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Rabbi Joshua Bolton of the University of Pennsylvania's Hillel center surveys damaged headstones at Mount Carmel Cemetery on Monday, Feb. 27, 2017, in Philadelphia. More than 100 headstones have been vandalized at the Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, damage discovered less than a week after similar vandalism in Missouri, authorities said. (AP/Jacqueline Larma)

Muslims And Jews ‘Unite Against Hatred’ After Another Jewish Cemetery Is Vandalized

Archives for February 2017

Texas Bathroom Bill Is Politics Disguised As Policy

As policy, the proposed regulations for transgender Texan’s restroom choices have some gaping holes in it. The politics, however, are easy to understand.

Ross Ramsey
By Ross Ramsey
A sticker that reads, "Keep Locker Rooms Safe," is worn by a person supporting a bill that would eliminate Washington's new rule allowing transgender people use gender-segregated bathrooms and locker rooms in public buildings consistent with their gender identity, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016, outside a Washington Senate hearing room at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash.

(ANALYSIS) --- The proposed bathroom bill percolating in the Texas Legislature doesn’t do what its supporters say it is supposed to do. Here’s the caption — the legal description at the top of Senate Bill 6: “relating to regulations and policies for entering or using a bathroom or changing facility; authorizing a civil penalty; increasing

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Wisconsin State Patrol Return To DAPL Admits Mass Arrests, Testing New Strategy?

Wisconsin sought to learn from the Standing Rock protests for containment of their own similar future actions.

Isiah Holmes | The Fifth Column
By Isiah Holmes | The Fifth Column
A law enforcement officer speaks to a protester against the Dakota Access Pipeline through a wall of razor wire on the Backwater Bridge over Cantapeta Creek on Thursday afternoon, Dec. 8, 2016. (Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)

(REPORT) --- As Dakota Access police operations intensify, Wisconsin State Patrol has deployed a second officer group. This occurs shortly following raids on some of the last well-entrenched water protector camps. It’s also a move seemingly contrary to the reason Wisconsin authorities returned the first group home. The deployment of 17 WSP

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Arizona Republicans Want Racketeering Laws Applied To Protesters

“By including rioting in racketeering laws, it actually permits police to arrest those who are planning events.”

James Holbrooks
By James Holbrooks
In this Feb. 10, 2011 file photo, protestors gather around Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, Arizona's immigration bill SB1070 author, outside the Sandra Day O'Connor Federal Courthouse in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

(REPORT) --- If Republicans in Arizona’s senate have their way, police in that state could soon have the power to seize assets and property from protesters, the Arizona Capitol Times reports. From a February 22 article: “Claiming people are being paid to riot, Republican state senators voted Wednesday to give police new power to arrest anyone

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Trump Administration Begins Courting Contractors For Border Wall

In a document on the government’s website for business opportunities, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it would release a request asking companies for prototype ideas for a wall to be built near the U.S.-Mexican border.

ZeroHedge.com
By ZeroHedge.com
A U.S. Border Patrol agent Jerry Conlin looks to the north near where the border wall ends as is separates Tijuana, Mexico, left, and San Diego, right. (AP/Gregory Bull)

(REPORT) --- In the first tangible step toward delivering on Trump’s campaign promise to halt unauthorized immigration from Mexico, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Friday released plans for picking vendors for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall, issuing a preliminary request for proposals saying it plans to release a formal

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Fordham University Employs Bizarre Tactics To Curb Student Activism

Following previous efforts to block SJP, Fordham’s Dean of students insisted that University policy required he meet alone, behind a closed door, with a student representing the group, with a white noise machine turned on.

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron
Students protest against Fordham University's decision to block Students for Justice in Palestine from registering as an on-campus student group.

NEW YORK --- Fordham University sanctioned a student leader on Thursday, sending senior and Fordham Students for Justice in Palestine lead campus organizer Sapphira Lurie a hand-delivered “disciplinary reprimand” of “official warning” as protests of its refusal to recognize SJP as a campus organization continued. The admonition came after Lurie

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US Intelligence Apparatus Seems ‘Hellbent’ On Escalating Tensions With Russia

‘Improvement is possible,’ one activist tells MintPress, but ‘it’s going to be a real challenge to push back effectively against the whipped-up hostility toward Russia.’

Joe Catron
By Joe Catron
Traditional Russian wooden dolls called Matryoshka are displayed at a souvenir street shop in St.Petersburg, Russia. (AP/Dmitri Lovetsky)

UNITED NATIONS --- Despite President Donald Trump’s divisive policies and inflammatory rhetoric, many of his opponents have instead concentrated for months on hurling accusations of collusion with Russia against him. The steady drumbeat of charges, which began soon after the Trump campaign convinced Republican delegates to drop language critical

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