Why extending unemployment benefits must be paid for, by Ian Reifowitz When did your county's population peak? This map shows you, by David Jarman Rosa Parks—beyond the stereotype, by Denise Oliver Velez You're terminated, by DarkSyde The invisible finger of the market, by Jon Perr Is Founding Father James Madison’s Federalist 10 also responsible for America’s divide, by Egberto Willies Henry Waxman and the impending irrelevance of Congress, by Dante Atkins
In an unprecedented move, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole asked defense lawyers on Thursday to help the government locate prisoners and encourage them to apply for clemency. The clemency drive is part of the Obama administration’s effort to undo a disparity that flooded the nation’s prison system and disproportionately affected black men. Offenses involving crack, which was more commonly used in black communities, carried more severe penalties than crimes involving powder cocaine, which was usually favored by affluent white users. In some cases, crack crimes resulted in a 100-to-1 sentencing disparity. Congress reduced that disparity in 2010. In December, President Obama commuted the sentences of eight federal inmates who received sentences under the old rules.
Offenses involving crack, which was more commonly used in black communities, carried more severe penalties than crimes involving powder cocaine, which was usually favored by affluent white users. In some cases, crack crimes resulted in a 100-to-1 sentencing disparity.
Congress reduced that disparity in 2010. In December, President Obama commuted the sentences of eight federal inmates who received sentences under the old rules.
The man acquitted in the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin will step in the ring for a Celebrity Boxing match and is looking for an opponent, and in an exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com he says it’s a hobby he had “prior to the incident.” “It was my idea,” Zimmerman, 30, says of the match that will be run by the event’s founder, Damon Feldman.
“It was my idea,” Zimmerman, 30, says of the match that will be run by the event’s founder, Damon Feldman.
To outsiders, men’s figure skating is widely perceived as the Gayest Sport Ever, the butt of endless jokes—consider last weekend’s SNL cold open about the “U.S. Men’s Heterosexual Figure Skating Team.” The direct action group Queer Nation has recently protested figure skaters Brian Boitano and Johnny Weir for not speaking up against Russia’s anti-gay laws. One of the group’s representatives, who asked to not be named, tells me, “Everyone assumes all male skaters are gay. So what? … I have a hard time believing that figure skating is a particularly homophobic sport. I don’t understand this impulse, particularly from figure skaters, to hide their sexuality. You can’t tell me that if Jeremy Abbott came out as gay that it would affect his standing in the skating world.”
Last election season, a shadowy nonprofit pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a campaign to change how electoral votes are counted. The group didn't disclose who was funding its efforts—a fact that Mother Jones highlighted in a story titled "Who's Paying for the GOP's Plan to Hijack the 2012 Election?" But now, thanks to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonpartisan government watchdog, it's clear that organizations with ties to billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch footed at least some of the bill.
According to reports by the Washington Post and WTTG Channel 5 News, three different rotations of people knocked on the firehouse door requesting help for the 77-year-old, and all of them were rebuffed by the firefighters who repeated to each of them that they couldn’t respond unless someone called 911. Nearly 20 minutes later, help finally arrived thanks D.C. police officer who flagged an ambulance down. Mills died on the way to the hospital.