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Month: June 2016

From ABCs To CBD: New Jersey, Colorado Allow Students Medical Marijuana At School
File: Young children swing on a swing set in Wisconsin. (Flickr / Bethlehem Lutheran / Pam Carlson-Gugel)
June 15, 2016
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From ABCs To CBD: New Jersey, Colorado Allow Students Medical Marijuana At School

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

As more families press for their children to be allowed to consume medical cannabis at school, more states are moving toward allowing students access to the substance that remains banned at the federal level.

Last week, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed “Jack’s Law,” which will allow students with a prescription to receive non-inhaled medical marijuana during the school day. The law is named for a young student who couldn’t access his prescribed medical cannabis at school. CBS Denver reported on June 7.

“We absolutely need to allow children to have access to medicine in schools. Why wouldn’t we?” said Kyle Sherman, the founder and CEO of Flowhub, in an interview with MintPress News. Flowhub is a Denver-based software company that helps growers and dispensaries maintain their supply chains and follow local laws.

Read moreFrom ABCs To CBD: New Jersey, Colorado Allow Students Medical Marijuana At School
Saudi Arabia’s Threats Against UN Put Millions Of Middle Eastern Children At Risk
A Saudi military member stands next to a damaged building in the area of the presidential palace in the southern city of Aden. September 27, 2015. (Flickr / Ahmed Farwan)
June 13, 2016
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Saudi Arabia’s Threats Against UN Put Millions Of Middle Eastern Children At Risk

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

The Saudi-led attack on Yemen has drawn international criticism for the extremely high civilian death toll, including many children, and the brutal war crimes that have caused widespread starvation and suffering.

So how did the Gulf kingdom and its allies get taken off a United Nations blacklist of countries which harm and kill children? Apparently, the Saudis threatened to cut funding to crucial programs, or even place the U.N. under an Islamic religious ban through a mass fatwa.

It’s a move that’s drawing renewed criticism of the Saudi role in the international peacekeeping authority, even from the highest offices in the U.N. itself.

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Domestic Workers Remain Enslaved In Saudi Arabia: ‘I Thought They Would Kill Me’
Siti, a domestic worker from Indonesia, faced abuse and mistreatment in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Hong Kong. March 1, 2014. (Flickr / ILO in Asia and the Pacific)
June 13, 2016
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Domestic Workers Remain Enslaved In Saudi Arabia: ‘I Thought They Would Kill Me’

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Despite reassurances by U.S. government officials that Saudi Arabia is taking steps to end slavery within its borders, human rights experts believe the problem is still widespread, especially among the Gulf kingdom’s domestic workers.

“I thought they would kill me. I had to escape. I wasn’t given enough to eat. They had my wages, my passport, my phone,” said Kasthuri Munirathinam, a domestic worker from India who escaped imprisonment in Saudi Arabia, in an interview with Thomas Reuters Foundation.

“She had been in Saudi Arabia for just two months, one of thousands of Indians heading to the Gulf states every year for work, but was terrified she would never see her family again,” Anuradha Nagaraj reported on May 3.

Last September, news of Munirathinam’s daring escape from a second floor apartment went viral. Her employer chopped off her hand during her efforts to free herself, an injury that would ultimately require the amputation of her arm.

Read moreDomestic Workers Remain Enslaved In Saudi Arabia: ‘I Thought They Would Kill Me’
Green Party Candidate Jill Stein Endorses BDS Movement As Dem- & GOP-Backed Bans Spread
Jill Stein in the woods at the Texas Tar Sands Blockade tree village on Oct 31, 2012. (Wikimedia Commons / Tar Sands Blockade)
June 9, 2016
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Green Party Candidate Jill Stein Endorses BDS Movement As Dem- & GOP-Backed Bans Spread

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

While members of both major political parties seek to oppress the free speech rights of human rights activists, the presumptive Green Party nominee is taking a stand against foreign wars and imperialism.

On Monday, Dr. Jill Stein tweeted a link to a statement in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, demanding radical change in U.S. foreign policy:

Read moreGreen Party Candidate Jill Stein Endorses BDS Movement As Dem- & GOP-Backed Bans Spread
As Income Inequality Grows, Experts Consider Guaranteed Universal Income
Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis, May 2013 at Subversive Festival, Zagreb. (Wikimedia / PanchoS)
June 8, 2016
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As Income Inequality Grows, Experts Consider Guaranteed Universal Income

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected the idea of a universal income, under which every resident would receive a monthly stipend, regardless of their employment status.

Under the plan, every adult over 18 would have earned a monthly income of 2,500 Swiss francs (about $2,563). Children would have also received a monthly stipend. The funds to support the plan would have come from the profits of the lucrative Swiss banking industry.

Despite about 77 percent opposition to the plan in the wealthy nation, some experts on global capitalism maintain that it could someday become a reality in Switzerland and elsewhere.

“I believe that every child that gets born should have a minimum trust fund that allows that child to live in freedom, in dignity, and then to do what they can with their talents if they want more,” Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis said during an April discussion of basic income and the future of work at Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, a German economic research think tank. His remarks are excerpted in a June 3 video from acTVism Munich, an independent media outlet.

Read moreAs Income Inequality Grows, Experts Consider Guaranteed Universal Income
Law Enforcement Lobby Succeeds In Killing California Transparency Bill
November 5, 2010. An Oakland police officer, wearing a riot helmet with the visor up, looks at the photographer. (Flickr / Thomas Hawk)
June 7, 2016
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Law Enforcement Lobby Succeeds In Killing California Transparency Bill

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

A California Senate committee killed a bill to increase transparency in police misconduct investigations, hampering victims’ efforts to obtain justice.

Chauncee Smith, legislative advocate at the ACLU of California, told MintPress News that the state Legislature “caved to the tremendous influence and power of the law enforcement lobby” and “failed to listen to the demands and concerns of everyday Californian people.”

California has some of the most secretive rules in the country when it comes to investigations into police misconduct and excessive use of force. Records are kept sealed, regardless of the outcome, as the ACLU of Northern California explains on its website:

Read moreLaw Enforcement Lobby Succeeds In Killing California Transparency Bill