Posted on Categories News & Comment

PBC News & Comment: Obama Commutes 214 Prison Sentences

Obama deserves credit for commuting over 500 sentences, but his overall clemency rate is much lower than Clinton or Reagan….–Obama’s commutations are welcome and overdue, but Brian Sonenstein at Shadowproof puts them in perspective

–future presidents will be asked to offer clemency to so-called domestic terrorist sympathizers framed by the FBI during his terms, like Nick Young  and Mahin Khan

–Supreme Court blocks order to let transgender student use boys’ bathroom at Virginia high school

–in rare defeat of incumbent in gerrymandered district, Tea Party darling Tim Huelskamp loses primary

–tough guy actor Clint Eastwood defends Trump’s racist comments, “Just get over it”

–PBS Newshour misstated Julian Assange’s extradition threat, and failed to detail why people are wary of giving Clinton security briefings

–ask Apple’s Siri if Clinton has lied, and if Trump is a liar

–Summer Olympics begin in Brazil, where it’s winter in more ways than one

–at Shadowproof, Kevin Gosztola reports on a People’s Tribunal that acquitted Dilma Rousseff of impeachment

–US continues to try Venezuelans with ties to Maduro in US courts

–Turkey issues arrest warrant for Fethullah Gulen

–in struggle over budget for public defenders, Missouri’s lead PD uses arcane law to assign a case to the governor, Jay Nixon; read about it here