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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday signed police reform legislation today that’s considered among the most aggressive proposals since the national uproar over the police killing of George Floyd. The legislative package outlaws police use of chokeholds, requires all state police officers to wear body cameras, and permits the release of disciplinary records for police officers, firefighters and corrections officers to be released without their written consent.

Another part of the legislation bundle outlaws false race-based 911 calls, a move taken after the highly publicized incident in which a white woman called 911 after a black man, who was birdwatching, requested that she leash her dog.

The chokehold law was named after Eric Garner, the black Staten Island man who died in 2014 while being held in a chokehold by a police officer. The restraint tactic had already been prohibited by the NYPD, but today’s law makes chokeholds punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Julían Castro, the former Housing and Urban Development Secretary under President Obama, was an underdog during the Democratic primary contest, but he was perhaps the most forceful candidate on issues related to civil rights and identity.

He had bold plans to address mass incarceration and recidivism, and he was the first (and in some cases, only) contender to release detailed plans to address immigration, hunger, homelessness, police brutality, and the plight of American farmworkers. Now, as Covid-19 tears disproportionately through black and brown communities and President Trump’s crusade against undocumented Americans continues unabated,...

”A large part of what the story is, is about redressing the media narratives and how these boys — and men now — were done wrong in the narratives that were told that around them and about them and that’s one of them,” ‘When They See Us’ actor Joshua Jackson told Variety on the red carpet at the Aclu SoCal’s luncheon. The actor was talking about reframing the men as the “Exonerated Five.”

“In calling them the ‘Central Park Five,’ we reinforce this idea — that they were there and had anything to do with this — that that was the central backbone of their life. But they’re not allowed to move on from it. They are exonerated and they are the victims of this case, not the perpetrators.”

Jackson noted that the series was initially titled “The Central Park Five,” before it was changed to “When They See Us.” “I’ll just say for myself,...

Manny Halley, CEO of Imani Media Group, has signed a first-look development deal with NBC’s Wilshire Studios, Variety has learned.

Under the pact, Imani Media Group will develop and produce scripted and unscripted content for the NBCUniversal portfolio of networks including Bravo, E!, USA, and Oxygen as well as for outside buyers. Dawn Olmstead is the president of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment production unit.

Halley has worked in the music industry for more than two decades with recording artists including Nicki Minaj, Young Thug, and Keyshia Cole. Halley’s first foray into television production began with producing and executive producing the reality series, “Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is” for Bet and the spinoff, “Frankie and Neffe.”

Halley’s Faith Media Distribution company moved into the feature film business with “True to the Game,” starring Columbus Short and Erica Peeples. The movie, an adaptation of the New York Times bestseller by Teri Woods,...