'Sesame Street' creates first Muppet to have a parent in jail - TODAY.com

“Congratulations, America, on making it almost normal to have a parent in prison or jail,”

Man charging homeless people hugs for haircuts gets kicked out of park

A man who has been giving free haircuts to the homeless in exchange for hugs for 25 years has been kicked out of a park by city health officials.

Yes, You Have the Right to Record the Police: Analysis

After last month’s tragedy involving the death of David Silva in California, the question of whether citizens can and should record the police came back to the forefront. Attorney Morgan Leigh Manning explain why the courts have sided with citizens. …

Jailed for silence?

24-year-old New York anarchist Jerry Koch gets jailed for up to 18 months for refusing to testify as a witness in the Times Square bicycle bombing case of 2008 at a federal grand jury hearing.

Toronto police proved they are no different than American police when they attacked a man for video recording them making an arrest, yelling at the man to “stop resisting” when the man was clearly not resisting, then charging him with assaulting an officer when he didn’t even come close to that.

The incident, which took place last year, was captured on a hotel surveillance camera, a huge piece of evidence which no doubt prompted the lawsuit Karl Andrus filed earlier this month.

According to the Toronto Star:

Karl Andrus alleges in a statement of claim that he was threatened with arrest as he used his BlackBerry smartphone to document another arrest in the lobby of the downtown Sheraton Centre Hotel, where he was also a guest.

Andrus was told that he’d “filmed enough” and, although other guests were around him, was told repeatedly to back up.

And then, “suddenly and without warning” he was “violently attacked” by an officer and “subjected to various forms of strikes and pressures,” he alleges.

Security video shows Andrus, who suffered numerous injuries including rib fractures, being taken down by a number of officers. He was also charged with obstructing and assaulting police …

911 Dispatcher Tells Woman About To Be Sexually Assaulted There Are No Cops To Help Her Due To Budget Cuts

An Oregon woman was told by a 911 dispatcher that authorities wouldn’t be able be able to help her as her ex-boyfriend broke into her place because of budget cuts.

Oregon Public Radio reports that an unidentified woman called 911 during a weekend in August 2012 while Michael Bellah was breaking into her place. Her call was forwarded to Oregon State Police because of lay-offs at the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office only allows the department to be open Monday through Friday.

“Uh, I don’t have anybody to send out there,” the 911 dispatcher told the woman. “You know, obviously, if he comes inside the residence and assaults you, can you ask him to go away? Do you know if he’s intoxicated or anything?” …

Why Are Homeowners Being Jailed for Demanding Wall Street Prosecutions?

Bankers go free while cops tase peaceful protesters and the Department of Justice targets journalists …

Obama-Media Scandals- Only the Tip of The Iceberg: Wiretapping of US Congress & Using NGOs as Traps for Whistleblowers

Hidden Traps for Government Whistleblowers

Isn’t it ironic? After more than a decade of intensive government witch-hunting directed toward government whistleblowers and truth-tellers- who also happen to be the most valuable sources when it comes to media and journalism, the US media has suddenly become alert and apprehensive to its government’s decade-long snooping, targeting, persecuting, and prosecuting of information-transparency sources. That is, now that their turn has come.

You see, for the past ten years this same media acted either blind, deaf or just simply repulsed when it came to government whistleblowers. In fact, they aided and abetted the government in pursuit of government truth-tellers.  There are too many examples for me to cite; way too many. Recall how L.A. Times collaboratedwith the government on the AT&T whistleblower’s disclosure and reports. Remember how the New York Times sat on the report exposing the government’s illegal wiretapping of Americans for a year. Think about the complete US media censorship and blackouts on many whistleblower cases. And the list goes on.

I can’t really bring myself to call the latest on Obama-US Media scandals a case of poetic justice. Why? Because the losers in these violations are not limited to members of the press. No. We the people have as much, or even more, to lose with these assaults on freedom of the press – further loss of our rights under the First Amendment. …