Human Rights
In the past year, we applauded two Illinois courts for protecting every citizen's right to record on-duty police, and ruling that a law criminalizing the act is unconstitutional. We similarly pointed to Boston, where a court forced the city to pay someone they arrested for filming the cops. Of course, it's pretty concerning that this was ever in question to begin with—normally, the argument that "you don't need privacy unless you've got something to hide" is fallacious for a number of reasons, but that doesn't extend to people who are empowered and armed, ostensibly with the consent of the citizenry and on the condition that they follow their own strict code of behavior. The fact that there is a clear push to let officers operate without public scrutiny is intolerable on every level. But, perhaps worse still, there is the fact that police don't always need a law to protect them from the public's lenses—they can just take matters into their own hands.
Two Men Sue Chicago Police; Claim They Were Abused And Falsely Charged For Filming Officers
CSW
Equal Marriage
HomoPhobia
By RFE RL -- (March 12, 2012) ( RFE/RL ) — The governor of Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg, has signed a new law against “homosexual propaganda” — defying complaints that it discriminates against gays. City hall announced on March 11 that St. Petersburg Governor Georgy Poltavchenko had signed the law on March 7.
Russia: St. Petersburg Governor Signs Law Against 'Homosexual Propaganda'
Human rights defenders in Honduras continue to suffer extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment as well as harassment and stigmatization, an independent United Nations expert says, calling on the Central American country’s Government to establish a protection programme for defenders. “Honduras faces serious challenges in combating violence and insecurity,” said UN Special Rapporteur Margaret Sekaggya yesterday at the end of her eight-day mission in the country, where she was monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation. “The pervasive impunit y and absence of effective investigations of human rights violations undermine the administration of justice and damage the public’s trust in authorities.”
expert urges Honduras to protect human rights defenders
Romney Wants an Antigay Marriage Constitutional Amendment; Amway Gave $500,000 to NOM
With the Jan. 24 release of Mitt Romney’s 2010 tax returns and a summation from 2011, the nation got a glimpse of how committed he is to his Mormon faith – tithing the expected 10% of his income to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church. In 2010, that contribution was $1.5 million or about 7% percent of his adjusted gross income. In 2011, Romney tithed $2.6 million, or 12.4 percent of his income, according to the Christian Science Monitor. This is significant, considering the role the Mormon Church played in passing Prop 8 in California in 2008.
SNAP Director David Clohessy with Barbara Dorris ST. LOUIS–(KMOX)–The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is preparing for a legal fight that could determine its own survival.
Clergy Abuse Survivors Group SNAP Fighting to Survive
President Obama's call for increasing the speed of the visa process for tourists who want to visit the United States won support Thursday from the aviation industry. The Washington, D.C.-based trade association Airlines for America (A4A) said Obama's announcement in Florida showed he realized how important aviation is to the nation's economy. “There is clearly pent-up demand for increased U.S. visitation," the organization said in a statement. "If U.S. airlines are able to operate in an environment that is conducive to international expansion, the carriers will be able to add service, jobs and further drive overall economic growth of the country."
Aviation industry applauds Obama for speeding up visa process - The Hill's Transportation Report
Internet access is integral to human rights | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt
In “Internet Access is not a Human Right," Vinton G. Serf argues that access to the internet is not a human right. He argues that freedom of speech and freedom of access to information are the rights that should be protected and not a specific piece of technology. I disagree. Human rights are by definition intrinsic to a person’s humanity.
Egypt soldier and Bedouin killed in gunfight over land
11 January 2012 Last updated at 16:51 GMT An Egyptian army officer and a Bedouin have been killed in clashes over land in the governorate of Suez, east of Cairo, security sources have said. A gunfight erupted when military police attempted to remove Bedouins from state land in a rural area near the southern end of the Suez Canal, they added. The Bedouins reportedly refused to leave and fired on the troops. Other Bedouins later joined the gunfight.
Vinton Cerf | Internet | Human Rights
Vinton Cerf is a senior vice president at MCI and chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. 2001. Photo: AP/Stephen J. Boitano “Internet access is not a human right,” wrote Vinton Cerf in an OpEd in the New York Times on Thursday.
A new chapter for the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association
The president of the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association says even if Gov. Scott Walker is recalled, it’s not likely collective bargaining will be revived anytime soon. MTEA president Bob Peterson “Things will never be the same,” said Bob Peterson, elected president of the union in June. Keith Bender, a labor economist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee , agreed: “If Gov.Woman Rights & Feminism
(Although recent, this bombshell article by new contributor Jenaine Molloff made the top five. -Ed.) by Jeanine Molloff December 1st, 2011, the US Senate accomplished the unthinkable–with the nearly unanimous passage of the National Defense Authorization Bill of 2012–they committed treason.
Op-Ed: Does US Senate Commit Treason with NDAA Bill?
Imprisonment has always generated invisible inequalities. But new legislation in Arizona now forces families and friends of inmates to bear an extra burden and will end up creating more barriers to reentry for inmates after they leave the system. As of July 20th, Arizona became the first state to pass a “background check fee” that charges adults a one-time fee of $25 to visit any of the 15 prison complexes that house state prisoners. While the legislation was instituted under the pretext that the profit would be used to support the administration of background checks, Wendy Baldo, chief of staff for the Arizona Senate, has explained that the earnings will fund prison maintenance and repairs.
Arizona Puts Profit Over Prisoners’ Progress With New Fee | Truthout
Transgender woman tasered in crotch by rangers when they found out she was born a man
By Rachel Quigley UPDATED: 11:13 GMT, 6 December 2011 A transgender woman claims she was tasered in the stomach and the crotch by rangers after they found out she was born a man. Brooke Fantelli, 43, of Romano, San Diego, was stunned by the taser gun by the Bureau of Land Management while she was participating in a photo shoot in the desert near El Centro late last month. During the disturbing incident, which was captured on cell phone, Ms Fantelli can be seen standing with her hands up talking to police before they taser her in the stomach.Copyright Office Once Again Preparing To Throw Citizens A Fair Use Bone
A few weeks ago, I was talking with one of my friends about copyright law and just what is legal for us and consumers to do with the movies, games, music and software we own. In that conversation, the topic of copying a movie from a DVD to her computer for use on her family's computers and tablets came up. I had the pleasure, or more accurately the displeasure, of trying to explain the nuances of copyright law and why making a copy of a DVD may not be legal. While it is generally accepted that copying a CD for home use is considered a fair use, the ability to do the same with a DVD has not been legally tested. For the most part, it remains illegal because the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause makes bypassing DRM, whether that DRM is effective or not, illegal.private prisons Industry
The Shadow CIA And Bush White House Assassinated Afghan Hero Ahmad Shah Massoud Two Days Before 9/11
Oakland Police Use Rubber Bullets, Flash Grenades and Smoke Bombs to Evict Occupy Oakland | Truthout
Bilderberg Group