Law

Law May Enable Urban Agriculture Zones In Santa Clara

March 14, 2015 AJ Hughes, www.sustainablecitiescollective.com Create! California, Law, Urban Agriculture

Landowners and developers in Santa Clara County, California may have greater motivation to turn vacant lots into urban farms, thanks to an Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone proposal by county supervisors Ken Yeager and Mike Wasserman. A recently passed state law, the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones Act, was authored by Phil Ting, an Assemblymember from San Francisco. It provides property tax breaks for landowners who use their vacant, blighted or unimproved land for urban agriculture for at least five years. The act applies to properties between 0.10 acres and 3 acres in an urban area. California Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 551 into law on September 28, 2013. Home to Silicon Valley, Santa Clara County’s character is decidedly urban. But this was not always the case—since 1984, the county has lost 45 percent of its farmland.

Sen. Cotton, Paid By Israeli Agents, Should Be Investigated

March 14, 2015 Gareth Porter, www.middleeasteye.net Educate! Congress, Iran, Israel, Law

The “open letter” from Senator Tom Cotton and 46 other Republican Senators to the leadership of Iran, which even Republicans themselves admit was aimed at encouraging Iranian opponents of the nuclear negotiations to argue that the United States cannot be counted on to keep the bargain, has created a new political firestorm. It has been harshly denounced by Democratic loyalists as “stunning” and "appalling”, and critics have accused the signers of the letter of being“treasonous” for allegedly violating a law forbidding citizens from negotiating with a foreign power. But the response to the letter has primarily distracted public attention from the real issue it raises: how the big funders of the Likud Party in Israel control Congressional actions on Iran.

Over 100 Legal Scholars Warn About TPP Dangers

March 14, 2015 Dave Johnson, www.ourfuture.org Resist! Congress, Free Trade, Law, TPP

Over 100 law professors sent an open letter to Congress and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) saying they need to “protect the rule of law and the nation’s sovereignty” in trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). While TPP is still secret, leaks and precedent indicate that it will contain provisions allowing giant, multinational corporations to bypass our country’s legal system. These provisions will allow these multinational corporations to sue governments, including ours, in “corporate courts” if they decide to pass laws and regulations that restrain the profits of these giant corporations, such as efforts to help citizens quit smoking.

Rasmieh Odeh Sentenced To 18 Years, Will Appeal

March 13, 2015 Kim Jansenn, www.chicago.suntimes.com Resist! Chicago, Criminal Justice, Israel, Law, Palestine

Prosecutors called Rasmieh Odeh “a terrorist icon” who’d blown up a Jerusalem supermarket. Her lawyers called her a “resistance” fighter who was long ago framed by an Israeli military court. And between them, the two sides at times turned the 67-year-old Evergreen Park activist’s immigration fraud case into a proxy for the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict. But in sentencing Odeh to 18 months in prison, ordering her deportation back to Jordan and stripping her of her U.S. citizenship, a federal judge on Thursday said Odeh’s case “isn’t a political case — it’s about honesty and telling the truth under oath.” U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain split the difference between the five to seven years prosecutors wanted Odeh to serve and her request to simply be allowed to leave the country without being locked up.

North Carolina Fines Duke Energy For Coal Ash Water Contamination

March 12, 2015 Bruce Henderson, www.charlotteobserver.com Resist! Energy, Environment, Law, Oil & Gas

The state-record $25 million fine North Carolina’s environmental agency filed Tuesday penalized Duke Energy for years of groundwater contamination. Ash elements found in test wells around the Sutton power plant in Wilmington had broken state standards for as many as five years, state documents say. Duke acknowledged contamination problems at Sutton in late 2013, when it agreed to pay up to $1.8 million for a water line to a low-income community near the plant. The fine is the state’s largest for environmental damage, quadrupling the $5.7 million levied as part of a 1986 air-quality case.

The Debate Over Public Internet Broadband Is Heating Up

March 12, 2015 David Morris, www.alternet.org Create! FCC, Internet, Law, Public, Taxes

On February 28th the Federal Communications Commission issued two decisions. One concerned net neutrality, the other municipal broadband. The first garnered by far the most attention, as it should. Net neutrality affects everyone and establishes a fundamental new principle for Internet access. But as another presidential campaign looms the FCC decision on municipally owned broadband may offer more fertile ground for a vigorous political debate on the role of government and the scale of governance. The decision arose from a petition to the FCC by Chattanooga, Tennessee and Wilson, North Carolina asking it to overturn state laws that prevent them from extending their highly successful publicly owned networks to surrounding communities eager to connect.

Embattled Ferguson Police Chief Resigns; Protests Resume

March 12, 2015 Christine Byers, www.stltoday.com Resist! Ferguson, Law, Michael Brown, police brutality, Social Change

Police Chief Thomas Jackson resigned Wednesday, saying he always wanted to do what’s best for his community and realized that now meant leaving it. Jackson, whose departure has been a high priority for protesters since the controversial shooting of Michael Brown on Aug. 9, said in an exclusive interview, “This city needs to move forward without any distractions.” Officials said that when Jackson leaves March 19, Lt. Col. Al Eickhoff will become interim chief until a national search for a replacement is finished. Eickhoff declined to comment. Jackson has been chief for five years. Patricia Bynes, an activist and Democratic township committeewoman, said she is pleased by Jackson’s departure but “not ready to pop the champagne yet.” She noted, “We don’t need new faces to the same culture, so I’m not ready to jump up and down yet to celebrate his resignation.”

Swedish Supreme Court Turnaround, Will Hear Assange Appeal

March 12, 2015 Philip Dorling, www.smh.com Resist! Julian Assange, Law, Sweden

Sweden's highest court will hear an appeal by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as he seeks to quash an arrest warrant arising from rape and sexual molestation allegations. On Tuesday the Swedish Supreme Court agreed to consider Mr Assange's appeal against the decisions of lower courts to uphold an arrest warrant issued in November 2010. The Supreme Court has decreed that the Swedish "Attorney-General [Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson] expeditiously submit its reply to the case, especially on the issue of the conduct of investigations and the principle of proportionality". Last week a United States court confirmed that WikiLeaks and Mr Assange are still being targeted by the US Department of Justice in a criminal investigation prompted by leaks of secret military and diplomatic documents by US army private Chelsea Manning in early 2010.

Environmental Activist Released 10 Years Early Based On FBI Documents

March 11, 2015 Chris Steele, www.truth-out.org.com Resist! CIA, Criminal Justice, Environment, Law, Political Prisoner

After serving nine years in prison, Eric McDavid was freed on January 8, 2015, when it was revealed - through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)-released court documents pored over by his supporters - that the government withheld documents from him that supported his defense claim that he was entrapped by the FBI. McDavid, who identifies as an anarchist and an environmental activist, was charged with "conspiracy to use fire or explosives to damage corporate and government property" in May 2008 and sentenced to 19 years and 7 months in prison. McDavid is a victim of a long history and concerted effort by federal and state entities in the United States to target anarchists and other radicals. An early example of surveillance and harassment against birth control advocates, anarchists and radicals being targeted by the US government dates back to the Comstock Act.

Port Of Seattle Sued Over Shell’s Arctic Drilling Fleet

March 11, 2015 Earth Justice, www.earthjustice.org Resist! Environment, Law, Seattle

A coalition of conservation organizations filed a lawsuit today against the Port of Seattle and the Port Commissioners, challenging the Port’s entry into a lease with Foss Maritime to open Terminal 5 to Shell’s Arctic drilling fleet without public proceedings or environmental review. The lawsuit charges that the lease will change the use of Terminal 5 by converting it into a homeport for Shell’s Arctic drilling fleet, which will need extensive maintenance and repairs after being battered in the Arctic conditions. The lease would allow Shell’s drill ships to be housed at the Port, including theNoble Discoverer which was the subject of 8 felony convictions and over $12 million in fines and community service last December, including for discharging oil-contaminated water in violation of water pollution laws.

Kathy Kelly’s View Of Prison From The Inside

March 11, 2015 Kathy Kelly, www.commondreams.org Resist! Criminal Justice, Law, Prison Industrial Complex

During my four stints in U.S. federal prisons, I've witnessed long-term inmates' unconquerably humane response when a newcomer arrives. An unscripted choreography occurs and the new prisoner finds that other women will help her through the trauma of adjustment to being locked up for many months or years. Halfway through a three-month sentence myself, I'm saddened to realize that I'll very likely adapt to an outside world for which these women, and prisoners throughout the U.S. prison system, are often completely invisible. U.S. state and federal prison populations have risen, since 1988, from 600,000 to an estimated 1,600,000 in 2012. This trend shows inhumane behavior on the part of lawmakers and myriads of employees who benefit from the so-called "criminal justice" system. But our entire society bears responsibility for what now can aptly be labeled a "prison-industrial complex."

ACLU, Wikimedia & Others Sue NSA To Take Back The Internet

March 11, 2015 Patrick Toomey, www.aclu.org Resist! ACLU, Law, NSA, Privacy, Snowden, Surveillance

Every time you email someone overseas, the NSA copies and searches your message. It makes no difference if you or the person you're communicating with has done anything wrong. If the NSA believes your message could contain information relating to the foreign affairs of the United States – because of whom you're talking to, or whom you're talking about – it may hold on to it for as long as three years and sometimes much longer. A new ACLU lawsuit filed today challenges this dragnet spying, called "upstream" surveillance, on behalf of Wikimedia and a broad coalition of educational, human rights, legal, and media organizations whose work depends on the privacy of their communications. The plaintiffs include Amnesty International USA, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and The Nation magazine, and many other organizations whose work is critical to the functioning of our democracy.

We Must Honor The Legacy Of Selma Foot Soldiers

March 7, 2015 Deborah J. Vagins, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Civil Rights, Congress, Law, Selma

In an important moment of bipartisanship, Congress unanimously passed a bill this month that honors the thousands of people who marched for voting rights 50 years ago in Selma, Alabama, with the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress' highest civilian honor. This legislation was co-sponsored by 149 Republicans and 227 Democrats. On March 7, 1965 at the foot of the Edmund Pettis Bridge, they suffered beatings and the fear of death to peacefully protest for a national voting rights law. Ultimately, they prevailed and that law -- the Voting Rights Act of 1965 -- changed the face of America and combated ongoing discrimination to the present day. Unfortunately, in 2013, the Supreme Court crippled one of the most effective protections of that act in its Shelby County v. Holder decision by rendering ineffective the requirement that certain jurisdictions with a history of voting discrimination get pre-approval for voting changes.

Another Obama Regulator Refuses To Regulate

March 6, 2015 David Cay Johnston, www.america.aljazeera.com Educate! Capitalism, FERC, Law, Regulation

Hardly anyone has heard of Cheryl LaFleur, but she is one of America’s most powerful government officials, entrusted with vast authority to oversee the electricity, oil and natural gas industries. She chairs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), a tiny government agency with only 1,500 employees. Its budget is covered not by taxpayers but by the industries it regulates. Her sworn duties include making sure charges for electricity are always just and reasonable. That means suppliers should be reasonably compensated and customers should pay reasonable prices. But she has consistently ignored this responsibility. When presented with serial indicators of unjust prices, she puts on a blindfold and sits on her hands. In a Feb. 18 letter to six senators and 13 representatives, LaFleur demonstrated beyond any doubt her fealty to electricity companies and disregard for consumers.

Ferguson’s True Criminals

March 6, 2015 Jamelle Bouie, www.slate.com Educate! Ferguson, Law, Michael Brown, police brutality, Racial Justice

Take traffic stops. Not only did police stop blacks at a rate greater than their share of the population—from 2012 to 2014, blacks were 67 percent of Ferguson residents but 85 percent of traffic stops—but they were twice as likely to search blacks than they were whites, who were 26 percent more likely to have actual contraband. You see the same dynamic with small, discretionary infractions. Ninety-five percent of tickets for jaywalking were against black residents, as were 94 percent of all “failure to comply” charges. Either black people were the only Ferguson citizens to jaywalk, or the department was targeting blacks for enforcement. On the rare occasion when police charged whites with these minor offenses, they were 68 percent more likely to have their cases dismissed.

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