SEATTLE (Reuters) - Washington state’s governor signed into law on Monday the final piece of a six-year effort to rewrite state laws using gender-neutral vocabulary, replacing terms such as “fisherman” and “freshman” with “fisher” and “first-year student.”
While this may not have an immediate tangible effect, words and language play a significant role in shaping how we think, and mandating gender-neutral language in state statutes is a great first step in the right direction. The article notes that some words, such as “manhole,” won’t be replaced, because legislators couldn’t think of any other alternatives (whether or not “personhole cover” will ever gain traction remains to be seen).
Eight former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs said Tuesday that the federal government needs to act now or it might lose the chance to nullify Colorado and Washington’s laws legalizing recreational marijuana use.
The statement came on the same day a United Nations-based drug agency urged the U. S. government to challenge those laws, saying they violate international drug treaties.
The Department of Justice is expected to officially address the recently-passed marijuana legalization legislation in Washington and Colorado, and few expect the Obama Administration to react favorably to the new laws. That said, with the possibility that 25 of the 50 United States could have legalized medical marijuana by the end of 2014, it’s becoming increasingly clear that politicians are fighting a losing battle that is likely to start costing them votes (if it hasn’t already) in the years to come.
Obama: Pot users should not be ‘top priority’ of federal law enforcement
President Barack Obama says recreational users of marijuana in states that have legalized the substance should not be a “top priority” of federal law enforcement officials prosecuting the war on drugs.
“We’ve got bigger fish to fry,” Obama said of pot users in Colorado and Washington during an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Barbara Walters.
“It would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have determined that it’s legal,” he said, invoking the same approach taken toward users of medicinal marijuana in 18 states where it’s legal.
The problem with this quote: Not that he said it, but that the last time he made a similar claim, it wasn’t followed by the federal agencies that actually enact the policy — something which led Dilbert creator Scott Adams to claim he wouldn’t vote for the president. Check back in two years to see how he’s doing on this issue.
Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg visited Washington DC joined by Senator Charles Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to ask for fiscal help from the federal government for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts.
In New York City, the public and private losses caused by Hurricane Sandy, which were not covered by private insurance come to $15.2 billion. New York City’s recovery is vital to America’s continued economic recovery and growth.
Read the Mayor’s remarks delivered yesterday at the U.S Capitol Building at http://on.nyc.gov/UdLnVc.
Highlight from the remarks: “We haven’t waited for the help that we hope to get from Washington to come, but given the scale and the impact of the storm, Federal assistance is clearly warranted.”
A new study from the Instituto Mexicano Para La Competitividad A.C. (Mexican Institute for Competitiveness) reveals potentially devastating consequences for a number of Mexican drug cartels should marijuana be legalized in a handful of the United States. The Mexican think thank believes the legalization measures on the ballot in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington could cut combined cartel profits by as much as 22 to 30 percent, and could severely cripple the infamous Sinaloa Cartel that operates in Western Mexico. source
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» A grand gesture by Amazon’s founder: With Bezos’ donation, the man who created Amazon from nothing will now be one of the largest donors to same-sex marriage efforts in the country. So what got him to support the effort? An e-mail from a very early employee who is now a lesbian mother of four. “I want to have the right to marry the love of my life and to let my children and grandchildren know their family is honored like a ‘real’ family,” wrote Jennifer Cast, who left the company in 2001. “We need help from straight people. To be very frank, we need help from wealthy straight people who care about us and who want to help us win.” Cast’s e-mail helped make Bezos the largest individual donor in the effort to pass Referendum 74.
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POSTAL WORKERS GO HUNGRY ON CAPITOL HILL — Postal workers staged a hunger strike outside the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington Monday to protest a prefund requirement they say is bankrupting the U.S. Postal Service. A 2006 law requires the Postal Service to pay $5.5 billion annually toward retiree health benefits.
The Postal Service Protection Act of 2011 seeks to eliminate the prefund requirement and place restrictions on postal office closures. Some, however, are opposed to refunding what the USPS calls “overpayments.” Instead, the Heritage Foundation says Congress should make comprehensive reforms to adjust to the new realities of the organization, which could be in danger of defaulting if action is not taken.
— Simone Del Rosario/Medill News Service
This is actually a longtime issue; we’ve covered it a few times ourselves.
The brother of al Qaeda’s second-in-command, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike, said Washington’s use of the remote-controlled weapons is inhumane and makes a nonsense of its claims to champion human rights.
U.S. officials said on Tuesday that Libyan-born al Qaeda operative Abu Yahya al-Libi was killed by a drone strike in Pakistan, in what was described as a major blow to the militant group.
The attack is likely to fuel an increasingly fierce debate about the legality and morality of the drones, which have become one of the chief U.S. weapons against al Qaeda but which opponents say stretch the definition of the legitimate use of lethal force.
READ MORE: Drones ‘inhumane,’ dead al Qaeda man’s family says
Yes, this is very much definitely fodder in a long-standing debate.
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