Where legal, 25% of cancer patients using marijuana

Web MD  IOne-quarter of cancer patients in Washington use marijuana, researchers found. But the study also revealed it can be a challenge to get information about the drug from health care providers.

"Cancer patients desire but are not receiving information from their cancer doctors about marijuana use during their treatment, so many of them are seeking information from alternate nonscientific sources," said study author Dr. Steven Pergam of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

Marijuana is reported to ease symptoms related to cancer treatment, and U.S. cancer patients will have greater access to medical pot as acceptance and availability of marijuana increases nationwide, Pergam's team said.

Election polls

New Jersey finds Phil Murphy (D) with a 19  point lead over Kim Guadagno (R) in the race for governor, 44% to 25%. Meanwhile, Gov. Chris Christie (R) continues to suffer from a historic low 16% approval rating while 74% disapprove.

Democrat Northam  ahead of Gillespie by 4 points for governor.in Virginia. Down 2 from last poll

Moore leads Strange by 11 points in Alabama senatorial primary

What it's like to be the wrong child in the Trump family

Study find voter ID law disenfranchised at least 17,000 in Wisconsin

A study estimates 16,800 or more people in Dane and Milwaukee counties were deterred from casting ballots in November because of Wisconsin's voter ID law.

The study by University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Ken Mayer concluded 16,800 to 23,250 voters in the two counties — the Democratic strongholds of Wisconsin — did not vote because of the voter ID law. The $55,000 survey was paid for with property tax money by Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell, a Democratic opponent of the law.

Key portions of those surveyed said they did not vote because they did not have ID that would allow them to or did not believe the IDs they had could be used under the voting law. The study found the ID law disproportionately affected African-Americans and low-income people.

"As the clerk who serves the largest population of African-Americans in the state, I was shocked by the numbers and am furious to see that Jim Crow laws are alive and well," Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson said

Public unhappy with changes in flying

NBC - Nearly half of Americans and a majority of those over the age of 45 feel that air travel has gotten worse over the last decade, according to a poll completed earlier this month by NBC News and Survey Monkey. “There is a tremendous sense of diminished expectations on behalf of passengers,” says Bill McGee, a one-time airline flight dispatcher and now aviation adviser at Consumer Reports. “The fun went out of it a long time ago. Most of us are just looking for civility and to get through it in the most painless way possible.”

About two of every five respondents over 45 who fly say cramped seats and overcrowding are their main complaints, according to the NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll. The next greatest concerns among all flyers were high ticket prices (cited by 19 percent), extra fees (11 percent), and delays and cancellations (also 11 percent). Charles Leocha, chairman and co-founder of Travelers United, a nonprofit that lobbies on behalf of all travelers, put it bluntly: “It’s like a torture chamber up there.”

This is the guy who gives Trump evangelical advice

independent, UK - One of Donald Trump's evangelical advisers has said NFL players who take a knee in protest during the national anthem should thank God they don't have to worry about being shot in the head "like they would be in North Korea."

Why Trump is so pissed at the NFL

Newsweek - In 1982, the rival United States Football League  announced it intended to start playing in the spring, outside the NFL season. Trump eventually owned the New York City-area team, the New Jersey Generals. Newsweek spoke about the USFL with author Jeff Pearlman, who has a book on the league, The Useless, that's due out in 2018. Having spoken with coaches, players, owners and just about everyone involved with the league—some 420 people in total (although not Trump himself)—it's unlikely anybody has a fuller picture of the USFL's brief life than Pearlman.

It was Trump's undying need to get into the NFL that drove the billionaire to buy his way into the upstart league in the '80s, the author said. But the big league wasn't a fan.

"They just saw him as this scumbag huckster," Pearlman told Newsweek. "He was this New York, fast-talking, kind of con-man."

In the course of Trump's NFL pursuit, he made a fair number of enemies at the USFL and helped shuttle the league to an early grave. He convinced other USFL owners to challenge the NFL directly in the fall, and then led the charge on an anti-trust lawsuit against the football giant that netted a massive...three dollars. The USFL was dead by '85.

The inside story

Things to do to help Puerto Rico

How latinos get shortchanged by the media

Marcela Miguel Berland and Frank Gómez, National Institute for Latino Policy - Hispanics continue to be almost invisible in the media, despite our 59 million population (not including the 3.4 million in Puerto Rico).  ... Coverage of hurricanes Harvey, Irma, José, and María, show vividly that Latino media professionals can match anyone, especially on television

NBC and MSNBC provide a useful example.  Miguel Almaguer, Gabe Gutiérrez, Mariana Atencio and many others were prominent in reporting on Harvey and Irma.  Excellent reporting! So talent is there (these and others who braved elements to get the stories must be recognized). At more than 18 percent of the U.S. population, Hispanics merit a greater presence in our media.  Countless studies, articles and complaints document their under-representation in all aspects of American media.  Inclusion is slow in coming.

Latinos are rarely asked to opine on issues that affect them.  Look at the coverage of Harvey.  Houston is a majority-minority city.  Its mayor is black, the fire chief and police chief are Latino, the FEMA rep is Asian American, and Harris County has 2 million Latinos.  Coverage of this beautiful phenomenon of multi-ethnic people helping multi-ethnic people? Almost nil.

Harvard: Picking Sean Spicer over Chelsea Manning

Intercept- Shortly after Harvard publicly rescinded whistleblower Chelsea Manning’s visiting fellowship, the dean of her would-be school called her personally to break the news.

According to Manning, Douglas Elmendorf, the dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, began by reading what she later learned was a statement the school had already posted online. But as Manning pressed for more of an explanation, and noted some of the other controversial fellows at the school, he told her simply that “Sean Spicer has something to contribute to American policy,” and “you can’t really bring that to the table.”

... Manning said that after hearing that, she hung up the phone.

One hundred and fifty-nine Harvard faculty members signed a letter protesting the decision, saying that Harvard “accepted as true the account of … prosecuting attorneys and acted at their behest.” Several hundred alumni also signed a petition calling on Harvard to rescind Spicer and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski’s fellowships.

The events have also sparked a debate about how elite schools court U.S. government officials to teach, despite their dark histories. John Yoo, the author of many of the Bush administration’s torture memos, is a tenured professor of law at UC Berkeley. And John Negroponte, who oversaw the CIA’s brutal dirty war in Nicaragua and death squads in Honduras, is a distinguished fellow of “grand strategy” at Yale. Fordham’s decision to name former CIA Director John Brennan as a fellow has prompted backlash from students and faculty who object to his past statements on torture.

While serving as an Army intelligence analyst, Manning sent scores of documents to WikiLeaks, exposing a higher civilian death count in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush administration lies about Guantánamo Bay, and evidence of war crimes.

Manning was arrested in 2010 and released from detention earlier this year, after former President Barack Obama commuted her 35-year sentence.

200 NFL players didn't stand for anthem on Sunday

AP reporters counted more than 200 NFL players who did not stand during the national anthem before their games on Sunday.

London mayor says Trump talk helps ISIS

The Hill - London Mayor Sadiq Khan says President Trump’s attitude toward Muslims is “helping” the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“What you are saying is not dissimilar to what Daesh or so-called IS says,” Khan said. “They say that there is a clash of civilizations, it is not possible to be a Muslim and a westerner, and the west hates us. And you are inadvertently playing their game, you are helping them.”

He said it would be “wrong” for the U.K. to host Trump on a state visit, calling the president “ignorant.” U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May said earlier this month that a visit is still planned.

Poll: Americans overwhelmingly support DACA

A Washington Post/ABC News poll finds 86 percent of respondents are in favor of allowing DACA recipients who were eligible for renewable two-year work permits to stay in the country. Sixty-nine percent of Americans "strongly" support the DACA program, according to the poll.

A thousand nurses go union

Black youth more than five times likely to be detained or imprisoned than white youth

Sentencing Project - Black youth were more than five times as likely to be detained or committed compared to white youth, according to data from the Department of Justice collected in October 2015 and recently released. Racial and ethnic disparities have long-plagued juvenile justice systems nationwide, and the new data show the problem is increasing. In 2001, black youth were four times as likely as whites to be incarcerated.

Juvenile facilities, including 1,800 residential treatment centers, detention centers, training schools, and juvenile jails and prisons held 48,043 youth as of October 2015.Forty-four percent of these youth were African American, despite the fact that African Americans comprise only 16 percent of all youth in the United States.African American youth are more likely to be in custody than white youth in every state but one, Hawaii.

Between 2001 and 2015, overall juvenile placements fell by 54 percent. However, white youth placements have declined faster than black youth placements, resulting in a worsening of already significant racial disparity.

Nationally, the youth rate of incarceration was 152 per 100,000. Black youth placement rate was 433 per 100,000, compared to a white youth placement rate of 86 per 100,000. Overall, the racial disparity between black and white youth in custody increased 22 percent since 2001. Racial disparities grew in 37 states and decreased in 13.

In six states, African American youth are at least 10 times as likely to be held in placement as are white youth: New Jersey, Wisconsin, Montana, Delaware, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Five states saw their racial disparity at least double: Maryland, Montana, Connecticut, Delaware, and Wisconsin.

Losing food stamps hurts school test scores fast

Talk Poverty - Researchers released a new study that confirms what every student, teacher, parent, and human being with a stomach already knew: It’s harder to think when you’re hungry.

The study’s authors matched up the timing of math tests in South Carolina to the dates when low-income students’ families received monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps). They found that kids’ test scores dropped at times of the month when nutrition benefits had run out. Put another way, access to SNAP substantially improves students’ academic performance—but only when there are actually enough benefits for families to be able to eat. G

Running out of SNAP benefits isn’t an anomaly—nearly half of participating families run out before the end of the month. That means many students who receive SNAP see their academic performance dip every single month, and then rebound once their families receive more benefits. That’s not surprising, since SNAP benefits average just $1.40 per person per meal; it’s such a gross underestimation of food cost that nearly 80 percent of benefits are spent in the first two weeks. School meals provide a little bit of a buffer—in fact, kids get as many as half their calories from the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs—but these programs aren’t designed to provide all the food a child needs to survive. Plus, they can’t reach kids on weekends or during the summer months. Many students who receive SNAP see their academic performance dip every single month

What’s new and different about this paper is that it demonstrates the immediate difference SNAP makes to kids, rather than the long-term effects. And it joins a small but growing body of research that examines how the economic insecurity many families experience on a month-to month—or even week-to-week—basis negatively impacts their lives.

This study also reveals a massive missed opportunity: For the modest cost of boosting SNAP benefits so that they’re enough to last all month—about $15 billion per year—the US could dramatically reduce hunger and significantly boost academic achievement and educational attainment for low-income students. That’s a fraction of what Trump has proposed in tax cuts: It adds up to $1 of food benefits for every $29 he wants to give to wealthy corporations and business owners.

Instead, President Trump wants to slash SNAP by a whopping 29 percent over the next decade. That could mean an average of 3.6 million families—including roughly 1.9 million families with children—would lose access to food assistance each year. Not to be outdone, House Republicans propose cutting SNAP by 42 percent between 2023 and 2027, which could leave 7 million families hungry in 2023.

The hidden political fact: the power of the young

Sam Smith

Rarely mentioned in the mass media’s discussion of politics is the huge role played by age in the nature of our politics. What we are seeing is the disproportional efforts of older Americans to turn back the clock on various issues at a time when the clock is running out on them.

This doesn’t mean they don’t have enough time left to cause a few major disasters. Nor does it mean that all seniors are responsible for this, only that the odds of being drastically wrong are much higher for older voters. Nor does it mean that it is the only factor damaging our land. For example, the bias of the electoral college or a Senate where nine states, with over half the population, that have only 18% of that body’s votes.

What it does mean is the huge influence of how the media covers politics, a feeling of futility or despair among many younger voters, not to mention the worst president we have ever had.

I know something of what’s going on because I was part of a generation- the “silent” one – that also knew something was wrong but not how to fix it. Some of us joined the “beat generation,” which reacted with music, literature, dress and other forms of cultural separation, but not in effective action. Still, we were part of the warmup band for the 1960s. In 1960, real action was discovered by a handful of young blacks who sat in at a lunch counter and within months were being emulated all over the country. As one of the first protesters noted:

In 1959 I was fortunate enough to get an academic scholarship to A&T. Junior Blair and I were roommates. Frank McCain lived down the hall from us. David Richmond lived in the city. We were all in the same algebra class and we gravitated to each other and became friends. We would get together and discuss current events, political events, things that affected us — pretty much as college kids do today. Bull sessions. The question became, What do we do and to whom do we do it against? There were many conspicuous forms that we could have chosen, but Woolworth seemed logical because it was national in scope and somehow we had hoped to get sympathies from without as well as from within.”

It is too early to tell, but perhaps the NFL national anthem protests will have a similar impact. What we do know Is that it has already changed the national scene. The young have been rediscovered as a political force.

The odds, though, remain against them. The Quorum blog, for example, listed these striking stats:

Today the average American is 20 years younger than their representative in Congress. In 1981, the average age of a Representative was 49 and the average of a Senator was 53. Today, the average age of a Representative is 57 and the average of a Senator is 61.

1/3 of Representatives over 60 represent districts with a median age of 35 or less.

There are 44 congressional districts in which the age of he Representative is more than double the median age of their constituents.

More than half of the Senators up for reelection in 2018 will be over the age of 65.

18 of the 33 Senators running for reelection in 2018 will be 65 or older. If they win, another six years in office would put Senators Feinstein, Hatch, Nelson, and Sanders well into their 80’s.

The importance of this disparity can be seen by looking at some other figures. For example, Hillary Clinton won 55% of the votes of those under thirty but only 45% of those over 65. Only 20% of those under thirty approve of Trump.

54% of those under 30 are pro DACA, while only 42% of older Americans are. 48% of young Americans support single payer as opposed to only 30% of those over 65. And 47% of those under thirty support same sex marriage while only 26% of older Americans do.

In short, the age gap in political thinking is greater than, sometimes, the differences between establishment members of the two major parties.

It’s way past time to bring this truth into the open, to encourage and celebrate the young bringing their politics into the mainstream and to recognize that the Trump disaster, like a hurricane, can do much damage but still has only a limited life left.

Auto insurers discriminate against minority neighborhoods

ProPublica - For decades, auto insurers have been observed to charge higher average premiums to drivers living in predominantly minority urban neighborhoods than to drivers with similar safety records living in majority white neighborhoods. Insurers have long defended their pricing by saying that the risk of accidents is greater in those neighborhoods, even for motorists who have never had one.

But a first-of-its-kind analysis by ProPublica and Consumer Reports, which examined auto insurance premiums and payouts in California, Illinois, Texas and Missouri, has found that many of the disparities in auto insurance prices between minority and white neighborhoods are wider than differences in risk can explain. In some cases, insurers such as Allstate, Geico and Liberty Mutual were charging premiums that were on average 30 percent higher in zip codes where most residents are minorities than in whiter neighborhoods with similar accident costs.

Our findings document what consumer advocates have long suspected: Despite laws in almost every state banning discriminatory rate-setting, some minority neighborhoods pay higher auto insurance premiums than do white areas with similar payouts on claims. This disparity may amount to a subtler form of redlining, a term that traditionally refers to denial of services or products to minority areas. And, since minorities tend to lag behind whites in income, they may be hard-pressed to afford the higher payments.

Trump's urging that some NFL players be fired could cost him 15 years in prison

Legal Information Institute

1. U.S. Code › Title 18 › Part I › Chapter 11 › § 227

18 U.S. Code § 227 - Wrongfully influencing a private entity’s employment decisions by a Member of Congress or an officer or employee of the legislative or executive branch

• US Code
• Notes

(a) Whoever, being a covered government person, with the intent to influence, solely on the basis of partisan political affiliation, an employment decision or employment practice of any private entity—

(1)

takes or withholds, or offers or threatens to take or withhold, an official act, or

(2)

influences, or offers or threatens to influence, the official act of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than 15 years, or both, and may be disqualified from holding any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.

 (b) In this section, the term “covered government person” means— 

(1)

a Senator or Representative in, or a Delegate or Resident Commissioner to, the Congress;

(2)

an employee of either House of Congress; or

(3)

the President, Vice President, an employee of the United States Postal Service or the Postal Regulatory Commission, or any other executive branch employee (as such term is defined under section 2105 of title 5, United States Code).

The composer of the national anthem: Just a reminder

Snopes - Francis Scott Key, the wealthy American lawyer who wrote “The Star Spangled Banner” in the wake of the Battle of Fort McHenry on 14 September 1814, was a slaveholder who believed blacks to be “a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experience proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community.”

The cost of killing Obamacare to older Americans

The Hill - A new study from the AARP finds that older people could pay as much as $16,174 more per year for health coverage under the Republican bill to repeal ObamaCare sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.).

The bill “threatens to make health care unaffordable and inaccessible for millions of older Americans,” AARP, which opposes the measure, writes in the report.

The study finds that on average nationwide, a 60-year-old making $25,000 per year would have to pay as much as $16,174 more per year for health insurance. That is a result of the possible elimination of two kinds of ObamaCare subsidies, which help people afford their premiums and out of pocket costs.

The bill gives states wide leeway on how they spend a new block grant under the bill, so it is possible that some states could keep some of this subsidy funding, which would lessen the increase in costs.

Poll: Rating the GOP

A CNN poll showed just 29 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the Republican Party, the lowest since CNN began asking the question in polls in 1992.

Trump gives big boost to national anthem protests

Belleville, Ill. – Every player on the Cahokia Quarterback Club football team (8 and under) took a knee during the national anthem before a game on Sunday, according to KTVI.

Ravens Coach John Harbaugh joined his players, linking arms, and Ravens Hall of Famer Ray Lewis took a knee. Jaguars owner Shahid Khan locked arms with his players. Khan is believed to be the second owner to participate in events related to anthem protests. Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam stood on field and locked arms with players, military personnel and first responders, in Week 1 of the 2017 season.

New England Patriots chairman and chief executive Robert Kraft on Sunday said he was "deeply disappointed" by President Trump's comments regarding NFL players who refuse to kneel during the national anthem... Kraft is a long-term friend of Trump's

The single case against single payer

Thanks to not having single payer health insurance, Republican plutocrats die a few years earlier than they would under universal healthcare.

Tom Price, says spokeswoman, needs private jet to reach "real American people":

Huffington Post - Taxpayers have paid for Tom Price, the head of the Health and Human Services Department, to fly on private planes at least 24 times, a decision the department defended by saying Price wanted to connect with ordinary Americans.


The cost of the trips exceeded $300,000, Politico reported. Charmaine Yoest, an HHS spokeswoman, defended the cost in a statement, saying Price was justified in taking the flights because he wanted to hear from many Americans.


“This is Secretary Price, getting outside of D.C., making sure he is connected with the real American people,” she said in a statement to The Washington Post. “Wasting four hours in an airport and having the secretary cancel his event is not a good use of taxpayer money.”

Only 24% support Graham-Cassidy bill

A new Public Policy Polling survey finds that only 24% of Americans support the Graham-Cassidy health care bill being considering in the U.S. Senate.

Two thirds of Republicans favor DACA pathway to citizenship

77 percent of voters — and 66 percent of Republicans — favor a pathway to citizenship for those in the country illegally if they learn English, pay fines or back taxes and have jobs that pay taxes.

Drone footage of San Juan

Massive Russian hacking in election

Reuters - Wisconsin, Ohio, California and 10 other states said on Friday they were among 21 states that Russian government hackers targeted in an effort to sway the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump though no votes were changed.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed it had notified the states of the activity but declined to identify them. Russia has denied election meddling, and President Trump has denied any collusion with Russia.

Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Minnesota, Texas and Washington state also confirmed they were targeted by Russian hackers but said they were not successful. Arizona and Illinois confirmed last year that they were targets.

The Associated Press confirmed Iowa, Maryland, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Oregon, Oklahoma and Virginia were also targets, bringing the total states identified to 21. Those states did not immediately return messages seeking comment late Friday.

“There remains no evidence that the Russians altered one vote or changed one registration,” said Judd Choate, president of the U.S. National Association of State Election Directors.

The costly fear of Trump cabinet officials

Talkng Points Memo-  EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt now has an 18 person, 24/7 security detail. The effort has become so elaborate that the EPA has now had to take agents off actual EPA criminal investigations to focus on protecting Pruitt.

The Department of Education is paying the US Marshals service $1 million a month to provide extensive security to Secretary Betsy Devos – a move that appears to stem from an aggressive protestor yelling at her earlier this year. According to The Washington Post, the Marshals Service is hiring nearly two dozen people to guard DeVos.

Trump plays heavily to anti-blacks in Alabama

This is reminiscent  of racist southern politics of the 1960s as segregationists fought civil rights legislation. Note Trump's use of "people like yourselves" talking to his white audience vs "those people" when referring to black football players.

The Hill - NFL commissioner Roger Goodell fired back at President Trump on Saturday for encouraging league owners to remove players who take a knee during the national anthem, saying Trump’s “divisive comments” show “an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL.”

“The NFL and our players are at our best when we help create a sense of unity in our country and our culture,” Goodell said in a statement. “There is no better example than the amazing response from our clubs and players to the terrible natural disasters we've experienced over the last month.”

“Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities.”

The NFL chief's comments came the morning after Trump told a crowd at a rally for Alabama Senate candidate Luther Strange (R) that NFL players will stop kneeling if fans left games.

"When people like yourselves turn on television and you see those people taking the knee when they are playing our great national anthem – the only thing you could do better is if you see it, even if it's one player, leave the stadium," Trump said. "I guarantee things will stop."

Trump also said NFL owners should fire players if they refuse to stand during the national anthem.

"Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a b---- off the field right now,'" he continued, adding, "'He is fired.'"

The head of the NFL Players Association, the union representing professional football players, also hit back at Trump, vowing the union “will never back down” from protecting players’s right to protest.

Briti9sh abusing activists at airports

Intercept - It was not the first time Muhammad Rabbani had problems when returning to the United Kingdom from travels overseas. But on this occasion something was different — he was arrested, handcuffed, and hauled through London’s largest airport, then put into the back of a waiting police van.

Rabbani is the 36-year old international director of Cage, a British group that was founded in 2003 to raise awareness about the plight of prisoners held at the U.S. government’s Guantanamo Bay detention site. Today, the organization has a broader focus and says it is working to highlight “the erosion of the rule of law in the context of the War on Terror.” Due to its work campaigning for the legal rights of terrorism suspects, Cage has attracted controversy, and Rabbani has faced the government’s wrath.

His trouble at Heathrow Airport in late November began with a familiar routine. Often, on his return to the U.K. from foreign trips, he was stopped by police and questioned under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act – a sweeping power British authorities can use at the border to interrogate and search people without requiring any suspicion of wrongdoing. People questioned under Schedule 7 have no right to remain silent or receive legal advice, and they can be interrogated for up to nine hours. Rabbani estimates that he has been stopped under Schedule 7 about 20 times. Usually, he was let free after a few questions without any charges or arrest. But not this time.

Rabbani was returning to London after a business trip to one of the Gulf states. He had been meeting with an individual whom he says was previously detained by U.S. authorities and suffered “years of torture” at the hands of his American captors. The person provided Rabbani with information about his treatment, including names of particular individuals allegedly involved in carrying out the acts of torture. These details, Rabbani says, were provided on a confidential basis and were to be used by Cage as part of a pending legal action against the U.S. government.

As he arrived back at Heathrow, Rabbani was pulled aside by a police counter-terrorism officer at the passport control desk. At first, the conversation was polite. But the tone changed when the officer began asking Rabbani about his work for Cage. He requested that Rabbani accompany him to a room inside the airport where he would be subjected to a formal “examination” under Schedule 7, which is supposed to be used solely to determine whether a person is directly involved in the “commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.”

In the interrogation room there were two police officers who searched all of Rabbani’s luggage and questioned him further about his travels – Whom did he meet? Where did he go? Where did he stay and for how long? After a while the conversation turned to the electronic devices Rabbani was carrying, which included a silver MacBook Air, a SIM card, a flash drive, and an iPhone. The officers asked Rabbani to turn over his passwords so that they could access the devices – and said that if he did not provide them, they would arrest him.

In Aug. 2013, David Miranda, the partner of Intercept co-founding editor Glenn Greenwald, was detained in the same London airport and similarly interrogated under Schedule 7. Miranda had been assisting Greenwald’s reporting on documents about government surveillance leaked by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. Last year, in a significant victory for privacy rights, a judge in the Miranda case ruled that Schedule 7 was “not subject to adequate safeguards against its arbitrary exercise.” As a result, the British government made changes to a code of practice that outlined how officers should conduct their searches. Officers are now told that they should “cease reviewing, and not copy” information which they have grounds to believe is attorney-client privileged, is journalistic material, or is another kind of information held in confidence, which a person has “acquired or created in the course of any trade, business, profession or other occupation.”

Jazz break

 

Jack Teagarden: Basin Street