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Life without parole sentence unconstitutional for juveniles

GATESVILLE, Texas (KWTX) There are 12 state prison inmates in Texas serving life without parole sentences which the U.S. Supreme Court has said is unconstitutional, but not a single one of them has asked for a new sentence. One of those inmates is housed at a prison unit in Gatesville. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote a majority opinion by the court that said “under the Eighth Amendment's bar against cruel and unusual punishment, states may no longer sentence juveniles to life without parole.” “We have 12 in custody now serving life without parole sentences who were younger than 18 when they committed their crimes,” Jason Clark, public information director for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in a telephone interview Thursday . “As far as I know none of them has asked for a new sentence and it’s something they have to do,” Clark said. As long ago as 2012 the high court ruled that a life without parole sentence handed to a person convicted...

Fort Worth man, 18, arrested in connection with robbery, double slaying

An 18-year-old man was arrested Monday in connection with the March robbery and shooting of two men at a southwest Fort Worth apartment . Jordan D. White was arrested outside his southwest Fort Worth residence Monday afternoon . He faces a capital murder charge in connection with the deaths of Byronne Suttle and Jai Butler, both 21. Police had been called to an apartment in the 6200 block of Finbro Court just before 10 p.m. on March 15. There, officers found the front door kicked in and the two men inside with gunshot wounds. Suttle was pronounced dead at the scene from a gunshot wound to the chest. Butler, who had been shot in the head, was taken to a hospital where he died a short time later. According to a police report, a second man had been arrested in connection with the case in June, charged with tampering with physical evidence-failing to report. Police have asked that the earlier arrested suspect not be identified. According to the unidentified suspect ’s arrest warrant a...

This Day in History - August 25

'); } else { $(".fotorama-caption").addClass("remove_caption"); } }) .fotorama(); Today is the 237th day of 2017. There are 128 days left in the year. TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT 2000: The Zimbabwe Government names another 509 white-owned farms it plans to confiscate for redistribution to landless blacks, bringing to 1,542 the number it has targeted under a hastened land seizure programme . OTHER EVENTS 1580: Spain invades Portugal and, in a matter of weeks, conquers it and keeps it for more than 80 years. 1718: Hundreds of French colonists arrive in Louisiana with some settling in present-day New Orleans. 1825: Uruguay declares independence from Brazil. 1860: British and French troops take Tianjin in war with China. 1875: Matthew Webb, British professional swimmer , becomes the first person to swim across the English Channel, travelling from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 22 hours. 1883: France obtains protectorate over Annam and Tonkin in Indochina. 19...

How I Learned Not to Love Big Brother

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Photo by Andrea Yori | CC BY 2.0 In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, Washington pursued its elusive enemies across the landscapes of Asia and Africa, thanks in part to a massive expansion of its intelligence infrastructure, particularly of the emerging technologies for digital surveillance , agile drones, and biometric identification. In 2010, almost a decade into this secret war with its voracious appetite for information, the Washington Post reported that the national security state had swelled into a “fourth branch” of the federal government — with 854,000 vetted officials, 263 security organizations , and over 3,000 intelligence units, issuing 50,000 special reports every year. Though stunning, these statistics only skimmed the visible surface of what had become history’s largest and most lethal clandestine apparatus . According to classified documents that Edward Snowden leaked in 2013, the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies alone had 107,035 employees and a combined “b...

My Story: Former councilman on road to recovery | News

HUNTINGTON — For someone deep in the throes of an addiction to heroin or opioids, it's not that uncommon to end up in the news. What is uncommon is fighting that battle while already being a public figure, which means headlines a regular person might not get. Bernard Slater Jr ., resigned from Charleston City Council in April after a string of bad headlines that followed the length of his career as a public servant. "You go from being elected to city council to digging in people's dumpsters," Slater said. "That was my rock bottom right there. I had hit bottom long ago , but I didn't know rock bottom had a basement. After that, I didn't think nothing of it at the time until I sobered up and saw the headlines." Slater's first memories of drugs and alcohol are of getting beer for his uncles out of the refrigerator as they played poker. They would let him take the first drink. Then, at age 5, while at the beach, his uncles – teenagers at the time – ...

How the New, Weird Suburbs Inspired EMA’s Noise Folk

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EMA: “I like long synth songs with a story about fucked-up suburban life.” Alicia Gordon Noise- folk artist EMA ’s new record, Exile in the Outer Ring , began life in 2015 in a white dome in MoMA P.S.1’s snow-covered courtyard. For four hours on a Sunday in February, she sculpted soundscapes from atop a platform set up like the blandest of living rooms: TV, palm plant, messy coffee table , Ikea lamp. She never addressed the crowd; she was in a bubble inside the bubble of the dome, her audience an intermediate layer that formed a ring around the stage. “I like the idea of multiple realities layered on top of each other,” she says. “And that space from the performance — this generic American apartment , with beige carpeting and a shitty couch, slit blinds, a ceiling fan — that’s where I wrote the record from.” EMA, whose full name is Erika M. Anderson, worked on Exile in her similarly bland apartment outside Portland, Oregon, where she’s lived since 2010. “I feel like that apartment,...

University of Chicago manages to keep students safe despite surrounding risks - Xinhua

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Photo taken on July 25, 2017 shows the University of Chicago's campus in Chicago, the United States.(Xinhua/Wang Ping) CHICAGO, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Holding top-10 positions in numerous national and international rankings, University of Chicago (UoC) attracts students in U.S. and all over world, even if the university stands in an unsafe neighborhood at city's southern side. Being called "Murder Capital of America," Chicago saw a surge in gun violence in 2016 with 762 murders, which was more than New York City and Los Angeles combined , according to the Chicago Police Department . Most of the criminal incidents took place in the southern area. However, UoC manages to protect students by setting up a safety network consisting of free bus service , heavy monitoring and expanded policing. Kenneth Rogers, University of Chicago student , speaks during an interview with Xinhua at Chicago, the United States, on July 25, 2017. (Xinhua/Wang Ping) "I think the campus is ve...

Why Was an Italian Graduate Student Tortured and Murdered in Egypt?

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Regeni was undeterred. Proficient in five languages, he was insatiably curious and exuded a low-intensity charm that attracted a wide circle of friends. From 12 to 14, he served as youth mayor of his hometown, Fiumicello. He prided himself on his ability to navigate different cultures, and he relished Cairo ’s unruly street life : the smoky cafes, the endless hustle, the candy- colored party boats that plied the Nile at night. He registered as a visiting scholar at American University in Cairo and found a room in Dokki, a traffic-choked neighborhood between the Pyramids and the Nile, where he shared an apartment with two young professionals : Juliane Schoki, who taught German, and Mohamed El Sayad , a lawyer at one of Cairo’s oldest law firms . Dokki was an unfashionable address, but it was just two subway stops from downtown Cairo with its maze of cheap hotels, dive bars and crumbling apartment blocks encircling Tahrir Square . Regeni soon befriended writers and artists and practi...