Republicans Are Blocking The Only Congressional Response To Ferguson

WASHINGTON -- The only Congressional response to this summer's brutal police crackdown in Ferguson, Missouri appears to be dead, with the House GOP leadership blocking a vote on a bipartisan bill introduced by Reps. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) and Raul Labrador (R-Idaho).

The legislation seeks to curb controversial transfers of military weapons and equipment to local police forces. It would ban the Pentagon from granting local police free automatic weapons, armored vehicles, weaponized drones, combat helicopters, grenades, silencers, sound cannons and other equipment, although police could still purchase such gear with local budgets or through grants from the Department of Homeland Security.

In My Class, Child Poverty Is No Numbers Game

My name is Anna Chudnovsky. I'm a teacher in an inner city school in Vancouver.

I don't have a lot of numbers to share with you; instead, I have a story of a real student and of his family. A story that I hope will tell you a little bit about what it's like to be a student living in poverty. I'm telling you this story not because it's sad, but because I believe that being poor makes it hard to learn. And when it's too hard to learn, lifting yourself out of the poverty you're born into is incredibly hard.

Health Ministry Firings: Government Overkill or Deliberate Purge?

Is the government involved in a cover-up on why in Sept. 2012 it fired seven employees, cancelled two worker's contracts and halted valuable research?

Were the firings a ham-fisted response to well-intentioned employees who were trying to expedite their work by cutting corners on red tape, or were they a laser-guided response that exploited a complaint so as to purge workers that proved too troublesome for the tastes of some pharmaceutical companies? That is a theory mentioned by drug policy researcher Alan Cassels.

Tory Bill To Boost CSIS Spying Powers Abroad Is Constitutional, Official Says

OTTAWA - The deputy minister of public safety says a bill that would allow Canada's spy agency to break foreign laws is constitutional.

At a Commons committee meeting, Francois Guimont assured MPs that Justice Department lawyers had vetted the legislation against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Ferguson Prosecutor Robert McCulloch Gives Bizarre Press Conference

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch announced on Monday night that Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson would not be indicted for the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in a press conference that many found baffling, unwieldy and inflammatory.

McCulloch said the grand jury "gave up their lives" while deliberating.

The prosecutor also repeatedly lashed out at the media, blaming the internet and "the 24-hour news cycle" for the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, where Brown was shot and killed in August. He continued talking for several minutes before revealing the much-anticipated grand jury decision.

Canada's Inflation Now The Highest In The Developed World: BMO

Outside of Japan, which has seen prices spike due to a tax hike, Canada has the highest inflation rate among major industrialized nations.

That’s according to an analysis from Bank of Montreal chief economist Doug Porter, who took last Friday’s surprisingly strong inflation numbers from StatsCan and compared them to inflation rates around the globe.

Mount Polley Tailings Pond Clean-Up Will Take Years Not Months: Gov't

WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. - Four months after a torrent of mine water and waste gushed into two south-central British Columbia lakes, the province says the mine's owner is only at the forefront of a clean-up that is expected to take years.

The B.C. environment ministry released its first progress report Monday into the Mount Polley tailings pond breach, identifying a number of pressing actions that are required to restore the water and land.

Why It’s Impossible to Indict a Cop

How to police the police is a question as old as civilization, now given special urgency by a St. Louis County grand jury’s return of a “no bill” of indictment for Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson in his fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager, Michael Brown. The result is shocking to many, depressingly predictable to more than a few.

Can the cops be controlled? It’s never been easy: according to one old sociological chestnut, the monopoly on the legitimate use of violence is what defines modern government, and this monopoly is jealously protected against the second-guessing of puny civilians. All over the country, the issue of restraining police power is framed around the retribution against individual cops, from Staten Island to Milwaukee to Los Angeles. But is this the best way to impose discipline on law enforcement and roll back what even Republican appellate court appointees are calling rampant criminalization?

Europe's Challenge: A 'Twilight Zone' in Russia's Shadow, or a 'World of Rules?'

This comment is excerpted from a speech at Harvard's Center for European Studies late last week.

In Harvard Yard, on 5 June 1947, on the steps of Memorial Church, momentous words were said.

It is logical that the United States should do what it can to assist the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace.

Our policy is not directed against any country, but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos.

Grand jury decline to charge Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown

The police officer who shot dead an unarmed black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri, leading to weeks of unrest and reviving a national debate about law enforcement and race in America, will not face state criminal charges, it was announced on Monday.

A grand jury in St Louis County declined to indict Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown on 9 August, following an altercation after the officer stopped him and a friend for jaywalking. Wilson is also under investigation by federal authorities, which could bring civil rights charges.

There were multiple reports of looting in Ferguson after the announcement by St Louis County prosecuting attorney Bob McCulloch, and windows were broken at shops near the Ferguson police department.