Archive - Aug 17, 2009

• Progressives concerned White House may exclude public option from health reform
• Student activists ask Secretary Clinton to support climate change refugees
• US Supreme Court delays execution of Troy Davis
• Groups say East Haven, CT police are profiling Latinos
• In Minnesota, RNC 8 are back in court*

• Obama still supports repeal of Defense of Marriage law, and application thereof
• Afghans prepare for polls, human rights groups evacuate
• HRW: Militia target gay men in Iraq, hundreds may be dead since January
• Egyptian man faces deportation after being acquitted of criminal charges
• North Korea opens border with South Korea
• Parents protest at smelting plant near villages where kids poisoned by lead exposure

In Washington, DC, progressives are holding firm on their insistence that a public option be part of health care reform. This comes one day after some Democratic Congressmembers and the White House signaled that a government-run public option could be dropped from the plan.  FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell report.

Student activists have built a tent city outside the US State Department. They are asking Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to do more to protect climate refugees. The activists say that as climate patterns change, whole countries will become uninhabitable and the people that lived there will be forced to move.  FSRN´s Tanya Snyder visited their camp.

The US Supreme Court has once again delayed the execution of Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis.  Davis has been on death row since the early 90s after he was convicted of killing a police officer. He claims he is innocent and his execution has been delayed twice after successful appeals at the courts and public pressure from campaigners and political leaders like former President Jimmy Carter.

This time around, the Supreme Court ordered a district court in Georgia to hold a new hearing for Davis.  His lawyers say they have new evidence that proves Davis is innocent.  FSRN spoke with Davis´s sister, Martina Correia, who´s been campaigning for her brother´s release for over a decade.

In East Haven, Connecticut community activists say the police department is profiling Latinos. Latino business owners complain that police officers harass their customers as they leave their stores, detaining those who they suspect are undocumented.  Jacqueline Kook with the Community News Production Institute reports.

This month marks one year since the Republican National Convention came to St Paul, Minnesota where John McCain was crowned as the party’s Presidential candidate. More than 800 protestors were arrested during the 2008 RNC in a week-long crack down by city, county and federal law enforcement agencies.

The most famous of those arrested weren’t even at the protests; the so called RNC 8, are back in court this Wednesday. FSRN´s Andrew Stelzer has the story.

In the original version of this story, FSRN stated incorrectly that one of the charges against the RNC 8 was "conspiracy to destroy federal property." The charge was actually "conspiracy to destroy property." Additionally, we stated 37 people had pled guilty to charges brought by Ramsey County.  In fact, that’s the number of people who have pled guilty to charges brought by the city of St Paul, Ramsey County, and the federal government combined. FSRN regrets the errors.

A corrected version of the radio story has replaced the original version.