Katie Rucke

Katie Rucke is a MintPress staff writer and investigative report specializing in the war on drugs, criminal justice, marijuana legislation, education and watchdog investigations as well as whistle-blowers. Her investigations related to the coverage of the 2010 Toyota recall scandal, and coverage of the trials of Anonymous hacker and proclaimed activist Jeremy Hammond as well as Bradley Manning have received international acclaim. Rucke has been recommended by the Wikileaks organization as a trusted journalist in 2013. Rucke has also written pieces for Yahoo! and various community magazines. Follow Katie on Twitter: @katierucke

Obama Administration: Yes, Colleges Should Aim To Have Diverse Students

The administration has reaffirmed its stance on affirmative action for the first time since a Supreme Court ruling in June.

Katie Rucke
By Katie Rucke

On Friday the Obama administration issued a policy clarification to colleges and universities on how they legally can racially diversify their campuses without discriminating against potential students. In a letter from the Departments of Education and Justice, the administration reaffirmed its stance that “racially diverse education environments

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California Passes Internet ‘Undo’ Law For Children

A California law will now permit minors to remove potentially embarrassing content they post on the Internet.

Katie Rucke
By Katie Rucke

On Monday, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a piece of legislation into law that would grant children under the age of 18 the legal right to have content they posted on the Internet, including tweets, photos and Facebook posts, removed if they so desired. Starting Jan. 1, 2015, all Internet website operators, online services, online

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NY Announces Statewide Court System Designed To Help Sex Trafficking Victims

The courts are intended to connect prostitutes to a support network rather than charge them with a crime.

Katie Rucke
By Katie Rucke

In an effort to better handle cases related to or involving prostitution, the state of New York is creating and implementing a statewide court system that is specifically designed to help prostitutes by treating prostitution not as a crime, but as modern-day slavery. What this means is that starting in October, any prostitution case that is not

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Immigrant Rights Advocates Underwhelmed By Settlement

The Justice Department & ACLU have reached a settlement over a Border Patrol incident in Washington state.

Katie Rucke
By Katie Rucke

On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and the Department of Justice settled a civil rights lawsuit regarding what the group called a violation of constitutional rights by U.S. Border Patrol agents on the Olympic Peninsula in the western portion of Washington state. The settlement agreement was a response to an April 26, 2012

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Five Texas Police Departments Ban Tasers

Some communities are sidestepping the debate on Tasers’ safety by simply banning them altogether.

Katie Rucke
By Katie Rucke

About 16,000 law enforcement agencies internationally use Tasers, but this weekend, five police departments in North Texas -- Mansfield, Richland Hills, Crowley, Murphy and Burleson -- announced they had removed Taser guns from the list of equipment used by officers. While none of the Texas-based police department have explicitly explained why

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Minnesota Court Rules A Teenage Rastafarian’s Pipe Isn’t Drug Paraphernalia

An appeals court overruled a ruling that the religious pipe constituted a “dangerous” drug accessory.

Katie Rucke
By Katie Rucke
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This week a Minnesota court made a historic ruling when it decided that religious use of marijuana is a valid defense for a marijuana criminal charge. In an unpublished opinion, In the Matter of the Welfare of J.J.M.A., filed on Sept. 23, 2013, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled that a teenager who identifies himself as a practicing Rastafarian

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Journalist Faces Jail Time For Refusing To Disclose Identity Of Source

In a move many are decrying as a violation of media shield laws, a Chicago-area journalist is being penalized for refusing to reveal a confidential source.

Katie Rucke
By Katie Rucke

For refusing to reveal the identify of his sources, Judge Gerald Kinney of Illinois’s Will County Circuit Court has fined editor Joseph Hosey a one-time $1,000 fine, plus an additional $300 penalty for every day he does not disclose to the court who gave him the police reports related to a double murder in Illinois earlier this year. Hosey is the

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