Senators aim to scrap mandatory minimum sentences

NationalLawJournal

Two senators want to give federal judges the ability to impose prison sentences shorter than the mandatory minimums they're required to impose, an option long requested by defense attorneys and judges who feel restricted by sentencing laws.

Government Investigates itself: US Army drills 'did not cause illnesses' in Puerto Rico

BBC

A US agency says it found no proof that decades of military operations on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques had caused higher levels of illnesses among the population.

The report said increased mortality rates could be partially due to a lack of access to medical care.

The findings confirm previous studies, which reached similar conclusions.

The US Navy used Vieques between 1941 and 2003 to practice firing rockets, missiles and bombs.

Puerto Rico is a self-governing territory of the United States.

Many of the island's 10,000 residents claimed the drills had caused serious damage to human health and to the environment.

But the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry said there was no credible scientific evidence to link cancers, asthma and other illnesses to the military activities.

"That doesn't mean those linkages don't exist. It means we can't find credible scientific evidence to support that," the agency's director, Dr Christopher Portier, said.

The study also found that public water supply was safe and that the air was not contaminated.

Four US government studies released between 2001 and 2003 had reached similar conclusions.

The latest report did, however, acknowledge that those living on Vieques had poorer health than elsewhere in Puerto Rico.

It also stated that the cumulative impact of exposures to chemicals remained to be addressed.

Navy warships and aircrafts used the island to fire live bullets, artillery rounds, rockets, missiles and bombs.

In 1999, the forces accidentally fired 263 rounds of ammunition tipped with depleted uranium, violating US law.

After years of angry protests, the US eventually shut down its military operations and the naval base was turned into a wildlife refuge.

A munitions clean-up is ongoing and is expected to take at least another 20 years.

Instead of Closing, Gitmo to Receive Major Upgrades

Anti-war

It was supposed to be closed by now, indeed President Obama promised to have it closed four years ago. but with Guantanamo Bay still there, and still full of detainees who the administration now seems comfortable keeping forever without charges or a trial, it is facing a “overhaul.”

Pentagon officials say that a plan being pushed would spend $150 million upgrading the facility, creating a new hospital which is going to be helpful, since so many of the detainees are already in failing health and are seemingly going to stay there until they die of old age.

Though the White House insists they remain “committed” to closing Gitmo they’ve made no effort to actually do so in years, and have even closed the State Department office that was supposed to find places to send the detainees.

Spending $150 million modernizing the facility and getting it ready for decades of future service is just icing on the cake, with the costly and grossly illegal detention center “literally falling apart,” and the plan to close it having figuratively done so long ago.

Video from US prison shows white inmate tortured - held down, pepper sprayed at close range

RT.com

In what promises to be a major public relations headache for Maine's Department of Corrections, local media have released raw footage of a restrained inmate being subdued with pepper spray and then left unattended for over twenty minutes.

The story and video first appeared in this week’s Maine Sunday Telegram, and were further reported on by the Portland Press Herald, with a shorter clip accompanied by some two hours of additional video. The raw footage depicts Windham Correctional Center inmate Paul Schlosser being bound to a restraint chair, flanked by five prison officials - three of them in riot gear - protesting that guards “watch his arm,” and subsequently being pepper sprayed in the face at close range by Captain Shawn Welch.

It is unclear how footage of the June 2012 event found its way into the hands of Maine’s media, though the state’s Department of Corrections has already assigned an investigator to locate the source of the leak.

Schlosser was reported to have received treatment for a self-inflicted wound to his arm and was on multiple medications for bipolar disorder and depression prior to the incident.

Captain Welch was initially fired over his actions by Scott Burnheimer, superintendent of the medium-minimum security facility - a decision that was overturned by Maine’s corrections commissioner, who reduced the penalty to a 30-day suspension.

Meanwhile, Judy Garvey, a spokesperson for the state’s Prisoner Advocacy Coalition, criticized the department’s focus on the source of the leak instead of concentrating its resources on preventing similar incidents from occurring in the future. "Trying to find out how the information got into the hands of a reporter shows a reluctance to have transparency. It reeks of government heavy-handedness in oversight,” she told the Press Herald.

Garvey further recommended that the Department of Corrections look to create an advocacy group for prisoners’ treatment.

"The truth is rifles make up a very small percentage of gun crime in America, assault rifles make up even a smaller percentage of that crime, and the law itself is kind of silly"

Aljazeera Joining Inside Story Americas, with presenter Shihab Rattansi, are guests: Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor at the University of California and author of the book Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America; David Hemenway, a professor of health policy at Harvard University; and Robyn Thomas, the executive director of the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "I don't think this was a particularly wise proposal on the part of the administration or democratic senators. I think they should have invested their time, focus ... on universal background checks, which is a meaningful reform that will make a big difference. The truth is rifles make up a very small percentage of gun crime in America, assault rifles make up even a smaller percentage of that crime, and the law itself is kind of silly. It bans firearms that are semi-automatic, that have a detachable magazine, and one or more military style characteristic, like a pistol grip or a folding buttstock,  but you can sell the exact same weapon, with the exact same lethality, so as long as it doesn't have the pistol grip or the folding buttstock, those are cosmetic features, and they are not going to have a serious impact on gun policy." - Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor at the University of California

Real Ricky Ross Taking Battle Over Rapper Rick Ross to Appeals Court

HipHopWired & RT

Freeway Ricky Ross has hit another snag in his quest for legal vindication over allegations that Rick Ross stole his identity. On Wednesday (March 20), a judge rejected the argument filed against Warner Bros., who he believes assisted the Maybach Music rapper.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, the former drug kingpin, vowed to take his battle to appeals court. "California Appeals Court briefs are due in a few weeks," he said. "Judge believes that even a new contract still falls under Single publication, our position is that it is republication as in Nestle v. Chistophe. We feel good about our case.

"This is classic republication as to all defendants there was consistently new music, management decisions and product made. The statute of limitations was never meant to be used to hide defendants actively infringing with new decisions and campaigns."

Ross has suffered setbacks before. Last year, he was ordered to cover his alleged impostor's $500,000 legal fees.

Aside from the litigation, he's also prepping a film about his life, in which Nick Cannon will star.

UN to probe use of chemical weapons in Syria

Aljazeera

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has announced that the global body will launch an investigation into allegations that chemical weapons were used near the northern city of Aleppo. The UN chief said on Thursday the investigation would look into "the specific incident brought to my attention by the Syrian government". "I have decided to conduct a United Nations investigation into the possible use of chemical weapons in Syria," Ban told reporters. Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from New York, said: "It will take some time for the UN to get investigators on the ground. "They need to get assurances from the government and the opposition that their investigation team will be safe when they are on the ground carrying out their work." Syria's government and rebels on Wednesday demanded an international inquiry into the deadly attack which both sides cite as an evidence that the other has used chemical weapons. The opposition Syrian National Coalition said it also wanted an investigation into another incident of alleged chemical attack in Otaiba, a town near the capital city of Damascus. Ban said he was aware of other allegations of the reported use of chemical weapons, but did not make clear whether those would be part of the investigation. "Full cooperation from all parties will be essential. I stress that this includes unfettered access," the UN chief said. 'Difficult mission' The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and World Health Organisation are helping to set up what the UN chief predicted would be "a difficult mission". Bays said: "Some countries, notably Britain and France, wanted a wide-ranging investigation into all the allegations. "Russia though said they were asking into investigations into some incidents which were merely, in the words of the Russian UN ambassador, 'rumours'." The attack, which killed at least 26 people on Tuesday, if confirmed, would be the first use of chemical weapons in the nearly two-year-old conflict. Washington has disputed the regime's claim and said there was no evidence that the rebels had fired chemical weapons. "So far we have no evidence to substantiate the reports that chemical weapons were used [on Tuesday]," said Robert Ford, the US ambassador to Syria, adding that the administration was extremely concerned and trying to verify reports of such weapons being used.

Forensic Advances Raise New Questions About Old Convictions

npr

Advances in forensic technology are showing that what used to be considered clear-cut proof of guilt may be nothing of the kind. A California case highlights a growing problem facing courts: what to do when an expert witness changes his mind because of better science and technology.

William Richards was convicted of brutally murdering his wife and is serving 25 years to life. The evidence against him was mostly circumstantial and two different juries were unable to reach a verdict. A third trial was aborted because the judge recused himself.

But at the fourth trial, the San Bernardino County prosecutor introduced for the first time testimony about a lesion on the victim's hand. Forensic dentist Norman Sperber analyzed an autopsy photograph during the trial, pointing out marks that appeared to be spaces between the teeth of someone who had bitten the victim.

Sperber told the jury that the apparent bite mark matched William Richards' unusual dental structure — one so unique he estimated just one or two out of 100 people might have it.

Richards was convicted in 1997. Ten years later, another forensic dentist corrected a distortion in the picture using photo-editing software.

"If I had known that technology would help me be more accurate, I definitely wouldn't have testified as I did," Sperber says. He now believes Richards could not have made the bite mark and questions if it's even human.

Old Cases, New Questions

Similar cases are arising around the country. Defendants have been exonerated or received new trials in Wisconsin and Texas. Last summer, the U.S. Department of Justice began reviewing thousands of convictions because of flawed forensic evidence.

In California, the state Supreme Court denied Richards' request for a new trial, saying that Sperber's new analysis a decade after the trial didn't "unerringly point" to Richards' innocence.

Jan Stiglitz, Richards' attorney and co-director of the California Innocence Project, says the court set an impossibly high bar.

"We know that the linchpin in this trial was the bite-mark evidence," she says. "We now have experts who have come forward and all said this is not a mark that was made by Richards' teeth. And yet Richards is going to spend the rest of his life in prison because he can't affirmatively prove that he didn't commit the crime."

But Jan Scully, past president of the National District Attorney's Association and district attorney for Sacramento County, takes a different view. "We need to have finality of verdicts," she says. "There is always a new opinion or there might be a refinement in our forensic science areas. So, just because something new occurs doesn't mean that the original conviction somehow was not valid."

The district attorney's office in San Bernardino, which prosecuted the original case, refused to comment for this story.

As more studies highlight major flaws with forensic evidence, challenges to convictions will continue to arise, says Georgia State University's Jessica Gabel. She says criminal appeals usually involve a so-called battle of the experts.

"But when you've got the expert who testified for the prosecution, who comes back and revisits the evidence and says, 'You know, the state of the science now tells me that my conclusions then were either incorrect or exaggerated or misleading,' that is incredibly powerful in any given case," Gabel says.

With state appeals exhausted, Richards is now asking the federal courts to review his case. But his lawyer says his best chance is getting clemency from the California governor.

MD. Senate votes to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana - making it a civil offense

WashPost

By Editorial Board, Published: March 20

THE MARYLAND Senate’s vote to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana would not, as some critics warn, make it okay to use the drug. Such use would still be illegal, but it would be a civil offense, punishable by fines rather than imprisonment. Not only would this save law enforcement valuable resources but also prevent the lives of many young people from being ruined. We hope the House of Delegates follows the Senate’s lead and that Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) signs this sensible measure into law.

The billpassed the Senate on a 30 to 16 vote Tuesday. People now caught with up to 10 grams of marijuana, about one-third of an ounce, may face up to 90 days in jail and a fine up to $500; the Senate proposal would eliminate any jail time and provide for a fine up to $100. The reduction from a criminal misdemeanor is aimed at recreational users of marijuana, not those who traffic in illegal drug sales. The lopsided, bipartisan vote in favor of the change is a reflection of the changing attitudes about marijuana and the unintended costs of strict anti-pot laws. More than a dozen states have decriminalized small amounts of marijuana possession, and some have gone so far as to legalize the drug for various uses. Bills that would have Maryland join states such as Colorado and Washington in legalizing the drug for various uses are also pending in Annapolis, but they are unlikely to advance because of justifiable concerns about being at odds with federal law.

Decriminalization poses no such conflict and would, as its sponsor, Sen. Robert A. Zirkin (D-Baltimore County), pointed out, eliminate “a tremendous waste of resources.” There were more than 24,000 arrests last year in Maryland for marijuana possession, according to Dan Riffle of the Marijuana Policy Project, who argued that the time spent processing those arrests could be better spent on other, more serious crimes. Equally significant is the fact that most of those arrested are young people, predominantly African Americans, who end up with the taint of a criminal charge that makes it harder for them to get a job, stay in school or resist getting involved in more serious crimes.

Opponents of decriminalization worry about the “message” that would be sent. Concerns about the risks associated with marijuana abuse cannot be discounted and — just as with liquor and cigarettes — young people should be discouraged from its use. But wasted resources and ruined lives are too high a price to pay for sending a message that can still be delivered with more appropriate and reasonable penalties.

Today the presidency is viewed as the center of the federal government, with each successive administration expanding the power of the executive at the expense of Congress and the people.

4th Media

Last week the US Senate took a break from debating the phony cuts known as “sequestration,” for Senator Rand Paul to hold a 13-hour filibuster to force the Obama administration to state whether it believes the President has the right to kill American citizens with drones on US soil. I find it tragic that there has to be a discussion on an issue that should be so self-evident.

However, feeling the pressure, the administration finally said “no,” but in language so twisted that no one should feel in the slightest bit reassured. According to Attorney General Eric Holder, the president does not believe he has the right to use the military to kill an American who is “not engaged in combat on American soil.” Left undefined is how the administration defines “combat.”

As constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley wrote last week, “one can easily foresee this or a future president insisting that an alleged terrorism conspiracy is a form of ‘combat’.”

The administration’s outrageous response to the most serious Constitutional question of all — when a government can kill its own citizens — is clear evidence of an executive branch out of control.

Many of the drafters of the Constitution envisioned the presidency as an office with very limited powers, but even the most dedicated proponents of a strong presidency at the time would be shocked to see the concentration of power in the modern presidency.

Today the presidency is viewed as the center of the federal government, with each successive administration expanding the power of the executive at the expense of Congress and the people.

Ironically, some of the worst offenders are those who campaigned promising to reverse the power grabs of their predecessors. For example, candidate George W. Bush campaigned on a “humble foreign policy,” but as president he attacked Iraq based on his own administration’s lies and claimed the right to indefinitely detain anyone he deemed an “enemy combatant.”

Candidate Barack Obama promised he would reverse his predecessor’s constitutional abuses. Yet not only has President Obama not closed Guantanamo Bay, he reportedly holds weekly meetings in the oval office to draw up “kills lists,” uses drones against American citizens, and routinely sends the US military into combat abroad without even consulting Congress!

The modern use of “executive orders” also usurps the lawmaking function of Congress. The most notable recent example was President Obama’s January series of executive orders on gun control, but unfortunately there are countless other examples over the last several administrations.

Ultimately, the fault for the expansion of presidential power lies with Congress. Too many members of Congress are all too eager to avoid responsibility for controversial actions, preferring to “pass the buck” to the president. For example, Congress no longer declares war, but instead passes an “authorization of force” telling the president he can go to war when or if he wants!

On domestic policy, Congress passes large, vaguely-worded pieces of legislation and leaves it to the president and the bureaucrats to fill in the details. Many members of Congress score points with their constituents railing against “the faceless D.C. bureaucrats” while never mentioning that they voted for the law that gave the bureaucrats their power!

Last week, a group of “fiscally conservative” senators even tried to give President Obama more authority over spending as a part of sequester replacement that would have “required” Obama to decide where to reduce spending and where to increase it. They want to restrain the president by giving him more authority?

Growth of executive power is a threat to liberty. Fortunately, Congress can restrain the executive simply by exercising its constitutional powers. The American people must demand that Congress stop passing the buck on its foreign and domestic policy responsibilities.

If the people care about liberty, they will demand their representative stand up to the imperial president. Let us hope last week’s filibuster will give Congress the backbone it needs to do its job.

By Ron Paul

Rep. Ron Paul is a Republican Congressman from Texas. He was the 1988 Libertarian Party candidate for president.

Obtained from the Antiwar and InformationClearingHouse.com

NFL owners tweak Rooney Rule

Yahoo.com

The NFL is looking to make the Rooney Rule more effective after eight available coaching jobs and seven for general managers did not go to a minority candidate.

''We were disappointed in the results this year,'' Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday at the owners meetings, adding the league will make some tweaks to the rule.

''We think that some of the changes we are making (are) to make sure we get the right candidates better training and we really are doing a better job of getting them in front of the people who are making the decisions.''

The Rooney Rule, implemented in 2003, was named for Pittsburgh Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, who steadfastly pushed the league to require every team to interview at least one minority candidate every time there is a coaching or general manager opening.

Before the rule went into effect, the NFL had had only six minority head coaches in more than 80 years. Since it has been in place, 12 have been hired.

But none this year, and not for a GM's job, either. Plus, two black head coaches, Lovie Smith and Romeo Crennel, and one general manager, Rod Graves, were fired.

So one focal point for the league will be reinstating a symposium program that was primarily focused on coaches, but Goodell said likely will have some potential GM candidates also attend.

''And this will be a learning experience, this will be an opportunity for us to help give them greater tools to be able to advance their careers,'' he said. ''We also want to be able to give them greater feedback on the interview process.''

One unidentified club suggested to Goodell there needs to be more flexibility in the interviewing process. Teams still involved in the playoffs are very reluctant to grant permission to interview their personnel, although the NFL has established a small window for those interviews early in the postseason.

''When there's an opening, it's good practice to allow your best people to interview and have that opportunity to get a new job, and that will attract even better people,'' Goodell said. ''That's what the whole effort here is, to give the best people the best opportunities, and that's what everyone is asking for and looking for. I think we're making progress on that ...''

During Super Bowl week, Robert Gulliver, the NFL's executive vice president of human resources, said that the hiring results were ''disappointing'' and that he expects to make revisions in the rule.

The Fritz Pollard Alliance, a group of minority coaches and front-office, scouting and game-day NFL officials, wants the Rooney Rule expanded to apply to coordinators, assistant head coaches and club president positions.

There are currently four minority head coaches: Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin, Minnesota's Leslie Frazier, Cincinnati's Marvin Lewis and Carolina's Ron Rivera. Minority general managers include Baltimore's Ozzie Newsome, Detroit's Martin Mayhew, Houston's Rick Smith, the New York Giants' Jerry Reese and Oakland's Reggie McKenzie.

Amazon Removes Game "Ghettopoly" From Site

SeattleMedium Last week, Amazon removed Ghettopoly, a racially insensitive board game modeled after Hasbro’s popular board game Monopoly, from its website after a ground-swell of grassroots activism prompted the online retail giant to no longer allow the game to be sold through its online system. The game — which features a pimp, a hoe, a 40-ounce bottle, a machine gun (oozie), a marijuana leaf, a basketball and a piece of crack as game pieces — was previously removed from the shelves from Urban Outfitters in 2003 after a nationwide protest by the NAACP that ultimately led to the game being barred from sale in the United States after Hasbro sued the inventor of the game, David Chang, for copyright infringement. People from many sectors of the community took action after The Seattle Medium published a story, in the March 13, 2013 edition, about the availability of the game through Amazon’s website. Some people were so outraged that threaten to cancel their Amazon account if they game was not removed from the site.  Richard Johnson, former president of the Central Area Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Kent Black Action Committee, was so outraged by the sale of this game through Amazon that he started an online petition. “I am starting a campaign to tell Amazon.com to stop selling the racially offensive board game called Ghettopoly,” wrote Johnson in an email to community leaders. “The battle to stop the sale of this game was originally fought back in 2003. Now its back being sold as a collector’s item. Once again we need to stand up and not accept this outrage. ‘Racism is Not A Game.’” Gwen Allen-Carston, executive director of the Kent Black Action Commission, immediately took action after hearing that the game was being sold through Amazon as well. Allen-Carston not only signed the online petition started by Johnson, she called and e-mailed Amazon and encouraged others to do the same.  “I have raised my voice against this to Amazon and am looking forward to others doing the same,” wrote Allen in a social media post. “This madness has to stop.... SHAME SHAME SHAME ON YOU AMAZON! Former Seattle/King County NAACP president Carl Mack, the catalyst for the 2003 protest, lent his support after hearing that Amazon apparently had taken no action to remove the game after being notified that the game was available through their website. According to Amazon’s website, ‘listings for items that Amazon deems offensive are prohibited on Amazon.com. Amazon reserves the right to determine the appropriateness of listings on its site, and remove any listing at any time.’ Examples of prohibited listings include, ‘Products that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual or religious intolerance or promote organizations with such views.’ “Here is their policy about racial insensitive material,” said Mack in an article that appeared in the March 13, 2013 edition of The Seattle Medium. “Given their policy, they still don’t appear to have a problem with selling this [game]. In our minds they don’t value diversity, and they certainly don’t value the dignity of Black folks as clients.” Last Friday morning the issue with Amazon and Ghettopoly was escalated even further during The Seattle Medium’s Rhythm and News radio program, as host Chris B. Bennett, co-publisher of The Seattle Medium held a roundtable discussion with Rev. Carl Livingston, Florida-based political analyst/commentator Opio Sokoni and Hazel Edney, editor-in-chief of the TriceEdney News Wire where they talked about the game and its distribution through Amazon. The trio of guests empowered many listeners not only in Seattle, but across the country to contact Amazon and demand that the game be removed from their website. “When it’s all said and done, we’re the ones that are going to have to stand up and say something about this,” said Sokoni. “So, I would encourage people to call [Amazon] and let them know that this is unacceptable.” Mack, who now resides in Maryland and was inspired by the level of activism that was taking place with regards to this issue, wrote the following post on his Facebook Page last Friday to encourage people to sign the online petition: “Family, I need some help reminding Amazon and any other company who sells racially insensitive crap that we can hurt them economically too... Amazon should be ashamed of themselves. I am not sure I am going to forgive them” Allen-Carston received an email from Amazon over the weekend stating that the game was no longer available on their site. “All I did was make a phone call and send an email, with passion and concern,” said Allen-Carston. “It may not be much, but, it is a step in a direction which moves me forward to do more.” Despite the swift removal of the game from their website, many community members still find fault with Amazon for not removing the game without being forced to do so by the community. “Their handling of Ghettopoly is commendable but I’m sorry to see that it took the community to light some fire under them in order for them to take it down.,” said Adam Myers, a local business owner and life member of the NAACP. Amazon has not responded to The Medium’s request for comments since removing the game from their site.

White Party Attacks the Voting Rights of People They Say They Need to Reach Out To

Politicsusa

Republicans are going to learn how to talk to women and minorities, and then spend ten million dollars on outreach to groups of people they alienated during the last election. There are just a few problems with that.

They can throw all the money at outreach that they want, the fact that they think money will solve anything demonstrates that they don’t understand their problem. People don’t like the stench of racial animosity, sexism, homophobia and social Darwinism so inherent in Republican policies and rhetoric. We recognize that whatever a Republican says, they mean the opposite.

When Republicans talk about job creation, they’re really out to kill as many jobs as they can in a single budget. Paul Ryan’s latest budget applies the same principles Americans rejected in November. It intends to kill the benefits provided under Obamacare, (but not the savings) destroy Medicare and replace it with coupons for what will be an even more unaffordable private healthcare system, destroy Social Security and Medicaid.  From a tax perspective, it’s Romneyhood all over again. Once again, he calls for an increase in the already bloated defense budget. Ryan’s previous budgets were brutally transparent statements of the Republican Party’s priority of protecting the rich from paying their share of taxes.  The only difference between the previous Ryan budgets and this year’s version is this one is more devastating to the economy with more savage cuts (in addition to the ones we already have thanks to the Republican Sequester.)

Republicans talk about how much they love America and freedom then smile as they declare war on your vote and further rig the electoral system.  Knowing how unappealing their job killing and xenophobic policies are in mainstream America, and believing the problem is the composition of the electorate, Republicans are done with listening to people beyond their own echo chamber.

Two more Republican controlled State legislatures passed voter ID laws in the past week.

Last week, North Carolina’s Republican controlled legislature passed a voter ID law which will disenfranchise American citizens from the electoral process.  Previous attempts to suppress the vote in North Carolina was vetoed by Democratic governor, Beverly Perdue, but Republican Governor McCrory already declared war on the vote so there is little doubt that he will sign this bill.

When McCrory first declared his war on the vote it was in the name of combatting non-existent voter fraud.  Last weekend, NC House Speaker Thomas Tillis admitted  what we already knew: voter ID laws are not passed to stop the fictional phantom of voter fraud.

98 arrested in union protest on Las Vegas Strip

TheEagle

Throngs of workers blocked traffic on the Las Vegas Strip Wednesday in a demonstration against the Cosmopolitan casino that ended with the arrest of nearly 100 protesters.

Tourists watched from an overpass across Las Vegas Boulevard as police led workers wearing red union shirts one-by-one into a white police bus.

Police arrested 98 protesters, according to Metro Police Capt. Todd Fasulo. The workers chanted, "If we don't get no contract, you don't get no peace," as they waited to be taken away.

Las Vegas' largest and most powerful union has been in contract talks with Cosmopolitan Las Vegas owner Deutsche Bank for two years.

Earlier this year, the 54,000-member union held two one-day pickets outside the casino, which sits on a bustling corner in the heart of the tourist corridor. They marked Culinary Workers Local 226's first pickets on the Strip since 2003.

Wednesday's action was the first time union members deployed civil disobedience, the tactical use of nonviolent law breaking, outside a unionized casino in more than two decades, according to union spokeswoman Yvanna Cancela.

Cosmopolitan spokeswoman Amy Rossetti said management is continuing to negotiate with labor to "find a fair agreement." She added that the union was negotiating with casino management, not with Deutsche Bank directly.

Protesters shut down rush hour traffic for more than an hour in both directions on the block that is also home to the Bellagio, Aria and Planet Hollywood casinos. Cancela estimated the crowd at about 1,500 people.

Moments before her hands were bound with a zip-tie, Janet Hill said she decided to get arrested to send management a message.

"They need to give workers here a contract; it affects us all," said Hill, a porter at the Flamingo casino down the Strip.

Contract negotiations will open for most other Strip casinos in April.

Talks with the Cosmopolitan have stalled on a range of issues, including wages, health care and job security, Cancela said.

The 2-year-old Cosmopolitan was built by the German investment bank after its original developer defaulted. It is one of just a handful of non-unionized casinos on the Strip, along with the Venetian, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, and the Palms.

Culinary Union members receive free health care and are paid above-average wages. Housekeepers in most Strip hotels start at $16 an hour and receive a pension.

A majority of Cosmopolitan service workers signed cards in 2010 saying they wanted representation.

On Wednesday, protesters said they were worried that Deutsche Bank was stalling because it intends to sell the casino and doesn't want to be burdened by a union contract.

Most tourists walked by the demonstration without breaking their stride. One couple turned around in surprise when a protester booed them for crossing the picket line.

Several visitors said they were annoyed at the inconvenience. But a few cheered on the workers as they marched in their navy, emerald and black casino uniforms. A few even joined in.

James Lewis, of Australia, took a photo of himself holding a sign reading, "No Justice, No Peace."

"I was surprised because I didn't know this was an issue here," said Lewis, who was in town for a friend's 40th birthday party. "I come from a place where health care is free, so this is something completely foreign."

Paulina Corona came to the protest in the brown uniform she wears as a housekeeper at the Mirage hotel-casino. She said the demonstration was important because mutual support creates strength.

"This is a union, and everybody is in it together. When there are problems at the Mirage, everyone goes there," she said.

Corona, 58, said that as a cancer survivor she worries that management could make workers shoulder more of their health care costs.

"Every day, they try to ask for more things," she said.

Eric Boehlert On Iraq: "President Bush Could Not Have Sold This War Without The Mainstream Media"

MediaMatters

NYPD Spent 1 Million Hours In Ten Years On Marijuana Arrests, Analysis Finds

ThinkProgress

New York Police Department officers have spent 1 million hours making 440,000 marijuana arrests between 2002 and 2012, according to a new report from the Drug Policy Alliance. DPA put together the data in response to a request from New York City and New York State, as they consider measures to decriminalize marijuana. Each of these arrests can cost $1,000 to $2,000, according to a 2011 DPA estimate, costing New York City $75 million in just a single year (2010). The report explains:

In our ongoing research about marijuana possession arrests in New York, we have found that a basic misdemeanor arrest for marijuana possession in New York City varied from a minimum of two or three hours for one officer, to four or five hours or even longer for multiple officers. [...]

We multiplied 2.5 hours by the number of lowest‐level marijuana possession arrests (charged under NYS Penal Law 221.10) for each year since 2002 when Mayor Bloomberg took office. […] That is the equivalent of having 31 police officers working eight hours a day, 365 days a year, for 11 years, making only marijuana possession arrests. [...]

Two officers for five hours equals four million hours of police time. This does not include the time spent by police supervisors or by corrections, court, and prosecutor staff, nor the time officers spent searching for people to arrest.

This is not the only area in which New York City police officers have been particularly aggressive. This week, a federal court is hearing a class action challenge to the rampant stop-and-frisks that yielded more NYPD stops in 2011 of young black males than their total population in the city. But the numbers make a compelling case that focusing on marijuana crackdowns detracts both money and resources from addressing serious and violent crime. An 2007 law review article on New York’s marijuana arrests concluded:

We find no good evidence that the MPV [marijuana in public view] arrests are associated with reductions in serious violent or property crimes in the city. As a result New York City’s marijuana policing strategy seems likely to simply divert scarce police resources away from more effective approaches that research suggests is capable of reducing real crime”….

This policing strategy focused on misdemeanor [marijuana in public view] arrests is having exactly the wrong effect on serious crime – increasing it, rather than decreasing it …

While New York State decriminalized some marijuana possession in 1977, it did not lower the penalty for the so-called MPV arrests described above. Once a suspect is asked to empty his pockets during one of the millions of NYPD stop-and-frisks, marijuana is considered in “public view” and individuals can be arrested. Reports suggest that the New York State legislature could expand decriminalization to cover MPVs in New York City as early as this week. This would make possession of small amounts of marijuana a civil rather than a criminal infraction. Bloomberg has already eliminated overnight jail custody for those arrested.

Life After Exoneration, with Compensation, or Without

Innocence Project

An article in Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer explores the difference in quality of life for two exonerees—one from New Jersey, which compensates the wrongfully convicted, and one in Pennsylvania, which does not. 

Though New Jersey’s statute is still well below the national standard, offering only $20,000 for each year of wrongful incarceration as opposed to the federal standard of $50,000, it is far preferable to nothing. The only recourse for Pennsylvania’s wrongfully convicted is to sue, though such lawsuits are rarely successful. Of the 11 people exonerated through DNA evidence in Pennsylvania, only four have received restitution this way. One who has not is Vincent Moto. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: 

“They take your respect and dignity as a man,” Moto said. “A lady spilled a hot cup of coffee on her lap and she got millions. Come on. I’m not looking for billions of dollars. If they could give my daughter a college scholarship, I’d take that. If they gave me the $160,000 my mom spent on lawyer fees, I’d take that.”

State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (R., Montgomery), head of the Judiciary Committee, plans to reintroduce a bill that would give exonerated prisoners $50,000 per year of wrongful incarceration.

The bill failed to move out of committee in the Republican-controlled Senate last year. Greenleaf fears a tight budget may sink it again.

Pennsylvania is one of 23 states that still lack a compensation statute. The Innocence Project recommends paying at least $50,000 per year of wrongful imprisonment as well as providing social services such as health care, counseling, job skills training, and more.

Supreme Court hears arguments on voter citizenship requirements

Jurist The US Supreme Court [official website] heard oral arguments [transcript, PDF] Monday in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc. [JURIST report] to consider Arizona's 2004 Proposition 200 [PDF], which requires citizens to show "proof of citizenship" in addition to photo identification, to vote. Attorneys for Arizona argued that the law does not contravene the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) [official website], nor is it limited by the NVRA, which says that states "must accept and use the Federal form." "I came here from Arizona on an airplane. If the airline said we accept and use an e-mail ticket, you don't need to bring a paper ticket. And then I got there and they said, we want to see identification to prove that you are who you say you are, that would not contradict the statement that they are accepting and using the e-ticket. They are accepting and using the e-ticket for a specific purpose." The attorney for Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc. [official website], said that approximately 31,550 known US citizens were prevented from voting due to the Proposition. She also argued that Arizona's requirement of proving citizenship rather than signing an oath testifying to citizenship or other means of proof, was what violates the NVRA. "[T]he State requirement of citizenship, it's permitted in the sense that Congress requires in three different ways that citizenship be affirmed. It's simply disagreeing about proof. So it's not as though citizenship is left off this form, it's simply a question of how it's proved." The court also heard arguments [transcript, PDF] in Bullock v. Bank Champaign, NA [JURIST report] to consider what degree of misconduct by a trustee will disqualify a debt made by the trustee from discharge under the Bankruptcy Code [11 USC § 523(a)(4)]. The case hinges on the word defalcation [definition], which has remained undefined in the code through all amendments since 1841. The attorney for Randy Curtis-Bullock argued that his client did not have mens rea necessary to commit defalcation—which he argued should have been "extreme recklessness or conscious misbehavior by the actor"—and thus the debt he incurred when he mishandled being a trustee should be dischargeable. The attorney for Bank Champaign [corporate website] argued that other parts of the code—including sections barring debts from discharge due to fraud, embezzlement and willful and malicious injury—suggest that no mental intent is required for bad acts, including defalcation.

How much do Internet companies know about us, and what do they plan to do with the information? If only we knew.

StanfordMagazine

ASSUMING YOU POSSESS a cell phone and a computer and a credit card, the following scenario, or something like it, might sound familiar.

Your morning begins with coffee and a bagel and the morning paper, perhaps read on a laptop. You click on stories about Egyptian unrest, the firearms industry and Downton Abbey. Two other websites are open on your desktop. One of them shows your Facebook account. You notice that you've been "tagged" in a photo from last week's poker game, in a pose that suggests one too many beers. Meanwhile, a friend has sent you a link to an article in the Onion that zestfully parodies a well-known senator. You "like" it.

You head out for your daily commute. At the toll booth, a Fastrak device validates the code on your car and records the date and time of your arrival.

You stop for gas. You swipe your debit card. The pump asks for your ZIP code and you type it in. As the 20-gallon tank fills, you pull out your smartphone and do a quick search for a weekend flight to Chicago. Along with the flight schedules and airfares, an advertisement appears about a local concert at the same venue where you attended a performance last month.

In the first two hours of your day, computers have recorded that you are a likely watcher of PBS, you drink alcohol and you have a penchant for irreverent humor. They know you drive a large vehicle and probably have family in the Midwest. They know when you go to work and the route you take. It's 8 a.m. and you've already left a sizable virtual fingerprint.

Now add the dozens of other electronic transactions you make in a given day—every website you visit, every item you purchase online, all the searches you do, all the posts you make on social media sites—plus those of all your friends. Multiply that by hundreds of days of Internet activity. Throw in motor vehicle records, mortgage documents, credit scores, medical diagnoses. What does your profile look like now?

Data about all of us lives online, in "clouds," on our web browsers and in others' databases. Cell phones show our physical location and track the places we have been. Websites display the address and price of home purchases, along with the buyer and seller. Advertising agencies know the web pages we have visited and the text we have entered online. Increasingly, and with increasing sophistication, companies are collecting, analyzing and selling data about tens of millions of people. And most of those people have no idea when or how it's happening. [MORE]

Obama Sets Record For Rejections Of Freedom Of Information Requests

BlackListedNews