Confronting Absence: Art, Testimony and Humanitarian Action on the Crisis of Missing Persons - ICRC

At the time, Birchmore was a 15-year-old high school sophomore in the Stoughton police Explorers program. Farwell was a 27-year-old Stoughton police officer and Explorers program instructor. Other witnesses who may testify Monday are Lisa Rocchio, a clinical and forensic psychologist who plans to discuss grooming, the process by which perpetrators of sexual abuse gain the trust of victims and manipulate them in order to carry out exploitation. In many of the texts messages shared with the jury, Birchmore reflected warmly on what the prosecution describes as Farwell’s criminal sexual assaults on her when she was too young to consent to sex. Former Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell Uncredited/Stoughton Police Department viaProsecutors have said they are calling Rocchio to educate the jury about how perpetrators use grooming to form bonds with minor victims, who as a result of their attachment, may keep the abuse secret and appear to maintain contact with their abusers when they reach adulthood. Prosecutors also plan to call a childhood friend who participated in the Stoughton police Explorers program with Birchmore.

As ranking member of the US Senate Environmental and Public Works committee, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse convened a “spotlight” hearing Tuesday, September 29, also attended by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Jeff Merkley, to highlight the consequences of industry and Trump administration attacks on climate science. Senator Whitehouse invited me to testify at the hearing, on the topic of these attacks on science, the industries benefiting from these attacks, and the harm they’ve caused that affect the health and safety of everyone in the US. My full written testimony is here, and the oral testimony I delivered yesterday is below. You can also watch the full hearing. The Supreme Court will be considering the question of fossil fuel industry accountability for climate deception and its resulting harms on Monday, October 5, in oral arguments for the case Suncor v Boulder. I’ll be speaking at the People vs Big Oil rally outside the Supreme Court that morning in support of justice for the people of Boulder, Colorado, and all of us whose health, safety, and livable environment are at risk because of the decades of deception perpetrated by the fossil fuel industry.

This year’s iteration of the artistic assembly was a love letter to the neighborhood and its craftsmanship amid an era of remediation, development, and gentrification. Figurative beeswax sculptures in Lesley Kushner's Gowanus-based art studio (all photos Rhea Nayyar/Hyperallergic)

“I want to visualize the fact that, despite our perception, reality is changeable,” the Brooklyn-based artist said of her paintings. Melissa Brown in her Brooklyn studio (photo Jennifer Samet/Hyperallergic; all other photos Adam Reich, courtesy the artist)

He brought his optical preoccupations into the 21st century, without losing his love of artists from earlier eras. David Reed, "#808" (2024–26), oil and acrylic on polyester (all photos courtesy Rodder)