Wisconsin Lawmakers Moving To Make Recalls Tougher

MILWAUKEE, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Wisconsin lawmakers are expected to take a step on Thursday to limit recalls of elected state officials to cases of serious crimes or ethics violations, following challenges that targeted the governor and several senators in recent years.

Opponents of Governor Scott Walker launched massive protests at the Capitol in Madison in 2011 and later sought to recall the first-term Republican after he pressed legislation to limit the powers of some public sector unions.

Mandatory victims fee unconstitutional, judge says

OTTAWA — The Conservative government’s mandatory victim fine surcharge is “unconstitutional,” an Ontario judge declared in a recent ruling, adding fuel to the debate over whether the controversial legislation goes too far.

Ontario Court Justice Stephen Hunter made the ruling Oct. 29, just days after changes to the law doubled a fine intended to help victims and removed a judge’s discretion to waive the surcharge for offenders who can’t afford to pay it.

Groups Urge Alberta, Federal Government To Address Oilsands Expansion Risk

MONTREAL - The federal and provincial governments need to do more to offset risks and regional disparities stemming from rapid expansion of the oilsands, says a new report by a think tank and an environmental group.

The report, titled "Booms, Busts and Bitumen: The economic implications of Canadian oilsands," indicates that most of the economic benefits of the development will flow to Alberta and that even the United States will get more job opportunities than the rest of Canada.

Michael Sona Bragged Of Election Exploits, Witnesses Told Robocalls Investigator

OTTAWA - A junior Conservative staffer in Guelph, Ont., charged with elections offences bragged about his allegedly fraudulent exploits to other young partisans, newly released court documents show.

A judge partially lifted a publication ban Wednesday that prevented the release of details on Elections Canada interviews with six Conservative workers.

All six suggest that Michael Sona boasted to them about his alleged involvement in a series of fraudulent automated phone calls during the local Conservative candidate's 2011 Guelph election campaign.

Digital Divide: Canada's Poorest Sacrifice Basic Needs To Get Connected

Yuji Toyozato clutches his ringing phone and panics. He has no idea how to answer it.

How could he be so stupid? He’s owned the thing for two damned months, but still feels like a baby holding a grown-up’s toy. As the ringtone becomes louder, his anxiety mounts. Green circles emanate from the phone icon, taunting him like a bully. “What’s the matter? You can’t pick me up?”

No. He doesn’t know how.

Why is something so simple for everyone else so hard for me?

Stupid, stupid.

Elizabeth Warren to Regulators, Congress: End ‘Too Big to Fail’

It’s been more then five years since the financial sector collapsed, triggering a deep recession that many Americans are still struggling to shake off. Not so the big banks. They’re larger, more powerful and more dangerous than ever before, Senator Elizabeth Warren warned Tuesday at an event examining the state of financial reform since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010.

Warren’s speech was an indictment not only of the financial institutions that “have fought to delay and hamstring the implementation of financial reform,” after “exploiting consumers, larding their books with excessive risk, and making bad bets,” but also of the regulators and lawmakers—many from her own party—who are refusing to hold the financial sector to account.

Why Should Thousands of Prisoners Die Behind Bars for Nonviolent Crimes?

This past August, the Lafayette-based IND Monthly published a story about a 54-year-old man named Bill Winters, incarcerated at a medium-security prison in Epps, Louisiana. Winters, who is black, was arrested in June 2009, after he drunkenly entered an unlocked oncologist’s office on a Sunday morning, setting off a security alarm. When police arrived, he had rummaged through a desk drawer, and was in possession of a box of Gobstoppers candy. Winters was convicted of simple burglary a week before Thanksgiving, and given a seven-year prison sentence—hardly a slap on the wrist. But a few days later, the prosecutor in his case, Assistant District Attorney Alan Haney, sought additional punishment for Winters, under the state’s habitual offender law. Based on his record of nonviolent offenses, which went back to 1991 and ranged from cocaine possession to burglary, the trial court resentenced Winters to twelve years without any chance of parole. But Haney was still not satisfied. He appealed the ruling, arguing that the court had imposed an “illegally lenient sentence” and that the rightful punishment was life without the possibility of parole.

KKK Distributes Recruiting Fliers In Historically Black Florida Neighborhood

Residents of a predominantly black neighborhood in Florida say they were shocked when they woke up to find Ku Klux Klan fliers scattered across their yards on Monday.

"I am absolutely and totally offended that someone at a time like this would come into this community and distribute this type of literature," a local pastor told WOFL of the disturbing discovery.

Walmart's Sustainability Results Don't Match Promises, Report Finds

WASHINGTON -– Walmart, the world's largest retailer, has received positive press in recent years for its promises to go green. The company began issuing an annual Global Responsibility Report in 2005. It announced plans to slash emissions in its supply chain in 2010. The company pledged this year to expand the use of renewable energy.

But according to a report released Wednesday, Walmart's green pledges remain more hype than reality.

The report, from the advocacy group Institute for Local Self-Reliance, found that Walmart's greenhouse gas emissions have continued to grow since 2005, while the percentage of power it draws from renewable sources lags far behind other major corporations.

Special Education Budget Cuts, Sequestration, Hurt America's Most Vulnerable Students

For American students with disabilities, class sizes are increasing, services are waning and providers are disappearing. More than half of parents who have children with disabilities and responded to a survey say their schools have altered special education services because of declining funding since last year -- in some cases, because of federal budget cuts known as sequestration, according to survey results released Thursday.

Of the 52.7 percent of parents who indicated services for their children had changed, 29.5 percent said services decreased, 32.2 percent said class sizes grew, 27.4 percent reported service providers dropped, and 13.1 percent said budget cuts had led to a change in a student's placement. The survey results were compiled from answers provided by 1,065 respondents, including 1,007 parents, by the National Center for Learning Disabilities, a Washington-based advocacy group.