Salem-News.com Civil Rights articles Page 2

Keeping Firearms from the Mentally Ill

Once on any government "list," it is not always easy to get off. At the very least, the restoration of such individuals' right to buy or own firearms should come after a qualified clinician has determined the person is unlikely to relapse or become a danger to himself or others.

(SAN FRANCISCO) - The Obama administration announced January 3, 2014 executive actions intended to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is proposing a rule whereby states can submit information on such people to the National Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

Feds Are Spending Billions to Help States Avoid Privacy Laws to Ban Firearm Ownership

New proposals would add mental health issues and minor drug convictions to the list of those blocked from buying or possessing guns.

(SALEM) - Documents from the U.S. Government Accountability Office published in 2012, reveal that the federal government is spending billions of to help states avoid privacy laws and add Americans with mental health and minor drug convictions to the roles of people blocked from buying or possessing firearms.

States are being rewarded with money if they help the DOJ and other agencies peel back the privacy laws and rights that block federal access to state records.

National Marijuana Reform: Steve DeAngelo Releases Statement on Obama`s New Yorker Interview

The political risk of the President taking such actions is at an all time low, with over 50% of Americans supporting full legalization, and close to 80% in favor of medical cannabis.

(OAKLAND) - In response to Obama’s recent comments in the current issue of The New Yorker (1/27/14) on national marijuana reform “to go forward” - national cannabis leader Steve DeAngelo released this statements today.

“President Obama's belated acknowledgement that cannabis has less a less harmful impact on its users than alcohol deserves applause. After all, with that one statement, he has shown more courage on the issue than any President since Jimmy Carter...

No Escape from Surveillance

Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. --George Orwell

(MANAMA, Bahrain) - Judging from all the reports, America’s National Security Agency (NSA) can do just about anything involving the communication of just about anyone.

They can tell who you've been calling by phone; and if they suspect you've been calling the wrong people, they can get an automatic secret permission from the secret FISA court to dig into the content of your secret calls.

Talk Nation Radio: After the Legalization of Marijuana

The program's music is from the legendary Duke Ellington.

(WASHINGTON, DC) - Jon Walker is a writer and a senior policy analyst at FireDogLake.com and the author of the new book After Legalization: Understanding the Future of Marijuana Policy in America.

Program Host David Swanson says in this episode with Jon Walker, he looks into the writer's crystal ball, examining the future of this long criminalized herb in a modern world.

Islamophobic `List` Used to Justify Suspicion of Muslims

Reports on every crime committed by a Muslim are assigned to the faith, whether or not there is even a remote religious connection.

(WASHINGTON, DC) - One of the bigoted themes often promoted by the growing cottage industry of Muslim-bashers is that the increasing level of Islamophobia online and in the public arena is merely a legitimate response to the violent actions of Muslims worldwide.

These Islamophobes scour the Internet to highlight every act of violence or political instability that can be tied to Islam and Muslims.

How Would Dr. King React to NSA Spying on Americans?

These government spying programs constitute a clear violation the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures, and chills First Amendment freedom of speech.

(WASHINGTON, DC) - How would Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., have reacted to recent revelations that the U.S. government is collecting and storing nearly every citizen’s phone records and gathering their electronic data?

From 1958 until his 1968 assassination, the FBI conducted extensive surveillance on Dr. King, amassing over 17,000 pages of material on his day-to-day activities.

Crisis in the California Courts

Californians do not deserve rationed justice. It is time for the legislative and executive branches to infuse more money into the judiciary.

(SAN FRANCISCO) - Last year, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, and San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi made statements on the importance of adequate funding for the California courts.

Why? Because the California state court system -- the largest in the world - is in crisis.

Marijuana Eruption in Colorado and a Million Dollar Sale

Possible five hundred thousand pot heads.

(PORTLAND, OR) - I hope all users get the joke. There has been too much pejorative comments about patients who use the safest, most effective medicine for their myriad of diseases. It appears that the overseers of the medical marijuana program were surprised that the large number of first day buyers, which numbered around ten thousand people, who purchased about $1,000,000 worth of medicine.

At the same time, the committee made the same foolish mistakes as all of the other state committees. Marijuana IS medicine and should be considered such, like aspirin, which incidentally kills about one thousand people per year. Marijuana kills nobody!

World`s First Legal Adult Marijuana Sales Begin in Colorado

The Marijuana Policy Project — the largest financial backer of the Colorado legalization initiative — will support efforts to pass similar laws regulating marijuana like alcohol in 13 more states by 2017

(DENVER) - At 8 a.m. MT on Wednesday, approximately three-dozen state-licensed marijuana retail stores in Colorado began legally selling marijuana to adults 21 years of age and older.

The state is the first jurisdiction in the world to establish a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol.