Meridian Schools Violated Student Rights In Mississippi, Arrested Students Without Probable Cause, Feds Say

JACKSON, Miss. -- Officials in east Mississippi operate a "school-to-prison pipeline" that incarcerates students for disciplinary infractions as minor as dress code violations with a policy that affects mostly black and disabled children, the U.S. Justice Department said Friday.

The Justice Department said police in the city of Meridian routinely arrest public school students without determining if there's probable cause when the school wants to press charges for a violation. Federal authorities say the students are then denied due process in youth court and on probation. The Justice Department did not outline specific allegations of wrongdoing against the school district in a letter to state and local authorities. Instead, it appears from the letter that the problems begin once a student is arrested.

Obama executive order expedites dredging of Charleston and other eastern ports

Port of Charleston

Credits: TMR

Georgians, South Carolinians and their respective Republican governors got early Christmas presents from an unlikely Democratic Party source last week when President Barack Obama agreed to waive further application of federal environmental rules in order to expedite the dredging of several U.S. ports, including those at Savannah and Charleston, S.C.

The dredging is needed so that the larger ships that will soon be able to traverse an expanded Panama Canal can dock in U.S. ports that are presently too shallow. The President's executive order under the "We Can't Wait" program, also authorized expedited action on ports in Jacksonville, Fla., Miami, New York and New Jersey.

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley was widely criticized by prominent officials of both parties in her state for her very public assistance rendered in support of Georgia Governor Nathan Deal's push for federal assistance in readying the Port of Savannah. Today, she is being hailed for her tenacious lobbying of the Obama administration and the President himself on several occasions.



Western states bake under extended heat wave

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Temperatures soared into triple digits across the western United States on Saturday as a continuing heat wave strained energy supplies and sent thousands to beaches, lakes and shopping malls in search of cooler climes.

A large and forceful high pressure system pushed the mercury to roughly 10 degrees above normal across the west, but relief is in sight — the system is drifting east. By Tuesday, temperatures should be back to normal, said David Sweet, meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

"It's cooling by a couple degrees each day. Still, when you're looking at 105 degrees, that's only 103," he said.

California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Montana all reported higher than normal temperatures. Authorities in numerous states issued warnings for everything from fire danger to energy use to dehydration — and even to be on lookout for hungry bears.

Christie's Photo in Marijuana Dispensary

Gov. Chris Christie delivers remarks at the Brookings Institution on July 9, 2012. (Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images)

The commissioner of New Jersey Department of Health announced this week that for the first time physicians can register qualified patients for the state's medical marijuana program.

It's a move that got support from Republican Gov. Chris Christie, whose face will hang in a place of honor on the wall of the first functioning dispensary in the Garden State.

"At one point we felt that the progression of the program installation was slow," according to Julio Valentin, COO of Greenleaf Compassion, the dispensary in Montclair. "But we understand that Gov. Christie and the state of New Jersey is doing the best they can to cross their T's and dot their I's to make this program as successful as possible."

Doctors target gun violence as a social disease

MILWAUKEE – Is a gun like a virus, a car, tobacco or alcohol? Yes say public health experts, who in the wake of recent mass shootings are calling for a fresh look at gun violence as a social disease.

What we need, they say, is a public health approach to the problem, like the highway safety measures, product changes and driving laws that slashed deaths from car crashes decades ago, even as the number of vehicles on the road rose.

One example: Guardrails are now curved to the ground instead of having sharp metal ends that stick out and pose a hazard in a crash.

"People used to spear themselves and we blamed the drivers for that," said Dr. Garen Wintemute, an emergency medicine professor who directs the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis.

It wasn't enough back then to curb deaths just by trying to make people better drivers, and it isn't enough now to tackle gun violence by focusing solely on the people doing the shooting, he and other doctors say.