Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Marissa Alexander denied new Stand Your Ground hearing | MSNBC
Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law will once again be no refuge for Marissa Alexander, the Florida woman who fired what she said was a warning shot near her abusive husband, Rico Gray, and his two sons.
On Friday, Circuit judge James H. Daniel denied her request for a new hearing to seek immunity from prosecution under the law, finding that the legislature’s June revision to include such warning shots ”cannot be applied retroactively” for a new Stand Your Ground hearing.
Marissa Alexander denied new Stand Your Ground hearing | MSNBC
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Staten Island man dies after NYPD cop puts him in chokehold
Staten Island man dies after NYPD cop puts him in chokehold: A 400-pound asthmatic Staten Island dad died Thursday after a cop put him in a chokehold and other officers appeared to slam his head against the sidewalk, video of the incident shows.
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Immigration Is Changing Much More Than the Immigration Debate | FiveThirtyEight
But while the rhetoric has stayed largely the same, immigration hasn’t. The immigration debate, now as then, focuses primarily on illegal immigration from Latin America. Yet most new immigrants aren’t Latinos. Most Latinos aren’t immigrants. And, based on the best available evidence, there are fewer undocumented immigrants in the U.S. today than there were in 2007. Even the latest immigration crisis — a sudden influx of unaccompanied minors, for which President Barack Obama requested $4 billion in emergency funding to address on Tuesday — represents a break from past patterns: The children are from Central America, not Mexico, and are primarily escaping violence in their home countries, rather than seeking jobs in the U.S.
Immigration Is Changing Much More Than the Immigration Debate | FiveThirtyEight
Immigration Is Changing Much More Than the Immigration Debate | FiveThirtyEight
FORT WORTH, Texas: One woman's journey to and across the US border | Immigration | McClatchy DC
FORT WORTH, TEXAS — Edilsa Cano was fleeing sexual assault, kidnapping and death threats - all from her own family - when she left her village in Guatemala at 16.
Now 21, she sees her own desperation in the tens of thousands of Central American children, some as young as 4, flooding the U.S. border with Mexico. Border authorities are scrambling to shelter the children, and President Barack Obama is looking for ways to deport them faster to cope with what has been called a humanitarian crisis.
Cano said it took her about a month to make the dangerous trip from Central America to the U.S.
Before the 1,000-mile journey was over, she would sleep, six to a bed, with strangers also migrating through Mexico, run away from a violent coyote, or human smuggler, in Arizona and then wander, lost in the desert and looking for help.
"I don't really know how I got here," Cano said in disbelief. "God is with every single child that crosses the border."
FORT WORTH, Texas: One woman's journey to and across the US border | Immigration | McClatchy DC
How One College Handled a Sexual Assault Complaint - NYTimes.com
"In the early-morning hours on the campus of Hobart and William Smith Colleges in central New York, the friend said, he found her — bent over a pool table as a football player appeared to be sexually assaulting her from behind in a darkened dance hall with six or seven people watching and laughing. Some had their cellphones out, apparently taking pictures, he said.
Later, records show, a sexual-assault nurse offered this preliminary assessment: blunt force trauma within the last 24 hours indicating “intercourse with either multiple partners, multiple times or that the intercourse was very forceful.” The student said she could not recall the pool table encounter, but did remember being raped earlier in a fraternity-house bedroom.....
It took the college just 12 days to investigate the rape report, hold a hearing and clear the football players. The football team went on to finish undefeated in its conference, while the woman was left, she said, to face the consequences — threats and harassment for accusing members of the most popular sports team on campus."
How One College Handled a Sexual Assault Complaint - NYTimes.com
Later, records show, a sexual-assault nurse offered this preliminary assessment: blunt force trauma within the last 24 hours indicating “intercourse with either multiple partners, multiple times or that the intercourse was very forceful.” The student said she could not recall the pool table encounter, but did remember being raped earlier in a fraternity-house bedroom.....
It took the college just 12 days to investigate the rape report, hold a hearing and clear the football players. The football team went on to finish undefeated in its conference, while the woman was left, she said, to face the consequences — threats and harassment for accusing members of the most popular sports team on campus."
How One College Handled a Sexual Assault Complaint - NYTimes.com
Sunday, July 06, 2014
Saturday, July 05, 2014
Friday, July 04, 2014
Peonage Files of the U.S. Department of Justice, 1901-1945 — Fondren Library - Rice University
Most Americans think chattel slavery in the U. S. ended in 1865. They are sadly misinformed and have been purposefully misled. It ended in 1941 after FDR had his Justice Department issue an order ending the peonage system.
"Microfilm. One of the most striking features of the economy of the South in the early 20th century was the extent to which its farms, plantations, mines, and mills availed themselves of a system of forced labor known as "peonage." This system developed from the practice of holding laborers in debt and forcing them to remain on the premises of their creditors to work off the debt. Peon laborers were thus bound to their masters' firms or plantations, often by means of violence and intimidation. Because the overwhelming majority of peon laborers were black, the system served to entrench racial as well as class divisions throughout the South. In many respects, peonage served as a holdover of the antebellum slave labor system. Here are the complete peonage files of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1901 (when the Justice Department began a massive crackdown on peonage) through 1945. These files include incoming complaints to the department from local U.S. attorneys as well as from private individuals and such civil rights groups as the NAACP. They also detail the Justice Department's response to each complaint and include correspondence between the department and the local prosecutor, internal legal memoranda, depositions of witnesses, briefs, and trial transcripts. Also published in this new collection are the previously restricted Federal Bureau of Investigation case reports, which have never before been available to researchers."
Thursday, July 03, 2014
Wednesday, July 02, 2014
New AJC poll shows voters disapprove of Georgia’s new gun law | www.ajc.com
By Kristina Torres
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia voters roundly disapprove of lawmakers’ expansion this year of the state’s gun laws despite being more likely to believe gun ownership helps protect people from becoming victims of a crime, according to a new poll conducted for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The poll, conducted by Abt SRBI of New York, is the first time Georgians have weighed in on the expansion since legislation passed the state Legislature in March and Gov. Nathan Deal signed it in April. The results come only weeks ahead of the May 20 primary election and affirm an AJC poll in January that showed voters strongly opposing what was then one of lawmakers’ signature proposals.
Among respondents in the new poll, 59 percent gave House Bill 60 a thumbs-down. The legislation, which goes into effect July 1, expands the list of places where Georgians may legally carry firearms to include schools, bars, government buildings and, for the first time, churches.
The results come even as 57 percent of Georgia voters said they believe owning a gun helps protect people. Thirty-five percent said gun ownership puts people’s safety at risk. A majority, 55 percent, also said they or someone they live with owns a gun.
The AJC poll surveyed 1,012 adults statewide between May 5 and May 8. The margin of error for each response is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
The full story will be in Saturday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution and on MyAJC.com later today. More poll results will come out in Sunday’s AJC.
Tuesday, July 01, 2014
Court not swayed by violent threat to clinics Rachel Maddow outlines the history and threat of violence around abortion clinics, where today the Supreme Court struck down a law defining a zone of protection, and compares that to the threat around other situations where buffer zones have been allowed.
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