By ACLU Attorney James Lyall Arizona Daily Star For years, watchdog groups have issued report after report detailing the brutal conditions faced by children in Border Patrol custody. Since 2008, non-governmental aid organizations have documented at least 1,600 specific examples of children suffering abuse and inhumane environments in the Border Patrol’s detention facilities. Border Patrol…
By Josh Hicks Washington Post Federal buildings are unprepared for potential cyber attacks on their security systems, elevators, heating and cooling networks and other critical operations because the Department of Homeland Security doesn’t have a handle on the risks. At stake are thousands of vulnerable facilities, including the offices of federal employees and structures that house high-risk items such as drugs and…
By David Horsey The Baltimore Sun Secret Service agents should go to the movies more often. At least since the 1996 sci-fi film, “Independence Day,” in which an alien spaceship the size of Los Angeles incinerates the White House, attacks on the lovely old executive mansion have been a recurring cinematic theme. Last year, two…
By Esther Cepeda Anchorage Daily News With the on-again, off-again chances of achieving wide-ranging immigration reform, there’s much to be exasperated about. But more frustrating are the smaller, slam-dunk situations that could be settled by other means. Take the case of Sergio Garcia, who has a law degree and passed the bar exam in California…
Bill Piper The Seattle Times Note: Piper is the director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance This year is the 40th anniversary of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Already plagued by scandals, the agency has recently been revealed to be collaborating with the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency to spy on…
Leonard Pitts Jr. Miami Herald It’s been a war on justice, an assault on equal protection under the law. And a war on families, removing millions of fathers from millions of homes. And a war on money, spilling it like water. And a war on people of color, targeting them with drone strike efficiency. We…
By Eugene Robinson Washington Post From the evidence so far, there’s no good reason to let the National Security Agency (NSA) continue its massively intrusive practice of logging our private phone calls. Congress should pull the plug. I’m not ignoring all the officials, including President Obama, who swear that the electronic snooping has foiled…
By David Ignatius The Washington Post People are looking for the wrong “scandal” about Attorney General Eric Holder. The problem with Holder is the plain fact that, in the judgment of a wide range of legal colleagues, he has been a mediocre attorney general. Holder’s mistakes in management and judgment are clear in the current…
