In a major rebuff to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and the Republican-led legislature of Arizona the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals found that the ban – named the Mother’s Health and Safety Act (HB 2036) – violated the constitutionally protected right to terminate a pregnancy under Roe V. Wade. Supporters of the Arizona statute had based their arguments both on an interpretation of life as beginning earlier than the generally accepted legal standard of 24 weeks, while the bill also included the possibility of an abortion past 20 weeks in case of medical emergency. The decision of the 9th Circuit Court three-judge panel was unanimous against Arizona’s abortion ban. Judge Marsha Berzon, writing on behalf of the San Francisco-based court, said the state’s ban violated US Supreme Court rulings since the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973.“A woman has a constitutional right to choose to terminate her pregnancy before the fetus is viable,” said Berzon. Cathi Herrod, the head of Christian social conservative group Center for Arizona Policy which championed the 2012 ban, said the ruling was not surprising and believed its ruling would be overturned.“This ruling is not surprising nor am I discouraged at the prospects of this important law ultimately being upheld,” said Herrod via a statement on Tuesday.“The Ninth Circuit Court is historically one of the most overturned appellate courts in the nation. Based on the facts of this case, I am confident that this Court will be overturned once again,” she added. According to the Associated Press, the 9th Circuit’s ruling is binding only within the nine Western US states under its jurisdiction, Idaho is the only additional state with a similar abortion ban. Janet Creppe, the lawyer who argued against the ban on behalf of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said Tuesday’s decision affirmed abortion law based on viability.”These laws are all unconstitutional,” she said. “This is not a close legal question at all. These laws are unconstitutional.” Supporters of Arizona’s ban asserted that the law was meant to protect a mother’s health, and prevent fetuses from feeling pain, though that concept seemed to be in legal conflict with viability of a fetus as defined by Roe v. Wade and subsequent rulings.Supporters of abortion bans have been vocal regarding the disputed claim that fetuses can feel pain at a gestational age of 20 weeks and older. The more conservative view held by other pro-life groups supports the belief that life begins at conception.”We look forward to an appeal to the United States Supreme Court,” said Herrod. Nine other US states have enacted similar bans starting at 20 weeks or even earlier. Though several of those state bans had previously been placed on hold, or struck down by other courts. Historically, US public opinion has varied on the issue of abortion. According to opinion data provided by Gallup, as of May 2013 just over 50 per cent of Americans believe abortion should be provided “only under certain circumstances,” 26 per cent believe it should be available without restriction, and 20 per cent believe it should be illegal altogether. … Read More
Home-made bombmaking: New US teen craze?
Joshua Prater, a student at Marcos de Niza High School in Tempe, Arizona was arrested on Tuesday after a cleaning lady found what later turned out to be a home-made bomb in his house. The woman noticed a strange device with wires sticking out while doing her regular cleaning. She took the device to the local fire station, where police specialists identified it as an improvised explosive device (IED). “They had it X-rayed, they saw it was a valid IED. It was something that wasn’t big, but could cause serious injuries and the death of someone,” said Tempe Police Sgt. Mike Pooley as cited by KTAR Newsroom. The device was disabled and the house where it was found searched where more explosives were discovered. The 18-year-old was arrested by police on charges of possessing a prohibited weapon. Prater’s possible plan for using the IED are being investigated. On the same day, 18-year-old Mason Beuning was detained in Gainsville, Florida for allegedly stealing from a local Walmart store items which could be used for making an IED. The bomb squad searched the teenager’s home and found a device. “It was a small device. Definitely would have injured someone who was right next to it, but the device was not something that would cause a great amount of destruction,” Gainesville Police Officer Ben Tobias said as cited by ActionNewsJax.com. Beuning’s friends, questioned by police, said the device was assembled just for fun, to explode it in the woods. The arrests come at the time when the US is on alert, following the Boston Marathon bombings which three people dead and over 200 injured. Two young men who emigrated to the US from Russia in 2001 were accused of the attack using improvised explosive devices. That tragedy has led to people starting questioning the effectiveness of the anti-terror campaign the US has been engaged in since 9/11. “I believe this was a massive failure of the surveillance state that we’ve created in America. Since 9/11 we spent over $700 billion on national security and a lot of that is surveillance with video cameras, with massive data collection, with fusion centers, and none of those helped to deter or detect any terrorist plot. And while the surveillance video was useful in reconstructing what happened it didn’t prevent it,” American lawyer Jesselyn Radack told RT. Now with the information on making anything, including bombs, being available online, cases of teens building IEDs is becoming more common. A week ago a teenage girl in Florida was arrested for allegedly “discharging weapons or firerarms” on the grounds of her school in the town of Bartow. 16-year-old Kiera Wilmot says she was only carrying out an experiment, mixing substances in a plastic bottle. The chemical reaction tore the bottle’s cap off and led to the girl being taken away to police department. At the end of April, a New Jersey teenager was charged with possession of explosive devices, when police discovered 6 IEDs in different stages of assembly in his house. That was part of the police’s investigation into bombing threats left at the boy’s school on the same day Boston Marathon bombs went off. … Read More
NBA player Michael Beasley investigated for alleged sexual assault
Arizona police are investigating Phoenix Suns forward Michael Beasley in connection with an alleged sexual assault at his home earlier this year, the Arizona Republic newspaper reported. There have been no arrests in the incident which is alleged to have taken place at a house on January 13. Police…
Nullify the Fed! Arizona Constitutional Tender Bill on the Governor’s Desk for a Signature
The Constitutional Tender Act, allows businesses and the state government to accept payments in gold or silver. … Read More
Police remove Tuscon shooting hero from Senate after background check vote
A hero of the 2011 Tuscon, Arizona shooting was escorted out of the Capitol on Wednesday after she shouted at lawmakers. “Shame on you!” Patricia Maisch and Lori Haas yelled after the Senate rejected an amendment to gun legislation that would have required background checks for firearm…
Police remove Tucson shooting hero from Senate after background check vote
A hero of the 2011 Tucson, Arizona shooting was escorted out of the Capitol on Wednesday after she shouted at lawmakers. “Shame on you!” Patricia Maisch and Lori Haas yelled after the Senate rejected an amendment to gun legislation that would have required background checks for firearm…
Aaron Brown on CNN’s bad day: John King will “have the hardest time sleeping tonight”
After CNN was forced to walk back John King’s reporting that an arrest had been made in connection to the Boston marathon bombing, Aaron Brown (an anchor at CNN until 2005, including on the morning of September 11, 2001), was sympathetic.”No one who does this in a breaking news environment has not had this happen. You feel that you’ve let down the organization and the audience. It is a very difficult moment.”Brown, who is now a professor at Arizona State University, told Salon that his students had asked about the King reporting throughout the day. “I told them it never would have happened this badly on my watch,” he joked, before turning serious. “The role of the anchor is to say: This is true. And these things are very chaotic. [CNN should have indicated] ‘What we can say for sure is that the case moved significantly today.” Brown suggested that King and NBC News’s Pete Williams were using sources from entirely different spheres, with Williams operating with federal sources in Washington, while “my guess is that [King] was getting stuff from local or law enforcement or courthouse people; his sources were state people.”Continue Reading… … Read More
