Category: Uncategorized

As reported earlier, no candidates qualified to have their names on the Flint, Michigan ballot this year for Mayor and City Council. This is because the city clerk erroneously told candidates that the deadline was a week later than the actual deadline. The non-partisan primary is in August and the run-off is in November. No August primary would be held if no candidates qualified. Instead, the Mayor and City Councilmembers in the two districts that are up this year would be chosen by write-in votes in November.
However, bills to allow candidates to be on this year’s …read more

Clark County, NV — In an emotional courtroom display Friday, Steven Ficano, 65, embraced his attorney and his wife after the jury read their verdict of “not guilty.”
In 2012, Ficano’s house was raided by heroes protecting the citizens of Nevada from the horrors of marijuana plants. For the next three years, Ficano anxiously lived his life thinking that he could live out the rest of his golden years in a cage for the “crime” of treating his pain with a plant.
However, the three years that passed since his arrest were undoubtedly a benefit for Ficano in this case. The leaps …read more

Painesville, Ohio — A criminal case in Painesville Municipal Court took a strange twist on Thursday. After pleading guilty to an assault charge, Diamond T. Gaston, was given a choice by Judge Michael Cicconetti, between 30 days in the county jail or being pepper sprayed in the face.
The court case stemmed from an incident in which Gaston pepper sprayed Burger King worker, Franz Rolles, in the face.
“It hurt. It burned. It stung. It was scary at first because I didn’t think I was gonna get my eyesight back,” worker Franz Rolles said.
This is not the first time Judge Cicconetti has …read more

On May 29, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson signed SB 8, the bill that moves the primary for all office in 2016 from late May to early March, and which moves the petition deadline for new parties to September 2015 and the non-presidential independent deadline to November 2015. The bill also forces new parties to have chosen all their 2016 nominees no later than November 2015. It is possible the Libertarian Party will sue over the deadline for it to have chosen all its nominees.
There has never before been any state that forced new parties to nominate …read more

On May 28, the Nevada Assembly Legislative Operations & Elections Committee passed SB 421. It had failed in that committee on May 27. It provides for a February 23, 2016 presidential primary, which would replace the Democratic and Republican caucuses. The primary for other office would continue to be in June. See this story. …read more

DownsizeDC.org is one of 51 organizations that sent this letter to Senate leadership expressing opposition to two Patriot Act “compromise” bills that may be considered this Sunday…

Dear Majority Leader McConnell and Minority Leader Reid:

We the undersigned companies, industry and trade groups, and civil society organizations write in opposition to the drafted FISA Improvements Act of 2015[1] and the FISA Reform Act of 2015,[2] proposals that fail to properly address overbroad surveillance activities, and would weaken privacy, civil liberties, and the digital economy.

Both bills contain flaws and omissions that are incompatible with the goal of stopping domestic bulk collection. …read more

Ross Ulbricht, founder of the notorious online marketplace Silk Road, was sentenced to life in prison on Friday in Manhattan. Considered as the mastermind behind the underground website Silk Road, …

Waco, TX — If there is anything we know about the Waco biker brawl that occurred earlier this month, it’s that the public is largely in the dark about what actually went on that day.
The original narrative put out by the Mainstream Media stated a fight broke out at the Twin Peaks and spilled into a parking lot. Police said that the bikers began shooting at each other and then at the police, who were forced to return fire.
However, there is another side to this story which few people have heard.
According to the website, The Aging Rebel,
The shove in …read more

Baton Rouge, LA – WBRZ-TV reporter Brett Buffington was arrested on Thursday morning for attempting to take photos of a crime scene, and then later “mouthing off” to officer on the scene.
Buffington was charged with interfering with an officer and intimidating a public official. The police claim that Buffington “interfered” with a burglary investigation around 2:30 in the early morning on Thursday.
However, according to the police department’s version of events, Buffington was simply doing his job as a journalist and attempting to investigate a crime just as the police allegedly were.
The police report stated that Buffington disobeyed police officers when …read more

Seattle holds city council elections this year. Washington state election law says that candidates get on the ballot by filing fee, or by petition in lieu of filing fee. The Seattle filing fee for city council is $1,199.76; or candidates can submit 1,200 valid signatures.
Amanda Helmick chose to submit a petition instead of a filing fee. She submitted 1,318 signatures, but only 1,195 were considered valid. She was willing to pay $5 filing fee to make up for the 5 missing signatures, but Washington state law does not allow candidates to submit a mixture of signatures …read more