Another lawsuit has been filed to take aim at NYPD stop-and-frisk policy. In this particular suit, anger towards the police practice and its effects is borne of personal tragedy. The family of Ramarley Graham, an unarmed teenager who was shot dead in his Bronx bathroom by police exactly one year ago, are suing the police, accusing the department of poor officer training and disproportionately targeting minority youths with stops.

Writing in the Guardian, Ryan Devereaux details …

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In the US constitutional ratifying convention in Virginia in 1789, there were objections made by Patrick Henry and George Mason in particular, that Article 1 Section 8 gave the Federal Government the power to control to what extent the State militia’s were armed. And their concern was that Virginia’s State militia which had a slave patrol component was one of the principal tools used to …

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ATHENS — Even in the leafy northern stretches of this city, home to luxury apartment buildings, mansions with swimming pools and tennis clubs, the smell of wood smoke lingers everywhere at night.

In her fourth-floor apartment here, Valy Pantelemidou, 37, a speech therapist, is, like many other Greeks, trying to save money on heating oil by using her fireplace to stay warm.

Unemployment is at a record high of 26.8 percent in Greece, and many people …

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With Washington State on the verge of a ballot initiative that would require labeling of some foods containing genetically engineered ingredients and other states considering similar measures, some of the major food companies and Wal-Mart, the country’s largest grocery store operator, have been discussing lobbying for a national labeling program.

Executives from PepsiCo, ConAgra and about 20 other major food companies, as well as Wal-Mart and advocacy groups that favor labeling, attended a meeting in …

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Sen. Patrick Brazeau says he won’t apologize for mocking Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence at a Conservative fundraiser earlier this week.

“Oh, poor Theresa Spence. Oh, poor her,” Brazeau is heard saying in an audio recording captured at a fundraising dinner for a provincial PC candidate in an Ottawa suburb, and provided to CTV News by Metroland Media.

The New Democrats attacked Brazeau Thursday, saying his comments were “disturbing” and misogynistic.

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/sen-brazeau-mocks-chief-spence-idle-no-more-movement-1.1138545#ixzz2JgaUzjUK
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The 2013 Academy Awards taking place this year on February 24th will recognize what’s considered the best of the best in the movie business. Each year movie fans wait breathlessly for the list of nominations that decide which films are worth watching.

This year, high profile films like Argo, Life of Pi, Lincoln, and, most controversially, Django Unchained and Zero …

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WASHINGTON — Republican senators are moving to target the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as the National Labor Relations Board in the wake of a court ruling that found President Barack Obama’s appointments to the NLRB were unconstitutional.

A bill offered Thursday by Sens. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) would withhold any funding for actions taken by the leaders whom Obama named to their posts more than a year ago.

The …

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The Chinese Communist Party’s repression of its Tibetan minority now extends, apparently, to travel: Radio Free Asia reported last week that few Tibetans have been issued passports since last spring. Beijing has yet to comment officially about this issue, but its approach to Tibet has stiffened since cracking down on anti-government protests in the territory in 2008.

In order to get a clearer sense of why Beijing now restricts passport issuance, The Atlantic spoke with Professor …

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CAIRO (AP) — With near impunity and the backing of the Islamist president, Egyptian police have been accused of firing wildly at protesters, beating them and lashing out with deadly force in clashes across much of the country the past week, regaining their Hosni Mubarak-era notoriety as a tool of repression.

In the process, nearly 60 people have been killed and hundreds injured, and the security forces have re-emerged as a significant political player after spending …

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Last week, soldiers in one of Africa’s most closed and repressive nations — Eritrea — occupied the country’s Ministry of Information and issued demands. The pattern was a familiar one. News spread quickly that a coup was underway.

But feisty little Eritrea, which got its independence from Ethiopia in 1991 after defeating successive US- and Soviet-backed armies in a 30-year war, has never fit the mold of postcolonial African states, and it was not doing so …

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