Friday, Apr 19th
Last update07:17:01 AM GMT
Domestic Glance
Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson had headed up investigations on behalf of the Florida attorney general’s office for more than a year into the fraudulent foreclosure practices that had become rampant in the Sunshine State. They issued subpoenas and conducted scores of interviews, building a litany of cases that documented the most egregious abuses.
That is, until the Friday afternoon in May when they were called into a supervisor’s office and forced to resign abruptly and without explanation.
Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation requiring public schools to teach students about the contributions of gay and lesbian people, making California the first state to adopt such a measure.
The bill was cheered by gay rights advocates, and Brown said in a written statement Thursday that it "represents an important step forward for our state."
Missouri's governor said on Thursday he will let a measure passed by state lawmakers this spring restricting abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy take effect -- though he will not sign it.
Under the state's constitution, bills sent to the governor but not signed become law. The Missouri legislation, similar to that in several other states, prohibits abortions on viable fetuses after 20 weeks unless continuing the pregnancy would threaten the mother's life or cause substantial injury to her major bodily functions.
A former police detective testified Monday that he participated in a plot to fabricate witnesses, falsify reports and plant a gun to make it seem police were justified in shooting unarmed residents on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina.
Jeffrey Lehrmann, a government witness in the federal trial of five current or former officers, said he saw Sergeant Arthur 'Archie' Kaufman retrieve a gun from his home several weeks after the deadly shootings on the Danziger Bridge.
This story involves a woman named Julie Bass, whose front yard was dug up during sewer line construction. After the construction project was completed, instead of planting grass, she thought it would be far more practical to plant a vegetable garden.
None of this seems to matter to Kevin Rulkowski, the city planner for the city of Oak Park, Michigan. With a nasty arrogance that seems to be increasingly common among ignorant bureaucrats, he complains in a video news report that Julie Bass's garden is in violation of city code and Julie has to dig up her entire garden or face punitive enforcement actions by the city (which could include jail time).
Shockingly, paramilitary raids that mirror the tactics of US soldiers in combat are not uncommon in America. According to an investigation carried out by the Huffington Post's Radley Balko, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement over the last 30 years, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units for routine police work. In fact, the most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home.
While 76 per cent correctly said Great Britain, 19 per cent were unsure, and 5 per cent mentioned another country.
It was young people letting the side down with 67 per cent of those under 30 giving the right country.
This is against 80 per cent of those 60 and older, 77 per cent of those 45 to 59, and 77 per cent of those between 30 and 44.
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