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BREAKING: US Supreme Court will hear gay marriage cases
The US Supreme Court has agreed to take up two gay marriage cases in their first serious look at the issue.
The court today granted review of the Defense of Marriage act, a federal law which says marriage can exist only between a man and a woman, and Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage in California, NBC News reports.
More updates on BreakingNews.com.
Photo: Gay marriage advocates cheer during a rally outside a federal courthouse in San Francisco moments before hearing that judges had struck down Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, on Feb. 7, 2012. (Beck Diefenbach / Reuters file)“Now that the Supreme Court is wading into the battle, the justices could decide the more basic issue of whether any state can ban same-sex marriage under the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection of the law.” This could be big, guys.
(via baruchobramowitz)
nrdc:
Good News for California’s Lone Gray Wolf
Last year, a 2½-year-old gray wolf designated “OR7” entered California, becoming the first wolf to inhabit the state since 1924. This month, the California Fish and Game Commission moved one step closer toward securing endangered species protection for the first gray wolf in California in more than 80 years.
The decision to advance the gray wolf to “candidate” status now launches a one-year study by Department of Fish and Game staff to determine whether the wolf should be listed under the California Endangered Species Act. Read more.Photo: A gray wolf (not OR7). Credit: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Admittedly I haven’t paid much attention to the gray wolf’s status in years, so this is very exciting to read!
CARRY OUT Pizza shop owner Scott Van Duzer lifts President Obama off the floor during a visit in Ft. Pierce, Florida. ”Scott, let me tell you, you are like the biggest pizza shop owner I’ve ever seen,” said the President. Van Duzer is a registered Republican who voted for Obama in 2008 and says he will do so again in November. ”I don’t vote party line, I vote who I feel comfortable with, and I do feel extremely comfortable with him,” he told the press pool. (Photo: AP via The Huffington Post)
Eligible voters in 10 states including Texas do not have easy access to free IDs required by new restrictive voting laws and minorities would more likely to be disenfranchised in the process, according to a new study released Wednesday.
Republicans who support new voter ID laws dismissed as partisan the study by the Brennan Center for Justice, which has joined legal efforts to block the new regulations, as politically motivated.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and other state Republican officials insist that new laws like the voter ID law requiring a photograph does not disenfranchise voters.
But the study found that eligible voters who would need the free identification cards required by the new laws were less likely to have access to a vehicle and live further away from offices where the IDs are issued.
“Unfortunately, these free IDs are not equally accessible to all voters,” the report said.
The Texas law would require voters to present an ID with a photograph from the Department of Public Safety – including free ID cards – the military, the federal government or a concealed weapons permit issued by the state.
A panel of three federal judges in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia heard testimony during a week-long trial earlier this month on the legality of the Texas law under the Voting Rights Act.
A decision by that panel is expected as early as this month.
A girl who talked on the phone with Trayvon Martin on the night of Feb. 26 has told a state prosecutor that she heard rising fear in Mr. Martin’s voice that peaked with words like “get off, get off,” right before she lost contact with him and he was shot to death.
In the sworn interview recorded on April 2, which runs more than 22 minutes, the unidentified 16-year-old said Mr. Martin described a man who was “crazy and creepy” and on the phone, watching him from a vehicle before he started to follow him on foot.
The girl implored Mr. Martin, 17, who said he put his sweatshirt hood up because of the rain, to run to the town house where he was staying with his father, his father’s girlfriend and her 14-year-old son.
“I could hear the wind blowing” and “he said he lost him,” said the girl, who is from Miami and who said she had known Mr. Martin since kindergarten. She has not been identified because she is a minor and a witness in the case.
“He was breathing hard,” she said, and “his voice kind of changed. I know he was scared. His voice was getting kind of low.”
The recording is one of several dozen released by State Attorney Angela B. Corey, who has charged the gunman, George Zimmerman, 28, with second-degree murder. It is part of the discovery material made public this week that also includes hundreds of pages of documents and photographs. Mr. Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty.
"(Source: inothernews)
They’re just good for heterosexual sex, making babies and cleaning up the house, right, Rick?
Amazingly, about half of half of the country is nonetheless prepared to vote for this spiteful dick.
(via the New York Times)
(Source: inothernews)
Graphic: What would a Palestinian state look like?
As the Palestinian Authority’s at the UN moves forward, the Post looks at what a Palestinian state would look like. For a large version of this graphic, download the PDF here
(via npr)
#News
#Troy Davis
#i'm not sure where i stand on the death penalty as a principle but i AM sure that flawed evidence and testimonies can kill innocent lives
#there needs to be a MUCH higher standard for exactly what constitutes the death penalty
