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Source: http://www.app.com/article/20121206/NJNEWS10/312060067/1007/NEWS03&source=rss
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Saturday, December 8, 2012
Friday, December 7, 2012
As pot goes proper, a history of weed
FILE - In this Jan. 24, 1972, file photo, a teenager relights the remainder of a marijuana joint. In 1972 a commission appointed by President Richard Nixon to study marijuana said it should be decriminalized and regulated. Nixon rejected that, but a dozen states in the 1970s went on to eliminate jail time as a punishment for pot arrests. On the occasion of ?Legalization Day,? Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012, when Washington?s new law takes effect, AP takes a look back at the cultural and legal status of the ?evil weed? in American history. (AP Photo/Jerry Mosey, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 24, 1972, file photo, a teenager relights the remainder of a marijuana joint. In 1972 a commission appointed by President Richard Nixon to study marijuana said it should be decriminalized and regulated. Nixon rejected that, but a dozen states in the 1970s went on to eliminate jail time as a punishment for pot arrests. On the occasion of ?Legalization Day,? Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012, when Washington?s new law takes effect, AP takes a look back at the cultural and legal status of the ?evil weed? in American history. (AP Photo/Jerry Mosey, File)
FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Drug Enforcement Administration shows a 1930s anti-marijuana movie poster as part of an exhibit at the DEA Museum and Visitors Center which opened May 10, 1999 in Arlington, Va. After the repeal of alcohol prohibition in 1933, Harry Anslinger, who headed the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, turned his attention to pot. He told of sensational crimes reportedly committed by marijuana addicts. "No one knows, when he places a marijuana cigarette to his lips, whether he will become a philosopher, a joyous reveler in a musical heaven, a mad insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer," he wrote in "Marijuana: Assassin of Youth," in 1937. On the occasion of ?Legalization Day,? Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012, when Washington?s new law takes effect, AP takes a look back at the cultural and legal status of the ?evil weed? in American history. (AP Photo/DEA, File)
FILE - In this May 23, 1966, file photo, people roll joints at a marijuana party near the University of California at Berkeley campus in Berkeley, Calif. In 2012, Washington state and Colorado voted to legalize and regulate its recreational use. But before that, the plant, renowned since ancient times for its strong fibers, medical use and mind-altering properties, was a staple crop of the colonies, an "assassin of youth," a counterculture emblem and a widely accepted - if often abused - medicine. On the occasion of ?Legalization Day,? Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012, when Washington?s new law takes effect, AP takes a look back at the cultural and legal status of the ?evil weed? in American history. (AP Photo/File)
FILE- This April 22, 2009, file photo, shows former President Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Va. Jefferson and George Washington both grew hemp and puzzled over the best ways to process it for clothing and rope. Indeed, cannabis has been grown in America since soon after the British arrived. Jefferson went on to invent a device for processing hemp in 1815. On the occasion of ?Legalization Day,? Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012, when Washington?s new law takes effect, AP takes a look back at the cultural and legal status of the ?evil weed? in American history. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
FILE- This file image made from a film produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture during World War II shows the title frame of the movie "Hemp for Victory." After Japanese troops cut off access to Asian fiber supplies during the war, it released the propaganda film urging farmers to grow hemp and extolling its use in parachutes and rope for the war effort. On the occasion of ?Legalization Day,? Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012, when Washington?s new law takes effect, AP takes a look back at the cultural and legal status of the ?evil weed? in American history. (AP Photo/U.S. Department of Agriculture, File)
SEATTLE (AP) ? The grass is no greener. But, finally, it's legal ? at least somewhere in America. It's been a long, strange trip for marijuana.
Washington state and Colorado voted to legalize and regulate its recreational use last month. But before that, the plant, renowned since ancient times for its strong fibers, medical use and mind-altering properties, was a staple crop of the colonies, an "assassin of youth," a counterculture emblem and a widely accepted ? if often abused ? medicine.
On the occasion of Thursday's "Legalization Day," when Washington's new law takes effect, here's a look back at the cultural and legal status of the "evil weed" in American history.
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CANNABIS IN THE COLONIES
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp and puzzled over the best ways to process it for clothing and rope.
Indeed, cannabis has been grown in America since soon after the British arrived. In 1619 the Crown ordered the colonists at Jamestown to grow hemp to satisfy England's incessant demand for maritime ropes, Wayne State University professor Ernest Abel wrote in "Marihuana: The First Twelve Thousand Years."
Hemp became more important to the colonies as New England's own shipping industry developed, and homespun hemp helped clothe American soldiers during the Revolutionary War. Some colonies offered farmers "bounties" for growing it.
"We have manufactured within our families the most necessary articles of cloathing," Jefferson said in "Notes on the State of Virginia." ''Those of wool, flax and hemp are very coarse, unsightly, and unpleasant."
Jefferson went on to invent a device for processing hemp in 1815.
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TASTE THE HASHISH
Books such as "The Arabian Nights" and Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo," with its voluptuous descriptions of hashish highs in the exotic Orient, helped spark a cannabis fad among intellectuals in the mid-19th century.
"But what changes occur!" one of Dumas' characters tells an uninitiated acquaintance. "When you return to this mundane sphere from your visionary world, you would seem to leave a Neapolitan spring for a Lapland winter -- to quit paradise for earth -- heaven for hell! Taste the hashish, guest of mine -- taste the hashish."
After the Civil War, with hospitals often overprescribing opiates for pain, many soldiers returned home hooked on harder drugs. Those addictions eventually became a public health concern. In 1906, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, requiring labeling of ingredients, and states began regulating opiates and other medicines ? including cannabis.
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MEXICAN FOLKLORE AND JAZZ CLUBS
By the turn of the 20th century, cannabis smoking remained little known in the United States ? but that was changing, thanks largely to The Associated Press, says Isaac Campos, a Latin American history professor at the University of Cincinnati.
In the 1890s, the first English-language newspaper opened in Mexico and, through the wire service, tales of marijuana-induced violence that were common in Mexican papers began to appear north of the border ? helping to shape public perceptions that would later form the basis of pot prohibition, Campos says.
By 1910, when the Mexican Revolution pushed immigrants north, articles in the New York Sun, Boston Daily Globe and other papers decried the "evils of ganjah smoking" and suggested that some use it "to key themselves up to the point of killing."
Pot-smoking spread through the 1920s and became especially popular with jazz musicians. Louis Armstrong, a lifelong fan and defender of the drug he called "gage," was arrested in California in 1930 and given a six-month suspended sentence for pot possession.
"It relaxes you, makes you forget all the bad things that happen to a Negro," he once said. In the 1950s, he urged legalization in a letter to President Dwight Eisenhower.
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REEFER MADNESS, HEMP FOR VICTORY
After the repeal of alcohol prohibition in 1933, Harry Anslinger, who headed the federal Bureau of Narcotics, turned his attention to pot. He told of sensational crimes reportedly committed by marijuana addicts. "No one knows, when he places a marijuana cigarette to his lips, whether he will become a philosopher, a joyous reveler in a musical heaven, a mad insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer," he wrote in a 1937 magazine article called "Marijuana: Assassin of Youth."
The hysteria was captured in the propaganda films of the time ? most famously, "Reefer Madness," which depicted young adults descending into violence and insanity after smoking marijuana. The movie found little audience upon its release in 1936 but was rediscovered by pot fans in the 1970s.
Congress banned marijuana with the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Anslinger continued his campaign into the '40s and '50s, sometimes trying ? without luck ? to get jazz musicians to inform on each other. "Zoot suited hep cats, with their jive lingo and passion for swift, hot music, provide a fertile field for growth of the marijuana habit, narcotics agents have found here," began a 1943 Washington Post story about increasing pot use in the nation's capital.
The Department of Agriculture promoted a different message. After Japanese troops cut off access to Asian fiber supplies during World War II, it released "Hemp For Victory," a propaganda film urging farmers to grow hemp and extolling its use in parachutes and rope for the war effort.
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COUNTERCULTURE
As the conformity of the postwar era took hold, getting high on marijuana and other drugs emerged as a symbol of the counterculture, with Jack Kerouac and the rest of the Beat Generation singing pot's praises. It also continued to be popular with actors and musicians. When actor Robert Mitchum was arrested on a marijuana charge in 1948, People magazine recounted, "The press nationwide branded him a dope fiend. Preachers railed against him from pulpits. Mothers warned their daughters to shun his films."
Congress responded to increasing drug use ? especially heroin ? with stiffer penalties in the '50s. Anslinger began to hype what we now call the "gateway drug" theory: that marijuana had to be controlled because it would eventually lead its users to heroin.
Then came Vietnam. The widespread, open use of marijuana by hippies and war protesters from San Francisco to Woodstock finally exposed the falsity of the claims so many had made about marijuana leading to violence, says University of Virginia professor Richard Bonnie, a scholar of pot's cultural status.
In 1972, Bonnie was the associate director of a commission appointed by President Richard Nixon to study marijuana. The commission said marijuana should be decriminalized and regulated. Nixon rejected that, but a dozen states in the '70s went on to eliminate jail time as a punishment for pot arrests.
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"JUST SAY NO"
The push to liberalize drug laws hit a wall by the late 1970s. Parents groups became concerned about data showing that more children were using drugs, and at a younger age. The religious right was emerging as a force in national politics. And the first "Cheech and Chong" movie, in 1978, didn't do much to burnish pot's image.
When she became first lady, Nancy Reagan quickly promoted the anti-drug cause. During a visit with schoolchildren in Oakland, Calif., as Reagan later recalled, "A little girl raised her hand and said, 'Mrs. Reagan, what do you do if somebody offers you drugs?' And I said, 'Well, you just say no.' And there it was born."
By 1988, more than 12,000 "Just Say No" clubs and school programs had been formed, according to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library. Between 1978 and 1987, the percentage of high school seniors reporting daily use of marijuana fell from 10 percent to 3 percent.
And marijuana use was so politically toxic that when Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, he said he "didn't inhale."
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MEDS OF A DIFFERENT SORT
Marijuana has been used as medicine since ancient times, as described in Chinese, Indian and Roman texts, but U.S. drug laws in the latter part of the 20th century made no room for it. In the 1970s, many states passed symbolic laws calling for studies of marijuana's efficacy as medicine, although virtually no studies ever took place because of the federal prohibition.
Nevertheless, doctors noted its ability to ease nausea and stimulate appetites of cancer and AIDS patients. And in 1996, California became the first state to allow the medical use of marijuana. Since then, 17 other states and the District of Columbia have followed.
In recent years, medical marijuana dispensaries ? readily identifiable by the green crosses on their storefronts ? have proliferated in many states, including Washington, Colorado and California. That's prompted a backlash from some who suggest they are fronts for illicit drug dealing and that most of the people they serve aren't really sick. The Justice Department has shut down some it deems the worst offenders.
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LEGAL WEED AT LAST
On Nov. 6, Washington and Colorado pleased aging hippies everywhere ? and shocked straights of all ages ? by voting to become the first states to legalize the fun use of marijuana. Voters handily approved measures to decriminalize the possession of up to an ounce by adults over 21. Colorado's measure also permits home-growing of up to six plants.
Both states are working to set up a regulatory scheme with licensed growers, processors and retail stores. Eventually, activists say, grown-ups will be able to walk into a store, buy some marijuana, and walk out with ganja in hand ? but not before paying the taxman. The states expect to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for schools and other government functions.
But it's not so simple. The regulatory schemes conflict with the federal government's longstanding pot prohibition, according to many legal scholars. The Justice Department could sue to block those schemes from taking effect ? but hasn't said whether it will do so.
The bizarre journey of cannabis in America continues.
___
Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle
Associated Press researcher Julie Reed Bell contributed to this report from Charlotte, N.C.
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NYC police make arrest in fatal subway push
NEW YORK (AP) ? A man was arrested Wednesday in the death of a subway rider who was pushed onto the tracks and photographed just before a train struck him.
Naeem Davis, 30, was taken into custody for questioning Tuesday after security video showed a man fitting the suspect's description working with street vendors near Rockefeller Center. Police said Davis made statements implicating himself in Ki-Suck Han's death.
Davis was arrested on a second-degree murder charge. He was in custody, and it wasn't immediately clear if he had a lawyer. It wasn't clear when he'd appear in court.
Witnesses told investigators they saw a man talking to himself Monday afternoon before he approached the 58-year-old Han of Queens at the Times Square station, got into an altercation with him and pushed him into the train's path.
The New York Post published a photo on its front page Tuesday of Han with his head turned toward the train, his arms reaching up but unable to climb off the tracks in time. It was shot by freelance photographer R. Umar Abbasi, who was waiting to catch a train.
Abbasi told NBC's "Today" show Wednesday that he was trying to alert the motorman to what was going on by flashing his camera.
He said he was shocked that people nearer to the victim didn't try to help in the 22 seconds before the train struck.
"It took me a second to figure out what was happening ... I saw the lights in the distance. My mind was to alert the train," Abbasi said.
"The people who were standing close to him ... they could have moved and grabbed him and pulled him up. No one made an effort," he added.
Trains generally arrive at the stations going 25 mph, but it's not clear how fast the train was going when it struck Han. The waiting area is a narrower than other subway stations, but the platform is still about a dozen feet wide.
In a written account Abbasi gave the Post, he said a crowd took videos and snapped photos on their cellphones after Han was pulled, limp, onto the platform. He said he shoved them back as a doctor and another man tried to resuscitate the victim, but it was no use. The man died in front of Abbasi's eyes.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday that it appeared the suspect in Han's death had "a psychiatric problem."
The mayor said Han, "if I understand it, tried to break up a fight or something and paid for it with his life."
Subway pushes are feared but fairly unusual. Among the more high-profile cases was the January 1999 death of Kendra Webdale, who was shoved to her death by a former mental patient.
Straphangers on Wednesday said that they were shocked by Han's death but that it's always a silent fear for many of the more than 5.2 million commuters who ride the subway on an average weekday.
"Stuff like that you don't really think about every day. You know it could happen. So when it does happen it's scary but then what it all comes down to is you have to protect yourself," said Aliyah Syphrett, 23, who sat on a bench as she waited at Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan.
Diana Henry, 79, a Long Island resident, was waiting for a train at 34th Street. She stood as far from the platform as possible ? about a dozen feet back, leaning against the wall.
"I'm always careful, but I'm even more careful after what happened," she said. "I stand back because there are so many crazies in this city that you never know."
Many said they didn't know what they would do in the same situation ? if they'd try to help or if they'd be able to act fast enough.
In 2007, Wesley Autrey jumped onto the tracks when a train was approaching, saving the life of a man who fell unconscious off the platform. Autrey laid on top of the man as the train rolled over them barely above their heads. Autrey was hailed as a hero.
___
Associated Press writers Verena Dobnik, Karen Matthews and Tom Hays contributed to this story.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nyc-police-arrest-fatal-subway-push-180303540.html
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Thursday, December 6, 2012
Killer Instinct return halted by trademark refusal | Den of Geek
Although the likes of Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, King of Fighters and Guilty Gear reside upon the top of the one-on-one beat ?em up pile, there?s one classic fighter that?s been left, much to fans? dismay, rotting in the junk yard or obsolete titles. That game is Rare?s combo-fest, Killer Instinct.
An arcade classic that spawned some decent, if limited, home conversions, the game was a great example of a fighter that rewarded dedication, as hardcore fans could demolish foes with unstoppable combos if they put in the effort to master their chosen warrior.
Said fans have, understandably, been crying out for the license to be revived on current-gen systems, but despite rumours and hearsay, nothing has ever materialised, and sadly, it probably never will, at least as we know it.
Microsoft, which now owns Rare, has officially been unsuccessful in reviving the Killer Instinct name as it?s hit a legal roadblock. According to reports, the name Killer Instinct isn?t just the moniker for the Rare-made fighter, but also the name of a Fox TV crime drama. Upon trying the register the Killer Instinct name with the patent office, Microsoft was informed that it couldn?t do so as it would cause confusion and clash with the TV show.
This is no doubt a major blow to fans and Microsoft alike, but it?s not all doom and gloom. Basically, the name is the problem, and there?s no reason Microsoft and Rare couldn?t resurrect the title in all but name. As long as the game itself is a true revival of the series? formula, does it really matter that it carries the same name? It could even have the same characters and setting.
Microsoft hasn?t made its next move clear at the time of wriitng, but if the studio has expressed interest in bringing back the game, don?t expect this to be the end of it.
Follow Den Of Geek on Twitter right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
Source: http://www.denofgeek.com/games/23713/killer-instinct-return-halted-by-trademark-refusal
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UN experts: Rwanda led rebels in capture of Goma
UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? U.N. experts accused the Rwandan military of commanding Congolese rebel forces in their recent capture of the strategic city of Goma, saying a top Rwandan commander traveled to Congo to oversee the offensive and hundreds of Rwandan troops fought alongside the M23 rebel fighters.
In a letter to a U.N. Security Council committee, the experts provided a day-by-day outline and photos backing their conclusion. The M23 rebels held Goma, a provincial capital of 1 million, for two weeks before Congolese soldiers took back control Monday.
The letter, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, is a follow-up to a report preceding the capture of Goma that made similar accusations against Rwandan forces.
A call to Rwanda's U.N. Mission seeking comment on the letter was not immediately returned. Rwanda has repeatedly denied assisting the rebels.
M23 is made up of hundreds of officers who deserted the Congolese army in April. Since then the rebels have occupied vast swaths of territory in mineral-rich eastern Congo. The rebels accuse Congo's President Joseph Kabila of failing to honor the terms of a 2009 peace deal that incorporated them into the national army, although most analysts believe that the origin of the rebellion is a fight over the country's vast mineral wealth.
The expert group said it has repeatedly concluded that the government of Rwanda and allies in the Ugandan government have "created, equipped, trained, advised, reinforced and directly commanded the M23 rebellion."
"The information initially gathered by the group regarding the recent offensive and seizure of the North Kivu provincial town of Goma strongly upholds this conclusion," said the letter to a committee that monitors sanctions against armed groups in Congo.
After deserting the army, M23 fighters seized a series of small towns and villages in the North Kivu province, where a good chunk of Congo's mineral wealth is found, culminating with the Nov. 20 capture of Goma. The Congolese army fled in disarray and U.N. peacekeepers, whose mandate is to protect civilians, held fire.
The experts quoted several senior Congolese commanders and former Rwandan officers as saying the Goma offensive was under the overall command of the Rwandan army's western division commander, Gen. Emmanuel Ruvusha, who personally went to Congo to oversee the operation.
The same sources were quoted as telling the experts that Col. Sultani Makenga, an M23 rebel leader, joined Ruvusha in leading the offensive. Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, who is believed to be the leader of M23 and is wanted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, led rebel troops operating near the Rwandan border at Kibumba and in the vicinity of Goma airport, the sources were quoted as saying.
The letter, dated Nov. 26, said preparations for the Goma offensive took place over a two-month period and included significant logistics supplies for the rebels from Uganda. The experts said they personally witnessed a delivery of hundreds of rain boots for the rebels to the Ugandan town of Bunagana, on the border with Congo. They included a photo of the Oct. 14 delivery.
At the end of October, they said, Rwanda and Uganda deployed additional troops to Congo to support M23. The letter details specific units and the towns where they were sent.
As the Goma offensive began, the rebels benefited from direct Rwandan military support on the front lines at the village of Kibumba, a center for refugees from a 2009 rebellion 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Goma, the experts said, citing former Rwandan officers, Congolese army officers and local leaders.
On Nov. 15, while Makenga's M23 fighters were advancing, four companies from Rwanda's 305th brigade crossed the border to conduct operations against Congolese army positions at Kibumba, the experts said.
The Congolese army repelled the initial attack and killed over 40 rebels and Rwandan soldiers, many of whom wore Rwandan military uniforms and carried weapons used by Rwandan forces, they said. The letter includes photos of soldiers in both M23 and Rwandan uniforms.
Two days later, M23 fighters attacking Kibumba were reinforced by the four companies from Rwanda's 305th brigade as well as three companies from other Rwandan brigades and a Rwandan special forces unit led by Col. Vincent Gatama.
The experts cited former Rwandan officers and senior Congolese army officers, who estimated that, in total, well over 1,000 Rwandan troops went Congo to assist in the Kibumba operations.
The M23 and Rwandan military used night vision goggles, usually used by Rwandan special forces, during the nighttime advance on Kibumba, as well as heavy weaponry including 120mm mortars, which the experts said Makenga obtained from support networks in Rwanda and Uganda before he deserted from the Congolese army in May. The letter included a photo of 120mm mortars said to come from Makenga's private stock.
"The group learned through diplomatic sources in the region that the government of Rwanda had sought assistance to destroy 120mm mortars still within its arsenal in August 2012 in anticipation of eventual accusations of Rwandan weapons supplies to the rebels," the letter said.
When M23 progressed toward Goma on Nov. 19, Rwandan units operated alongside the rebels in combat at the airport and close to a post in Goma on the Rwandan border, the experts said.
On Nov. 20, they said, M23 defeated the Congolese army at the Goma airport and a mixture of rebel and Rwandan troops clandestinely entered into Goma from the Rwandan town of Giseny, just across the border.
They took control of the city, marching through downtown dressed in a combination of Rwandan and new M23 uniforms, the experts said.
The experts said that former Rwandan officers, Congolese government officials and Congolese officers estimated that roughly 500 soldiers from Rwanda's 73rd and 75th battalions based in Gisenyi supported the M23 during the seizure of Goma.
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Monday, December 3, 2012
Anti-Fur Activists Target Pamela Skaist-Levy Of Skaist Taylor At Her Beverly Hills Home (PHOTOS)
This story comes courtesy of Dog Park Media.
By Leighton Woodhouse
Juicy Couture, the brand that built a fashion empire out of rhinestone-studded velour track suits with ?Juicy? emblazoned across the ass, became a darling of animal lovers in 2008 when it pledged to go fur-free.
But on Saturday, Juicy Couture co-founder Pamela Skaist-Levy found the street outside her Beverly Hills home the site of a demonstration by dozens of animal rights protesters shaming her and her business partner Gela Nash-Taylor for trading in the pelts of foxes, raccoons and other animals that were raised in confinement and brutally killed for fashion industry profits.
Juicy Couture is still listed on the Humane Society?s website as a fur-free designer. But now Skaist-Levy and Nash-Taylor, who left the company two years ago, have a new fashion line out called Skaist Taylor which embraces fur with the same ostentatious aplomb with which Juicy showcases costume jewelry and the color pink.
The fur trade has been the object of protests and boycotts for decades for its horrific treatment of animals.
?Animals including fox, rabbits, mink, cheetah, and even dogs and cats are gassed, beaten, have their necks broken, are caught in steel-jaw leg hold traps and vaginally and anally electrocuted for their fur,? said animal rights attorney Shannon Keith, who produced a documentary on the fur industry called "Skin Trade" and was one of the campaigners behind West Hollywood?s ban on fur retail a year ago. ?If someone were caught anally electrocuting a dog, they would be arrested and sent to prison for felony animal cruelty; however, because the fur industry is completely unregulated, those who control it get away with it.?
The demonstration today was organized by two longtime anti-fur activists, Ellen Lavinthal and Jessica Schlueter. Lavinthal was one of the primary organizers behind the West Hollywood fur ban, and Schlueter helped launch a boycott of a major fur retailer.
At one time, Lavinthal, who lives in the neighborhood, was friends with Skaist-Levy. That relationship had already grown distant, but ultimately soured over Skaist-Levy?s decision to use fur as a centerpiece in her new Skaist Taylor line.
Story continues below.
?I approached Pamela when she appeared on the front page of the L.A. Times wearing fur to promote her new line,? said Lavinthal. ?The next day, my daughter and I reached out to her and dropped off a letter from my daughter asking her to stop using fur, as well as a copy of "Skin Trade" and some literature about the fur industry. I told her that I and the rest of the animal rights community would be glad to help promote her new line if she changed her mind about fur. A few weeks later, we gave her a petition with 33,000 names on it. When she didn?t do anything about it, we were left with no choice but to protest.?
Skaist Taylor?s press agent did not respond to repeated attempts to contact the company for comment.
Schlueter also had a falling out ? not with the designer herself, but with the Juicy Couture brand. Like countless other young women around the world in high school and college, Schlueter spent ?hundreds, if not thousands of dollars? on Juicy clothes. The company?s image appealed to her: the story of two women with practically no resources starting a global brand out of their small L.A. apartment was irresistible. Juicy Couture?s pledge to go fur-free sealed her brand loyalty.
Now, Schlueter feels disappointed and betrayed, dismayed that all the money she spent on Juicy Couture clothes over the years had only helped further the careers of two fashion industry giants who then went on to become part of the multibillion dollar fur industry.
?I don?t think they are horrible people, I think they have spent years in a community that glamorizes fur and that mocks people who stand up against its inherent cruelty,? Schlueter explained.
Skaist Taylor has no physical stores, so the activists chose Skaist-Levy?s home residence as the site for their demonstration. Especially given its residential setting, the protest was conceived from the start as a calm, peaceful, educational action -- no screaming in people?s faces or mixing it up with the cops.
But demonstrations in front of private homes are an inherently risky tactic for animal rights activists. Federal prosecutors have shown a willingness to classify ?home demos? as acts of terrorism under the 2006 Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a law that the fur trade and other animal-based industries lobbied for and which was written explicitly to criminalize certain protest tactics in animal rights campaigns that are Constitutionally protected in every other context. In 2009, the government indicted four Santa Cruz animal rights activists on terrorism charges for engaging in First Amendment activities, including protests in front of the homes of UC Santa Cruz vivisectors, claiming a connection between those actions and two 2008 firebombings of the car and the home of two UCSC scientists, crimes which remain unsolved. A federal judge threw out the indictments the following year for lack of specificity.
With about one bike cop for every three protesters, however, no tension was visible between law enforcement and activists at the demonstration today. Protesters restrained their passion with civility, aiming to reach the public instead of alienating it. A few Star Tours vans passing by slowed down for tourists to take pictures.
The organizers were pleased. ?I?m beyond thrilled that this was one of the largest home demos ever in the United States,? said Leventhal. ?The fact that so many people would give up their Saturdays and choose to be there really made a statement of how strongly they feel about the use of fur in fashion.?
Leighton Woodhouse is a founding partner, film producer and graphic designer at Dog Park Media. To read more Dog Park Media stories, click here.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/01/anti-fur-pamela-skaist-levy_n_2225395.html
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Emails suggest SEC's Schapiro delayed JOBS Act rule amid concerns about legacy
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Outgoing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro delayed immediately implementing a rule to lift a ban on broader-based advertising for private placements in part because she feared it would tarnish her legacy as a pro-investor leader of the agency, internal SEC emails obtained by a U.S. House of Representatives oversight panel show.
The emails were highlighted in a letter critical of Schapiro sent to her on Friday by congressman Patrick McHenry, the Republican chairman of a prominent House subcommittee that oversees financial services, who called on Schapiro to hurry up and finalize the rule.
Schapiro, who is stepping down as chairman in two weeks, decided to take more time seeking public comments about the rule after Barbara Roper, a well-known investor advocate with the Consumer Federation of America, wrote a letter to Schapiro's chief of staff voicing "strong objections" to lifting the ban without vetting the rule first.
Schapiro's decision went against the recommendations of the SEC's staff, including Corporation Finance Director Meredith Cross, the emails suggest.
It also angered Republican SEC Commissioner Daniel Gallagher, who told Schapiro he was "furious" and accused her of failing to negotiate with other commissioners in good faith, according to an email included in McHenry's letter.
After changing her mind on the direction of the rule-making, she only informed Commissioner Elisse Walter - her close friend who is taking over the chairmanship this month - and no other member of the SEC until the following week, the letter says.
"I don't want to be tagged with an anti-investor legacy," Schapiro wrote in an e-mail to Cross with the subject line "Please don't forward."
"In light of all that's been accomplished, that wouldn't be fair, but it is what will be said ..."
McHenry said Schapiro's concerns about her legacy shouldn't delay implementation of the rule.
"The continued second-guessing, and the accompanying delays in the process, is simply unacceptable," McHenry wrote.
The SEC issued a statement in response to reporters seeking a comment about the McHenry letter.
"Chairman Schapiro strongly believes that protecting investors should be the desired legacy of all SEC Chairmen," the SEC said. "It is part of our mission and should inform our decisions at all times. She (Schapiro) also believes that the agency should not consider investors ? or the groups that represent them ? to be special interests."
INVESTOR PROTECTIONS
The SEC's proposal would greatly loosen strict advertising rules to make it easier for hedge funds, private equity funds and other firms to reach potential investors in the private marketplace.
The proposal pertains to several kinds of offerings, including those made under what is known as "Rule 506" of Regulation D, which allows companies to raise an unlimited dollar amount from accredited investors who meet certain income or asset thresholds.
Proponents say it will help spur more capital-raising and makes a lot of sense - especially in a social media world.
The SEC was required by Congress to lift the advertising ban under the 2012 Jumpstart our Business Startups, or JOBS, Act.
The JOBS Act aims to reduce the regulatory burden for small business start-ups by relaxing various securities regulations.
The law passed with bipartisan support, though shortly before it was enacted Schapiro wrote a lengthy letter raising concerns it could erode many important investor protections.
Consumer advocates and state regulators are afraid it will leave the door open to fraud by people who will be able to peddle products to unsuspecting investors.
The SEC was supposed to finalize the rule by July 4, but missed its deadline. Originally, staff had wanted to bypass the lengthier public comment process by adopting it as an "interim final rule" instead of a "proposed" rule. That would have let the SEC lift the ban right away, and then potentially tweak the rule down the road.
Roper and other investor advocates, however, strongly opposed that approach, saying important protections need to be added to the rule. Schapiro later dropped the plan for an interim final rule and took the longer route of seeking public comments first.
The SEC said late Saturday that it sought public comments first because there was a "high level of investor interest and numerous requests to be able to comment on a specific proposal." The SEC added that there could have been a "very real threat of a legal challenge" if the agency did not go through a more rigorous rule-making process.
Investor advocates are still upset with the draft of the proposed rule because they say none of their suggestions for improving the rule were even contemplated, such as amending the definition of "accredited investor" to make sure unsophisticated people are not sold or marketed unsuitable products, and tweaking the filing rules so the commission can collect data on solicitation practices to help it police the marketplace.
Democratic SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar has called for re-proposing it, and incoming SEC Chairman Walter has also raised concerns about a lack of investor protections.
Republicans in the U.S. House and at the SEC, however, want to see the rule go into effect right away.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Eric Beech)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/emails-suggest-secs-schapiro-delayed-jobs-act-rule-030349269--sector.html
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