Show your hands. Don’t reach for anything. Don’t make sudden movements.
One chilly evening not long ago, a panel of police officers met with citizens gathered here at City Hall to offer advice on a subject that has come up in almost every city in America: What happens when a young African American man is stopped
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether all 50 states must allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. The court’s announcement made it likely that it would resolve one of the great civil rights questions of the age before its current term
WASHINGTON — The House voted on Wednesday to gut major provisions of President Obama’s immigration policy, approving legislation that would revoke legal protections for millions of unauthorized immigrants, including children, and put them at risk of deportation.
Read more in The New York Times.
When Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his latest budget proposal last week and the topic turned to Californians’ financial struggles, he became uncharacteristically personal.
Read more in the Los Angeles Times.
New York City officials agreed on Tuesday to a plan that would eliminate the use of solitary confinement for all inmates age 21 and under, a move that would place Rikers Island at the forefront of national jail reform efforts.
Extremism Ties Are Long and Deep
The emerging web of extremism behind this week’s horrifying coordinated attacks targeting police, journalists and Jews in Paris that left 17 innocent people and three Salafist terrorists dead extends internationally. Among the extremist connections to terrorist brothers Cheriff, 32 and Said Kouachi, 34 are fellow radical French Algerians as well
The acclaimed graphic artist and journalist Joe Sacco on the limits of satire – and what it means if Muslims don’t find it funny…
Read more in The Guardian.
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Conservative groups are opening a new front in their effort to reshape American law, arguing that local governments have the power to write their own rules on a key labor issue that has, up to now, been the prerogative of states.
The New York Times
The wealth gap between middle- and upper-income households has widened to the highest level on record, says a new report.
Using the latest Federal Reserve data, the Pew Research Center said Wednesday that the median wealth for high-income families was $639,400 last year — up 7% from three years earlier on an inflation-adjusted basis.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pew-wealth-gap-20141217-story.html
Los Angeles
LAKEWOOD, Colo. — Jack Phillips is a baker whose evangelical Protestant faith informs his business. There are no Halloween treats in his bakery — he does not see devils and witches as a laughing matter. He will not make erotic-themed pastries — they offend his sense of morality. And he declines cake orders for same-sex
