A police officer wearing a blue glove reaches into a bin of handcuffs and restraints.

Packing Jails in the Land of the Free

- May 15, 2017

Trump’s Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, announced a striking change of policy last Friday concerning how alleged criminals are to be charged with crimes going forward. In a memo Sessions sent to over five thousand federal prosecutors across the country, he instructed them to seek the toughest, longest penalties possible for the most easily proven allegations against each defendant. Critics claim that this is a move aimed at packing jails with nonviolent, low-level drug offenders.

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Part of the Jonas Ridge, on the eastern rim of the Linville Gorge, in the Pisgah National Forest.

Local Solutions Help Fix Real Problems

- May 12, 2017

News reporting always seems to concentrate on the things going wrong, doesn’t it? Especially since the 2016 election, there’s been a widespread feeling among Progressives that all we can do is buckle down and resist the worst of the Trump agenda. It’s easy to be discouraged into hopelessness by seeing the scale of the battles ahead of us. However, in communities across the country, individuals and organizations are actively making the world a better place to live. We don’t have to wait until government changes hands again to come up with local solutions that might just work.

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Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson; & Bristol County House of Correction; images courtesy of Bristol County Sheriff's Office official website, Public domain.

Civil Rights Group Files Lawsuit Against Right-Wing MA Sheriff Thomas Hodgson

- May 11, 2017

A civil rights watchdog filed a lawsuit against controversial Massachusetts Sheriff Thomas Hodgson last Thursday. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice filed the lawsuit after submitting several requests for information pertaining to the sheriff’s department’s participation in a program with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The program would teach law enforcement officers

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LASD MCJ RADIO CAR; image by UNKNOWN, via Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0, no changes.

Former LA Sheriff’s Deputy Jan Adams Awarded $1.275 Million for Blowing Whistle on Corrupt Colleagues

- May 10, 2017

Former Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputy Jan Adams was awarded a $1.275 million in a lawsuit which claims the department had retaliated against her following testimony against colleagues. The LA Times reports the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the settlement on Tuesday “without comment.” Adams had blown the whistle on colleagues she claimed were

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A red pill grasped between the thumb and index finger.

The Red Pill and the Handmaid [NSFW]

- May 4, 2017

In certain corners of the Internet, it’s hard to escape the marketing blitz for Hulu’s new miniseries, an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. While production of the series began before the 2016 Presidential election, the story of a not-too-distant future where women have lost so many rights, including the right to bodily autonomy, has taken on new relevance in the age of Trump. Speaking in 2012, Atwood described her novel’s reception in the United States as “How long have we got?” Drawing comparisons between Trump’s America and the handmaid’s Gilead may draw a few eyerolls and accusations of pathetic melodrama, but like Neo in the Matrix, take the red pill and follow me.

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Trinity Lutheran v. Comer

Fungibility Key in Trinity Lutheran Case

- April 26, 2017

There’s an upcoming case at the Supreme Court that has some rather far-reaching implications. Trinity Lutheran v. Comer concerns a Missouri recycling program, a religious school, and a whole passel of issues. In this case, religious freedom advocates seem to claim that grant money isn’t nearly as fungible as when it goes to Planned Parenthood.

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