Calilfornia marijuana Legalization debate gets interesting

California passes bill to counteract ‘disturbing’ Texas curriculum

Measure ensures Texas standards don’t ‘creep into our textbooks,’ senator tells Raw Story The California Senate on Friday approved legislation that sends a clear message to Texas and textbook publishers: don’t mess with our kids’ minds. “My bill begins the process of ensuring that California students will not end up being taught with Texas standards,” [...]

Study: Occupied Baghdad is least livable city on planet

The Iraq war is still being touted by Washington and the Pentagon as a war for progress and stability in the region. A study released May 26, however, reveals a radically different reality. The Mercer Quality of Living Survey ranked Baghdad last in a list of “most livable cities.” The study took into account political, [...]

Gun Running, Drugs and Flamenco: US Army Human Terrain System Has It All

See also:  Nature: Shut Down Army’s Human Terrain Program A member of the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command management team in Afghanistan, according to sources, is a “gun runner.” That individual is allegedly listed in an “Federal Bureau of Investigation database” and has “ties to Ahmad Wali Khan Karzai and the drug business.” Another [...]

Hells Angels ride no more in German state

The interior ministry of the north-German state Schleswig-Holstein has made membership in local chapters of the Hell’s Angels and Bandidos biker gangs illegal. Over 300 police officers raided the headquarters of the “Hells Angels MC Charter Flensburg” und “Bandidos MC Probationary Chapter Neumuenster” on Thursday morning, as a ban against the groups came into effect. [...]

Local opposition to Arizona law sought

At Tuesday’s Beaumont Unified School District board meeting, trustee Mark Orozco called on his fellow board members to consider a resolution opposing Arizona’s SB1070 immigration law, which he pointed out gives police in that state the right to detain anyone who is suspected of being in this country illegally, or for failing to provide proper [...]

Maryland Citizens Face Felony Charges for Recording Cops

In Maryland, it is a felony to record thuggish cops as they push around skateboarding teenagers, beat sports patrons, and pull guns on motorists for speeding. “Several Marylanders face felony charges for recording their arrests on camera, and others have been intimidated to shut their cameras off,” reports WJZ 23 in Baltimore. Maryland cops are [...]

Radley Balko on the Militarization of Police

2010 National Drug Control Strategy

President Obama’s 2010 National Drug Control Strategy uses a multifaceted approach to combat drug abuse and drug use in America’s communities. This Strategy “provides a collaborative and balanced approach that emphasizes community-based prevention, integration of evidence-based treatment into the health care system, innovations in the criminal justice system, and international partnerships to disrupt drug trafficking [...]

Los Angeles teacher call for Mexican revolution in the US

News videographer at center of media battle after shooting video of abusive cops

Source A freelance news videographer in Seattle lost his gig with a television station over a police abuse video they rejected after he posted the video on Youtube. The video showed the customary abuse we expect from the Seattle Police Department; a cop kicking a detained suspect in the head after threatening to beat the [...]

Washington Finally Feeling Drone War Backlash

Back in early 2009, when guys like David Kilcullen and Andrew Exum warned that the American drone war in Pakistan could create more terrorists than they kill, they were pilloried by the national security establishment for their views. Since the failed Times Square bombing — a terror attack allegedly in response to the drone strikes [...]

Forty years since the Kent State massacre

May 4 marks the 40th anniversary of the shootings of unarmed student protesters at Kent State University in northeast Ohio. The Ohio National Guard killed four students and wounded nine others at a rally against the Nixon administration’s decision to escalate the Vietnam War by invading neighboring Cambodia. The four students who died were Allison [...]

Study Describes Difficulties of Latino Kids in U.S.

WASHINGTON – Latino children face obstacles in education and health that make their success as adults and their integration into society more difficult, the National Council of La Raza says in a study released Wednesday. Latinos make up 22 percent of the country’s total population under age 18, a percentage that is predicted to grow [...]

YouTube Didn’t Delete M.I.A. Video, But Did Bury It

See the story here.

Assassin of Malcolm X freed on parole

Thomas Hagan, assassin of America’s civil rights leader Malcolm X, has been freed 45 years after he admitted to shooting Malcolm X in New York City. “He was released today. His release was approved,” said Linda Foglia, spokesman for the New York State Department of Correctional Services on Tuesday. Thomas Hagan, who confessed to the [...]

San Francisco City workers banned from official travel to Arizona

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced today a moratorium on official city travel to Arizona after the state enacted a controversial new immigration law that directs local police to arrest those suspected of being in the country illegally. The ban on city employee travel to Arizona takes effect immediately, although there are some exceptions, including [...]

Mexico warns citizens in Arizona

HTML clipboard The Mexican government warned its citizens Tuesday to use extreme caution if visiting Arizona because of a tough new law that requires all immigrants and visitors to carry U.S.-issued documents or risk arrest. And a government-affiliated agency that supports Mexicans living and working in the United States called for boycotts of Tempe, Ariz.-based [...]

Deportation’s Harmful Effect on Children

This brief from the International Human Rights Law Clinic University of California, Berkeley School of Law , In the Child’s Best Interest? The Consequences of Losing a Lawful Immigrant Parent to Deportation states “Congress is considering a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws more than a decade after the enactment of strict immigration measures. [...]

Paul Schrader: Transparency- San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department

The questions asked at most of my events and from people all over the county is, what are they hiding, and why is the sheriff and his command staff not open and available to the public. As part of my fresh start approach to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, it will be my duty [...]

Paul Schrader: Community Responsibility- San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department

My name is Paul Schrader, and I am running for the position of Sheriff-Coroner of San Bernardino County. My campaign is based on what we call the Fresh Start Initiative. My goal is to bring a Fresh Start to San Bernardino County that the citizens can be proud of, participate in, and see concrete, forward-looking [...]

Dennis L. “Pinky” Stout got the message

Today I am announcing my decision not to seek the Office of District Attorney of San Bernardino County. From a very early age all I dreamed about was being a public prosecutor.  After 17 years as a Deputy District Attorney, I realized my ultimate dream in 1994 when I was elected District Attorney.  I ran [...]

NAACP Elects Roslyn M. Brock To Chair Board Of Directors In Unanimous

NEW YORK, NY – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People named Roslyn McCallister Brock as Chair of the Board of Directors at its Annual Board Meeting on February 20 at the New York Hilton. Brock, 44, became the youngest ever and fourth woman to serve as Chair of the NAACP’s Board of [...]

Nebraska State Penitentiary Guards suspended over Facebook posting

Update: LINCOLN — Three Nebraska prison guards have been suspended after one allegedly posted Facebook comments expressing enjoyment at roughing up an inmate, and the others supported his actions. State prison officials said the three were suspended pending an investigation. LINCOLN — A man who identified himself as a Nebraska State Penitentiary guard posted a [...]

Major Drug Conference in Mexican Drug War Says Prohibition Has Failed, Calls for New Policy

Coming as Mexico‘s war on drugs turns bloodier by the day, the conference concluded that current prohibitionist policies are a disaster. Editor’s Note: With 137 people killled last week in the Mexican drug war, a conference on this topic couldn’t come at a more opportune time. On Monday and Tuesday in Mexico City, political figures, [...]

Study Links Religion and Racism

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus warned religious listeners against what today would be called “ingroup prejudice”: the tendency to think less of outsiders, especially those of another race. The Samaritan, a member of a group despised by Israelites of that time, proves himself more charitable to an injured traveler than two members [...]

San Bernardino County sheriff says deputies will not ask immigration status on the street

In a department address Thursday, San Bernardino County’s sheriff reaffirmed positions on two hot-button topics, saying deputies would enforce medical marijuana laws though he feels they’re “greatly flawed,” and only broach someone’s immigration status inside jails. Rod Hoops delivered a wide-ranging state of the department address, his first since being appointed last February, to a [...]

SPLC Suit Wins $2.75 Million Settlement for Exploited Workers

COLUMBIA, Tenn. – In one of the largest settlements of its kind, an Arkansas forestry company has agreed to pay $2.75 million to settle the legal claims of foreign guest workers who say they were cheated out of the wages they earned planting trees for the company. Superior Forestry Service Inc.’s agreement to pay more [...]

Let Dr. Aafia go home, Mr. President

Reading all those legal thrillers by John Grisham and watching Hollywood blockbusters that portray innocent individuals framed and ensnared by a powerful system, one always thought: Of course, these things do not happen in real life. I am not so sure anymore though. The abduction, persecution and now conviction of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a Massachusetts [...]

12-year-old American arrested for doodling on desk

A 12-year-old girl from New York has been handcuffed and arrested by the police for doodling on the classroom desk, an incident that has shaken the US education system to its core. Alexa Gonzales, a seventh grader at the Junior High School in Forest Hills, had written the words “I love my friends Abby and [...]

Phony US Marshal Apprehends, Deports Woman

A Hemet man who passed himself off as a U.S. Marshal was able to enter San Diego International Airport with a “prisoner” after convincing airport security officers he was a federal agent, a Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday. Suzanne Trevino, spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, said in a telephone interview that an investigation [...]

Arpaio Tactics Causing Fear And Loathing In Maricopa County

Sheriff Joe Arpaio‘s crusade against Maricopa County officials has created a “year-long emotional roller-coaster” for some county employees, they tell the Arizona Republic. Arpaio, whose controversial immigration enforcement tactics have made him a nationally known figure, is reportedly being probed by a federal grand jury. The investigation is considering whether the sheriff abused his power [...]

BART to pay $1.5 million to daughter of man shot by transit cop

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Officials have agreed to pay $1.5 million to the daughter of a man fatally shot in the back by a transit police officer on New Year’s Day 2009 in Oakland, California. A bystander’s cell-phone video of the shooting on a transit platform was widely circulated on the Internet and on news [...]

Lithuania opens Gulag prison camp for students

Deportation Day website A recreated Joseph Stalin-era prison camp near Vilnius, a Gulag, has become a peculiar attraction for European Union students. Each day some 40 young people spend the day as prisoners under the surveillance of stern guards. However, before putting on prisoners’ clothes with numbers, students visit the Genocide Museum and former KGB [...]

“Christian mafia” rules America

A group known as the “Christian mafia” is the oldest and arguably the most powerful and influential religious rights organization in the United States, says American author Jeff Sharlet. He recently published a book entitled “The Family” in which he reveals how the group functions. “It goes back to the 1930s. They don’t seek publicity. [...]

Trijicon: We’ll Stop Putting Bible Inscriptions On Military Rifle Scopes

Trijicon, the company that produces the military rifle scopes with Biblical inscriptions, will end the decades-old practice and provide the military with modification kits to remove the markings, ABC is reporting. General David Howell Petraeus also addressed the scopes this morning, calling the matter “disturbing and a serious concern for me.” That’s a markedly different [...]

Student: ‘Beating So Bad Thought I Was Going To Die’

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Chief Nate Harper said three plainclothes officers have been reassigned during an internal investigation into the beating of an 18-year-old student violinist from the city’s Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts 6–12. Police charged Jordan Miles, 18, with assault and resisting arrest Jan. 11 because, they said, he fought with [...]

Detention Deputies Sentenced In In-Custody Beating Death

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — Two former Kern County Sheriff‘s detention deputies are behind bars serving their sentences for the beating death of an inmate over four years ago. In August of 2005, James Moore died after a fight with deputies at the downtown jail. Officers, at the time, said he became combative while being booked. But [...]

LEAP’s Cops and Clergy Initiative

We are pleased to officially announce Law Enforcement Against Prohibition‘s latest project, the Cops and Clergy Initiative.  The initiative features an unstoppable alliance of representatives of the faith and law enforcement communities collaborating to make speaking appearances at places of worship and in the media across the country.  Earlier this month in California, prohibitionist police [...]

Psychiatric disorders spiral among US troops

A new study indicates US troops who were withdrawn from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars for medical reasons were increasingly evacuated for psychiatric reasons. Psychiatric disorders rose from 2004 to 2007, despite an increased focus on treating mental health problems, the research study revealed on Friday. Only 14 percent of troops taken out of combat [...]

Lawsuit: NYPD routinely arrests students for non-crimes

ACLU: Racial element present in creation of ‘school-to-prison pipeline’ A lawsuit filed Wednesday by five students in the New York City school system against the New York City Police Department paints a picture of school officers who routinely abuse students and arrest them for non-criminal activities. The lawsuit (PDF), brought by the American Civil Liberties [...]

Recording of Nazi officers who found Hitler’s body released

A tape recording of Nazi officers describing the moment they found Adolf Hitler‘s body in his Berlin bunker has been discovered. The recording was made on October 25 1956 in a courtroom in Berchtesgaden, site of the Fuehrer’s mountaintop home in Bavaria. The court was convened to officially declare the former leader of Nazi Germany [...]

Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio Investigated by Federal Grand Jury

PHOENIX —  Two officials said Thursday night they have been subpoenaed to answer questions next week before a federal grand jury about a high-profile Arizona sheriff who gained attention for aggressively cracking down on illegal immigration. In statements read by a county spokesman, Maricopa County Manager David Smith and Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson said they [...]

Congressman seeking to bar Iranians from US

A US congressman has announced his plans to reintroduce the Stop Terrorists Entry Program (STEP) Act into Congress, which calls for the deportation of most Iranians without permanent resident status. The STEP Act, a bill that was originally presented in 2003, would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to bar citizens of Iran, Cuba, Sudan, [...]

National Geographic’s ‘Border Wars’

National Geographic’s Border Wars: Incident Reports National Geographic’s new series Border Wars premieres this Sunday, January 10. The series follows United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents and officers at one of the busiest border crossings in the country, Nogales, Arizona and Heroica Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. Cameras follow the CBP agents “as they use [...]

Officials Hid Truth of Immigrant Deaths in Jail

Silence has long shrouded the men and women who die in the nation’s immigration jails. For years, they went uncounted and unnamed in the public record. Even in 2008, when The New York Times obtained and published a federal government list of such deaths, few facts were available about who these people were and how [...]

First Appearance of Oscar Grant murderer in Los Angeles Court

LOS ANGELES — Protesters have gathered outside a downtown Los Angeles courthouse where a former Bay Area Rapid Transit Police officer charged with killing an unarmed man at an Oakland train station is scheduled to make his first appearance. Dozens of demonstrators lined the street, awaiting the arrival of 27-year-old Johannes Mehserle, who was scheduled [...]

In the last year 75 people were killed by Neo-Nazi in Russia

In 2009 218 aggressive xenophobia assaults were registered in Russia that resulted in 75 killed and at least 284 injured people, Antiracism.Ru reports. The most popular targets were Uzbeks (14 murdered and 12 injured), Kyrgyz (8 murdered, 10 injured), Tajiks (7 murdered, 18 injured), Russians (7 murdered, 13 injured); the list of injured victims also [...]

Here comes “Pinky” for his final disgrace

[ Before making a big mistake, insist that "Pinky" Stout debate Mike Ramos in public and make a recording available on the Internet.  This jerk can hardly tie his shoes.  He was put into office by the military/prison-industrial complex mafia bosses, in an era of secrecy and censorship.  He was chosen for his ignorant obedience.  [...]

7,724 Slain in Mexico in 2009

MEXICO CITY – Last year was the deadliest in Mexico in the past decade, with 7,724 people killed in violent incidents attributed to organized crime, Mexico City daily El Universal said on Friday. That total translates into an average of more than 21 homicides a day. The newspaper, which has been keeping a daily tally [...]