Category: Uncategorized

Sante Fe, N.M. – On Friday, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez signed the unanimous bipartisan legislation, H.B. 560, which effectively ends the practice of civil asset forfeiture in the state.
Civil asset forfeiture is officially no más in #NM! Conviction now required for property seizure! @ACLU @radleybalko pic.twitter.com/gtZUf0gNas
— ACLU of New Mexico (@ACLUNM) April 10, 2015

The practice of civil asset forfeiture has come under intense scrutiny as of late, as people are increasingly coming to the realization that civil forfeiture encourages policing for profit.
“Police agencies have used hundreds of millions of dollars taken from Americans under federal civil forfeiture law in …read more

West Columbia, TX– Taxpayers will be avoiding an expensive trial in the case of a pedophile cop who was scheduled to begin litigation on Monday. The Former police chief, Michael Palmer, was found dead in the backyard of his home on Thursday.

Palmer took off on the run after he was indicted in 2013, when it was uncovered that he had bound, gagged and sexually assaulted a 7-year-old-boy, repeatedly, beginning in 1998, Click2Houston reported. Bondage gear was also found in his office in the West Columbia Police Department.
Police and volunteers scoured the area, searching for him, but were unsuccessful. …read more

On April 10, U.S. District Court Judge David Nuffer refused to enjoin a Utah law that permits candidates to appear on a primary ballot even if they did not have significant support at the party’s caucus. Utah Republican Party v Herbert, 2:14cv-876. Although the constitutionality of the law has not been decided, it will remain in effect while the case proceeds. The Constitution Party is a co-plaintiff with the Republican Party. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news. …read more

Oregon uses all-postal ballots. On April 8, the Oregon House Rules Committee heard HB 3500, which says that independent voters would automatically receive a primary ballot for all three parties that are entitled to a primary (the Democratic, Republican, and Independent Parties). An independent voter could then choose one of the three primary ballots, vote on it, and return it by postal mail. However, the ballot would not be counted unless that voter signed a statement of affiliation with the party whose ballot had been chosen.
In Oregon, legislative committees don’t generally vote on bills at the hearing. …read more

Houston, Texas – A former Houston Police Department ‘Officer of the Year’ award winner, Noe Juarez, was arrested this past Tuesday morning. He has been indicted on federal charges of conspiracy to possess firearms connected with a drug trafficking offense and conspiracy to distribute five or more kilos of cocaine.
Juarez is accused of leading a double life with close ties to the Los Zetas cartel. Court documents accuse him of conspiring with Sergio Grimaldo, the brother of a convicted cartel boss, to distribute five kilos of cocaine in southeastern Louisiana
His co-defendant, Grimaldo, 32, was previously indicted along with his brother, …read more

Philadelphia, Pa. – Junior college basketball player Samir Hill was detained and taken to the police station after leaving two officers embarrassed on the basketball court.
Hill, a 5-foot-7, 21-year-old point guard at Allegany College of Maryland, was enjoying playing some pickup games against kids in the neighborhood when two cops approached and “started talking trash,” according to Complex.
The point guard, not appreciating the insults, offered the officers the opportunity to step onto the basketball court to play him rather than run off at the mouth.
“We gave them ball first, (and) I was playing on the court two-on-two with my friend …read more

On April 9, the Peace & Freedom Party of California, the Libertarian Party of California, and the Green Party of Alameda County filed this reply brief in Rubin v Padilla, the case pending in the State Supreme Court on whether the California top-two system injures voting rights. …read more

Today we’re excited to announce the developer preview of our API v2. Our original API was released in 2012 and a lot has changed since then. With all the new features and products we’ve launched, we thought the time was right to release a v2 of our API that was focused on consistency and performance. It also allowed us to incorporate many of the lessons we’ve learned watching developers use the platform over the past two+ years.

We’re making the new API available today as a developer preview to start gathering feedback. A developer preview means that API v2 may still …read more

A personal message from Jim Babka and Perry Willis, Co-Founders of Downsize DC and Co-Creators of the Zero Aggression Project

Something exciting starts today — a new approach to social change. This new path has been TRANSFORMATIVE to us. We hope it will be for you, as well.

This message will…

Describe the experiences that changed us
Explain what you can gain from the Zero Aggression Project 3.0 (ZAP)
Ask you to consider making this your main libertarian activity
Start a countdown to close the ZAP Founders Committee
How we got here…
We have 50-man-years experience testing libertarian recruitment methods. Some worked, some didn’t, and then one …read more

Doug Goodman, the Nevada activist most responsible for the Nevada bill for a top-two system, here writes in his blog that he has been told that the bill will not advance in this session. There is some reason to believe that the bill’s top-two provisions will be amended out of SB 499, and replaced by provisions moving the deadline for new parties to submit petitions from April to a later month. …read more