Trump said, “We need people to be afraid. Right now many Americans are surprised when protestors are killed, but they’ll get used to it.” Trump did add one suggestion: “Try not to kill white people. That gets too much attention. Stick to protestors of other colors.”   read more

The law signed by Governor Dan Malloy gives employees the ability to collect double the amount owed to them by their employers. Studies show that $50 billion in earnings per year is stolen from U.S. workers. Bhandary-Alexander called wage theft “the biggest crime wave in the country.” Labor advocates hailed the new law, though some said it did not go far enough in punishing employers. Organizer Megan Fountain said that 10 other states require employers to pay triple damages.   read more

Relying on cheap labor is nothing new for Suniva, the third-largest producer of solar modules in the U.S., which was using factories in Asia until 18 months ago to keep costs down. Signing a contract with UNICOR has enabled them to transfer their operations. “By making panels in the U.S., Suniva has been able to capture lucrative federal contracts, avoid U.S. government tariffs on Chinese-made panels, and appeal to private sector customers who want American-made products,” said Reuters.   read more

Rand Paul got an “A” grade for his support of states to establish their own marijuana policies. He also backs decriminalization of small-quantity pot possession. Chris Christie earned an "F." He opposes legalization and the New Jersey medical marijuana law. He also said that he would restore federal prosecution of Colorado pot smokers. Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton got a B-. She supports states that legalized pot, but hasn’t taken a position on decriminalization.   read more

In his dissenting opinion, Roberts wrote that allowing homosexuals to lawfully wed could result in polygamists making the same legal argument to sanction and legalize their definition of marriage as well. Collier married his first wife, Victoria, in 2000. He applied for a second marriage license with the clerk in Billings to marry his second wife, Christine, after hearing what Roberts wrote. “It’s about marriage equality,” Collier told AP. “You can't have this without polygamy.”   read more

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) keeps a count of police killings, but their list is woefully incomplete, as they rely on voluntary reporting by police agencies. The FBI’s count of police killings has hovered around 400 for the past several years. The Guardian also keeps a list and theirs does include the killing of Gray and others who die from means other than gunshots. That list had 550 names on it for the year as of last week.   read more

Hood County residents Jim Cato and Joe Stapleton, who have been together 27 years, still can’t get a marriage license from Lang’s office. Lang's excuse? She says it will take three weeks to acquire the necessary forms for the licenses. When it was pointed out that more than 200 other Texas counties are issuing the licenses from forms readily available over the Internet, Lang stood firm.   read more

Independent studies have shown time and again that abstinence-only education is not effective in preventing pregnancies or sexually-transmitted diseases. Programs such as CTB’s often perpetuate dangerous gender stereotypes, in one instance saying: “‘Occasional suggestions and assistance’ from women ‘may be alright, but too much of it will lessen a man’s confidence or even turn him away from his princess.’”   read more

Correction officers make up a significant portion of the national workforce. According to federal government statistics, the ratio of correction officers to prisoners has remained at about 3.3 to 1 over the past 30 years. However, the number of inmates has more than tripled from 223,551 in 1983 to 735,601 in 2011. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are currently about 163,000 local correctional officers in the United States.   read more

The case arose out of a 2009 complaint by Teleta Dashiell, who found that Maryland State Police Sgt. John Maiello, thinking he had hung up, had left a message on her voice mail that contained a racial slur. Dashiell complained to the State Police about the message and was later told that the incident had been investigated and action had been taken.   read more

The State Department said in its 2014 Human Rights Report, which was released last week, that the Bahraini government restricts civil liberties and limits its citizens’ ability to alter the makeup of its government, which is a constitutional monarchy. Pro-democracy opposition leaders continue to be thrown in prison and the country bars international election monitors. However, the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based there, its headquarters serving as a key command post.   read more

At least 103 Florida murder and attempted murder cases have been reopened, often resulting in lighter sentences, because of bad wording in the jury instructions. Among the more than 100 cases affected by the jury instructions, dozens of murderers received new trials or the chance to make plea agreements. Curtis Krueger found that 31 of the defendants received shorter prison sentences   read more

Rosalba Vargas-Ortiz has lived legally in the United States for more than two decades. The immigration service says they have no record of her and that she should be deported. Vargas showed the court three documents with her photograph and fingerprints, issued by USCIS. The judge found it perplexing that the agency can’t explain the documents in Ortiz’s possession.   read more

The U.S. Spanish-speaking population is now second in the world, behind only Mexico, which has 121 million people. Between the United States and Spain is Colombia, with 48 million Spanish speakers.   read more

Researchers on the atoll, which has been owned since 2000 by the Nature Conservancy, previously had to bring in diesel to fuel a generator to provide power, according to Ari Phillips of ClimateProgress. Including transportation costs—Palmyra is about 1,000 miles from Hawaii—the diesel ended up costing $11 to $13 a gallon. Now about 95% of the island’s energy needs are met via wind and solar energy.   read more

State legislatures have passed 282 laws restricting abortions since 2010. Fifty-one new restrictions have gone into effect this year alone. Five of them either imposed or increased time women must wait between their first contact with a clinic and their procedure. Arkansas and Tennessee now require a 48-hour wait. North Carolina and Oklahoma are forcing women to wait at least 72 hours, joining Missouri, South Dakota and Utah in requiring women to wait at least three full days for an abortion.   read more

Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana submitted a rider to a budget bill that would stop the Obama administration from ensuring that coal companies pay the proper royalties for mining on public lands. The increase is slated to happen as a result of the Interior Dept. closing a loophole that allows coal companies to sell to subsidiaries at intentionally depressed prices, which avoids royalty payments. Zinke has received almost $10,000 in contributions since 2013 from three coal company PACs.   read more