BRAVE NEW FILMS – In The Media

by Robert Greenwald for The Cairo Review of Global Affairs:

 I was reading a newspaper story, I’m pretty sure it was in the New York Times, in which somebody was talking about how drone strikes were only killing bad guys. Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles operated by the Central Intelligence Agency’s Special Activities Division to launch attacks on suspected terrorists primarily in Pakistan but in Yemen, Somalia, and Afghanistan as well. U.S. drone warfare began in 2002 during the George W. Bush administration but strikes have dramatically increased in number under President Barack Obama. As of August, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimated that the CIA has launched at least 390 drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004, nearly 90 percent of them on Obama’s watch.

by Kara Dansky for the ALCU:

Misti Barrickman has scoliosis. Since she was a teenager, it's been debilitating. It hurt to lie down. It hurt to stand up.

She started taking Oxycontin to help with the pain and became addicted. She came to Seattle to find large quantities of the drug. Unable to find it and feeling increasingly desperate, Misti tried what was readily available: heroin. For the next seven years, she struggled with addiction. She lived between a tent and a jail cell, racking up charges for possession and prostitution.

By Aaron Cantu for The Nation:

For decades, the United States has tried to punish and shame people out of drug addiction with courts, jails and criminal records. It has been massively unsuccessful, as the nationwide rise in opiate addiction over the last few years demonstrates, and few people are more aware of its failure than the police officers tasked with arresting addicts.

by Alia Beard Rau for The Arizona Republic:

In a rapid-fire live TV debate, the two candidates for the state's top legal post spent half an hour hurling barbs back and forth, accusing each other of being too political and not having the right background for the job. Republican Mark Brnovich and Democrat Felecia Rotellini spent almost no time talking about what they would do if elected attorney general in November

posted on TruthOut:

OverCriminalized tackles how police handle mental health, substance abuse and homelessness.

by Kara Dansky for The Nation:

Misti Barrickman has scoliosis. Since she was a teenager, it’s been debilitating. It hurt to lie down. It hurt to stand up.

She started taking Oxycontin to help with the pain and became addicted. She came to Seattle to find large quantities of the drug. Unable to find it and feeling increasingly desperate, Misti tried what was readily available: heroin. For the next seven years, she struggled with addiction. She lived between a tent and a jail cell, racking up charges for possession and prostitution.

Her story is too common.

by Hanna Hess for The Hill:  

North Carolina native Beth Plemmons, CEO of visitor services at the Capitol Visitor Center, is a pro at Southern hospitality.

She spent 17 years working in reservations and ticketing positions at the grandiose 19th century Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., then transitioned to guest services at Virginia’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens. The Virginia Tech alumna, who studied hotel, restaurant and institutional management, joined the leadership team of the CVC just a few months before the 580,000-foot complex’s Dec. 2, 2008, grand opening.

by Rich Schwartzman for Chadds Ford Live: 

Being arrested is nothing new for 80-year-old Joan Nicholson. She said she’s been taken into custody more times than she could recall off the top of her head. One of those times, however, did lead to a year in prison.

Nicholson is, and has been, a peace activist. Her name might not be familiar, but motorists who drive by the Old Kennett Meeting near the entrance to the Kendal retirement community on Route 1 during morning and afternoon commutes know of her. She’s the woman who stands out there with signs calling for an end to U.S. military intervention around the world.

by Lee Fang for The Nation. Reposted on The Investigative Fund

If you read enough news and watch enough cable television about the threat of the Islamic State, the radical Sunni Muslim militia group better known simply as ISIS, you will inevitably encounter a parade of retired generals demanding an increased US military presence in the region. They will say that our government should deploy, as retired General Anthony Zinni demanded, up to 10,000 American boots on the ground to battle ISIS. Or as in retired General Jack Keane's case, they will make more vague demands, such as for "offensive" air strikes and the deployment of more military advisers to the region.

Posted on TruthOut:

The "war on drugs" has caused more problems than it has solved since 1971. Now police have alternatives to incarceration that actually help people -and save money for the taxpayers.