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Oaxaca Protests Swell Over Police Killings And Neoliberal Education Reforms
In this June 23, 2016 photograph, dancers and drummers at the Texas Capitol honor activists killed by police in Oaxaca, Mexico while protesting neoliberal education reforms. (Kit O'Connell)
June 27, 2016
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Oaxaca Protests Swell Over Police Killings And Neoliberal Education Reforms

Posted in Austin, Journalism, and MintPress News

A brutal attack on protesters in Mexico has drawn expressions of solidarity from around the world, including a vigil held on Thursday at the Texas State Capitol.

At least eight civilians were killed and dozens injured on June 20, when police opened fire on a group of teachers, students and their allies blocking a section of highway connecting the state of Oaxaca to Mexico City. A journalist was also killed during the protests.

“They’re killing our people,” Magdalena Maria Gutierrez, a resident of Austin, Texas, who was born in Oaxaca, said in an interview with MintPress News before she spoke to the crowd gathered at the Texas State Capitol on Thursday for a vigil organized by the Committee in Solidarity with Teachers in Mexico.

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Islamophobia Industry Spent $206M Building Hatred In US, But Here’s How To Create Love Instead
September 11, 2010: A protest against a proposed Muslim cultural center in downtown New York City. A banner reads "Stop Islamization of America! Wake Up!" (Flickr / Chris Rojas)
June 23, 2016
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Islamophobia Industry Spent $206M Building Hatred In US, But Here’s How To Create Love Instead

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Islamophobia is more profitable than ever in America, but a new report from a leading Muslim civil rights organization offers a new strategy to take the national conversation back from the proprietors of hate.

Thirty-three key organizations promoting anti-Muslim sentiment had access to a combined budget of $205,838,077 between 2008 and 2013, according to “Confronting Fear: Islamophobia and its Impact in the U.S. 2013-2015,” a report published on Monday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in collaboration with the Center for Race and Gender at the University of California, Berkeley.

In addition to these core organizations promoting hatred, the report identified 74 groups involved in the larger “U.S. Islamophobia network.” That’s an increase from the 69 groups identified in the previous report, “Legislating Fear: Islamophobia and its Impact in the United States,” published in 2013.

Read moreIslamophobia Industry Spent $206M Building Hatred In US, But Here’s How To Create Love Instead
WikiLeaks’ Assange Enters Year 5 Of Confinement, War On Whistleblowers To Continue Indefinitely
Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on Aug. 18, 2014. (Wikimedia Commons / Cancillería del Ecuador)
June 23, 2016
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WikiLeaks’ Assange Enters Year 5 Of Confinement, War On Whistleblowers To Continue Indefinitely

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

On Sunday, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange marked the fourth anniversary of the day he entered the Ecuadorean Embassy in London on asylum.

Many, including fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and philosopher and political analyst Noam Chomsky, voiced their support for Assange and their hopes for his eventual freedom. But Assange is just one of many victims of the U.S. war on whistleblowers, an unprecedented crackdown on government transparency that’s unlikely to end any time soon.

Assange entered the embassy on June 19, 2012 under threat of extradition to Sweden for questioning over allegations of improper sexual behavior toward two women. Swedish officials have refused to guarantee that Assange will not be extradited to a third country, and until recently, they’ve also refused invitations to question him at the embassy. Though the case against him has weakened over time, Assange still fears he could face decades in prison, or even the death penalty, if he were extradited from Sweden to the U.S., where a secretive, federal grand jury could indict him for hosting classified, leaked information on WikiLeaks.

Read moreWikiLeaks’ Assange Enters Year 5 Of Confinement, War On Whistleblowers To Continue Indefinitely
Beyond ISIS: Orlando Mass Killing Is About Much, Much More Than ‘Radical Islam’
Mourners assemble in front of a rainbow Pride flag with a black ribbon at a vigil for the Orlando shooting victims in Barcelona, Spain. June 13, 2016. (Flickr / Jordi Boixareu)
June 18, 2016
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Beyond ISIS: Orlando Mass Killing Is About Much, Much More Than ‘Radical Islam’

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

In the wake of the worst mass killing on U.S. soil since 9/11, politicians and the media seized on the killer’s purported declaration of allegiance to Middle Eastern terrorist groups as an excuse to demand more military intervention overseas and an increasingly militarized homeland.

Omar Mateen, the 29-year-old shooter who killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando on Sunday, reportedly declared allegiance to Daesh (an Arabic acronym for the the terrorist group known in the West as ISIS or ISIL) during a 911 call placed just before he began his attack.

As journalists and investigators piece together the evidence, a complex picture is emerging of a conflicted man whose hate and violence were decidedly homegrown.

But this hasn’t stopped the presumptive presidential nominees from both major political parties from using Mateen’s actions as an excuse to call for waging more war and expanding the power of domestic intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

Read moreBeyond ISIS: Orlando Mass Killing Is About Much, Much More Than ‘Radical Islam’
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.

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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:

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