A Florida state lawmaker is pushing a bill requiring state agencies to test their workers for drugs. But the bill wouldn’t mandate testing for all public sector employees; members of the Florida legislature would get a pass. Rep. Jimmie Smith (R-Lecanto), the bill’s sponsor, said he supports drug testing for lawmakers, but requiring them to…
Category: Liberty
Kansas Abortion Bill: Risks Lives, Governor Hasn’t Read It, But Promises To Sign It
Brownback, speaking to The Huffington Post Monday following the National Governors Association meeting, said that while he has not read the 69-page bill, he is likely to sign the proposal since he opposes abortion rights. Brownback, a former U.S. senator, has signed several anti-abortion bills since he took office last year. “I am pro-life,” Brownback…
The Scandal of Michigan’s Emergency Managers
Under PA 4, EMs have proven to be a divisive solution. Outsourcing services to private companies and abolishing collective bargaining takes a page right out of the right-wing playbook: a 2011 report titled “101 Recommendations to Revitalize Michigan,” published by the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy, calls for ending “mandatory collective bargaining for government…
New Polls Showing Catholic Support For Contraception Coverage Further Undermine “War On Religion” Claim
New polls released this week indicate that a majority of Catholics believe that employers should provide health care plans that cover contraception. This further undermines right-wing media claims that President Obama has declared “war on Catholics” or a “war on religion” because of his administration’s recent decision requiring religiously affiliated organizations to offer health care…
Washington State Poised to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage
Barring any last minute reversals, Washington will soon become the seventh state to legalize same-sex marriage. When it does, State Senator Ed Murray of Seattle will finally see his fifteen-year campaign come to a satisfying end. An openly gay man and passionate gay rights advocate, Murray has introduced a same-sex marriage or domestic partnership bill…
Why Millions of Americans Have No Government ID
Several states have tightened voting requirements, making it mandatory to show a form of government-issued photo ID before casting a ballot. But millions of Americans don’t have a government ID. Host Michel Martin talks with NPR’s Corey Dade about who is least likely to have one and why. READ/LISTEN: via Why Millions of Americans Have…
Another Useless Unconstitutional Florida Law – Prayer in Schools
After a heartfelt debate from both sides, the Florida Senate approved a measure authorizing student-led prayers at schools as long as adults are not involved. The “inspirational messages” proposal SB 98, filed by Orlando Democratic Sen. Gary Siplin and approved by a 31-8 vote, would allow school boards to adopt policies granting students the right…
Republicans Have Journalists Arrested for Entering Public Hearing
In a stunning break with First Amendment policy on Capitol Hill, House Republicans directed Capitol Hill police to detain a highly regarded documentary crew that was attempting to film a Wednesday hearing on a controversial natural gas procurement practice. Republicans also denied the entrance of a credentialed ABC News news team that was attempting to…
Florida Republicans’ Plan to Block Out the Sunshine
In their longstanding fight to privatize the state’s prison system—and a lot of other public services—Republican lawmakers in Florida are trying a new angle: doing it in secret. Proposed Committee Bill 7170, introduced Tuesday in the GOP-dominated state legislature, aims to prevent “information relating to the outsourcing or privatization of an agency function” from being reported…
If the feds can shut down Megaupload, why do we need SOPA?
For more than a year, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America have argued that existing laws were insufficient to deal with the problem of “rogue sites” hosted overseas. Theyve been pushing bills like the Stop Online Piracy Act SOPA and the PROTECT IP Act as essential weapons in…
Muslim College Student Reports Sexual Harassment, Gets Reported To FBI For Terrorism And Expelled
In 2008, African-American Muslim student Balayla Ahmad enrolled in Connecticut’s University of Bridgeport with hopes of becoming a chiropractor. Instead, she became of a victim of sexual harassment. Distressed by the repeated sexual advances and “graphic offensive comments” of a male student, Ahmad reported the harassment and “fears for her safety” to multiple teachers, who…
Dodd to Internet: You And Your Blackout Can Drop Dead
SOPA and PIPA are on the ropes, thanks in part to a recent flurry of Internet activism. Tomorrow, a number of sites, including Reddit and Wikipedia, plan to “blackout” their sites in protest—i.e., go inactive. And this isnt just some wily fringe movement: late on Tuesday, Google also got into the mix, announcing that it…
Fox Promotes Dubious Claim That 900 Deceased People Voted In SC
But Election Official Who Introduced The Statistic Reportedly Said Absentee Ballots Or Data Errors Could Be The Cause Palmetto Public Record: DMV Director Schwedo “Said Those 900 Voters Could Easily Have Voted Absentee Before Their Deaths.” From a January 12 Palmetto Public Record (SC) article: Supporters of the new Voter ID law are alleging fraud…
10 Technologies That Congress Tried to Kill
10 Technologies That Congress Tried to KillNext week, the Senate could be meeting to vote on the Protect IP Act PIPA, the bill that many people are warning could damage the Internet. Its a horrible prospect — but this isnt the first time that Congress has tried to sacrifice a technology at the behest of…
Another American Citizen Wrongfully Deported
An African-American teen from Dallas who has been missing since 2010 was found to have been wrongfully deported to Colombia, area outlet News 8 reports. Jakadrien Turner was mistakenly deported by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) in April of 2011 after being arrested as a teen runaway. The troubled youth had fled…
93-Year-Old Tennessee Woman Who Cleaned State Capitol For 30 Years Denied Voter ID
A 93-year-old Tennessee woman who cleaned the state Capitol for 30 years, including the governor’s office, says she won’t be able to vote for the first time in decades after being told this week that her old state ID failed to meet new voter ID regulations. Thelma Mitchell was even accused of being an undocumented…
ID errors put hundreds in L.A. County jails
Hundreds of people have been wrongly imprisoned inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department jails in recent years, with some spending weeks behind bars before authorities realized those arrested were mistaken for wanted criminals, a Times investigation has found. The wrongful incarcerations occurred more than 1,480 times in the last five years. They were the…
Immigration dragnet snares Americans
A growing number of United States citizens have been detained under Obama administration programs intended to detect illegal immigrants who are arrested by local police. In a spate of recent cases across the country, American citizens have been confined in local jails after federal immigration agents, acting on flawed information from Department of Homeland Security…
The Return Of Debtor’s Prisons: Thousands Of Americans Jailed For Not Paying Their Bills
More than a third of all states now allow borrowers who don’t pay their bills to be jailed, even when debtor’s prisons have been explicitly banned by state constitutions. A report by the American Civil Liberties Union found that people were imprisoned even when the cost of doing so exceeded the amount of debt they…
DeMint Blocks Confirmation Of El Salvador’s Ambassador Because She Condemned Homophobia
On June 28, Aponte penned an op-ed praising the Funes’ directive, writing, “No one should be subjected to aggression because of who he is or who he loves. Homophobia and brutal hostility are often based on lack of understanding about what it truly means to be gay or transgender. To avoid negative perceptions, we must…