Matthew Heller

After Years Of Budget Cuts, Access To California Courts In Doubt

According to the state’s top judge, California trial and appellate courts need an additional $266 million “just to tread water” in the coming fiscal year.

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller
In this Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013 photo, Judge Lance Ito and court clerk Melody Ramirez go over documents in Ito's closed and semi-darkened courtroom, used these days for the processing of paperwork and other duties but not for hearing cases, at the Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

LOS ANGELES -- The sparkling new 96,500 square-foot courthouse in Porterville, Calif., features nine courtrooms, holding cells for 85 inmates, solar panels, natural lighting and drought-resistant landscaping. The $93-million facility replaced a much smaller courthouse that had only two courtrooms, making it an important addition to a town

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Calif. College Accused Of “Institutionally Insensitive” Culture Towards Black Students’

A 2011 study found that “Black students constantly negotiate racialized and racist constructions of their everyday interactions.”

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller
Students in opposition to a bake sale led by the Berkeley College Republicans demonstrate in Sproul Plaza Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011, at the University of California campus in Berkeley, Calif. The Berkeley College Republicans have scheduled a bake sale where the price of a cookie or a brownie depends on your gender and the color of your skin. The price of a baked good costs $2 for white people, $1.50 if you're Asian, $1 for Latinos, 75 cents for African-Americans and 25 cents for Native Americans. Women get a discount of 25 cents. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

LOS ANGELES - The artwork on the campus of San Jose State University includes a towering statue commemorating the iconic moment when Olympic sprinters and alumni Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their black-gloved fists as a salute to black power during the medal ceremony of the 1968 games in Mexico City. It was all the more incongruous,

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Latinos Pressure Herbalife Over Distribution Practices

According to Herbalife’s own data, 88 percent of Herbalife’s distributors earned no payments from the company in 2012, and only 3.67 percent received more than $1,000 for the entire year.

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller

LOS ANGELES --- More than 12,000 Latino independent distributors for Herbalife gathered at the Los Angeles Convention Center Oct. 17 for the nutritional supplement company's annual "Extravaganza,” a four-day event that included seminars, business development training, a “Fiesta Gen H” dance and a fundraising workout for charity. The

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From Malala To Snowden: Youngsters Who’ve Changed The World

You still have to be 35 to serve as president of the United States and 30 to serve as a senator. But there are plenty of people 30 or under who are making a major impact on the world. Here is MintPress’ list of 11 young overachievers:

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller
Malala Yousafzai gestures as she speaks to an audience during a discussion of her book, "I am Malala" hosted by the John F. Kennedy Library and held at Boston College High School Saturday, Oct. 12, 2013, in Dorchester, Mass. The Pakistani teenager, an advocate for education for girls, survived a Taliban assassination attempt last year on her way home from school. (AP Photo/Jessica Rinaldi)

Malala Yousafzai Age: 16 Malala first became a thorn in the side of the Taliban by campaigning to improve the education of girls under Taliban rule in the Swat District of Pakistan. In October 2012, when she was 15, she survived a Taliban assassination attempt that drew worldwide condemnation. Her activism has continued — during an October

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Civil Rights Groups Turn To Unorthodox Attempts To Stop The NSA At It’s Headquarters

The “anti-commandeering doctrine,” a 170-year-old legal principle, says the federal government cannot commandeer state agencies or resources to “administer or enforce a federal regulatory program.”

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller
An aerial view of the NSA's Utah Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah, Thursday, June 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

LOS ANGELES -- Deep in the heart of Mormon country, the Utah Data Center is a vital cog in the National Security Agency's surveillance network, intercepting and analyzing telecommunications from around the world. Despite all the technical sophistication, the heavily-fortified $2 billion facility depends on something very basic to keep operating —

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At Zero Hour, Who Will Protect The People’s Rights?

Which leaders will rise to the challenge of defending the people’s rights? Here is MintPress’ list of six politicians likely to stand up to power -– and five likely to cave in.

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller

It's zero hour in America as the nation teeters on the brink of becoming a surveillance state. Any last shackles on the government's ability to spy on its citizens have been removed. At this crucial moment, which leaders will rise to the challenge of defending the people's rights? Here is MintPress' list of six politicians likely to stand up to

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Mississippi Inmates Face Loss Of First-Of-Its-Kind Conjugal Visits Program

Conjugal visits may soon be as much a relic of Mississippi’s penal past as chain gangs.

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller
With his arm around his wife's shoulders, this prisoners at Mississippi's State Penitentiary at Parchman prepares to spend afternoon in privacy, Sept. 9, 1959. The house they are entering is one of the special ones built at the prison for such conjugal visits. As a result of this practice, Parchman has escaped the unrest which has been exploding in prisons elsewhere across the country. Parchman is perhaps the only American prison where this is done. (AP Photo)

Life for prison inmates in Mississippi hasn't exactly been easy — one book about the state's correctional system has the title “Worse Than Slavery.” But for nearly 100 years, they have enjoyed conjugal visits. In 1918, Mississippi became the first state in the nation to allow conjugal visits in the belief they would increase the productivity of

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