Category: Pontiac Tribune

Rockport, TX (TT) – Since all that’s left of the old Aransas County Courthouse is a pile of rubble and a slab of concrete, these days County Judge Burt Mills holds office in a strip mall storefront, flanked by a Chinese buffet and a boutique. “It’s very nice, actually,” Mills said last week from his office in what used to be a hardware store. This 23,000-square-foot building, hastily renovated after Hurricane Harvey into a temporary courthouse in 45 days, is a testament to the region’s remarkably speedy recovery, Mills said —…

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California (HRW) – After decades of handling youth 15 and younger in its rehabilitation-focused juvenile justice system, in 1995 California discarded its longstanding approach and adopted a new law allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to be tried in adult criminal court. In present day California, a young teenager in criminal court is treated in every way just like an adult: the same procedures, laws, and sentences—including adult prison—are applied with virtually no exception. When a young person is tried as an adult, it means he or she is denied the full services…

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Chatsworth Ga, (PT) –  Officers from Chatsworth Police Department in Chatsworth, GA may have used excessive force when they tased an elderly woman gathering dandelions as an ingredient for a salad she is accustomed to making for her husband on Friday 10th August. However, due to a number of legal anomalies posed by Georgia state law, which allow special privileges for police officers, attempted prosecution of those involved may prove fruitless. Image Source: MURRAY COUNTY JAIL Public Domain According to a report on the CNN website, officers who arrived on…

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US, (PT) Scores of people who resisted the Dakota Access Pipeline are still trailed by outstanding warrants. Many either don’t have legal representation, or aren’t even aware they have active warrants. Hundreds traveled from across America to support the pipeline resistance from 2016-2017, making the over 100 outstanding warrants a national issue. To help resolve them, the Water Protector Legal Collective (WPLC) is offering its expertise to former NoDAPL activists. “Staff hope to have informal face-to-face conversations in a relaxed, familiar setting in which they can explain what Protectors can…

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USA (PT) – The issue of censorship is a hot one as of late… Alex Jones accounts going down, as well as others of Independent Media, including Pontiac Tribune. Here is an breakdown of the censorship we actually face, and a way for you to prop up lesser known outlets that aren’t getting banned left and right, and comparison to help you distinguish the actual difference between being literally oppressed, as opposed to simply catching a 30 day ban. Image from Steemit Censorship Last year, after I had discovered that…

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Berkeley, CA (PT) – The recently appointed executive director of the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco chapter has spoken out against what has been described as the deliberate targeting of ‘anti-fascist protesters’ by Police, in an interview with the Guardian newspaper following disturbances in Berkeley, California, the weekend before last. The criticism came after photographs and other personal details of those arrested were posted on Twitter by members of the local Police Department. Image Source: Berkeley PD Public Domain Critics of the demonstrators on the now largely discredited Blue Lives Matter website, which recently…

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US (PT) – A wave of unease has blanketed America’s immigrant communities since President Donald Trump took office. Videos of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents, often in plain clothes and in unmarked cars, detaining suspected immigrants now seem commonplace. Few, however, question how exactly ICE is locating those targets. A look into an extensive database of contracts awarded by the agency might offer some clues. It was shared with Pontiac Tribune by colleges in the independent media community. Dozens of companies are listed in the logs, including the private prison…

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Lancaster, PA (OW) – What’s the best way to push profit-seeking corporations out of the public sphere? Don’t let them take over in the first place. Residents of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania were thrilled to learn this lesson with their recent victory against Geo Group, a giant of the private prison industry. Geo turned into a household name for profiting off the youth and family detention centers that have become hallmarks of President Donald Trump’s inhumane immigration policies. But the company’s shady practices go way back. Geo Group has misspent millions in federal…

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California (Sputnik) –  A Californian jury has ordered Monsanto to pay close to $290 million to a dying man who said the chemical giant’s weedkiller gave him cancer, local media reported, citing the ruling. The jury deliberated for three days before concluding that the firm had failed to warn its clients about cancer risks associated with the product’s main ingredient, glyphosate, USA Today reported. Judge Suzanne Ramos Bolanos said in court Monsanto, which was acquired in June by German pharma giant Bayer, “acted with malice, oppression or fraud and should be punished for its conduct.” The 46-year-old plaintiff, DeWayne Johnson,…

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Memphis, TN (PT) –  The American Civil Liberties Union is back in the news again this week following the successful outcome of yet another lawsuit, this time filed by the ACLU of Tennessee, which was to result in the release into the public domain of a substantial trove of legal documents. The case, brought against the City of Memphis, was based on a consent decree, ‘an agreement or settlement that resolves a dispute between two parties without admission of guilt’, dating from 1978, which lawyers, acting on behalf of the…

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