Rarely do deaths lead to murder or manslaughter charges. Research by Philip M. Stinson, a criminologist at Bowling Green State University, reports that 41 officers were charged with either murder or manslaughter in shootings while on duty over a seven-year period ending in 2011.
Electronic legal notices would save governments $100 million a year
“Before newspapers we had town criers,” Robbins said recently. He quotes a late 2012 poll by Quinnipiac University that indicates only 13 percent of those polled said they relied on newspapers for their political news and information.
Protests against police violence slow in New York, flare in Berkeley
ALJAZEEZRA Protests sparked by a series of deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white officers continued for a fourth A fourth night of demonstrations against police violence got off to a slow start on a rain-soaked Saturday in New York, after mourners held a funeral for an unarmed black man shot dead […]
Protests against police violence slow in New York, flare in Berkeley
ALJAZEERA: A fourth night of demonstrations against police violence got off to a slow start on a rain-soaked Saturday in New York, after mourners held a funeral for an unarmed black man shot dead by a white police officer in the stairwell of a Brooklyn apartment building. But protesters in Berkeley, California clashed with police, […]
Merkel accuses Putin of ‘creating problems’
FINANCIAL TIMES: German chancellor Angela Merkel delivered a sweeping criticism of President Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine crisis, warning that Russia was “creating problems” in Moldova and Georgia, and trying to make some Balkan states “politically and economically dependent.” …
Chronicle Review Essay: The Rise of the New Synthetic Drugs
“We are currently unprepared legislatively, socioculturally, and practically for this, the next phase in the drug market,” he writes. “Legalization is not the answer, banning drugs is not the answer, leaving things as they are — in complete unregulated anarchy in both the old and the new drug markets — is not the answer… There must be a concerted effort not only of harm reduction, but of urgent damage limitation… The explicit and implicit message from drug users themselves is that no law will ever change nor has ever changed their desire to get high.”
A milestone in the evolution of Chinese Democracy?
The violent subduing the student protests in Tiananmen Square, Beijing in 1989 has hung over China as a dark cloud and has been perceived by the world as a badge of shame ever since.
Joe Biden Sees ‘Less Than Even’ Chance of Nuclear Deal With Iran
NEWSMAX /REUTERS: Vice President Joe Biden said on Saturday there was a “less than even shot” of a nuclear deal with Iran but that it was still worth pursuing. Biden, speaking at a forum on the Middle East at the Brookings Institution think tank, rejected calls for more sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program […]
Cassidy defeats Landrieu in Louisiana Senate runoff
The result gives the GOP its ninth Senate-seat pickup in this year’s elections. Republicans will have 54 Senate seats next year, and Democrats will control 46…
Work of secret prosecutor raises legal eyebrows
BUCKS COUNTY COURIER / AP: Any day now, a grand jury could render an opinion on whether Attorney General Kathleen Kane or anyone in her office should face charges for allegedly breaching secrecy laws.
How Putin and His Cronies Stole Russia
In her introduction, [Karen] Dawisha, a professor of political science at Miami University in Ohio, explains: “Instead of seeing Russian politics as an inchoate democratic system being pulled down by history, accidental autocrats, popular inertia, bureaucratic incompetence, or poor Western advice, I conclude that from the beginning Putin and his circle sought to create an authoritarian regime ruled by a close-knit cabal…who used democracy for decoration rather than direction.”…
Was 2014 the Year Science Discovered The Female Orgasm
Nearly a hundred years after Freud posed that question, we’ve firmly established that women do indeed want sex but scientists are just starting to understand how that works. And the year 2014, in particular, has borne witness to a seemingly unprecedented number of studies examining female sexuality and especially female orgasm. Are we finally unlocking the secrets of female sexuality? Can scientific research sweeten our sex lives? Let’s find out…
I Told a Grand Jury I Saw a Cop Shoot and Kill an Unarmed Man. It Didn’t Indict.
MOTHER JONES: …It was a summer evening. I was heading to play softball in Central Park. At the corner of Fifth Avenue and 79th Street, I got off my bicycle to walk toward the Great Lawn. The west side of Fifth was crowded with New Yorkers enjoying the beautiful night. People were streaming in and […]
Obama nominates Ashton Carter for Secretary of Defense
ALJAZEERA: Shaking up his Pentagon leadership, President Barack Obama tapped policy wonk Ashton Carter to oversee the sprawling Defense Department Friday, heralding his new nominee as one of the nation’s “foremost national security leaders.”… In discussing the Pentagon post with Carter, Obama said he emphasized the need “to make smart choices, precisely because there are […]