Civil Rights Roundup: 09/05/08
Sep 5th, 2008 | 2 responses
Your daily dose of civil rights and related news
What are Gov. Sarah Palin’s views on race and civil rights? Her Alaska record leaves a mostly-blank slate.
California politicians are looking to challenge the LPGA’s new English proficiency rule — the only one of its kind in professional sports.
Federal officials could not agree on whether a Muslim Imam from New Jersey had terrorist ties or not, and now an immigration judge has ruled he can gain permanent residency. Supporters of Mohammad Qatanani say he is a moderate who helped build bridges between Jews, Muslims, and Christians, as well as Muslims and law enforcement officers after 9/11. Opponents say he was linked to Hamas, citing his detention by Israel (where Qatanani claimed he was physically and mentally abused).
Pro-equality advocates in Maryland are trying to keep an initiative off the Montgomery County, MD ballot that would overturn county regulations protecting transgender individuals.
Chicago students — mostly from the South Side — boycotted their first day of classes and instead showed up at wealthy suburban New Trier High School in protest of massive educational inequalities in the area.
Another Texas execution is on the ropes following allegations that the judge and prosecutor were having an affair.
An open letter to Sarah Palin by National Advocates for Pregnant Women argues that her anti-abortion stand also threatens the liberty of women who take their pregnancies to term.
The Agriprocessors Kosher meat plant is being attacked again for slaughtering practices that seem to violate both American and Kosher laws.
The same plant is also fighting desperately to prevent its workers from unionizing, despite an NLRB ruling requiring them to recognize one.
RNC police are denying they’re using excessive force on protesters,
All-boys charter schools are causing controversy in Philadelphia.
The Treasury Department has to get cracking on making paper money accessible to the blind.
opinions powered by SendLove.to
2 Responses to “Civil Rights Roundup: 09/05/08”
An interesting bit of info about the RNC protests. Since the RNC was required to purchase $10 million in liability coverage for police it seems that it freed them up to be even less discerning in their judgment regarding arrests and level of force used.
http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/co…
And here is a link to a nice video clip of some protestor getting maced and hit with a baton for offering a flower to the police. Watch it and I am sure you'll agree it was a reasonable use of force.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJZNkJbTpjA
The LPGA is an interesting question since the association is financially margianl and depends upon sponsors putting up large sums of money to play with the pros. If the pros are unable to communicate with the sponsors and thus the sponsors stop paying, all of the LPGA players lose the ability to earn money.
Almost half of the LPGA are from outside of the U.S. and there have been reports that the large number of Korean golfers is creating a group resistant to learning English.
It is question that many of the elite public high schools are facing. The whites work hard to make create something special, the Asians migrate toward it, and then when it is overwhelmingly Asian, it is not special anymore since the Asians will not work for the common good.