Senate Democrats forced a vote Wednesday to repeal changes to Obama-era net neutrality rules, which are scheduled to expire next month.
The Federal Communications Commission voted in December to overturn the rules, which prevent internet service providers, or ISPs, from treating certain content differently. The change, internet freedom advocates warned, would allow ISPs to block, slow down or charge more for certain content ― including on popular streaming websites like Netflix or Amazon.
Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Kennedy (R-La.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) joined all Democrats in approving a resolution Wednesday that would undo the FCC’s decision. The effort to force a vote was made possible by the Congressional Review Act, which gives Congress the power to reverse any federal regulation within 60 legislative days of enactment.
The violence that left seven inmates dead and a score more injured in a South Carolina prison this week was inevitable, Henry McMaster, the state’s Republican governor, suggested Monday. “It’s not a surprise when we have violent events take place inside the prison, any prison in the country,” he said.
In fact, a night of unchecked prison violence that ends in more than a half-dozen deaths is extremely unusual. States have a responsibility to protect inmates and prison staff—and well-funded, properly staffed prisons can and do prevent widespread inmate violence or stop it swiftly when it occurs, prison experts say.
Lee Correctional Institution, the high-security prison where inmate fights broke out on April 15, houses violent offenders with longer sentences, as well as people with behavioral issues. The incidents started around 7:15 p.m., but a large emergency response team didn’t enter the first dorm of three dorms until 11:30 p.m., officials said, and the last dorm hours later. CBS News obtained leaked video (not independently verified) that shows what McMaster apparently finds unsurprising: An eerie dystopia featuring an inmate smearing blood against a white wall and another roaming shirtless with a weapon that resembles a kitchen knife.
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LOGAN CYRUS via Getty Images
A guard walks between buildings at the Lee Correctional Institution, in Bishopville, South Carolina, on April 16, 2018.
Former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson, a man whose family was turned upside down by Scooter Libby and other President George W. Bush administration officials, sharply criticized President Donald Trump for pardoning Libby, saying it showed his disregard for America’s national security.
“It has nothing to do with Libby, and it has nothing to do with me,” Wilson told HuffPost Friday. “Libby’s problem was with the Justice Department. He was indicted, tried and convicted on obstruction of justice and perjury charges for basically violating the national security of the United States of America.”
“Now he’s being pardoned for it, which suggests of course that Mr. Trump is willing to allow people to violate the essence of our defense structure, our national security, our intelligence apparatus and essentially get away with it,” he added.
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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Valerie Plame’s cover at the CIA was blown by the Bush administration. Her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, helped show that the administration fabricated intelligence to invade Iraq.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Rebecca Dallet won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court Tuesday, a victory for Democrats that gives more momentum for a potential blue wave in the November midterm elections.
State Supreme Court races rarely merit national attention. The Wisconsin election ― which gives justices a 10-year term ― was officially nonpartisan, but it was crystal clear where the partisan lines formed.
It’s the first time in more than a decade that a liberal candidate won an open Supreme Court seat in the state. Dallet was winning by double digits when the race was officially called in her favor.
Dallet picked up endorsements from former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), while former Attorney General Eric Holder went to the state to campaign for her.
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Rebecca Dallet campaign
Rebecca Dallet will be the newest justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Sarah Palin never said “I can see Russia from my house” and George W. Bush didn’t wave at Stevie Wonder. But political myths like these have ways of sticking in the public memory and distorting history.
When it comes to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, rumors have circulated since the early months of the conflict that Washington’s original name for the war was “Operation Iraqi Liberation.” After the war’s architects realized that name produced the embarrassing acronym “OIL,” they quickly changed the official title to “Operation Iraqi Freedom.”
In reality, however, there is no public record of Operation Iraqi Liberation as the official U.S. label, and no evidence that it was ever seriously considered.
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James' World 2 