Proposed NY Bills Would Create State Process to End Police Qualified Immunity

From [HERE] Bills introduced in the New York Assembly and Senate would create a process to sue police officers and government officials in state court for the deprivation of individual rights without the possibility of “qualified immunity” as a defense.

Asm. Latrice Walker (D) and Asm. Khaleel Anderson (D) introduced Assembly Bill 2632 (A2632) on Jan 26. The legislation would create a cause of action in state courts to sue a police officer who “under color of law, subjects or causes to be subjected, including failing to intervene, any other person to the deprivation of any individual rights that create binding obligations on government actors secured by the bill of rights, article one of the state constitution.”

The bill specifically prohibits “qualified immunity” as a defense.

Senate Bill 2887 (S2887) would also create a state cause of action to sue police officers, but it would include violations of the U.S. Constitution as a basis for a suit. As explained below, this is problematic.

THE PROCESS

Typically, people sue police for using excessive force or other types of misconduct through the federal court system under the U.S. Bill of Rights. But federal courts created a qualified immunity defense out of thin air, making it nearly impossible to hold law enforcement officers responsible for actions taken in the line of duty. In order to move ahead with a suit, the plaintiff must establish that it was “clearly established” that the officer’s action was unconstitutional. The “clearly established” test erects an almost insurmountable hurdle to those trying to prove excessive force or a violation of their rights.

Passage of A2632 or S2887 would create an alternative path in state court with no qualified immunity hurdle to clear.

The language in the bill is similar to a law passed in Colorado.

IN PRACTICE

It remains unclear how the state legal process would play out in practice.

The first question is whether people will actually utilize the state courts instead of the federal process. Under the original constitutional system, it would have never been a federal issue to begin with. Regulation of police powers was clearly delegated to the states, not the federal government. But with the advent of the incorporation doctrine, people reflexively run to federal courts. But by removing the qualified immunity hurdle, it should incentivize people to take advantage of the state system.

The second question is if police officers will be able to transfer cases to federal jurisdiction in order to take advantage of qualified immunity.

State and local law enforcement officers working on joint state/federal task forces almost certainly would. They are effectively treated as federal agents.

For New York law enforcement officers not operating with a federal task force, it seems unlikely they will be able to remove the case to federal court initially under A2632, but that door could open on appeal.

By allowing people to sue for violations of the U.S. Constitution in state court, S2887, the door would be immediately open to moving cases to federal courts where qualified immunity would apply. That makes the language in A2632 preferable. [MORE]

Newsom's Token Report to Quiet Criticism of Kamala Harris Improper: Despite Evidence Kevin Cooper was Framed for Murder He Remains on Death Row b/c VP and Others Blocked Efforts to Establish Innocence

IS THIS BLACK POWER? VOTING FOR COIN-OPERATED BLACK ROLEBOTS WHO WORK ON BEHALF OF AUTHORITY AND ELITE RACISTS?

From [HERE] Kevin Cooper is a death-row prisoner in California who was convicted of murdering four people in 1985. He has maintained his innocence of the offense. On January 13, 2023, a special counsel appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom to conduct an independent investigation of Cooper’s case released a report dismissing his claims of innocence, stating, “The evidence of Cooper’s guilt is extensive and conclusive.” 

In response, Cooper’s attorneys made the following statement: “The special counsel’s investigation ordered by Governor Newsom in May 2021 was not properly conducted and is demonstrably incomplete. It failed to carry out the type of thorough investigation required to explore the extensive evidence that Mr. Cooper was wrongfully convicted.” 

Cooper’s attorneys argue that the evidence cited in the report raises questions about the findings of the investigation. Cooper maintains he was framed by the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department, and that a man named Lee Furrow committed the murder. Two construction workers, who had worked with Furrow in Pennsylvania, told California’s independent investigator that in 2018 they heard Furrow say, “me and my boys, we butchered a whole family.”

DNA Test Offers More Proof San Bernardino Cops/DA Framed Kevin Cooper for Murdering a White Family and Orderlies [like Kamala Harris] Blocked Efforts to Establish Innocence and Release from Death Row

NY Times Asks, ‘Did White Cops who Destroyed & Hid Evidence Frame Kevin Cooper for the Murders of a White Family? Answer = Yep

In addition, Furrow’s former girlfriend told the investigator that she saw Furrow wearing coveralls covered with bloodstains. Six months later, the sheriff’s deputy questioned Furrow and disposed of the coveralls without testing the bloodstains. Josh Ryen, the only survivor of the attack attributed to Cooper, told the police, “That wasn’t the guy that did it,” after seeing a photo of Cooper.

Cooper’s attorneys assert that prosecutorial misconduct is also central to the case: “Most fundamentally, we are shocked that the governor seemingly failed to conduct a thorough review of the report that contains many misstatements and omissions and also ignores the purpose of a legitimate innocence investigation, which is to independently determine whether Mr. Cooper’s conviction was a product of prosecutorial misconduct.” The special counsel noted in the report that it did not assess whether Cooper’s trial had been unfair and “improperly influenced by Cooper’s race.”

Columbus Settles Case: White Cops Verbally Abused, Punched, Kicked, Tased, Pulled Black Man’s Hair Out and Stripped Him Naked from Waist Down. Police said 'The Force Continuum Allowed Them to Do so'

From [HERE] White Officials in Columbus have reached a $225,000 settlement with a Black man who said white police officers used improper force during a 2017 arrest.

The Columbus City Council voted unanimously Monday to approve the deal with Timothy Davis. As part of the settlement, neither the city nor the officers admitted to any wrongdoing.

Davis had sued the city in federal court, alleging civil rights violations, but a jury rejected his claims in December 2021. A federal judge granted a partial new trial in September, saying a complete jury verdict in favor of the officers was "against the clear weight of the evidence.” The settlement reached in December and approved Monday resolves that matter.

Davis' lawyers had said during the trial that Columbus officers verbally abused, punched, kicked and used a stun gun on him; pulled out his hair; and stripped him nearly naked from the waist down during the September 2017 arrest.

A lawsuit also accused officers of trying to block bystanders from filming the arrest. [MORE]

After the incident Police Spokesman Sgt. Dean Worthington told the NBC, “We are allowed to punch and we are allowed to kick.” “That’s part of our use of force continuum and it all depends on what the behavior of the suspect is at the time.” Also,  a white Columbus police officer was "relieved from duty" after he allegedly made comments threatening to choke a suspect. [MORE]

White TX Authorities All Set to Murder Latino Man Convicted for Murder of White Cop. White Judge Denied Request to Delay Execution Despite Claims of False Expert Testimony and a Racist Juror

From [HERE] A Latino man convicted of fatally shooting a Dallas police officer in 2007 is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday in Huntsville.

Wesley Lynn Ruiz, 43, was sentenced to death in July 2008 for the slaying of Mark Nix after a high-speed chase through West Dallas. Nix leapt out of his squad car, ran to the car where Ruiz hid and swung his baton repeatedly at the front passenger window to break it. The officer had just managed a small hole in the window when Ruiz fired one gunshot from inside the vehicle, killing Nix.

Ruiz filed a motion last week to halt the execution, saying prosecutors violated his constitutional rights when they allowed an expert to give false testimony. He also argued some jurors harbored racial bias against him, according to court records. Ruiz is Hispanic. The motion was denied Friday by Judge David C. Godbey in the U.S. Northern District of Texas.

Ruiz recently filed a lawsuit with two other death row inmates that alleged Texas plans to use expired, unsafe drugs for executions in violation of state law. A University of South Carolina pharmacology professor who reviewed state records said some pentobarbital vials were more than 630 days old and others were more than 1,300 days old. Their beyond use date limit is 24 hours when stored at room temperature, and 45 days if such compounded drugs are frozen.

Prison officials denied the allegations and said the state’s pentobarbital supply is safe. A civil court sided with the inmates, but Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, saying the case should be decided by a criminal court, not a civil one. The state’s high court agreed.

One of the three inmates, Robert Fratta, was put to death last month. Ruiz’s attorney, Shawn Nolan, did not respond to a request for comment.

Ruiz hasn’t denied that he fired the shot that killed Nix, a 33-year-old senior corporal. But he argued during his capital murder trial he acted in self-defense and he feared for his life because he thought police shot at the car where he hid.

Jurors deliberated about three hours before they rejected Ruiz’s argument. The same jury then sentenced him to die. [MORE]

Justice Department Finds Louisiana Prisons Hold Inmates Past Their Release Dates

From [HERE] Louisiana routinely incarcerates people past the end of their prison sentences, a constitutional violation the state had been warned of for at least a decade, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

The department, announcing the findings of its multiyear review of the state’s correctional system, said that since 2012, more than one quarter of the people released from Louisiana state custody were held past the end of their sentences. The state was deliberately indifferent to the due-process rights of those individuals, the department said.

“The Constitution guarantees that people incarcerated in jails and prisons may not be detained beyond their release dates, and it is the fundamental duty of the state to ensure that all people in its custody are released on time,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division.

The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections “has been cooperative for the entire duration of the investigation, and we will continue to work with DOJ throughout this process,” a spokesman for the agency said.

The state’s system for calculating and managing prison sentences is rife with opportunities for error, the Justice Department report found. Physical records crisscross the state at least twice by mail, fax or hand-delivery, sentence calculations are largely done by hand or on 30-year-old software, and no one is tracking the scale of the problem internally, the department said.

Louisiana has repeatedly failed to update its systems and has declined to receive sentencing documents electronically from clerks of court, the report said.

Delays are costly. Federal investigators estimated that detaining inmates past their release dates costs the state $2.5 million annually.

The state has 49 days to implement meaningful changes before the Justice Department may file a lawsuit to force corrective measures, the department said in a letter to Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, though it said it hoped to resolve the matter “through a more cooperative approach.”

Prison Medical Care is Not Humane, Especially for Black People

From [HERE] I am located at MCF Oak Park Heights in the Transitional Care Unit. I am wheelchair-bound and have a rare medical condition called cauda equina, which causes me to have chronic nerve pain and spazzing in my lower back spinal cord area and right leg.

I have experienced excessive force due to my medical condition. I was left sleeping in my wheelchair for 39 days because I couldn’t physically transfer myself due to my medical issues. While left in my wheelchair for 39 days, my medical conditions got worse. Both of my feet and legs swelled up turning green and reddish. 

Also, my hands started curling up and I couldn’t really move them. It was hard to eat or even hold my toothbrush or anything really. I was seen by two different doctors who didn’t even acknowledge my worsening and new medical conditions. They failed to put in their reports about my new and worsening conditions, but instead put in their report that I was fine and looked good. 

I didn’t get any help until a physical therapist saw me and I showed him my condition and that I had been sleeping in my wheelchair. He called down to the central office and moved me a few days later to the medical unit. After an hour of being there, I was sent to Regions because of how bad of shape I was in. 

I stayed at Regions for 10 days undergoing tests. When the doctors finally came to the conclusion that my new medical condition was from being left in my wheelchair for 39 days, the Department of Corrections pulled me out of the hospital.

I would like to see the officers and nurses and doctors held accountable for all the pain and suffering they cause.

I have been in TCU for almost two months now and noticed that they try to move African Americans out quickly no matter their medical condition. I would like to see the Department of Corrections give African Americans equal care and everyone the basic care they need as human beings. 

If the prisons can’t treat people like human beings and give them basic medical care, maybe it’s time to rethink prisons. 

Stephan Holmes is in MCF Oak Park Heights in the Transitional Care Unit.

'Stomach-Turning’ Abuse of Children was Reported at Adair Regional Juvenile Detention Center (aka Prison for Kids) in KY Months before Riot

From [HERE] In the months leading up to the riot and sexual assault of a teenage girl at the Adair Regional Juvenile Detention Center last November, employees warned that youths were being mistreated in various ways, often isolated in cells not as punishment but because that made it easier for the thinly stretched staff to keep control.

A grim picture emerges of life inside the facility run by the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice in Adair County based on interviews with four former employees and internal documents obtained by the Herald-Leader.

“I have witnessed abuse and neglect on a stomach-turning scale,” nurse Joanne Alvarado wrote in her Aug. 1 letter resigning from the facility.

“The treatment of the youths is absolutely terrible,” wrote another nurse, Nina Burton, in her Oct. 6 resignation letter. “They are confined to their room 24 hours a day. They do not even get a shower or recreation daily. They are even served meals in their cells — mind you, the same cells that they defecate and urinate in. It’s absolutely a disgrace.”

The facility’s superintendent, Tonya Burton, vented her own frustration about leaving youths locked in isolation for extended periods, including girls who were pregnant or mentally ill. But Burton said she saw no alternative given a constant shortage of the employees who would be necessary to monitor youths gathering in common areas.

“I am doing the best I can right now,” Tonya Burton wrote in an Oct. 4 text to the medical staff in response to protests over the isolation of youths. “I am working insane hours. I am napping a few hours here and there and working all shifts. I want these kids moving.”

Nobody should have been surprised when violence exploded at the Adair facility on Nov. 11, requiring Kentucky State Police to enter and restore order, according to former medical and security employees.

Police said in a statement that the youths “assaulted a staff member, confiscated the staff member’s keys and released other juveniles from their cells.” During the chaos, a teen girl was sexually assaulted, police said.

The former employees said the violent outburst, while horrible, was sadly predictable.

“When you’re in a cell for three or four days at a time, are you going to want to go back in once you finally get out? No, you are not,” said David Hare, a youth worker supervisor at the Adair facility until he retired in November, in an interview with the Herald-Leader.

“It’s mental and psychological abuse that goes on there,” Hare said. “Somebody needs to go in there and take over.”

Faced with criticism about the juvenile detention centers, Gov. Andy Beshear has announced a number of changes in recent weeks. Among them, Beshear ordered that youths be housed separately by gender and severity of offense. He also approved higher starting salaries for youth workers, taking them to $50,000 a year, as well as pepper spray and tasers as “defensive equipment” for youth workers to use if necessary inside the facilities.

However, Hare and the other former DJJ employees who spoke to the newspaper said they each separately left the Adair facility last fall in disgust because they were so unhappy with how youths are treated there.

“I said, ‘It’s not a matter of if but when this ends badly.’ And that’s what happened,” Alvarado said.

“Anyone could have seen that coming,” Alvarado said. “The way we treated those kids? Nobody in charge cared. And if you messed up there, I swear, you got a promotion.”

Several former employees who spoke to the Herald-Leader said they also have been interviewed by the FBI in recent months about conditions inside the Adair facility. A spokesman for the FBI office in Louisville declined to comment.

A longtime Kentucky children’s right’s attorney, Rebecca Ballard DiLoreto, said she recently represented a client held at the Adair facility. She vouched for the former employees’ accounts of youths stuck in cells indefinitely.

“There are horrible conditions in that facility,” DiLoreto said. “There was no freedom to move around. They just keep them locked down. There was no mental health services provided to him — and my client had severe mental illness. No showers, no recreation, horrible food.”

“If DJJ had been transparent about the conditions inside this place before the riot happened last November, then maybe they could have gotten more funds at the time to improve things,” DiLoreto said. “Maybe they could have even refused to take more kids until they got the help they needed. They could have handled this a lot better.”

‘THEY BROKE HER’

According to various accounts from the former employees, youths’ meal trays were withheld as punishment if a single youth misbehaved; prescription medicine was withheld despite doctors’ orders; youths were hit in the face and head during restraints by staff; and incident reports were altered to conceal incriminating facts.

Last June, a grand jury indicted a woman who worked at the facility, Brooke Belt, on felony charges related to her allegedly bringing in drugs to distribute to one or more youths, according to court records. At least one youth tested positive for drugs in relation to that case. Belt’s trial is scheduled in Adair Circuit Court for Feb. 23.

But of all the deficiencies, the former employees told the Herald-Leader they were particularly shocked by the deteriorating mental health of a teenage girl — a ward of the state — who was locked in isolation last summer with little official effort made to assist her.

The girl ended up naked, covered in her own filth and nearly catatonic, according to the employees and documents obtained by the Herald-Leader from some of the employees and through the Kentucky Open Records Act.

“They broke her. It was Adair County that broke her,” said Beth Johnson, a former nurse at the Adair facility. “That whole wing smelled so bad, nobody could go down that wing.”

“We tried to get her help, but the excuse was always, ‘We can’t do anything with her because she’s naked.’ Well, she’s naked because she’s going through a psychotic break,” said Nina Burton. “She needs to be in a hospital or some sort of psychiatric facility, not a jail.”

A youth worker supervisor was put on investigative leave and later disciplined for inappropriate or excessive force after he forced the girl’s hands back through the flap of her cell door on July 1, according to state records. Kentucky State Police referred an allegation of official misconduct to prosecutors, where it is pending, police say.

The girl was reaching out the door flap and saying, “Please help me, please help me” when her arms were painfully twisted and forced back into her cell, witnesses said. Security staff then angrily ordered the flap kept shut, they said.

The girl was manic that day, hearing voices inside her head, witnesses said.

“If this child was with parents and found in this condition, she would be removed from their custody and the parents would be jailed!!!! This is unethical and at this point criminal!!!! Short staffing does not excuse abuse,” nurse practitioner Angela Jessie wrote in an Aug. 1 email to six of her medical staff colleagues at DJJ.

“I will be filing a grievance tomorrow in hopes that the commissioner and/or executive staff will intervene,” DJJ nurse administrator Deborah Curry replied to the same group of people in her own email.

“This should not be tolerated in any DJJ facility,” Curry wrote. “It’s the worst I have ever experienced and we have all experienced it some time or another. And they’re basically bullying this youth.”

“I will be glad when someone watches these videos, especially before they come up missing. They’re supposed to be archived but I was told they probably won’t archive these,” Curry wrote.

FRANKFORT OFFICIALS KNEW

The former employees said the Department of Juvenile Justice did not acknowledge their concerns.

“We screamed at the top of our lungs, the whole time we were there, that things were going wrong,” said former nurse Beth Johnson. “But all the way to the top, you hear the supervisors say, ‘Well, I didn’t hear it this way, that’s not what was told to me.’”

In fact, the problems at the Adair facility were no secret to state officials in Frankfort.

As the Herald-Leader previously has reported, like other DJJ facility directors, superintendent Tonya Burton sent monthly reports to DJJ Commissioner Vicki Reed throughout 2022 to update her on lack of staffing, security lapses and poor morale among youths and employees.

The Adair facility — both a detention center and a development center, meant to hold youths before and after a conviction — had an average daily population of 35 youths last summer with at least a dozen job vacancies among its youth workers, according to the reports.

Sometimes only three staff were on the floor to watch the youths when there should have been twice that number, employees said.

In its monthly reports, the Adair facility confirmed that it commonly placed youths on “lockdown” due to inadequate staffing, although it tried to put items such as DVD players in their cells to help them occupy their time.

Regarding the girl locked alone in a cell with failing mental health, Tonya Burton told Reed in July’s report: “She stopped taking a shower, cleaning her room and wearing clothes. She stripped down naked and refused to shower or clean her room. This made the room a mess and have an odor.”

The disturbed girl’s plight “took a toll on staff,” the superintendent told the commissioner. “It has been a tough month for us in dealing with our residential female.” [MORE]

Breaking Down Family Connections in The Dependent Media

From [HERE] In January 2021, I published an article documenting family relations in Canadian journalism. 

At the time, I wrote, “Late last year, various groups announced that they are launching media diversity surveys to help the public get a better sense of the makeup of Canadian newsrooms. These surveys will examine demographic factors, such as race and gender. What remains missing is an effort to track how many journalists working today either had or have family members in the industry.”

The article, which has since been updated multiple times, proved to be popular, and sparked a heated discussion among journalists and the public alike. It also led many people in other countries to remark that they wished such an article existed for the industry there. 

Although Passage is a Canadian publication, we often publish articles (including media criticism) that appeal to a broader audience. As such, and because no one in the United States appears to be doing it, I’ve chosen to put together a guide to family relations in the U.S. journalism industry.

In order to be included, the family must have at least one currently-working journalist. The article deals only with journalists. So, for example, a journalist who is the son of a politician wouldn’t be included in it unless they’re also related to a journalist. I haven’t included spouses unless they both share a relation with another journalist (for example, being the parents or child and child-in-law of a journalist). 

I’ve put together a list of all the connections of which I’m aware. I have no doubt that this list fails to be comprehensive, judging by my first attempt at the Canadian version of this article (it started off with 14 families, but then jumped to 57 after receiving tips), and the fact that the U.S. industry is much larger and I’m less familiar with it.

As such, if you know of any more relations that fit the criteria, please send an email listing them to submissions@readpassage.com so they can be included in future updates. They will need to be fact checked, so including a source in your email is helpful, although not necessary. Your identity will be kept anonymous. If you believe you’ve spotted an error in the article, please reach out to that email address as well, and your message will be reviewed promptly.

This list isn’t intended to be a reflection on the competence of any of the journalists mentioned. I’m not implying that they’re in the industry because of family connections, or that they would have never succeeded otherwise. I’m also not implying any of them have tried to hide their family connections, as most have mentioned them either in their writing or on social media. 

Here they are… [MORE]

Latino Reporter Locked Up for Publishing the Name of a Border Patrol Officer. Even Though Another Cop Provided the Info Prosecutors Claim She Violated Texas Law. Case in front of 5th Circuit Ct

From [HERE] A popular Texas independent journalist who was arrested on felony “misuse of official information” charges after publishing names she obtained from a police officer asked the full Fifth Circuit on Wednesday to revive her First Amendment lawsuit.

Priscilla “Lagordiloca” Villarreal is lauded as a throwback to the muckraking journalists of the early 1900s and an adept user of modern tools, livestreaming her on-the-scene coverage of events in her hometown Laredo on her Facebook page.

Since launching the page in 2015, she has amassed more than 200,000 followers and the public is an integral part of her work, frequently giving her tips about car accidents, fires and police chases.

She has even broken news about corruption of public officials that has led to FBI probes in the bustling border city, population 256,000, which boasts the busiest inland port on the southwest border with millions of trucks each year passing to and from Mexico.

In December 2017, Villarreal turned herself in after learning Laredo police had obtained an arrest warrant for her.

She was charged with two felony counts after publishing the names of a Border Patrol officer who died by suicide after jumping off an overpass and victims of car wreck before they were made public.

Though a Laredo police officer had given her the names, prosecutors alleged she had violated Chapter 39.06 of the Texas Penal Code, which bars soliciting or receiving information from a public servant that has not been made public with the intent to obtain a benefit. Police said her benefit was the Facebook followers she gained by publishing news before other media outlets did.

A state judge determined the statute was unconstitutionally vague in response to Villarreal’s habeas petition and the charges were dropped.

Represented by JT Morris of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Villarreal then sued the city of Laredo, Webb County and several prosecutors and police, alleging they had unlawfully arrested her and retaliated against her for her candid reporting and criticism of Laredo authorities in violation of the First, Fourth and 14th amendments.

A federal magistrate judge dismissed her case, finding qualified immunity protected the officials. But a Fifth Circuit panel revived her case in November 2021 with a 2-1 order.

While dismissing her retaliation claims, the majority found there was no question her arrest had violated the First Amendment.

“If the First Amendment means anything,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge James Ho, “it surely means that a citizen journalist has the right to ask a public official a question, without fear of being imprisoned.”

“Yet that is exactly what happened here: Priscilla Villarreal was put in jail for asking a police officer a question,” the Donald Trump appointee added.

But that opinion did not stand. The New Orleans-based appellate court vacated it last October and granted the defendants’ petition for a rehearing before all the court’s 16 active judges.

A schism emerged in Wednesday’s hearing between Ho and one of his most outspoken colleagues, U.S. Circuit Judge Edith Jones.

Villarreal’s attorney, Morris, argued in his opening that qualified immunity does not shield the defendants because it was clearly established the First Amendment protected Villarreal asking a Laredo police officer questions about two public incidents and then reporting what the officer shared.

Morris said in a nutshell, the basis for her arrest was “routine journalism.”

But Jones pushed back. The Ronald Reagan appointee noted a magistrate judge signed the arrest warrant affidavit prepared by Laredo police and said all the elements of the offense—that Villarreal received nonpublic information from a government official and obtained a benefit—were laid out in the criminal complaint against her.

Siding with Villarreal, Ho stated he believes the warrant affidavit was faulty because it did not cite exceptions against the Laredo officer sharing the names with Villarreal.

Texas has a longtime policy that citizens are entitled to complete information about government affairs, unless the data is deemed exempt from disclosure under the Texas Public Information Act, such as information about ongoing criminal investigations, or prepared by a prosecutor in preparation for a trial.

Morris said Villarreal had no idea the information she asked for was nonpublic. 

“Defendants are essentially saying Ms. Villarreal and every other citizen has an obligation to understand which of 60 [disclosure] exceptions to the Texas Public Information Act might apply,” he stated.

On rebuttal, William McKamie, the city of Laredo’s outside counsel, said the case is not about the First Amendment, but about a statute “that regulates conduct, not speech.”

He said Villarreal knows the proper way to request information from the Laredo Police Department is through its public relations officer, but she chose to go through an illicit “back channel”– the officer who provided her the names of the deceased – and by doing so herself committed a felony.

“Asking a back channel for information, even the codes of ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists dissuades journalists from taking that action,” said McKamie of the Fort Worth firm Taylor Olson Adkins Sralla and Elam.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office intervened in the case and urged the Fifth Circuit to affirm the lower court’s dismissal of Villarreal’s claims.

A group of media organizations, meanwhile, lobbied on behalf of Villarreal in an amicus brief, pressing for adoption of Ho’s view that Villarreal’s arrest clearly trampled press freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment.

“This Court should affirm that the American press can do the simple, and fundamentally important, democratic task for which Villarreal was arrested: ask questions of the government,” they wrote.

The appellate court’s judges did not say when they would rule on the case.

Judge Blocks Illinois New Gun Law that Violates Pre-Existing Rights to Bear and Carry Arms for 1) Self-Defense Against Criminals in Public and 2) to Prevent Tyranny, when All Other Rights Have Failed

TYRANNY PREVENTION: A “CORE” PURPOSE OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT.

WITH NO GUN "RIGHTS" FREEDOMS CAN BE SHUT OFF LIKE A LIGHT (SEE CANADA/IRELAND/UK/NEW ZEALAND) HISTORICAL ANALYSIS SHOWS DISARMED FORMERLY FREE PEOPLE HAVE NO DEFENSE AGAINST SLAVERY OR GOVT VIOLENCE

From [HERE] An Illinois judge on Friday temporarily blocked Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker from enforcing a newly enacted ban on certain semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines.

Effingham County Judge Joshua Morrison slapped the gun control law with a temporary restraining order after former Republican candidate for attorney general Tom DeVore sued to block the law. DeVore said in a press release that he's representing citizens from 87 Illinois counties who are challenging the law, which he called, "an outright attack on the constitutional rights of lawful gun owners across the state." 

Morrison's ruling only applies to 850 plaintiffs listed in the lawsuit in Effingham County and four licensed gun dealers.

Pritzker said he was not surprised by the decision and accused the plaintiffs of advancing "ideology over public safety" in seeking to have the law struck down.

"We are well aware that this is only the first step in defending this important legislation," Pritzker said. "I remain confident that the courts will uphold the constitutionality of Illinois' law, which aligns with the eight other states with similar laws and was written in collaboration with lawmakers, advocates, and legal experts."

In an 11-page ruling, Morrison affirmed that the plaintiffs have a constitutional right to bear arms that is protected by both the Illinois state Constitution and the Constitution of the United States. 

"Plaintiffs are being immediately and irreparably harmed each day in which their fundamental right to bear arms is being denied," Morrison wrote. 

The judge cited a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision from last year that struck down New York state’s concealed carry law. That 6-3 ruling in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen found that the "plain text" of the Second Amendment protected the right of the plaintiffs in that case to carry firearms for self-defense.

"Due to the speed with which this bill was passed, the effect to protected classes could not have been considered, nor could the Legislature have studied if this was the least restrictive way to meet their goal," Morrison also wrote.

Pritzker signed the law on Jan. 10 in response to the mass shooting that killed seven and injured 30 at the Highland Park July Fourth parade. The law bans dozens of specific types of rapid-fire handguns and rifles, .50-caliber guns, attachments and limits cartridges to 10 rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for pistols.

The Illinois State Rifle Association, a gun rights group that filed a separate federal challenge to the law control law, applauded Morrison's ruling. 

"This is a clear indication from the court that the General Assembly and Governor Pritzker rammed this law through improperly. The ISRA firmly believes the law is an infringement on all law-abiding residents’ 2nd Amendment rights," the group said. 

Florida Court Upholds Law Banning Local Governments from Making Restrictions on the Right to Bear and Carry Arms for Self-Defense in Public [the 2nd Amendment Makes No Distinction btw Home and Public]

From [HERE] The Florida Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a state law on Thursday that prevents local officials from implementing restrictions on gun and ammunition sales. 

Florida passed a law in 1987 that preempts cities and counties from creating restrictions on guns that go beyond state law, then added civil penalties and fines for local officials who violate that law in 2011. 

Several local governments challenged the penalty provision of the law after 17 people were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. Former Democratic Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who left office earlier this month, joined multiple municipalities in suing the state. 

The penalty provision calls for a fine of up to $5,000 against any local official for "knowing and willful" violations of the statute. 

In a 4-1 ruling, the Florida Supreme Court ruled against those local officials, with the majority writing that "local governments have no lawful discretion or authority to enact ordinances that violate state preemption."

Catherine Austin Fitts: The Coming "Central Bank Digital Currency" is Not Money. It's a System of Control

Follow the Money to Understand “Single Source Propaganda:” Two Investment Firms, Vanguard and BlackRock, Own Nearly the Entire Mainstream Media and Most of Big Pharma

From [HERE] If you’ve been wondering how the world economy has been hijacked and humanity has been kidnapped by a completely bogus Covid narrative, look no further than this video by a Dutch creator.

​What she uncovers is that the stock of the world’s largest corporations are owned by the same institutional investors. They all own each other. This means that “competing” brands, like Coke and Pepsi aren’t really competitors, at all, since their stock is owned by exactly the same investment companies, investment funds, insurance companies, banks and in some cases, governments. This is the case, across all industries. As she says:

“The smaller investors are owned by larger investors. Those are owned by even bigger investors. The visible top of this pyramid shows only two companies whose names we have often seen…They are Vanguard and BlackRock. The power of these two companies is beyond your imagination. Not only do they own a large part of the stocks of nearly all big companies but also the stocks of the investors in those companies. This gives them a complete monopoly".

​Laurence Douglas Fink is an American Jewish billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and CEO of BlackRock, an American multinational investment management corporation. BlackRock is the largest money-management firm in the world with more than $6.5 trillion in assets under management, giving the firm enormous power over the global financial system.

​Vanguard Group, coincidentally, is a shareholder of Black Rock, which controls and manages 1/3 of the world’s capital.  Vanguard Group, coincidentally, is owned by the Jewish trillionaire Rothschilds, as seen in the link below.

https://www.holdingschannel.com/all/stocks-held-by-rothschild-investment-corp-il/

​A Bloomberg report states that both these companies in the year 2028, together will have investments in the amount of 20 trillion dollars. That means that they will own almost everything.

​Watch the video for facts and evidence about the global control of Black Rock and Vanguard.  The video above was created by Dutch researchers and their website is:

https://linktr.ee/vrouwenvoorvrijheid [MORE]

Uncle Brother Seeks More Restrictions in the Free Range Prison: Vaccine Passports, Digital ID, a Social Credit System, Surveillance and Digital Currency Will Enable Total Control of Sheeple

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

• An international vaccine passport, digital identity, a social credit system and a central bank digital currency (CBDC) form a digital control system that will lock down the population in perpetuity

• Facial recognition is an essential part of the control structure, as it’s the “password” to your digital identity

• By the end of 2022, there will be 1 billion data collecting surveillance cameras in the world, all connected to the internet and artificial intelligence (AI). Cameras and audio recording devices in cell phones, automobiles and smart appliances also collect and share data

• All these data are then used to give each person an individual score, based on their behavior, expression and interaction with the world. Ultimately, your social credit score, will dictate what you can and cannot do, what you can buy and where you can go

• Artificial intelligence (AI) is an absolutely crucial component, without which the control system cannot work. The easiest way to push against this system is to starve AI of data by refusing to use technologies that collect and share your personal data

From [HERE] In the video above, Maria Zeee with ZeeeMedia interviews computer scientist Aman Jabbi about the coming international vaccine passport, digital identity, the social credit system being built in the West, and central bank digital currency (CBDC).

All these factors are now coming together to control the global population. As noted by Zeee, this digital prison, which is already mostly built, will be the final lockdown of mankind.

Your Digital Identity Will Be Your Digital Prison

In the video, Jabbi goes through a presentation that explains the digital prison that is your digital identity — in other words, how your digital identity ties in with the coming social credit system and will control what you can and cannot do in your everyday life.

As noted by Jabbi, surveillance cameras with facial recognition software have already been erected around the world. They are an essential part of the control structure, and this surveillance will be linked together with digital identity, the social credit score system, carbon footprint tracking, CBDCs and more.

Facial recognition has been sold as a great convenience and security feature. With facial recognition, you don’t need to remember pins or passwords, and since no one has your exact face, it’s supposed to keep your personal accounts more secure.

But, as with most other technologies sold under the guise of convenience and security, facial recognition is ultimately a tool for mass control and an essential part of your individual digital prison. As explained by Jabbi, the Chinese control system is based on facial recognition in combination with a social credit system.

He describes the Chinese social credit system as a feedback system that responds based on your behavior. Unbeknownst to most Westerners, an identical system has already been set in motion behind the scenes in Western countries — they just haven’t told you yet.

Weaponized Surveillance

By the end of 2022, there will be 1 billion data collecting surveillance cameras in the world, all connected to the internet and artificial intelligence (AI). The United States actually has the most surveillance cameras per capita. China is second place and the U.K. in third.

In addition to all of that data collection, cameras and audio recording devices in cell phones, automobiles and smart appliances also collect and share data, even when you’re at home.

All these data are then used to give each person an individual score based on their behavior, expression and interaction with the world. Ultimately, that score —  your social credit score — will dictate what you can and cannot do, what you can buy and where you can go.

As noted by Jabbi, there are also additional control mechanisms already built into the hardware being erected. For example, many smart light poles have built-in charging stations for drones, which in the future will be used for law and behavioral enforcement purposes. We will largely be policed by AI and machines.

These smart light poles can also be weaponized. Built-in are LED incapacitators. Sometimes referred to as “puke rays” for their ability to induce severe nausea, LED incapacitators are weapons designed like a flashlight that emit an extremely bright, rapid and well-focused series of "differently-colored random pulses." According to Jabbi, these lights can also induce brain damage, spinal damage, sickness and likely even death.

LED combined with radar on some smart poles can also be used to identify people carrying guns, and could theoretically be used as a weapon to selectively take out people carrying weapons.

ACCORDING TO FUNKTIONARY:

totalitarianism – a neologism coined by Mussolini—best understood by the phrase “The Nightmare State,” whose agents (neocrats) seek totality of control over its subject-victims (“citizens”), including their erotic emotions and minds. 2) Big Brother’s Fantasy State. 3) total impersonalized terror. 4) fascism disguised as democracy. (See: Fascism & Demockcracy)

A New Chapter in the ‘Social Contract’

Digital identity has been described by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as a new chapter in the social contract. The problem, as noted by Jabbi, is that the WEF’s new social contract is one that none of us has agreed to. It’s being revised by the WEF and its allies and thrust upon the rest of us, without our consent.

The vast majority of people don’t even know what this new social contract actually entails, or how it will affect their personal day-to-day lives and individual decision-making ability. That, for obvious reasons, has never been fully delineated because, if fully understood by everyone, virtually no one on earth would accept it. After all, few people with normal intelligence relishes having their lives dictated by someone else.

Source: World Economic Forum

As shown in the graphic above, your digital identity will be required to unlock all aspects of life, from logging onto the Internet to accessing social services, travel, food, shopping and financial services. If your social credit score is too low, one or more of these aspects can be turned off and made unavailable to you. “So, by default, you’re always a prisoner,” Jabbi says.

Your digital identity is confirmed through facial recognition, and is tied to your social score, carbon footprint score and CBDCs. As your social and carbon footprint scores go down, so does your purchasing ability.

As noted by Zeee, the international vaccine passport proposed at the 2022 G20 meeting is, at least right now, THE key to the entire effort to get everyone into the digital ID system. So, preventing the adoption of vaccine passports is a central component of resistance to the digital prison system in its entirety.

“Once we accept digital identity, it’s Game Over for humanity.” ~ Aman Jabbi

You must also reject the vaccine passport unless you’re willing to be a medical lab rat for the rest of your life. Zeee cites documents stating 500 new vaccines will be ready by 2030 that are targeting most common diseases. It is likely that having an up-to-date vaccination status will be one of the requirements to maintain a valid passport, which will also serve as your digital identity.

In other words, vaccine refusal can be used to nullify or “lock” your digital ID, leaving you unable to do, go or buy anything. The question is, what will those vaccines be? Basically, you’ll have no choice but to comply, even if you believe or know that a vaccine can injure or kill you, as is the case with the COVID jabs.

Zero Trust System

As explained by Jabbi, the new social contract created by the WEF and its allies is a zero-trust system. In a physical prison, prisoners are under a zero-trust policy. In other words, the guards don’t trust the prisoners and there are security measures in place to make sure they behave. The new open-air prison system envisioned by the WEF is based on the same premise.

Everywhere you go, you must prove who you are and that your compliance metrics are in alignment with the prevailing rules. So, to buy food, you have to not only identify yourself so that your purchase can be permanently logged as one of your purchases, but you also have to meet certain compliance standards, or else your CBDC won’t work.

The default in this system is denial, so everything you want to do — absolutely everything — must be unlocked by your digital ID. As noted by Jabbi, “Once we accept digital identity, it’s Game Over for humanity.”

Geofencing and Smart Cities Form the Walls of Your Prison

To enforce your conditional access to life, geofencing will be used. Smart light poles equipped with LED incapacitators can be used to prevent you from going beyond your designated geofence, but there are also other geofencing mechanisms. For example, your CBDC can be programmed to not work outside your district, and your smart car can be programmed to shut down past a certain perimeter. Jabbi also reviews the inexorable push toward smart cities, which will:

• Limit your mobility and eliminate car ownership

• Control you through weaponized surveillance

• Ration water, electricity and gas consumption

• Surveil your speech

• Track your actions and whereabouts 24/7

Starve the Beast

Jabbi cites a formula created by the WEF’s philosophical guru Yuval Noah Harrari, to describe technocrats’ ever-growing ability to hack humans: B x C x D = AHH

B stands for biological knowledge, C is computing power, D is data and AHH is the level of ability to hack a human being. As noted by Jabbi, the ability to hack humans is dependent on AI being fed a constant stream of data.

It’s a “beast system” in the sense that AI is the beast, and it needs to be fed. Its food is data, gathered through a vast array of data conduits such as cameras, recording devices, facial recognition, GPS and sensors of all kinds that make up the Internet of Bodies. You can learn more about this in “Manufactured Dystopia — Globalists Won’t Stop Hacking Humans.”

AI is an absolutely crucial component for success of the digital prison. Without it, it cannot work. The answer then, is to starve the beast, and we do this by withholding our data. “No amount of legislation can stop this,” he says, “it has to be done by the people.” In short, we must refuse to use the technologies that gather our data.

We won’t be able to avoid them all. Smart light poles and traffic cameras, for example, cannot be avoided unless you avoid certain areas, which could include your own street. But there are many we can avoid, such as smart watches, fitness trackers, smart thermostats, smart TVs, AI assistants and Ring surveillance cameras just to name a few.

We can also fight, on a local level, to prevent the expansion of facial recognition cameras and 5G, and we can refuse the coming vaccine passport, and the push toward virtual reality. As noted by Jabbi, one way in which people are surreptitiously led into the digital prison is by relying on apps that offer convenience, such as apps that allow you to order food or transportation.

Eventually, they’ll phase out apps on your phone and transfer them to virtual reality googles, so that you have to be in the virtual world in order to use them. It’s important to understand why this is done. It’s to force you deeper into the digital prison system, which includes digital clones and living much of your life in a virtual reality.

China Demonstrates Coming Prison State

At present, China is being rocked by massive protests against the Zero-COVID policy that is used to imprison tens of millions of people in their homes for weeks on end. You’d think an American company like Apple would stand for American values like freedom but, no, it does not. It’s working with the Chinese government to quell dissent.

As reported by Bloomberg 1 November 9, 2022, Apple is limiting its iPhone file-sharing tool, restricting AirDrops from non-contacts to 10 minutes. The wireless file-sharing feature was used to share pictures and videos from the protests, thereby encouraging more people to join.

According to Bloomberg, while the change was only made to phones sold in China, Apple says it plans to roll out the same limitation globally. Why? Are they predicting anti-government protests elsewhere?

According to a Twitter user named Songpinganq, 2 the video above shows iPhone workers clashing with police over the country’s Zero-COVID policy. In response, the Chinese government is alleged to have remotely switched all of the protesters’ COVID passports to “red,” which prevents them from entering public spaces.

If they try to enter a building, for example — including residential complexes — an alarm will go off and they’ll be detained and escorted to a quarantine camp which, by the way, they have to pay for. That’s how easy it is for the government to eliminate undesirables from society once this kind of control system is in place.

(For the record, I cannot confirm that the featured video is indeed iPhone workers, or that they’re specifically protesting the COVID measures. Regardless, the basic premise remains true, which is that government would be able to control large masses of people remotely, through their digital identity/vaccine passport.)

The video 3 below is said to be from a Chinese quarantine camp. A health worker walks through the complex measuring the detainees’ body temperature. The second video 4 shows the inside of a quarantine cubicle. [MORE]

"Ever-escalating levels of pain and torture:" Kenneth Smith Describes Alabama Authorities' Cruel, Unusual and Unsuccessful Attempt to Murder Him with Lethal Injection

From [DPIC] Alabama death-row prisoner Kenneth Smith spent four hours on November 17, 2022 strapped to an execution gurney while state prosecutors attempted to lift a stay of execution issued by a federal appeals court and his execution team repeatedly failed in attempts to set the intravenous execution line intended to kill him. He was left strapped to the gurney after prison officials called off the botched execution, unaware that he was not to be put to death that night. 

These revelations, and more, came to light in pleadings filed by Smith’s lawyers in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama on November 25, 2022 and reported by The Guardian December 28, 2022. In his Second Amended Complaint, which challenged his execution by lethal injection based on Alabama’s history of failed and botched execution attempts, Smith tells the story of what happened on the night Alabama tried and failed to execute him. 

The complaint alleges that, “as the night progressed, as Mr. Smith was subjected to ever-escalating levels of pain and torture, no one responded to his pleas to stop the pain, told him of the Eleventh Circuit’s stay, or answered his questions about what they were doing to him. They were — and he thought they were — executing him.”

Maya Foa, joint director of Reprieve, told The Guardian that “The recent spate of disastrous lethal injection executions have shown that whatever the drug, whatever the protocol, condemned prisoners often spend their final hours in agonising pain and distress. With each gruesome scene in the death chamber, we are witnessing the consequences of persisting with a broken method of execution, in real time.”

The Attempt to Execute Kenneth Smith

Smith’s complaint sets forth a detailed timeline of events surrounding the botched attempt to execute him. 

At 7:45 pm, it says, as a motion to stay his execution was pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, counsel for the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) emailed Smith’s lawyers advising defense counsel that ADOC had notified the courts that “we are preparing Mr. Smith for execution.” Guards ended Smith’s phone call with his wife at 7:57 p.m. and immediately placed him in handcuffs and leg irons, took him to the execution chamber, and strapped him to the gurney.

Two minutes later, the Eleventh Circuit issued a stay, which Smith’s lawyers provided to ADOC at 8:02 p.m. ADOC replied, “Noted,” but left Smith strapped to the gurney until midnight — a total of about four hours. During that time, ADOC never informed Smith of the stay or the status of any other legal proceedings and did not permit him to speak with his counsel. Smith, the complaint alleges, believed his execution was imminent.

At 10 p.m., ADOC’s IV team entered the execution chamber and began to attempt to set an IV line. Around the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the Eleventh Circuit’s stay. It is unclear from the complaint whether the IV team began jabbing Smith’s arms and hands with needles before or after the stay was lifted. At one point in the process, Smith informed an execution team member that executioners were painfully inserting the needle in his muscle. According to the complaint, the team member responded, “No I’m not.” 

The execution team then adjusted the gurney to place Smith into an inverted crucifixion position, then left the room for several minutes. Upon their return, they injected Smith with an unknown substance, which Smith’s counsel believe to be “some sort of sedative and/or anesthetic.” Smith “specifically objected to this injection,” the complaint says, as the State “had been ordered not to use ‘intramuscular sedation’ during his execution.”

Subsequently, an individual of “unknown medical credentials … started repeatedly stabbing [Smith’s] collarbone area with a large needle” in an attempt to begin placing a central line IV, and a prison official “grabbed and held [Smith’s] head away from the area where the needle was being inserted.” Smith describes sharp and intense pain, “as though he were being ‘stabbed’ in the chest” as the individual “repeatedly jabbed him … underneath his collarbone.” Unbeknownst to Smith, around 11:20 pm, “unverified reports that the execution may have been called off started circulating.” 

Smith’s lawyers emailed state officials for confirmation that the execution had been called off, but did not receive a response. Sometime before midnight, the execution team told Smith “it’s over with.” When guards came to remove him from the execution chamber, Smith was trembling, sweating, hyperventilating, dizzy, and could not lift his own arms to be handcuffed or walk unassisted.

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed Smith’s stay of execution around 10:20 pm. ADOC initiated Smith’s execution hours earlier, contravening a court-ordered stay and their own protocol. The attempt to execute Smith was the third consecutive botched execution in Alabama. Following the incident, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey called for a review of the state’s execution process. She also asked the Alabama Supreme Court to amend state court rules governing death warrants to provide ADOC personnel more time to carry out executions, which the court approved January 12, 2023.

Lawsuit Alleges Federal Death-Row Conditions Violate U.S. Constitution and Human Rights Treaties

From [HERE] A Russian national on the U.S. federal death row has filed a civil rights lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the federal government’s use of automatic and prolonged solitary confinement to house individuals sentenced to death. 

The class action complaint, filed January 12, 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana on behalf of Jurijus Kadamovas (pictured) and 37 other prisoners incarcerated on death row in the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, alleges that the “severely isolating” and “unrelenting solitary confinement” to which the prisoners are subjected falls below the minimum standard prescribed by international human rights treaties for the treatment of prisoners and violates the U.S. constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

The lawsuit, authored by lawyers from the ACLU of Indiana and the national law firm, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, states that the prisoners on federal death row are automatically assigned to incarceration in the “Special Confinement Unit” (SCU), where they are held in “solitary conditions” in single cells 12 feet, 8 inches deep by 7 feet wide — roughly the size of a parking space. “Each cell contains a table and stool affixed to the floor, a metal sink/toilet unit, and a shower,” leaving even less space for movement. Once assigned to the SCU, a federal death prisoner is likely to be kept in solitary confinement “for decades.”

“It is well known that prolonged isolation and solitary confinement can cause, and predictably will cause, prisoners to suffer serious emotional and psychological injuries,” the complaint states. Bureau of Prisons personnel are “fully aware of the isolated, dangerous, and harmful conditions that exist in the SCU,” the complaint alleges, are “responsible for the conditions there, and allow[ ] them to exist and continue.” 

The prisoners seek an injunction to end automatic solitary confinement and require BOP to allow them “to be out of their cells for multiple hours a day and to engage in congregate activities.” The complaint also seeks unspecified “individual damages” for the harms experienced by the prisoners, plus attorneys’ fees. Kadamovas specifically claims to have suffered “physical, mental, and emotional injuries and harm by the isolated, dangerous, and harmful conditions that exist in the SCU.”

Biden signs bill mandating ‘just and reasonable’ phone rates for prisoners

From [HERE] US President Joe Biden Thursday signed a bill reducing the cost of making calls from prisons into law. The Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2021 will direct the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enforce guidelines which ensure that payphone providers charge incarcerated people “just and reasonable rates” for phone calls. The signing comes after the FCC attempted to reduce the costs of phone calls in 2017 but was ruled against by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia which held that the FCC did not have the authority to set rate caps on calls.

Congress passed the legislation in December 2022 before it was sent to President Biden to be signed. It aims to establish requirements “related to charges, practices, or regulations in connection with confinement facility communications services.” It also “prohibits providers from assessing a site commission.” The US House of Representatives introduced an early version of the bill, the Martha Prison Phone Justice Act, in April.

The recently passed legislation imposes “private-sector mandates,” congressional directives which require private-sector entities to act in some way. The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA) defines the boundaries of these mandates. The Congressional Budget Office says that the “total cost of the [new law’s] mandates on private entities would exceed the annual threshold established in UMRA for private-sector mandates.”

Special Assistant to the President for Criminal Justice and Guns Policy, Vanessa Chen, comments that “meaningful communication and connection with loved ones (promotes) rehabilitation and can reduce recidivism,” thereby leading to safer communities. The bill is named after retired nurse Martha Wright-Reed, who advocated for affordable telephone rates after her grandson was incarcerated.

Since 2019 1.4 Million Students Have Left the Public Fool System, Causing Closings Throughout US

From [HERE] Government schools in America “have lost more than a million students since the start of the pandemic,” reports the Wall Street Journal, leading to school closures “across the country.” The article goes on to document dozens of those closings and lists “a rise in home schooling” as one of the causes for the drop in enrollment. In total government schools lost “1.4 million students from the fall of 2019 to the fall of 2020.”

3.7 million homeschooled children

Homeschooling numbers have swelled to 3.7 million children as government schools lose students, according to WhatToBecome in an article entitled, “Homeschooling Statistics You Shouldn’t Ignore".

Why?

Project Forever Free suggests COVID measures and frustration with poor education may be responsible for the move away from government schooling.

Maybe it’s the continued disruptions to learning in public schools — from poorly-devised remote classes to indoor mask mandates — that have forced many parents to search for schools teaching in person or meeting away from COVID risks. 

Or perhaps these pandemic problems were just an occasion for parents to act on frustrations they’ve had for years. Many public schools have been consistently incompetent when it comes to meeting children’s educational needs.

WhatToBecome also points to educational success as one of the reasons for the growing popularity of homeschooling.

15% to 30% higher scores on achievement tests [including] 72 points more (out of 1600) than the national average on the SAT. 

Higher scores are not the top reason parents choose to homeschool, though. Safety is. 

80% of parents choose to educate their children at home because of safety concerns…Parents in the States are becoming more worried about their children’s safety at school, primarily because of drugs, bullying, and negative peer pressure.[MORE]