person might fail the character test include a criminal record or a determination they might pose a risk to the community, according to the department.
A foundation backed by actor Brad Pitt is being criticized over the degradation of homes built in an area of New Orleans that was among the hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. Attorney Ron Austin said that legal action is in the works against Pitt’s Make It Right foundation on behalf of some Lower Ninth Ward residents, whom Austin said have reported sicknesses and headaches as well as structural issues with the homes themselves. Pitt founded the venture in 2007, two years after Katrina devastated the city. Construction began in 2008, working toward replacing the lost housing with 150 avant-garde dwellings that were storm-safe, solar-powered, highly insulated, and “green.” The homes were available at an average price of $150,000 to residents who received resettlement financing, government grants and donations from the foundation itself. But 10 years and more than $26 million later, construction has halted at around 40 houses short of Pitt’s goal, and some homes are falling apart. Residents have reported sagging porches, mildewing wood and leaky roofs. The foundation in 2014 spent an average of $12,000 each on 39 homes on repairs and, earlier this year, demolished one of the homes for code violations. Make It Right did not respond to requests for comment this week.