Network Archives

With Gun and Medical Marijuana Registries, Hawaii Starts Disarming Patients

"Hawaii is one of 29 states that allow medical use of marijuana, but it is the only state that requires registration of all firearms. If you are familiar with the criteria that bar people from owning guns under federal law, you can probably surmise what the conjunction of these two facts means for patients who use cannabis as a medicine, which Hawaii allows them to do only if they register with the state. Some of them recently received a letter from Honolulu Police Chief Susan Ballard, instructing them to turn in their guns."

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NSA Secretly Helped Convict Defendants in U.S. Courts

"The undisclosed use of warrantless surveillance to win prosecutions is also troubling from a constitutional standpoint, foreclosing a rare opportunity to discover Section 702 abuses and challenge the law, which civil liberties advocates have argued is unconstitutional."

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U.K. Pressured Over Secret Base’s Role in Trump’s Drone Strikes

"The U.K. Government is facing fresh calls to clarify its role in U.S. drone strikes after acknowledging that there are potentially hundreds of British spy agency personnel working inside a U.S.-controlled surveillance base that has played a key role in so-called targeted killings."

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We Can’t Attack North Korea. It’s Against the Law

"There was zero discussion at the hearing of the illegality of the U.S. attacking North Korea under the U.N. Charter. Yet as we learned from the Iraq War, there is great wisdom in the charter requirement that peaceful solutions, however difficult to achieve, take precedence over resorting to force."

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US-led coalition acknowledges killing 800+ civilians in Iraq & Syria airstrikes

"The coalition said that despite 'significant successes' against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), 'combat has taken a toll on populations suffering under the militant extremists.' 'We continue to hold ourselves accountable for actions that may have caused unintentional injury or death to civilians,' the report said."

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Occupational Licensing Is Just Another Form of Cronyism

"Special interests argue that occupational licensing somehow protects people, yet we have real-world examples for all 102 professions of states that have zero licensing restrictions and we don’t have examples of people dying or being harmed because of unregulated florists or rogue cosmetologists."

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Bitcoin should be ‘outlawed’, says Nobel prize-winning economist

"Joseph Stiglitz said that he favours making the digital currency illegal because it does not have a 'socially useful function'. 'Bitcoin is successful only because of its potential for circumvention, lack of oversight,' the renowned economist said."

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New Hampshire Bill Would Ban DUI Checkpoints; Free State from Some Federal Funding Strings

CONCORD, N.H. (Nov. 30, 2017) – A bill prefiled in the New Hampshire House would ban sobriety checkpoints in the state. The law would not only end constitutionally dubious “searches” in New Hampshire, it would also thwart federal programs that heavily influence state traffic laws. A coalition of five representatives prefiled House Bill 1283 (HB1283)…

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