Archive - Apr 14, 2010

• Holder says civilian trials for 9/11 suspects still possible, Gitmo closing being planned
• Obama administration pushes shift of ‘war on drugs’ toward treatment
• Advocates call for end of discrimination to HIV positive prisoners
• Arizona to require police check on immigration status
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• In New York, fast-growing Nepali community organizes census count

• More than 400 dead in Western Chinese Earthquake
• Chinese captain arrested for running coal vessel aground on the Great Barrier Reef
• Sudan election turnout remains low, fraud reported
• “Climategate” scientists cleared
• Activists call on PA Legislature to prevent gas drilling in state forests

Many are discussing the expected resignation of labor leader Andy Stern - an official announcement may come later this week.  To put Stern in context, Mitch Jeserich, host of Pacifica Radio's Letters to Washington, spoke with columnist Bill Fletcher.

On Capitol Hill today, US Attorney General Eric Holder told lawmakers that New York City could still be the site of a civilian trial for suspects of the September 11th attacks. Holder also said the Obama administration continues to formulate its plan to close the Guantanamo prison. FSRN's Karen Miller has more.

The head of US drug policy told a House panel today that the Obama administration is instituting a new approach to the decades long “War on Drugs.”  The administration says it is focusing more on confronting addiction through treatment and public health.  As FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports, drug reform advocates are cautiously optimistic.

Human rights advocates are calling on officials in Alabama and South Carolina to stop discriminatory practices in their prison systems. In a new report released today by the ACLU National Prison Project and Human Rights Watch, researchers say prisoners with HIV face harassment and systemic discrimination. Prisoners are forced to wear armbands to indicate their HIV status, and are segregated in HIV units. They must eat and worship separately and are at a disadvantage in prison jobs and re-entry programs to help them transition back into society.

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Arizona's legislature has approved what many are calling the most drastic immigration measure in the country. Lawmakers on Tuesday passed SB1070, a state bill that would require local police to verify the legal status of people stopped - for incidents as minor as a traffic violation. The state senate passed a similar bill and now it goes to Republican Governor Jan Brewer. Immigrant rights groups say it amounts to a police state, allowing law enforcement agents who are not trained in immigration law to enforce it. The Arizona police chiefs association has also opposed the bill.

We're joined by Representative Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat from Arizona's District 15. She's also the assistant minority leader in the Arizona House of Representatives.