All posts by Nativegrl77

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Here we go again …

01/17/2014 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

The Attacks on Women’s Health Keep Coming

It’s only January 15, but Republican legislators and their activist allies are not wasting any time when it comes to the war on women. Just today, both the Supreme Court and Congress considered new restrictions that could limit basic access to abortion.

1. A panel of House Republicans, all of which are men, is advancing a bill that contains far-reaching restrictions on abortion access. The bill, the so-called Rape Audit, H.R. 7, aims to limit access to abortion by making it much more difficult for women to purchase private insurance that covers abortion (as most private plans currently do) with their own money. (Similar laws were passed by seven states last year.) In addition to increasing taxes on women and small businesses, it would also empower the IRS to conduct audits of rape survivors to ensure they’re not merely pretending to be raped. Pro-choice legislators and advocates have been pushing back against this assault, including a group of Democratic congresswomen who sternly told the GOP to “stop wasting taxpayers’ time and dollars waging attacks on women’s constitutionally protected right to make informed health care decisions about their own bodies.”

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, claimed the bill is actually a jobs plan because denying women access to abortions will make them have more children, who will in turn help grow the economy. Another leading anti-abortion legislator, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), blocked a Democratic effort to amend the bill with legislation that cracks down on workplace discrimination against pregnant women by claiming that abortion access has nothing do with pregnant women.

CREDIT: DEMOCRATIC LEADER NANCY PELOSI

2. The Supreme Court may rule to eliminate buffer zones at abortion clinics, allowing protesters almost unlimited access to patients and staff. Depending on how the Justices rule in McCullen v. Coakley, a case they heard today, cities and states may no longer be allowed to enact buffer zones around reproductive health care facilities. Since protests outside of clinics often turn violent, abortion providers say that buffer zones are critical for ensuring the safety of their patients and staff. In fact, there have been over 4,700 incidents of clinic violence and 140 clinic blockades since 1995.

Justices Scalia and Alito incredulously claimed that anti-abortion activists who gather outside clinics and harass patients and staff aren’t actually even protesting, they merely want to “speak quietly” to patients. It appears likely that Alito, Scalia, Kennedy (who has long opposed buffer zones) will be able to find at least two other justices to strike down the Massachusetts law and perhaps overturn a 2000 ruling that upheld a similar law in Colorado.

It’s worth noting that the Supreme Court bans protests on its own plaza.

3. In the past 3 years, states have enacted more abortion restrictions than during the entire previous decade. A new report from the Guttmacher Institute notes that between 2011 and 2013, state legislatures enacted 205 laws that restrict women’s reproductive rights. In the decade prior, between 2001 and 2010, states enacted 189 such restrictions. While the campaign against abortion rights rages on nationwide, Guttmacher points out that the multiple, often overlapping restrictions enacted just a few states — North Dakota, Texas, Arkansas, and North Carolina — helped drive the spike.

CREDIT: GUTTMACHER INSTITUTE

4. States with anti-choice governors and state legislatures outweigh states with pro-choice ones. The two charts below illustrate the imbalance. And in a new state-by-state report card released this week by NARAL Pro-Choice America, 25 states receive a failing grade for reproductive rights while America on the whole gets just a ‘D’ grade.

Choice Positions Of Governors

CREDIT: NARAL

Choice Positions Of State Governments

CREDIT: NARAL

BOTTOM LINE: Women’s health advocates are hopeful that this year will prove to be a turning point in the fight over women’s reproductive rights, but so far we’re seeing more of the same from their opponents.

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Official Google blog …

01/17/2014 Nativegrl77

Introducing our smart contact lens project

Posted: 16 Jan 2014 04:00 PM PST

You’ve probably heard that diabetes is a huge and growing problem—affecting one in every 19 people on the planet. But you may not be familiar with the daily struggle that many people with diabetes face as they try to keep their blood sugar levels under control. Uncontrolled blood sugar puts people at risk for a range of dangerous complications, some short-term and others longer term, including damage to the eyes, kidneys and heart. A friend of ours told us she worries about her mom, who once passed out from low blood sugar and drove her car off the road.
Many people I’ve talked to say managing their diabetes is like having a part-time job. Glucose levels change frequently with normal activity like exercising or eating or even sweating. Sudden spikes or precipitous drops are dangerous and not uncommon, requiring round-the-clock monitoring. Although some people wear glucose monitors with a glucose sensor embedded under their skin, all people with diabetes must still prick their finger and test drops of blood throughout the day. It’s disruptive, and it’s painful. And, as a result, many people with diabetes check their blood glucose less often than they should.
Over the years, many scientists have investigated various body fluids—such as tears—in the hopes of finding an easier way for people to track their glucose levels. But as you can imagine, tears are hard to collect and study. At Google[x], we wondered if miniaturized electronics—think: chips and sensors so small they look like bits of glitter, and an antenna thinner than a human hair—might be a way to crack the mystery of tear glucose and measure it with greater accuracy.

We’re now testing a smart contact lens that’s built to measure glucose levels in tears using a tiny wireless chip and miniaturized glucose sensor that are embedded between two layers of soft contact lens material. We’re testing prototypes that can generate a reading once per second. We’re also investigating the potential for this to serve as an early warning for the wearer, so we’re exploring integrating tiny LED lights that could light up to indicate that glucose levels have crossed above or below certain thresholds. It’s still early days for this technology, but we’ve completed multiple clinical research studies which are helping to refine our prototype. We hope this could someday lead to a new way for people with diabetes to manage their disease.
We’re in discussions with the FDA, but there’s still a lot more work to do to turn this technology into a system that people can use. We’re not going to do this alone: we plan to look for partners who are experts in bringing products like this to market. These partners will use our technology for a smart contact lens and develop apps that would make the measurements available to the wearer and their doctor. We’ve always said that we’d seek out projects that seem a bit speculative or strange, and at a time when the International Diabetes Federation (PDF) is declaring that the world is “losing the battle” against diabetes, we thought this project was worth a shot.
Posted by Brian Otis and Babak Parviz, project co-founders

Black History

the Senate CONGRESS the House

01/17/2014 Nativegrl77

The Senate will meet on the following days at the following times for pro forma sessions only with no business conducted:

– Friday, January 17^th at 11:15am;

– Tuesday, January 21^st at 10:30am; and

– Friday, January 24^th at 9:30am.

The Senate will convene at 2:00pm on Monday, January 27, 2014.

Following any Leader remarks, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S.1926, the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act.

At 5:30pm, there will be a roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S.1926. As a reminder to all Senators, cloture was filed on the motion to proceed to the bill on Thursday, January 16^th.

=============================================================================

Last Floor Action:
1:03:53 P.M. – The Speaker announced that the House do now adjourn pursuant to pursuant to section 4(b) of H. Res. 458.

The next meeting is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on January 21, 2014.

Last Floor Action:1/16
1:44:39 P.M. – The House adjourned pursuant to a previous special order.

The next meeting is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on January 17, 2014.

1:00:29 P.M.		The House convened, starting a new legislative day.
1:00:34 P.M.		The Speaker designated the Honorable Andy Harris to act as Speaker pro tempore for today.
1:00:55 P.M.		Today’s prayer was offered by the House Chaplain, Rev. Patrick J. Conroy.
1:02:20 P.M.		JOURNAL APPROVED – The Chair announced that pursuant to section 4(a) of H. Res. 458, the Journal of the last day’s proceedings was approved.
1:03:07 P.M.		PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE – The Chair led the House in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.
1:03:32 P.M.		The House received a message from the Clerk. Pursuant to the permission granted in Clause 2(h) of Rule II of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Clerk notified the House that she had received a message from the Secretary of the Senate on January 17, 2014 at 9:50 a.m. stating that that body had agreed to H. Con. Res. 74 and had concurred in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to the text to H.R. 3547.
1:03:53 P.M.		The Speaker announced that the House do now adjourn pursuant to pursuant to section 4(b) of H. Res. 458. The next meeting is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on January 21, 2014.

=====================================

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Michael Bell Team : Plea for a Change

01/16/2014 Nativegrl77

Please, read the letter and have 3 more friends to sign the petition. Thank you! http://www.change.org/ab409?utm_source=supporter_message&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=petition_message_notice

THE LETTER:

TO: Committee on Criminal Justice Representative and Chair, Joel Kleefisch Room 307 North State Capitol P.O. Box 8952 Madison, WI 53708

Re: AB 409 Dear Members of the Committee I am a retired City of Kenosha police detective with over 31 years of law enforcement experience. During my career with the Kenosha Police Department, I earned 57 awards and letters of commendation and completed the Wisconsin Department of Justice Death Investigation School, along with numerous other police related training programs. For nine years, I served on the Board of Directors of the Kenosha Professional Police Association, most of those years as the Association treasurer. I was also an active member of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association for nearly three decades. I graduated from UW-Parkside with Summa Cum Laude honors and a triple major of sociology, history, and political science. I hold five secondary teaching licenses with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. I earned these licenses through the post-baccalaureate teacher certification program at UW-Milwaukee. I currently work as a full time social studies teacher at an alternative high school in Milwaukee for at-risk youth. In my spare time, I volunteer as an investigative consultant for the Chicago Innocence Project, where I work with college journalism students who intern with the project. This letter, the attached affidavit with supporting documents, and my testimony will make many people uncomfortable. My testimony will address the elephant in this hearing room. We all know it is here. Most of us, including me, do not want to acknowledge it. I will be testifying about a law enforcement culture in some police agencies that fosters an environment where the concealment of facts and evidence, untruthfulness, and other unethical and criminal behavior by police officers is both tolerated, and in many cases, expected. Only the most naïve among use will deny the evidence of the existence of police and prosecutor misconduct in their investigation duties. On May 20, 2012, the National Registry of Wrongful Convictions issued a report titled, Wrongful Convictions in the United States, 1989–2012. This report, which received extensive media coverage upon its release, documented 873 individual exonerations in the United States from January, 1989 through the end of February, 2012. As of December 10, 2013, the number of individual exonerations is up to 1,255. Of these 1,255 individual felony exonerations, thirty-one are Wisconsin cases. Of these thirty-one Wisconsin exonerations, “official misconduct” is listed as a contributing factor in six of these cases. To put this in perspective, since 1989, it is confirmed that six Wisconsin citizens were deprived of their fundamental constitutional right of liberty by the misconduct of Wisconsin government officials. Taking a citizen’s liberty by official misconduct is just a notch below taking a citizen’s life. The 2012 report also documents 1107 additional exonerations that occurred in groups due to thirteen police scandals where it was determined that law enforcement officers engaged in patterns of misconduct that affected the integrity of sets of criminal convictions. Researchers concluded that the numbers of known individual and group exonerations is only a fraction of the total number of wrongful convictions that actually occur in the United States. The report also lists the contributing causes for the wrongful convictions in the 873 cases of individual exonerations across categories of felonies. This data is contained in the table that follows that has been copied and pasted from page #40 of the 103-page report. The table shows that official misconduct, which includes perjury and failure to disclose exculpatory information or evidence by government agents, and perjury and false accusation, on the part of civilians, are the leading causes of the wrongful convictions in the set of 873 individual exonerations the report studies.
The Innocence Project is a New York based national “umbrella” innocence project. According to its web page, it is a “. . .national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.” The Innocence Project defines and illustrates “government [official] misconduct” as follows: Common forms of misconduct by law enforcement officials include: • Employing suggestion when conducting identification procedures • Coercing false confessions • Lying or intentionally misleading jurors about their observations • Failing to turn over exculpatory evidence to prosecutors • Providing incentives to secure unreliable evidence from informants

Common forms of misconduct by prosecutors include: • Withholding exculpatory evidence from defense • Deliberately mishandling, mistreating or destroying evidence • Allowing witnesses they know or should know are not truthful to testify • Pressuring defense witnesses not to testify • Relying on fraudulent forensic experts • Making misleading arguments that overstate the probative value of testimony One may ask, “What does data regarding official misconduct in wrongful conviction cases have to do with AB-409, which is the subject of this hearing?” The link is clear. Some police officers and prosecutors commit perjury, conceal evidence and other critical information, and disregard basic rules of conflict of interest to deprive innocent citizens of their liberty by incarcerating them by wrongful conviction.

It is not a stretch to think they would engage in this type of misconduct to protect their co-workers from being held accountable for unlawful use of deadly force. It is the mirror image of wrongful conviction. This type of official misconduct is intended to shield a co-worker from being held accountable for unlawful use of deadly force, thus depriving a citizen of another fundamental constitutional right, the right to their life.

In the fall of 2012, Investigative Consultant Ira Robins asked me to provide an affidavit related to evidence that I possessed related to criminal misconduct by many high ranking City of Kenosha Police officials, including the Chief of Police. Mr. Robins submitted this affidavit, along with other information that he developed, to the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Mr. Robins asked for a federal investigation into a pattern and practice of criminal civil rights violations on the part of the Kenosha Police Department. Arguably, the most egregious of these civil rights violations was the death of Michael Bell at the hands of the Kenosha Police in November of 2004. Based on information that I have obtained, I believe the federal government is conducting this investigation. We will, of course, have to wait and see if indictments are issued.

My affidavit documented and provided evidence of numerous cases of concealment of evidence, altering of evidence, perjury, and other criminal acts by high ranking Kenosha Police officials, in addition to the numerous illicit acts involving the Kenosha Police investigation into the death of Michael Bell. Some, but not all, of this information is already available in documents that I filed with the City of Kenosha Police and Fire Commission, the Kenosha County District Attorney, and the Wisconsin Department of Justice. None of these agencies acted on this information. Their indolence ultimately forced the unresolved issues to be submitted to the federal government so they could step in and protect the interests and constitutional rights of Wisconsin citizens. Currently, the affidavit that I provided to the United States Department of Justice is not a public record because, as far as I know, they are investigating these crimes.

Investigative Consultant Ira Robins also asked me to review the thousands of pages of documents, still photos, and videos that the City of Kenosha turned over to Michael Bell’s attorneys in his federal civil suit over the death of his son. After my review of these materials, I have concluded that the shooting of Michael Bell was an intentional act that resulted from an unfortunate, unavoidable, but entirely understandable circumstance. I believe that one of the four officer’s holstered handgun got caught in the side mirror of a car during the struggle with Michael Bell. This caused the officer who’s handgun was caught in the mirror to honestly believe that Michael was attempting to disarm him. His hysterical cries to the other officers due to his mistaken belief that he was being disarmed resulted in Michael being shot in the head. This officer compounded the tragedy when he committed suicide in October 2010.

The affidavit related to my theory is included in the packet of material that I provided to all of you. I respectfully request and strongly recommend that you take the time to read it.

However, based on the thousands of pages of discovery documents that the City of Kenosha provided Michael Bell’s attorneys, the likely scenario that the Officer’s holstered gun was caught in the car mirror during the struggle was never considered nor explored as a factor in the death investigation. To this day, unless the Feds are conducting an inquiry, this likely “gun getting caught on the car mirror” theory, has yet to be officially investigated. There are only two possible reasons why the Kenosha Police Department, who were investigating their own officers, failed to traverse this avenue of inquiry. 1. Utter and inexcusable incompetence. 2. Intentional conspiracy to conceal and deceive. With either reason, AB-409, should it become law, would prevent future instances in which a police department pre-disposed to corruption or incompetence could attempt to investigate their own officers who are involved in the death of a citizen.

My dear sister is a police officer in southeastern Wisconsin. Several years ago she shot an armed attacker in the line of duty. Recently, during one of our discussions about this bill, she told me that any police officer involved in a justifiable shoot would have no fear of and would welcome the review of their actions by the entity established when AB-409 becomes law. If I was not retired from law enforcement and was still an active officer, I would also prefer having the protection of the law to prevent a life sentence in a virtual prison for submitting to the peer pressure and participating in the crime of covering up a questionable or unlawful use of deadly force.

Many critics of this bill claim it adds an unnecessary level of government bureaucracy. I ask you and these critics these questions. Is protecting the natural right of the individual to life and liberty unnecessary? Is having a legal system where individual citizens are protected by due process unnecessary? I proclaim that critics of this bill demonstrate either inexcusable ignorance or a prince-like disregard of our country’s founding moment. Respectfully, Russell Beckman

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The 2014 State of the Union Social

01/16/2014 Nativegrl77

You’re Invited: The 2014 State of the Union Social

On Tuesday, January 28th, President Obama will deliver his fifth State of the Union address from the Capitol. Here at the White House, we’ll be hosting our third State of the Union Social event — and we want you to join.

This event is an opportunity for our followers on social media to watch President Obama’s State of the Union address live from the White House, and then participate in a panel with senior staff to discuss the vision and policies laid out in the speech.

Find out how you can join us here.

Get Ready: President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union Address

This year there will be more ways than ever to take part in the State of the Union, including a new way to watch the speech and share exclusive graphics with your social networks — and opportunities to discuss President Obama’s remarks with White House officials immediately following the address.

For the first time, as part of the HHS’s regular reporting on enrollment in private health care plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, the department released demographic information on the enrollees, including breakdowns by age.

Yesterday, as part of the Administration’s ongoing efforts to carry out that pledge, and in recognition of National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, the White House released the first-ever Federal Strategic Action Plan on Services for Victims of Human Trafficking in the United States.

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