[In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. --L.]
- Iranian lesbian actress Kiana Firouz who is currently facing deportation and execution (Bellakara)
- Kiana Firouz is not just an out Iranian lesbian actress, she is also a civil rights campaigner who courageously documented the lives of Iranian gays on film before footage fell into the hands of the security services. She was obliged to leave the country for her own safety and set up home in London. The home office have ordered her deportation in spite of the fact they know she is gay and that she is well known to the Iranian security services. A previous case of an out Iranian homosexual who had received media attention led to the previous home secretary ruling that it was too dangerous to send him back. Furthermore, according to a guidance note issued by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), "a person cannot be expected or required by the state to change or conceal his or her (sexual) identity in order to avoid persecution."
Below is a link to the online petition protesting against Kiana's deportation.
- Arizona Immigration Lawsuits: Tucson, Flagstaff City Councils Vote To Sue
- The Tucson and Flagstaff city councils voted Tuesday to sue Arizona over its tough new immigration law, citing concerns about enforcement costs and negative effects on the state's tourism industry. [...]
The Flagstaff City Council [...] will retain legal counsel and could either pursue its own lawsuit or join Tuscon or other cities in efforts to fight the immigration bill.
It also is considering setting up a legal defense fund to which many in the audience said they would contribute.
- If You're Going to Arizona, Be Sure to Have a Passport in Your Car – Hit & Run : Reason Magazine
- The law recognizes a driver's license from another state as proof that one is not "an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States," but only if that state "requires proof of legal residence in the United States before issuance." According to this fairly recent summary, about half a dozen states don't. So Latino drivers from, say, Michigan could be in for a real hassle if they happen to be pulled over in Arizona, even if they are native-born U.S. citizens.
- Miranda Warning (Hullabaloo – Digby)
- Assuming the right's non-stop bleating about the constitution and the rule of law has any basis in reality, they need to come to terms with the idea that the government doesn't have a choice in this. They have to mirandize suspects and follow the law. And they need to understand that if the government just decides not to, it doesn't mean that the suspect never had those rights. The fifth amendment still exists even if the suspect isn't told about it <s>-</s> it is not contingent on the Miranda warnings. And if he evokes it on his own, [as] anyone who's ever watched a Law and Order episode is likely to do — you don't get to torture him to make him talk.
- One Man In An Airplane Chronicles The Massive Oil Slick In The Gulf Of Mexico [Disaster]
- This incredible video of the BP oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico was taken by a man who flew over it yesterday. It "seemed to stretch all the way across the horizon," he says.
- Abusive priests' personnel files remain under wraps
- Three years after Los Angeles Archdiocese agreed to the largest priest abuse settlement in U.S. history, a key element of that agreement — public release of accused priests' personnel files — remains unfulfilled with no clear outlook on when the documents may be disclosed.
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