Montana: Medical Marijuana Advocates Push Bill To Amend Strict 2011 Law. By Steve Elliott Hemp News Medical marijuana advocates are making what is being called a final try this legislative session to fix the 2011 law that imposed such tight restrictions on what was then a booming industry that it has been called a defacto legislative repeal of the 2000 law approved by 62 percent of voters. Senator Dave Wanzenreid (D-Missoula), who has consistently been a friend to medical marijuana patients in the Big Sky state, recently introduced Senate Bill 377 on behalf of a group called Montana Association for Rights, reports Charles S. Johnson at The Missoulian. A hearing date hasn't yet been set for the bill, which has been assigned to the Senate Business and Labor Committee. Wanzenreid hopes to get the bill switched to the Judiciary Committee. Political analysts believe SB 377 may have a tough time getting any traction; it would expand the 2011 medical marijuana law in some ways.
"To me, what the bill comes down to is two things," Wanzenreid said on Friday. John Kitzhaber, Oregon Governor, Imposes Moratorium On Death Penalty For Rest Of His Term. SALEM, Ore. — Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber on Tuesday imposed a moratorium on the death penalty for the remainder of his term, saying he's morally opposed to capital punishment and has long regretted allowing two men to be executed in the 1990s. Kitzhaber's decision gives a temporary reprieve to a twice-convicted murderer who was scheduled to die by lethal injection in two weeks, along with 36 others on death row. It makes Oregon the fifth state to halt executions since 2007. His voice shaking, the Democratic governor said he has repeatedly questioned and revisited his decisions to allow convicted murderers Douglas Wright and Harry Moore to be executed in 1996 and 1997. "I do not believe those executions made us safer.
Death penalty proponents criticized the decision, saying the governor is usurping the will of voters who have supported capital punishment. "We've been dealing with this since 1981," Ard Pratt, Archer's first husband, told The Associated Press. Mike Rowe Speaks To Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee [05-11-11] Racist Teens Forced to Answer for Tweets About the 'Nigger' President.
Cyndi Lauper: Give a Damn. Twenty to 40 percent of homeless youth identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, yet only 3 to 5 percent of the general youth population does the same. Shock was the first thing I felt when I heard this statistic, and then sadness that there are so many young people who are either thrown out of their homes or run away out of fear and despair because they are gay or transgender. But, while the disproportionate numbers are disheartening, what really matters and makes a significant impact are the young people themselves, their struggles and their desire to live a life that they dream about and deserve to live.
About five years ago, I had an opportunity to do a photo shoot for Interview magazine and wanted to include some young gay and transgender people to help spread a message of diversity and acceptance. So, I went down to the Christopher Street Pier here in New York City, where they tend to hang out. Social Media and Foreign Policy: An Update From Silicon Valley.
Have you ever been to a conference where it’s polite to start tweeting on your cell phone during the keynote address? Welcome to Social Media Summit 2014, organized for the tech savvy youth of modern Pakistan by the Progressive Youth Forum, and sponsored by a grant from the Pakistan-U.S. Alumni Network. As the conference of 400 bloggers, journalists, and social media activists began, live tweets from the audience -- 140 character opinions -- flashed across a projector screen in real time. Macon Phillips, Coordinator for the Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP), gave a video message of support to attendees during the summit’s opening night session and Secretary Kerry even joined the action. The Secretary shared Ambassador Olson’s selfie and tweeted about it. What is social media? Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Flickr and the blog you are reading right now are examples of social media.
The conference was organized by an active group of U.S. Women Are Becoming Unions’ New Voices. “I’m barely hanging on,” one driver lamented. His employer, the U.P.S. freight unit, was turning to nonunion drivers — people outside the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, he said. “We need to start enforcing our contracts!” Troublemaker replied. Troublemaker, better known as Sandy Pope, is the first woman to run for the presidency of the Teamsters, against the powerful, three-term incumbent, James P. Hoffa. Yes, Hoffa. Odds are that Ms. Unions, of course, have been in retreat for years. “Some of these women might even make unions relevant to the average American again,” said Steve Early, a labor journalist, union organizer and author of “The Civil Wars in U.S. That, anyway, is labor’s hope. From Big Rig to Bargaining Ms. “I saw how empowered people felt when they had control over their lives,” she recalled. Ms. Seven years later, Mr.
When Mayor Michael R. “We’re small, but we fight big,” she said. Today, Ms. Confronting Schwarzenegger Born in St. Patriotic Millionaires Lobby Supercommittee for Higher Taxes. Two dozen wealthy members of the group Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength are targeting members of the deficit "supercommittee" to increase their taxes. Entrepreneur and producer Charlie Fink, said he and other Patriotic Millionaires testified in a congressional hearing and visited the offices of 13 members of Congress on Wednesday, seven of whom are members of the supercommittee, to express their concern for the country's fiscal health. Fink, who lives in Washington, D.C., said if the Bush tax cuts do not expire, the country "is digging itself a big hole by foregoing revenue.
" "Without revenue, we will never solve the problem by giving tax cuts to the wealthy while supporting two foreign wars," Fink, a former AOL executive, said. The group visited the offices of legislators in both parties, including Senators John Kyl, R-AZ, and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Reps. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., minority leader, Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., and Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., assistant democratic leader. Israel, Hamas reach Gaza cease-fire agreement. Historic elections under way in Tunisia - Africa. Nine months after a popular uprising that ended decades of authoritarian rule, Tunisians have begun to vote for new leaders who will write the rules of the country's new political system.
Polls opened at 07:00 local time (06:00 GMT) on Sunday, with about 4.4 million registered voters set to pick a 217-member constituent assembly. That multi-party body will, in addition to drafting a new constitution, also be charged with appointing an interim president and a caretaker government for the duration of the drafting process. More than 11,000 candidates are running in the election, representing 80 political parties. Several thousand candidates are running as independents. Polls close at 19:00 local time (18:00 GMT), and results will be declared on Monday. Al Jazeera's correspondents on the ground reported that despite high temperatures in and around the capital, hundreds came out and waited for hours in queues in order to cast their votes. 'Victory for dignity' "I'm very very happy for Tunisia.
“Reclaim America from The Lunatic Fringe!” network disabled by coordinated attack by Right Wing Trolls…. New Mexico House Votes 65-0 To Move State's Money To Credit Unions, Community Banks. New Mexico's House of Representatives voted Monday to pass a bill that allows the state to move $2 billion - $5 billion of state funds to credit unions and small banks. The municipal funds bill was approved 65-0 (roll call - PDF), and is subject to a vote by New Mexico's Senate.
Governor Bill Richardson told the bill's sponsor that he supports the legislation. Credit Union Times, spoke to one banker who believes that the bill got a boost from Huffington Post's Move Your Money campaign: The altered view of New Mexico lawmakers in favoring local control of state funds, officials said, follows national mention of the New Mexico effort in the "Move Your Money" campaign of New York pundit Arianna Huffington in her online Huffington Post columns.
"I think Huffington gave this bill a little traction," said Juan Fernandez, vice president of government affairs for the Credit Union Association of New Mexico Pledge to Move Your Money! 'Patriotic Millionaires' Lobby Congress for Higher Taxes on Rich | PBS NewsHour | Nov. 16, 2011. JEFFREY BROWN: The ‘Occupy’ movement, the bipartisan congressional super committee, deficits, taxes, fairness, economic inequality, they’re all very much in the air right now.
Over the past few months, we have been exploring these issues in a series of reports and conversations. Tonight, we hear from a group that wants higher taxes on itself. They call themselves Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength. And members were on Capitol Hill lobbying today. Joining us now is one of the group, Garrett Gruener, founder of Ask.com and now director of the venture capital firm Alta Partners. Welcome to you. GARRETT GRUENER, Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength: Nice to be here. JEFFREY BROWN: First, I want you define this group. GARRETT GRUENER: These are about 200 folks so far who make a substantial amount of money and who believe that the — it’s time to roll back the Bush tax cuts, that essentially what we need to do for the sake of the country is to tax folks like ourselves more. The Woman Who Knew Too Much | Politics. This Wall Street psychosis—“We did nothing wrong, but everyone is trying to hurt us”—was given a dramatic airing in June by Jamie Dimon, the chairman of JPMorgan Chase, at a conference in Atlanta.
Clearly agitated during a Q&A with Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, Dimon launched into the reasons why the regulators were being too tough on banks. The causes of the financial crisis had been dealt with. “Most of the bad actors are gone,” he said, rattling off a long list of the perpetrators, which included C.D.O.’s, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, “thrifts, all the mortgage brokers, and, uh, obviously some banks.” He said that he worried that Dodd-Frank was “holding us back at this point”—suggesting that the regulation of banks was the reason why the economy was not recovering. Warren followed Bachus to the podium at that conference. But while audiences applauded her, Warren’s opponents lacerated her.
Warren was not always a critic. Boulder's corporate personhood measure (2H) Tea party supporter to Elizabeth Warren: ‘You’re a socialist whore!’ By David EdwardsThursday, November 3, 2011 15:20 EDT An unemployed supporter of the the tea party lost his cool at an event for Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren (D) Wednesday night, calling her a “socialist whore.” “Can I ask you a question before you begin?” The man asked just as Warren began speaking to volunteers at the VFW in Brockton. “I’ve been out of work since February of 2010 and I understand that you are — according to several print media and I think I saw you on television — taking credit for the Occupy Wall Street movement?” “I’m very sorry to hear that you’ve been out of work,” Warren replied. “I also, since you asked, I also want to say about Occupy Wall Street, I’ve been protesting what’s been going on on Wall Street for a very long time.
“Yeah, so has the tea party,” the man said. Before turning to leave the room, he added that Warren’s “boss” was “foreign born,” referring to President Barack Obama. “He’s been out of work now for a year and a half. GOP ‘family values’ mayor admits he’s gay. By David EdwardsFriday, December 16, 2011 13:47 EDT A Republican mayor in Mississippi admitted this week that he was gay after an audit revealed that he spent taxpayer money at a gay adult store in Canada. Greg Davis was elected as the mayor of Southaven in 1997 on a platform of conservative “family values,” but he says he recently realized that he was gay.
“At this point in my life and in my career, while I have tried to maintain separation between my personal and public life, it is obvious that this can no longer remain the case,” the mayor, now in his third term, told The Commercial Appeal. “While I have performed my job as mayor, in my opinion, as a very conservative, progressive individual — and still continue to be a very conservative individual — I think that it is important that I discuss the struggles I have had over the last few years when I came to the realization that I am gay,” he added. The mayor said that he didn’t remember what he bought while at the shop. (H/T: Buzzfeed) Massachusetts legislature passes Transgender Equal Rights Bill.
By Eric W. DolanWednesday, November 16, 2011 16:37 EDT The Massachusetts House and the Senate have approved legislation extending civil rights and hate crimes protections to the state’s approximately 33,000 transgender residents. The Transgender Equal Rights Bill adds protections to the state’s civil rights laws against discrimination in employment, housing, education, and credit based on gender identity or expression. The bill also expands the state’s hate crimes protections to include transgender people. “The Massachusetts legislature today recognized that transgender residents should be treated equally and protected under the law,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. The state House passed the legislation without any amendments on Tuesday night and state Senate passed the bill on Wednesday morning.
Gov. “This is an historic first step,” said Jennifer Levi, director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders’ Transgender Rights Project. Photo credit: Jaymi Heimbuch Eric W. Supreme Ct: DL music is not a crime. By ReutersMonday, October 3, 2011 15:24 EDT (Reuters) – The Supreme Court let stand on Monday a ruling that a traditional Internet download of sound recording does not constitute a public performance of the recorded musical work under federal copyright law.
The justices refused to review a ruling by an appeals court in New York that the download itself of a musical work does not fall within the law’s definition of a public performance of that work. The not-for-profit American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) appealed to the Supreme Court. It said the ruling has profound implications for the nation’s music industry, costing its members tens of millions of dollars in potential royalties each year. ASCAP says more than 390,000 composers, songwriters, lyricists and music publishers in the United States exclusively license their music through the organization. The federal government opposed the appeal. Verrilli agreed. The Supreme Court denied the appeal without comment. Supreme Court denies redistricting challenges - Political Blotter - Politics in the Bay Area and beyond. By Josh Richman Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 at 12:58 pm in California State Senate, redistricting, U.S.
House. The California Supreme Court today unanimously denied two pending petitions challengeing the validity of the state Senate and congressional redistricting maps created and certified by the Citizens Redistricting Commission. The court also denied petitioners’ requests for an emergency stay of the certified maps. All seven justices participated in the court’s action. The Citizens Redistricting Commission on Aug. 15 certified to the Secretary of State all four required statewide electoral maps, covering the 40 State Senate and 80 Assembly districts, California’s 53 congressional districts, and the 4 districts of the California State Board of Equalization. The petitions for writs of mandate filed in the Supreme Court challenged only the state Senate and congressional districts.
[You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.] Court tentatively orders Assembly to provide budget records. Alec Ross, Advisor to US Secretary of State - The Diplomacy of Technology.