World No Tobacco Day; Workers and Wage Slaves; Banks and Wall Street, Accountability; US Politics, Vote Machinations, Gerrymandering in Florida; Native American, Racism; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy, Your Rights Online, TrueCrypt, Haxx0red, Facebook and Your Data

World No Tobacco Day

• Child Workers Are Getting Nicotine Poisoning on US Tobacco Farms
• New York raises minimum age to buy cigarettes to 21
• World No Tobacco Day: To tax or not to tax
• UK: NHS could start prescribing e-cigarettes as study finds them 60% more effective than gum or patches
• Top scientists warn WHO not to stub out e-cigarettes

Workers and Wage Slaves

• House GOP Votes Down Measure Aimed At Curbing Wage Theft
• Using Jailed Migrants as a Pool of Cheap Labor —"As the federal government cracks down on immigrants in the country illegally and forbids businesses to hire them, it is relying on tens of thousands of those immigrants each year to provide essential labor." NYT
• Bond set at $250,000 for Wayne Miller, president of Cathedral Bible College with Myrtle Beach campus—Allegation: "Miller threatened to cancel foreign students' visas if they did not work long hours for little pay."
• Michigan Set to Raise Minimum Wage to $9.25 Hour
• America's middle-class defeat: How Canada shamed the wealthiest nation on earth—"Want to understand what's causing the decay of the American dream? Take some lessons from our friends to the north." Salon
• 40% of EU citizens can't afford a vacation
• Japan creates new national holiday for 'overworked' population
• Robots will replace fast-food workers

Banks and Wall Street

• IMF chief says banks haven't changed since financial crisis—"Christine Lagarde tells London conference banking sector is still resisting reform and taking excessive risks."
• Bank of England governor: capitalism doomed if ethics vanish—"Mark Carney issues strong critique of City behaviour and warns of growing sense that basic social contract is breaking down."
• Obama Administration Spent a Fortune Monitoring Occupy Protests, including Flash Mobs and Yoga Classes—"The documents show monitoring in 2011 and 2012 by law enforcement agencies around the country [NYT], reporting on religious meetings, Christmas caroling and other events."
• Blast from the Past: What Actually Happens At The End Of 'Trading Places'?

Accountability

• Explosive claims on JP Morgan conduct—"A technical support person who worked for JP Morgan in Australia claims the bank regularly misled its New York parent and the US Federal Reserve by failing to report losing trades." SMH
• Goldman, JPMorgan sued over zinc price manipulation
• Los Angeles sues JPMorgan Chase over foreclosures WaPo
• The guy who tried to rig gold prices and cost his bank $44 million
• Icahn, Mickelson are investigated in U.S. insider trading probe: source
• Iran hangs billionaire over $2.6b bank fraud—"Largest fraud case since 1979 Islamic Revolution sends four scammers to the gallows, including tycoon Mahafarid Amir Khosravi."

US Politics

• Conservatism is losing ground in the US—"Number of Americans describing themselves as social, economic conservatives shrinks, according to new poll."
• Conservatives are losing their edge — quickly WaPo
• Dear GOP: "Duck Dynasty's" Phil Robertson may not help your outreach problem—"Party chair Reince Priebus wants the GOP to be seen as the party of equality. Meet their future leaders." Salon
• Republican Leadership Conference: The GOP’s speakers lineup is a problem—"Why the Republican Party attracts provocateurs, faux martyrs, and grifters in droves."
• America Is Becoming a Bit More Liberal. That's Pretty Unusual Six Years Into a Democratic Presidency.

Vote Machinations

• Americans overwhelmingly side with Hillary Clinton over Karl Rove in brain flap—"Republican strategist Karl Rove may need a different strategy to slow Hillary Clinton's 2016 candidacy." WaPo
• Conservative groups push for voter photo ID requirement in Ohio
• Democrats, stop fighting voter ID laws—"It's a tough concession that could actually work to get more minority voters to the polls." WaPo

Gerrymandering in Florida

• Redistricting Expert: Florida's Gerrymandered Maps Give An 8 Point Advantage To Republicans
• Surprise witness emerges in redistricting trial—"An FSU student who allegedly submitted a map to the Legislature with proposed new districts said he never drew any maps and his name was used without permission."
• Florida may be forced to redraw political districts before midterms WaPo

Native American

• Supreme Court says Mich. can't block Indian casino
• Courts challenge Native American land rights—"Recent cases have undermined tribal sovereignty and economic development, Native Americans say."
• Lawsuit: Casino Built on Native American Burial Ground

Racism

• Unsurprisingly, the Redskins #RedskinsPride Hashtag Backfired Quite Horribly—But that's not stopping them.
• Reports: Donald Sterling To Sue The NBA For $1 Billion
• White Police Lieutenant Awarded $1.35 Million In Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

NSA Spying

• Edward Snowden responds to release of e-mail by U.S. officials WaPo
• Daniel Ellsberg: Snowden would not get a fair trial – and Kerry is wrong—"Edward Snowden is the greatest patriot whistleblower of our time, and he knows what I learned more than four decades ago: until the Espionage Act gets reformed, he can never come home safe and receive justice."
• John Kerry Should 'Man Up' And Admit He's Wrong About Snowden
• Courier Services Deny Participation in NSA Interception Program

Surveillance and Privacy

• Privacy call for internet browsing in the wake of Edward Snowden leaks—"Survey reveals that more than eight out of 10 internet users believe their search history should be kept private."
• German spies want $400M to play catch-up with the NSA—"Confidential documents from the BND, Germany's answer to the NSA and GCHQ, suggest the agency could soon get major funding to improve its online surveillance and hacking capabilities."
• Former Head Of 'NSA North' Says Canadians Are 'Stupid'

Your Rights Online

• User gets prison sentence for using 'Allah CC' nickname on Twitter
• Turkey highest court: YouTube ban violates rights WaPo
• Google sets up 'right to be forgotten' form after EU ruling

TrueCrypt

• "TrueCrypt is not secure," official SourceForge page abruptly warns—"Support for decade-old crypto program pulled, touching off Internet firestorm."
• True Goodbye: 'Using TrueCrypt Is Not Secure'
• Bombshell TrueCrypt advisory: Backdoor? Hack? Hoax? None of the above?—LavaBit 2: Electric Bugaloo?
• TrueCrypt security audit presses on, despite developers jumping ship

Haxx0red

• The eBay hack, the loss of 140 million records, and the PR fiasco—If you still haven't done so, change your eBay password right now.
• Your iPhone has been taken hostage. Pay $100 ransom to get it back—If you still haven't done so, change your iCloud password right now.
• After seven months and no Microsoft patch, Internet Explorer 8 vulnerability is revealed
• Will Everyone Please Quit Bitching About Passwords?

Facebook and Your Data

• Passive listening will soon be a feature for Facebook app during status updates
• Facebook Stops Irresponsibly Defaulting Privacy Of New Users' Posts To "Public", Changes To "Friends"
• Facebook Reaps Billions from Your Data: It's Time to Unplug
• Facebook gives up on automatically posting everything you do online

Workers and Wage Slaves, VW and UAW, Minimum Wage, Unemployment, Occupational Hazards; Class War, Florida; Banks and Wall Street, Accountability, Bitcoin, Haxx0red; Tech Tracking

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Rise of the low-wage breadwinner
• 40% of Americans Consider Themselves in the Lower Classes—"The economic recovery is nearly five years old, but many Americans are feeling financially worse off than they were in 2008 according to study released Monday by the PEW Research Center in partnership with USA Today."
• Reich: Why The Three Biggest Economic Lessons Were Forgotten
• Krugman: Inequality, Dignity and Freedom—"Who really honors work and liberty? Probably not the 1 percent or the Republican Party." NYT
• U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown lobbies for his bill that would expand Earned Income Tax Credits for the working poor
• AOL chief reverses changes to 401(k) policy after a week of bad publicity—One of the 'distressed baby' mothers speak out. WaPo
• Congress votes to repeal military pension cuts—Guess who was responsible for these cuts happening in the first place.

VW and UAW

• Tennessee legislators threaten to withhold incentives if VW workers choose UAW—"Not only are Republican legislators accusing Volkswagen of backing the UAW, some of their leaders on Monday threatened to withhold tax incentives for future expansion of the three-year-old assembly plant in Chattanooga if workers vote later this week to join the UAW."
• Union Drive Doesn’t Bother Management, but G.O.P. Fumes NYT
• U.S. senator drops bombshell during VW plant union vote—"[H]e has been 'assured' that if workers at the Volkswagen AG plant in his hometown of Chattanooga reject United Auto Worker representation, the company will reward the plant with a new product to build."
• VW counters U.S. senator, says new product not linked to union vote
• UAW and VW Seek Economic High Road, Anti-Union Pols Seek to Block It
• Obama lashes out at Republicans on Volkswagen-union organizing fight
• Loss at Volkswagen plant upends union's plan for U.S. South

Minimum Wage

• The Case for a Higher Minimum Wage—"An increase would help 27.8 million people. It would also help balance power in the workplace." NYT
• After 23 Years, Your Waiter Is Ready For A Raise
• NFL Cheerleaders File Suit Saying They Make As Little As $2.85 Per Hour
• Obama to include disabled workers in federal minimum-wage hike—"Nobody who works full-time should have to live in poverty."
• Wisconsin Republicans Want To Prohibit Local Minimum Wage Laws

Unemployment

• Unemployed Americans Increasingly Frustrated With Congressional Inaction
• What do the jobless do when the benefits end? WaPo
• Republicans Decide A Bad Idea To Help The Unemployed Is Suddenly A Good Idea To Help Others
• Emails show Florida officials celebrated launch of unemployment website as it failed for claimants
• Closing the gap—"America's labour market has suffered permanent harm."

Occupational Hazards

• In the Name of Love—"Elites embrace the 'do what you love' mantra. But it devalues work and hurts workers."
• Why I Just Quit My Job at Apple
• How Innovation Could Leave The Typical Worker Behind
• Woman Files Suit Against Employer Who Fired Her Hours After Cancer Diagnosis
• Postal service 'spied on worker with cancer'—"A German postwoman, who was sacked for missing work due to chemotherapy, is entitled to get her job back...."
• Sitting At Work For Hours Can Be As Unhealthy As Smoking

Class War

• Tom Perkins' big idea: The rich should get more votes—"But what I really think is, it should be like a corporation. You pay a million dollars in taxes, you get a million votes. How's that?"
• The poor should stop whining, says luxury CEO
• Wealthy more worried about being seen as wealthy
• CEO to employee pay continues to widen: study
• The Rise (and Rise and Rise) of the 0.01 Percent in America—"The average 1 percenter is quite rich. But she lives in a state of relative poverty compared to the astronomical wealth of 'the 1 percent of the 1 percent.'"
• Reich: America’s "We" Problem
• Krugman: Vox Anti-Populi NYT
• The U.S. Is Locking People Up For Being Poor
• Chris Christie Mocks Income Inequality, Praises George W. Bush
• Banker couple waged war on neighbour over 12 inches of land in Kent village

Florida

• Florida Ordinance Makes it Illegal for Homeless to Use Blankets to Protect Themselves from Weather
• A Florida County Spent Over $5 Million Jailing Homeless People. It Could've Spent Less On Shelter
• Looking for the cheats? Don't look at the poor

Banks and Wall Street

• The Vampire Squid Strikes Again: The Mega Banks' Most Devious Scam Yet—"Banks are no longer just financing heavy industry. They are actually buying it up and inventing bigger, bolder and scarier scams than ever."
• Sen. Elizabeth Warren questions government's Wall Street enforcement strategy following JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon's $8.5 million pay raise
• Barclays Bonuses Up 10% As 7,000 Jobs Are Cut—"The bank's investment arm staff get bonuses more than twice the average UK worker's income, as 7,000 job cuts are announced."
• High-Speed Trading Isn't About Efficiency—It's About Cheating—"When hedge funds use bots to buy and sell stocks within milliseconds, they're not improving the market. They're rigging the market."
• Big Brother HSBC bank wanted to know what I'd spend my money on—"When I tried to withdraw £7,000 I had to provide an invoice to prove how I planned to use it."
• Feminist Writer Receives Letter From Bank of America Addressed to 'Lisa Is a Slut McIntire'
• Now FIFTH Bankers In Two Weeks Found Dead, Ruled 'Suicide' by Nail Gun

Accountability

• Bank of England Staff Said to Condone FX Traders' Conduct
• Ex-Morgan Stanley Chief Jams Foot in Mouth, Complains of CEO Abuse—"John Mack actually thinks the government is being too hard on his banker buddies."
• Chinese official made job plea to JPMorgan Chase chief—"Federal authorities are now investigating whether the hiring at JPMorgan — and at least six other big banks — was done explicitly to win business from Chinese companies."
• Regulator plans purge of Wall Street arbitrators
• Florida Rep Helped Fugitive Embezzlers

Bitcoin

• JP Morgan: Bitcoin is "vastly inferior" to traditional, fiat currency—"It would be onerous for any economy operating with it as legal tender."
• California Bill Would Make Bitcoin 'Lawful Money'
• New Silk Road hit with $2.6 million heist due to known Bitcoin flaw

Haxx0red

• Sophisticated Spy Tool 'The Mask' Rages Undetected for 7 Years
• Change your passwords: Comcast hushes, minimizes serious hack
• CloudFlare Warns Cyber-Criminals Already Experimenting With Much Bigger DDoS Attacks
• Bizarre attack infects Linksys routers with self-replicating malware
• Google will block local extensions in Chrome 33 for Windows, disable existing ones not in the Chrome Web Store

Tech Tracking

• French court orders Google to display fine for privacy breach
• How to stop ad trackers on your smartphones
• Which VPN Services Take Your Anonymity Seriously? 2013 / 2014

Alcohol, War on Drugs, Florida, Racism, Think of the Children, 420, Legalization and Decriminalization; Surveillance and Privacy

Alcohol

• Drug Czar's Office Explains Why It Omitted Alcohol Data From Drug and Crime Report
• 1,021 drivers stopped at Burbank DUI checkpoint; 0 were drunk
• Surprise man charged with DUI "with a blood alcohol level of 0.000"—"He (the officer) walked up and he said 'I can tell you're driving DUI by looking in your eyes.'"
• Drunk-driver given 18 months for crash involving Paralympian cyclist
• Blast from the Past: Breatho chaos stalls Falls exit Tasmania News—15,000 concert-goers, 1 exit for breathalyzer tests

War on Drugs

• Washington Lawmakers To Eric Holder: 'Respect The Will Of The Voters' On Marijuana Policy
• The most embarrassing graph in American drug policy
• Mandatory Drug Testing Would've Prevented Boston Bombing, Says Owner of Drug Testing Company

Florida

• Florida's welfare drug tests cost more money than state saves, data shows
• Florida: Scott signs Rouson's 'bong ban' into law
• In Florida, Selling a Pot Pipe Is a Felony But Illegally Pushing Millions of OxyContin Is a Fine

Racism

• Billions of Dollars Wasted on Racially Biased Arrests
• A Loud Message to the N.Y.P.D.—"After years of sitting on the sidelines, the United States Justice Department has finally made itself heard in the federal civil rights lawsuit by New Yorkers who say the Police Department has been illegally detaining hundreds of thousands of people on the streets each year based not on suspicious behavior but on race." NYT
• Racially Biased Arrests for Pot—"The 'war on marijuana' has become a war on minorities." NYT

Think of the Children

• Cops Go Undercover at High School to Bust Special-Needs Kid for Pot: Why Are Police So Desperate to Throw Kids in Jail?—"The school-to-prison pipeline strikes again."
• Teens Are Being Trapped in Abusive 'Drug Rehab Centers'
• David Simon, creator of The Wire, says new US drug laws help only 'white, middle-class kids'

420

• Let's stop wrecking lives over a bag of weed
• Senior citizen felon? 73-year-old faces prison for pot—"Yeah, I grew a few plants," McFeters said. "I thought I was doing good by not supporting the cartels and everything like that."
• Sheriff's bust legal pot-grower
• Medical marijuana rally protests 10-year prison sentence for Monroe-area farmer—"At the moment that federal agents raided [Gerald Duval Jr.'s] farm, 'I was 100% legal' under Michigan's medical marijuana act."
• Medical Marijuana Patient Jerry Duval's Prison Term Could Cost Taxpayers More Than $1.2 Million
• Obama Administration Has Spent Nearly $300 Million Cracking Down On Medical Marijuana: Report
• Majority Of Doctors Would Prescribe Medical Marijuana To Their Patients
• Germany Seeks Uniform Law on Marijuana—"In Berlin, you can carry 15 grams of marijuana. In Munich? Just six. To ease any confusion, German states are now trying to hash out possession regulations that would apply across the country."

Legalization and Decriminalization

• God Doesn't Care If You Smoke Weed; Pastors Focus On Decriminalizing Unjust Drug Laws
• Marijuana Legalization: Colo. Gov. Hickenlooper Signs First Bills In History To Establish A Legal, Regulated Pot Market For Adults
• Vermont Decriminalizes Marijuana Possession
• Pot Brownies Should Be Childproofed, Doctors Say
• Medicinal use of cannabis legalised in France!
• Canada: Report calls for decriminalizing both 'hard' and 'soft' drugs
• New Zealand law permits 'low risk' designer drugs

Surveillance and Privacy

• Valerie Plame: Edward Snowden Deserves Thanks, 'Will Be Abused,' Clapper Should Resign
• Edward Snowden: Saving Us from the United Stasi of America—"Snowden's whistleblowing gives us a chance to roll back what is tantamount to an 'executive coup' against the US constitution."
• 'Tell your boss I owe him another friggin' beer:' Hot mic catches NSA boss praising FBI chiefs for supportive testimony on surveillance programs
• FBI Director: We Have Used Drones On U.S. Soil—He also decried following proper procedure to gather information takes "an awful long time."
• Poll: 65 percent want Congress to hold public hearings on NSA—But Congress was the one that voted to keep FISA rubberstamping spy requests for five more years.
• NSA surveillance is an attack on American citizens, says Noam Chomsky—"Governments will use whatever technology is available to combat their primary enemy – their own population, says critic." He obviously hates 'Murica and wants teh terrists to win.
• You probably didn't read the most telling part of Orwell's "1984?—the appendix

War on Drugs, Legalization and Decriminalization, States, 'Stop and Frisk'; Bad Cops, Florida; False Rape

War on Drugs

• The Human Casualties of the War on Drugs
• The war on drugs is a war on people
• Drug Testing Unemployment Measures To Get Boost In State Legislatures
• Harris-Perry: Ending drug war may be 'best gun control measure we can enact'
• Mexico: Nine killed in Coahuila bar shootings
• Police drug search intrudes on husband's final moments with deceased wife—"A man says Vernal police disrupted an intimate moment of mourning with his deceased wife of 58 years when they searched his house for her prescription medication without a warrant within minutes of her death."
• PSA: Hey kid, want some drugs?

Legalization and Decriminalization

• How Billionaire Peter Lewis Is Bankrolling Marijuana Legalization
• Calls to legalize pot are gaining America's support
• Why marijuana should be legal for adults
• White House drug czar: We're having a "serious conversation" about pot
• Marijuana dispensary operator Aaron Sandusky sentenced to 10 years
• Despite Legalization, WA Continues Prosecuting Marijuana Cases
• Would Legalizing Marijuana Be Too Hard on Simpletons?—"That's the latest argument offered by a prominent critic of legal cannabis. And it fails even if you accept the need for paternalism."
• The DEA's marijuana mistake—"The DEA and the National Institute for Drug Abuse block serious research on medical uses of marijuana, creating a ridiculous circle of denials."

States

• 59% of Arizonians Want Marijuana Regulated Like Alcohol
• 57% of Hawaiian Voters Support Marijuana Legalization
• Daylin Leach offers a wry, liberal, influential voice in the Pennsylvania Senate

'Stop and Frisk'

• NYPD's controversial 'Stop and Frisk' policy ruled unconstitutional—Part of it anyway, but a big part.
• Cuomo pushes marijuana decriminalization after court ends 'stop and frisk'
• Is Stop-And-Frisk Spreading to Other Cities?

Bad Cops

• Occupy Steubenville: Anonymous Takes On Ohio Sheriff
• Blind man seeks compensation for police Taser mistake
• NC Woman Sues NYPD Over Empire State Shooting—"A North Carolina college student hit by police gunfire during a shooting outside the Empire State Building argued in a lawsuit Tuesday that the police department and the officers involved need better training to deal with such confrontations in the future."
• Seattle protester files suit after video shows police lie
• Too little punishment for Pr. George's police officer's assault—"If a witness hadn't shot video of two Prince George's County police officers savagely beating John McKenna... that would probably have been the end of it."

Florida

• Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Who Arrested Speeding Miami Officer Files Lawsuit
• Michael Dunn, Florida Man, Invokes 'Stand Your Ground' Law After Shooting Black Teen
• Florida: Changing Car Color Does Not Justify Traffic Stop—"Florida Court of Appeal rules repainted cars should not be automatically subject to traffic stops.

False Rape

• Teenager falsely accused of rape beaten to death by gang—"Five killers carried out the 'extraordinarily callous, violent and brutal' murder of a teenager after the sister of one wrongly claimed he had raped her, a court heard today."
• Mum-to-be Sabrina Johnson jailed for a year for crying rape
• Wymore man sues after false rape accusation

Fiscal Cliff, Disability; Right-To-Work, Workers, Government at work, Immigration; Elections Aftermath, Republicans; Fucks News, Media & Journalism

Fiscal Cliff

• Obama takes his case to people for "fiscal cliff" deal
• Republicans wave the white flag--Even Ann Coulter thinks so.
• McConnell Filibusters His Own Bill To Lift Debt Ceiling--Maybe the Senate can work something out to stop this ridiculousness.
• Poll: Republicans think anti-tax pledge is bad idea--GOP is still scheming how to avert the blame.
• Republican Congressman's Excuse For Not Extending The Middle-Class Tax Cuts--"Rep. John Duncan (R-TN) admits that he won't extend middle-class tax cuts in order to keep control of the floor out of the hands of Democrats."
• Why Not Push the Pentagon off the Fiscal Cliff?
• Billionaires Warn Higher Taxes Could Prevent Them From Buying Politicians--"Introducing a new wrinkle into the already fraught fiscal cliff showdown, a consortium of billionaires today warned that if their taxes are raised they will no longer have enough money to buy politicians." Let's see how many fall for this piece of satire.

Disability

• Senate Republicans' profiles in moral cowardice
• What Kind of Party Votes Against Protection for People With Disabilities?
• Stewart Rips GOP: 'They Hate The United Nations More Than They Like Helping People In Wheelchairs'

Right-To-Work

• Michigan passes 'right-to-work' measures--"Michigan's GOP-dominated statehouse voted Thursday in lame-duck session in favor of right-to-work laws that critics say would limit workers' rights and weaken unions."
• "This is where Democracy goes to die today."--"In this clip, State Rep. Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids) explains his opposition to House Bill 4054, a proposal to make Michigan a 'right-to-work' state. The proposal was pushed through the House in one day without a single committee hearing and without taking a single word of testimony."
• 'It's Not Just Anti-Union. It's Anti-Worker.' NFLPA and MLBPA Join Fight Against Michigan Right-to-Work
• NFL Players Union Opposes Michigan's 'Right-To-Work' Push: 'We Don't Think Workers Deserve This'
• Obama: Right-To-Work Laws Mean 'Right To Work For Less Money'

Workers

• Krugman: The Forgotten Millions--"Let's get one thing straight: America is not facing a fiscal crisis. It is, however, still very much experiencing a job crisis." NYT
• The End of Middle Class Growth: What It Means for the Future of Work, Family, and the Economy
• McJobs Should Pay, Too: Inside Fast-Food Workers' Historic Protest For Living Wages
• The argument in the floor: Evidence is mounting that moderate minimum wages can do more good than harm
• This week in the War on Workers: This cartoon about taxing the rich outraged Rush Limbaugh

Government at work

• Was spruce-up of Point Breeze lot a trespass?--Good samaritan gets sued by city for cleaning up trash.
• Disabled daughter dies just hours after state takes her from mom--Stay classy, Florida.
• Rick Scott's Job Czar Hunting Deutsch Quits After Collecting Unemployment Benefits While Traveling Through Europe--Stay classy, Florida.
• Florida State seeks details of young women's sex lives--Stay... ah, forget it. This is why they got their own Fark tag.
• Wikipedia Bans Congress--"A one-week ban on IP addresses associated with the US Congress will stay in effect until the Wikipedia Foundation can collect comments on abuses of Wikipedia by Congressional staffers."

Immigration

• Republicans' Immigration Bill Blocked by Senate Democrats--It would have ended up "abolishing an annual lottery that distributes green cards to foreigners from countries with traditionally low immigration to the United States." NYT
• The GOP's immigration jam
• Understanding Immigration Reform"--Comprehensive immigration reform means different things to different people. What should we look for in attempts to fix the system?" NYT
• Top 10 Reasons Why The U.S. Needs Comprehensive Immigration Reform
• Illegal immigration drops after decade-long rise Salon

Elections Aftermath

• How President Obama Won a Second Term--"Political strategist James Carville breaks down where the Republicans went wrong – and what it means for the future."
• Where Americans stood this election--"See how much selected voter groups voted Democratic or Republican in the 2012 election national exit poll."
• Ex-Fla. Gov. Charlie Crist tweets he’s 'proud and honored to join the Democratic Party'
• The Real Republican Adversary? Population Density
• Florida Rejects Christian Slater's Ballot--He resorted to using a provisional ballot after waiting for hours in line to vote.

Republicans

• RNC launches official review on 2012 election
• GOP Resurrects Plan to Rig Electoral College--"After Romney got walloped on November 6, Republicans want to change how electoral votes are awarded."
• Almost Half of Republicans Indulge the 'Stolen Election' Delusion
• Billionaire Casino Mogul Sheldon Adelson Says He'll Double Down On GOP - Literally
• Will the GOP ever get serious?--"The Republicans' big-idea guys and policy wonks outlined their 2016 platforms this week. They sound a lot like 1980." Salon
• Paul Ryan Responds To Election Defeat By Swinging Even Further To The Right
• Joe Scarborough: Conservative Media Is 'Destroying' Republican Party

Fucks News

• Publicist confirms it: Fox News banned book critical of George W. Bush
• Fox News has oldest cable audience
• PR Stunts: Fake Study Links Fox News to Low IQs--"It was a headline destined to simultaneously inspire a dozen highfalutin op-eds and a million bitchy comments: Fox News Viewers Are the Dumbest. One problem, though: it was what we in the media world call 'a bunch of BS.'"

Media & Journalism

• FCC Taking Beating For Plans to Gut Media Consolidation Rules--Wawtch Sen. Bernie Sanders discuss why 'big media shouldn't get bigger.'
• Time Gives Up on Factchecking--"Corporate media can't find a way to tell the truth."
• 10 Brilliant Quotes by Noam Chomsky on How Media Really Operates in America
• The Oatmeal: I wrote a response to Jack Stuef's BuzzFeed article about me--The amount of misinformation in Stuef's article is absurd, and I saw a pathetic hack piece on Salon piling on Inman.
• What Disturbs Us Most About the N.Y. Post Subway Death Cover

Educamation, Math and Science, Students, Karen Klein, Suicides, Think of the Children

Educamation

• NYC Dept. Of Education Bans 'Evolution' And Other 'Offensive' Words From Tests
• Backtracking on Florida Exams Flunked by Many, Even an Educator NYT
• Texas Republicans express 'regret' for officially opposing critical thinking skills
• Dumbing down America one child at a time
• Edmonton teacher suspended for giving 0s--"Lynden Dorval, a physics teacher at Ross Sheppard High School, has been giving the mark for work that wasn't handed in or tests not taken even though it goes against the school's 'no-zero' policy."

Math and Science

• Can We Fix Computer Science Education in America?
• Obama proposes $1B for science, math teachers
• UK: Make maths compulsory for all A level students, say Lords
• Is Algebra Necessary?--Asks the political scientist. NYT
• Teachers find bonus pay not a matter of degree--"[B]ecause [Scott Johnson's] master’s degree [in astrophysics] wasn’t in math, the subject he taught this past year, under a new state law he didn't qualify for the $2,625 bonus pay teachers can receive for having that higher degree."

Students

• The order putting Diana Tran, the honor student working to support her family, in jail for truancy has been vacated--Why are students going to jail for absurd reasons?
• University sues student who 'studied too fast'--"A private German economics and business university is suing one of its students for lost income after he finished his Bachelors and Masters degrees in about a quarter of the normal time."
• Senate Report: For-Profit Colleges Exploit Students

Karen Klein

• People Are Awesome: Bullied School Bus Monitor Gets a Really Nice Vacation--And a retirement.
• Bus monitor Karen Klein opens up about kid bullies
• 4 Bus Monitor Bullies Suspended a Year From School

Suicides

• 7-year-old's suicide shocks Detroit community
• Teen who committed suicide wrote bullying post herself, friend tells inquest
• Why are young Indians killing themselves?

Think of the Children

• Time is now for grown-up talk on drinking age--"The drinking age should be 18, period."
• Why are American kids so spoiled?
• Zen Magnets: Public response to the CPSC--Concern-trolling Consumer Product Safety Commission wants the company to shut down.
• 5-Year-Old Seriously Injured After Swallowing Buckyballs
• Blast from the Past: Choking Warning Labels for Hot Dogs?

Blue Line, Sexual Assault, New York, Florida, Don't Tase Me Bro, Caught on Cam

Blue Line

• Cop Fired For Speeding 143 MPH While Drunk Gets Job Back
• Protests after Houston cop cleared of beating black teen
• Report: Goodyear Police Botched Death Investigation
• Illinois Defunds Torture Commission Just After It Finds Torture Problems
• Chief fires lieutenant again after his 15th suspension

Sexual Assault

• Revealed: the scale of sexual abuse by police officers--"Guardian investigation finds sexual predators in police are abusing their power to target victims of crime."
• 'My life has been shattered': Teacher, 24, sobs in court as NYPD officer jailed for life after sexual assault at gunpoint
• Ex-cop found guilty of rape; he blamed Zoloft for his actions

New York

• Crime Report Manipulation Is Common Among New York Police, Study Finds NYT
• Couple Arrested for Dancing While Waiting for the NYC Subway
• Wall Street Recruiter Fighting for Right to Flip Cops the Bird
• 'Link' between DNA from Occupy Wall Street protest & Sarah Fox murder was actually product of a lab mess-up: sources--"The NYPD lab employee who processed evidence from both cases will likely face departmental charges for not taking precautions to prevent tainting, sources said."
• Just Like Old Times: NYPD Brutally Attack Peaceful Protesters at Zuccotti Park

Florida

• Florida 'first offender' gets 161 years in prison
• Florida Judge Orders Release of Elderly Man Serving 20 Years for Firing Two Warning Shots--"A Florida judge has ordered a new trial for Ronald Thompson, the 65-year-old disabled veteran who was sentenced to 20 years in prison under Florida's mandatory minimum law after firing two warning shots to scare off a gang of teenagers. In the meantime, the judge wants Thompson, who has already served three years of his 20 year sentence, released from prison."
• Deputies shoot, kill man after knocking on wrong door

Don't Tase Me, Bro

• Florida cops taser man three times after stopping him for jaywalking--"Officers tasered Zikomo Peurifoy three ties before cuffing him and taking him into custody, but rather than apologize for using violence against a non-violent suspect, police have said they are considering using the video for training purposes."
• American Heart Association: Tasers can cause death
• Tasered for not showing his ticket

Caught on Cam

• Eyewitness to Miami Beach shooting alleges police misconduct
• Austin Man Facing 10 Years in Prison After Photographing Cops Making Arrest
• Motorcyclist Arrested for Wearing a Helmet Cam
• ACLU Releases "Police Tape" Android App
• Houston Cops Kill Unarmed Man, Confiscate Cell Phone Camera From Witness

Money Laundering, Fast and Furious, Mexico, 420, DEA, Medical Marijuana, Law and Disorder, War on Drugs, International

Money Laundering

• Senate report: HSBC 'allowed drug money laundering'--They're 'sorry' for what they'v done.
• Mexican Drug Cartel Laundered Money Through BofA, FBI Alleges
• Mexican drug cartels and the U.S. banking industry--It's been going on for some time now.

Fast and Furious

• The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal--"A Fortune investigation reveals that the ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. How the world came to believe just the opposite is a tale of rivalry, murder, and political bloodlust."
• Fast and Furious follow up: The ATF and gun stores
• Fast And Furious: Feds Name 4 Suspects Linked To Botched Gun-Smuggling Operation
• Fast and Furious: Failed scandal--"John Boehner seems to realize his party’s effort to use Fast and Furious to embarrass Obama has failed." Salon
• Fast And Furious Whistleblower: Grassley, Issa 'Cried Wolf' On New ATF Video

Mexico

• Mexican drug cartels' spreading influence: Graphic
• Drugs tunnel between Mexico and US discovered
• Mexican papers halt crime coverage for fear of reprisals

420

• Why Pot Is Illegal Everywhere in the World
• Jon Stewart criticizes Chris Christie over marijuana legalization--Christie now says that the war on drugs "has been a failure."
• Moms and Dads for Marijuana Regulation unveil new Colorado billboard

DEA

• DEA head: A thousand dead children means we’re winning war on drugs Salon
• Government-sponsored study destroys DEA's classification of marijuana
• The Fallacy of the DEA: Why the Agency Needs to Concede to Legal Marijuana

Medical Marijuana

• Obama's War On Ethical Medical Pot
• Vote To Close Marijuana Shops Postponed Amid Proposed Deal
• Medical marijuana patient Bob Crouse acquitted of felony charges--"I was just trying to grow the quantity of medicine I needed to medicate myself. I never had any intent to distribute."
• Study: Medical Marijuana Does Not Increase Number Of Teens Smoking Pot
• Injured vets want battle over pot to end

Law and Disorder

• Stop-and-Frisk May Soon Hit Judicial Roadblocks NYT
• Florida Cop Fired for Planting Dope, Says He Did That and More Under Orders
• Long Beach Police Investigate Excessive Force in Pot-Shop Raid
• Harlem Couple Branded 'Professional Agitators' in NYPD 'Wanted' Poster
• Twelve Years for Cough Syrup, Criminal Charges for Ibuprofen

War on Drugs

• In His Second Term, Obama Will Pivot to the Drug War
• The Myth of the Toothless President
• The drug war: The path to decriminalisation
• New York Times: What Do You Get From A Drug War Costing $25 Billion Annually? Cocaine 74 Percent Cheaper Than It Was 30 Years Ago
• Florida Supreme Court upholds state's drug law--"A Florida law that requires people caught with illegal drugs in their possession to prove their innocence has been upheld by the state Supreme Court." Emphasis mine.

International

• A Quiet Revolution: Drug Decriminalisation Policies in Practice Across the Globe--"The main aim of the report was to look at the existing research to establish whether the adoption of a decriminalised policy led to significant increases in drug use - the simple answer is that it did not."
• Uruguay legalizes marijuana to fight crime
• Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal
• Britain is losing war on drugs--But "[g]overnment has no intention of changing law and problem will not be solved by decriminalisation."
• Cocaine and coca not the same thing, says Bolivia's Morales in defiance of US
• Canadians favor decriminalizing marijuana
• Aussies the biggest recreational drug users in the world - report

Rmoney, Campaign Finance, Public-Private Partnerships, Voter Suppresion, States, Immigration, Elections

Rmoney

• Mitt Romney stayed at Bain 3 years longer than he stated--Claims of inaccuracy by the Romney camp can't overturn the facts, as the Washington Post's factchecker discovered.
• Tax Avoider in Chief?--"Republicans aren’t just in favor of lowering taxes; now they’re applauding wildly complex efforts by the wealthiest Americans to avoid paying billions in taxes by shipping capital to other countries." NYT
• What's Romney Hiding in His Tax Returns?
• New Republic: Mitt Romney, Crybaby Capitalist
• Media Barred From Photographing Romney With Cheney At Fundraiser
• Romney's 'Free Stuff' Speech Is a New Low
• Romney: Schrödinger's Candidate--Don't let Rush see this one though.

Campaign Finance

• DISCLOSE Act fails again in Senate--Republicans filibuster against transparency (NYT), but even the ACLU is against passing the bill.
• Harry Reid Worries About '17 Angry Old White Men' Buying The Nation
• The Power of Anonymity NYT
• The Selling of American Democracy: The Perfect Storm
• There's No Hiding It: Citizens United Wasn't About "Speech" -- It Was About Takeover of American Democracy
• Investigation takes closer look at GOP donor Adelson's billions
• The Super PAC That Aims to End Super PACs NYT

Public-Private Partnerships

• A Radical Fix for the Republic--"Lawrence Lessig thinks American democracy requires a constitutional overhaul to counter the 'economy of influence.'"
• Northrop Grumman Awards Lobbyist $500K Bonus Weeks Before Becoming Low-Paid Congressional Staffer Shaping Military Policy
• 130 Members of Congress Bought Stocks in Companies that Lobbied their Committees
• Senator Sherrod Brown Explains Why Big Business Owns Congress
• In Georgia, Tea Party And Progressives Go On Bus Tour To Fight Lobbyists

Voter Suppression

• Robinson: The GOP's crime against voters--"Spare us any more hooey about “preventing fraud” and “protecting the integrity of the ballot box.” The Republican-led crusade for voter ID laws has been revealed as a cynical ploy to disenfranchise as many likely Democratic voters as possible, with poor people and minorities the main targets."
• Drum: Voter ID Laws Are the Last Gasp of a Fading GOP Strategy
• Attorney General Holder On State Voter ID Laws: 'We Call This A Poll Tax'
• What could tighter voter ID laws mean in November?
• Fox Guest's Voter ID Law Defense: "Voting Is A Privilege"

States

• Will a GOP-backed voter-ID law turn Pennsylvania red?--"It's been 24 years since the Keystone State picked a GOP presidential candidate, but a move to bar voters who lack a driver's license could help Mitt reverse that trend."
• Mississipppi’s Voter ID Catch 22--"Mississippi’s voter identification law might prove literally impossible for some of its residents to adhere to."
• Wisconsin: Judge bars enforcement of voter ID requirements
• Oops! George W. Bush’s name on list of Texas residents who would be ineligible to vote
• Florida: Woman cut twice from voter rolls is dead certain she's alive

Immigration

• After the SB1070 ruling, undocumented Americans say 'No more Arizonas!'
• Scalia's Arizona Immigration Dissent
• Ronald Reagan Jr.: If people knew GOP's real immigration stance, 'nobody would vote for them'

Elections

• Fox's Charles Krauthammer Says Young Americans Support Obama Because They Don't Know Anything
• Michigan Rep. McCotter Resigns From Congress--"The five-term Republican from the Detroit suburb of Livonia said Friday he's leaving office for the good of his family. McCotter dropped his bid for re-election last month after learning his staff hadn't filed enough valid petition signatures to get him on the Aug. 7 primary ballot."
• Report: Schmidt, Bolger attempted 'fraud' in race for House seat, but did not break law
• Arpaio: Obama birth record definitely forged
• Washington State will enable voter registration via Facebook