José Oliva survived the bloodiest year in Vietnam, but he most feared for his life when he was brutally beaten in an unprovoked attack by federal officers in a Veterans Affairs hospital in his hometown of El Paso, Texas that left him with several injuries, two of which required surgery. On January 29, 2021, the Institute for Justice filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to reverse the 5th Circuit decision that ruled federal officers—such as those in a VA hospital—may act with impunity and not be held accountable for their actions, no matter how unconstitutional. “I feared...
Louisiana
News Roundup 7/1/20
US News The Supreme Court ruled against a strict Louisiana abortion law. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the liberal members in a 5-4 decision. [Link] The Colorado police officers that killed Elijah McClain were placed on paid leave after photos surfaced showing them near the place that McClain died. [Link] Police killed five other men the same day George Floyd was murdered. [Link] A Senator introduces a bill to reform qualified immunity. [Link] Overdose deaths are spiking during the lockdown. [Link] China The FCC declares two Chinese telecoms to be national security threats. [Link]...
News Roundup 6/8/20
George Floyd Protests Two Buffalo police officers were fired and charged with 2nd-degree assault for pushing a 75-year-old man to the ground. The rest of the Buffalo emergency response police team resigned from the team in protest of the officers being fired. [Link] The AP finds most protesters in DC and Minneapolis were local and not affiliated with any group. [Link] US Press Freedom Tracker finds the police are responsible for 80% of the attacks against journalists. [Link] CBS News reports Trump wanted to deploy 10,000 troops across the country but was talked out of it by advisers....
News Roundup 3/17/20
US News The primaries in Ohio, Georgia, and Louisiana have been postponed due to coronavirus. The primaries in Florida, Illinois, and Arizona will be held today. [Link]The Senate passes a bill that will extend the life of three mass surveillance programs - including the section 215 program - by 77 days. The programs expired on March 15th. Senators Paul and Lee are pushing an extension that includes reforms to the FISA court. The House already passed a bill that has minimal reforms to prevent government abuses of the program. [Link]The US Peace Corps suspends all operations because of...
Senate Passes Iran War Powers Resolution
In a vote of 55-45, the Senate passed the Iran War Powers Resolution on Thursday afternoon, setting out opposition to any unauthorized war with Iran, and instructing the president not to deploy troops for such a war. Voting was heavily along party lines, with Democrats and some antiwar Republicans managing to pass the resolution in the face of mocking opposition from the Republican leadership, who insisted the resolution could never survive a Trump veto, and was a sign of weakness against Iran. The Senate Republicans supporting were Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins...
BREAKING: Houston Cop Who Lied About Raid that Killed Innocent Couple—Charged with Murder
Houston, TX — The murder of an innocent Houston couple made national headlines earlier this year as police took to smearing their names and threatening those who didn’t believe their official narrative. As the months passed, we learned that the Houston police department’s raid on the home of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas was based on lies and they were murdered for no reason. In May, the case had reached a turning point after the family hired a forensics expert to examine the home and found that there is no evidence the officers encountered gunfire. And, moments ago, the cop who lied...
Red Flags Is All They Will Ever See
With both the left and right calling for supposed “Red Flag Laws”, we have to take a step back and look at what the State is trying to accomplish here. Lindsey Graham said that “The Second Amendment is not a suicide pact.” The politicians say they are concerned with dangerous people having “easy” access to guns. That sounds good on the surface, but if you study history, you will find that psychology has been used in the past by authoritarians as a cudgeol. Politicians are no stranger to abusing psychiatry for their own ends. In the Soviet Union, it was regularly used to keep...
Joe Biden: The Architect of America’s Disastrous War on Drugs
My prediction is Joe Biden will not be the Democratic nominee. He has a lifetime record of supporting the worst policies. The younger Progressive Democrats will not support him in the primaries. Brittany Hunter at Foundation for Economic Freedom reminds us that Joe is a long time supporter of the War on Drugs. They sure kept this quiet. In 1998, Biden’s daughter Ashley was arrested for cannabis possession in Louisiana. While others arrested for the same offense faced sentences sometimes spanning decades, Ashley Biden was never convicted of any drug-related crime. In 2014, Hunter Biden...
The Perverse Incentives of Punishment
Todd Entrekin, the sheriff of the small Alabama county of Etowah, recently found himself in the national spotlight when an Alabama newspaper discovered that over the course of three years he pocketed at least $750,000 budgeted for feeding the people detained in his county jail. While the inmates in his jail ate meat from a package labeled “not fit for human consumption,” the sheriff bought himself a $740,000 beach house. And it was all seemingly legal, thanks to a 1911 Alabama law that many sheriffs interpret to mean that whatever funds they don’t spend on their jails they can keep for...
News Roundup 3/28/18
Police are using dead peoples fingerprints to unlock their iPhones. [Link] A Louisiana police officer records herself on her OWN body camera admitting she was conducting an illegal search. [Link] The Baton Rouge police officers who were involved in the murder of Alton Sterling will not be charged. [Link] Texas police shoot an unarmed man whose pants were around his ankles. [Link] Trump announces he will end the deportation protections for 4,000 Liberians. Those immigrants will have 18 months to leave the US. [Link] A provision in the Omnibus spending bill bans the US from giving weapons...