Category: Domestic Affairs,

Transgender Asylum-Seeker Who Died In ICE Custody Was Beaten, Autopsy Shows | HuffPost

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, The Americas,Leave a comment

A transgender asylum-seeker who fell sick and died while being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement may have been beaten while in federal custody, according to an independent autopsy report released this week.

The body of 33-year-old trans woman Roxsana Hernández Rodriguez was marked by “deep bruises” and “contusions” consistent with “blows and/or kicks and possible strikes with a blunt object,” The Washington Post reported on Monday, citing the autopsy commissioned by Hernández’s family. Her wrists showed signs of extensive hemorrhaging, which the report said was “typical of handcuff injuries.”

…According to the Union-Tribune, ICE has yet to release a detainee death report for Hernández, even though Congress now requires the agency to finalize such reports within 60 days. It has been more than 180 days since Hernández died, the paper noted.

Transgender Asylum-Seeker Who Died In ICE Custody Was Beaten, Autopsy Shows | HuffPost

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Trump deletes tweet after confusing Nashville for New Orleans

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

“Getting ready to address the Farm Convention today in Nashville, Tennessee,” Trump tweeted.”Love our farmers, love Tennessee – a great combination! See you in a little while.”

…Trump confused Nashville for New Orleans, where the event is actually being held.

Trump deletes tweet after confusing Nashville for New Orleans – NY Daily News

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The Pure American Banality of Donald Trump’s White House Fast-Food Buffet

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

There is a particular awfulness to McDonald’s or Burger King once it’s gone cold. By the time America’s greatest collegiate football players arrived, in their navy blazers and Sunday shoes, to pick up porcelain plates and work their way through this cardboard buffet, the French fries would have grown cold and mealy, the burger buns soggy, the precise half slice of American cheese on each Filet-o-Fish sandwich hardened to a tough, flavorless rectangle of yellow.

…Trump, in typical form, spun Monday’s catering as ultimately the fault of his political opponents, an inevitable result of his own elective government shutdown, which has left hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed—including, presumably, the White House kitchen staff. Trump, a purported billionaire, made a big deal out of the fact that he paid for the fast food out of his own pocket. 

…“We went out and we ordered American fast food, paid for by me,” Trump boasted to the reporters gathered before the fast-food spread, grinning his fast-food grin beneath a brooding portrait of Abraham Lincoln, painted in 1869, by George Peter Alexander Healy, and praised by Lincoln’s eldest son as the greatest likeness ever captured of the man. “Lots of hamburgers, lots of pizza. Three hundred hamburgers. Many, many French fries.”

The Pure American Banality of Donald Trump’s White House Fast-Food Buffet | The New Yorker

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OPINION: Sex workers don’t need aggressive prosecution to protect themselves

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Local Interest,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Krasner and his attorneys have begun to decline many prostitution charges, especially if it’s a worker’s first arrest. Those with multiple arrests are sometimes referred to Dawn Court, a diversion program that mandates services for sex workers in exchange for eventually clearing their records of at least some of their prostitution charges. 

Sex workers don’t need aggressive prosecution to protect themselves | Opinion

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Amendment 4: ‘A day of celebration’ in Florida as 1.4 million ex-felons have voting rights restored

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Local Interest,Leave a comment

“One hundred and fifty years of disenfranchisement, and this moment here marks the end of a system that excludes so many people for a lifetime,” Meade said, referring to the years after the Civil War when felons were first barred from voting during Reconstruction. “This is a moment for democracy.”

The right to vote was restored to more than 1.4 million former felons across the state Tuesday thanks to Amendment 4’s victory at the ballot box in November, leading to emotional scenes as tears flowed, confetti was thrown and U.S. flags were waved.

…Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala arrived with her husband, David, who has never voted due to a felony drug conviction when he was 16.

…Not being allowed to vote for his wife to become the state’s first-ever African American state attorney, he said, “Was a dark moment, not being able to participate in her moment of history. … I knocked on doors, made calls, but wasn’t able to do the most important thing you can do.”

…“I believe in a wider democracy,” Aramis Ayala said. “When a debt is paid, a debt is paid.”

Amendment 4: ‘A day of celebration’ in Florida as 1.4 million ex-felons have voting rights restored – Orlando Sentinel

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Opinion: William Barr confirmation hearing: Trump’s attorney general pick still has a lot to answer for

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Barr purports to look into Mueller’s mind and reaches conclusions about Mueller’s thought processes. The memo contains dozens of references to assumptions such as, “I believe that Mueller’s team is considering” and “as I understand the theory, Mueller proposes” and “Mueller’s interpretation… all-encompassing… novel and extravagant.” The problem is that all of these suppositions are Barr’s alone — Mueller has said exactly none of these things. Barr is plainly setting up straw men just to knock them down.

…Barr argues that Trump did not commit a crimeby telling then-FBI Director James Comey to stop investigating Michael Flynn because, as the country’s “top prosecutor,” Trump has unfettered power to terminate criminal investigations. Moreover, when Trump fired Comey (inferentially for refusing to go easy on Flynn) the president was simply exercising his plenary power to hire and fire executive branch officials. Again, in Barr’s opinion, there is nothing to see here and no investigation of Trump is necessary.

…Barr does acknowledge one exception to his “facially lawful act” rule. He states that “the issue of obstruction only becomes ripe [and therefore open to investigation] after the alleged collusion by the President or his campaign is established first.” In other words, if Mueller has found evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, Barr believes that the president can then be investigation for obstruction and covering-up said collusion.

William Barr confirmation hearing: Trump’s attorney general pick still has a lot to answer for

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Mueller plows ahead, issuing more subpoenas to associates of conservative commentator

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Special counsel Robert Mueller has zeroed in on at least three new witnesses associated with a conservative commentator connected to former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone, signaling that investigators remain focused on the activities of Stone and his associates.

…Corsi, known for promulgating political smear campaigns and conspiracy theories, rejected a plea deal he says was offered to him by Mueller in November, saying he could not sign on to a plea deal for a crime he says he did not commit.

The agreement would have allowed Corsi to plead guilty to one count of lying to federal investigators about communications with an unidentified “associate’s request to get in touch with an organization that he understood to be in possession of stolen emails and other documents pertaining to the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” according to a draft of the plea agreement Corsi provided to reporters.

…In an email exchange from the summer of 2016 reviewed by ABC News, Stone and Corsi appeared to communicate about ways to contact Julian Assange, the controversial WikiLeaks founder, about the imminent release of information meant to damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president.

Mueller plows ahead, issuing more subpoenas to associates of conservative commentator – ABC News

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Georgia Poised to Pick Vulnerable Barcode Voting Technology

On By peanutgallerynhIn Local Interest,Leave a comment

The state of Georgia, still reeling from reports of multiple election security breaches over the past two years, has moved one perilous step closer to replacing its 16-year-old F-rated touchscreen voting machines with yet another glaringly vulnerable touchscreen voting system.

Ignoring the advice of independent cybersecurity experts, Georgia’s Secure, Accessible & Fair Elections (SAFE) Commission on Thursday recommended that the state purchase controversial new touchscreen ballot-marking devices that use barcodes to capture and count voters’ selections.

…That recommendation thumbs its nose at the advice of every independent cybersecurity expert who has weighed in on the issue of how to improve Georgia’s voting system.

In the past week alone, 24 highly regarded election experts, including many experts in election cybersecurity, advised the SAFE Commission to reject touchscreen barcode systemsand instead move to hand-marked paper ballots and scanners for most voters.

So did Verified Voting, a well-respected nonpartisan national election integrity group. So did Professor Wenke Lee of the Georgia Institute of Technology (the commission’s only cybersecurity expert).

In fact, so did almost all citizens who made public comments. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, those who spoke in favor of the touchscreen barcode system consisted primarily of lobbyists and election officials.

…Like all touchscreen voting systems, touchscreen barcode systems limit the number of people who can vote simultaneously to the number of touchscreens at the polling place. Thus, if corrupt officials wanted to re-create the long lines that plagued the 2018 midterms, all they’d have to do is send too few machines to certain polling places, or send broken ones, or forget the power cords and blame these and any other problems on “human error.”

Georgia Poised to Pick Vulnerable Barcode Voting Technology – WhoWhatWhy

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‘You couldn’t spend a dime?’: Jay Inslee ticks off the wrong state

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Granite State,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Inslee’s decision while he chaired the Democratic Governors Association not to invest in New Hampshire’s competitive governor’s race last year still burns some of the state’s leading Democrats.

…Under Inslee, the DGA picked up seven seats in 2018 — a record number for Democrats in the last two decades. Yet in the race that mattered most in New Hampshire, the umbrella governors group was nowhere to be found. Democratic gubernatorial nominee Molly Kelly ultimately lost 53 percent to 46 percent in what otherwise turned out to be a strong Democratic year.

…“You spent $130 million to $150 million — are you serious? And you couldn’t spend a dime to help Molly Kelly win her race?” Reardon said, referring to roughly the amount the DGA raised in 2017-18 election cycle. “I’d love to see the breakdown on how much they spent on losing gubernatorial races in other states. My hunch is a fraction of that would have been a help in New Hampshire.”

…The DGA did not spend a cent on television advertising for Kelly — a stark contrast to the $645,000 the RGA spent on ads for Sununu, according to Advertising Analytics. 

…“We were extremely surprised that the DGA did not invest more resources in the race, especially in the closing days,” the official said. “Instead, the DGA invested resources in places like Alaska, a race that was already lost for them. And they invested significant resources in states like Rhode Island, which ended up being a blowout for Gov. Raimondo. I still think even with resources by Dems, Sununu would have still won. But if DGA would have invested significant resources from the beginning, it could have been a different outcome.”

‘You couldn’t spend a dime?’: Jay Inslee ticks off the wrong state – POLITICO

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Felons register to vote in Florida.

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Local Interest,Leave a comment

On Tuesday, Bushell walked out of the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Office a newly registered voter, one of several formerly incarcerated Floridians to register to vote after the passage of constitutional Amendment 4, which restored voting rights for an estimated 1.2 million felons — as many as 400,000 of those in South Florida, according to a Tampa Bay Times analysis.

“I usually do my part anyway and I transport individuals to the polls whenever I can,” Bushell, 52, said outside the county’s elections office in Doral. “Not being able to do it myself, that’s like a downfall for me. So now that I’m able to do it, now it’s an uplift.”

…Prior to the amendment going into effect, convicted felons were required to seek the restoration of their rights from the state’s clemency board, which has a backlog of about 10,000 cases.

The amendment mandates that the state automatically restore the voting rights for felons who have fulfilled all terms of their sentence, along with any probation or parole. Individuals convicted of murder or a “felony sexual offense” are not eligible under the amendment.

…“There were a lot of tears of joy that were shed. Some of the (supervisors of elections) were crying,” Meade said. “It was just a very emotional day. We were celebrating the expansion of democracy.”

Felons register to vote in Florida. | Miami Herald

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Montana bill would ban pipelines from crossing underneath rivers, lakes

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

The measure would ban pipelines with a diameter of 10 inches or greater from going under navigable water bodies and establish construction requirements for them to cross above ground, including rules on casings and leak detection. The new regulations would apply to fossil fuels such as crude petroleum, coal and their products.

The bill’s introduction comes after several major spills into Montana rivers over the last decade, ranging from Glendive to Billings. And it comes as the nation debates the best methods to transport crude oil, what risk to water sources is acceptable, and how far tribal sovereignty extends when projects cross aboriginal lands that are no longer tribally owned, as was the case outside Standing Rock where thousands have gathered for months to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline.

White Wolf : Montana bill would ban pipelines from crossing underneath rivers, lakes

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