ACLU seeks details on government’s phone tracking

In a massive coordinated information-seeking campaign, the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and 33 other affiliates across the nation today are sending requests to more than 375 local law enforcement agencies large and small demanding to know when, why and how they are using cell phone location data to track Americans. The Virginia affiliate…

Sam Gbaydee Doe and Al Fuertes: Two SPI learners/teachers who keep coming back

For both Sam Gbaydee Doe and Al Fuertes, the vocation of peacebuilding was forged in the trauma of civil war. In Doe’s native Liberia, 10 percent of the population perished. For Fuertes, growing up on the Philippine island Mindanao, one of the world’s longest recent wars seemed “a given.” Now, over more than a decade,…

Fuel for extremism is beyond Bin Laden, EMU prof says

Contributors

Pakistan-based graduates of Eastern Mennonite University say U.S. military policy in their country has fed extremism and that, sadly, such extremism may not subside with the death of Osama bin Laden. That was a major finding of EMU professor of peacebuilding Lisa Schirch, who was in Pakistan last week, researching and consulting with Pakistani peace…

Chris Graham: Heritage

Chris Graham

I’m a Southerner. I have an accent. Hell, I work for a rasslin’ company. No question I’m Southern. Got two cousins named Junior, an uncle named Boogie, et cetera. Here’s where I go controversial being a Southerner – that crap about the Civil War being about states’ rights is, well, yeah, crap. It doesn’t take…

Chris Graham: Down the middle

Chris Graham

President Obama on Wednesday released a down-the-middle plan for dealing with the federal government’s deepening budget crisis. I meant the term down the middle to mean one thing – that it features some elements that appeal to the left and some that appeal to the right. But I full recognize that it can mean something…

Governor, Republican group react to proposed state action countering DADT

Chris Graham

Gov. Bob McDonnell wants to see the Virginia National Guard adhere to the same rules as the Department of Defense with respect to its treatment of gays and lesbians serving in the nation’s military. McDonnell addressed the issue on his monthly call-in show on WTOP in response to questions that have arisen regarding legislation that…

Groups call for DMV to accept federal documents as immigrants’ proof of legal presence

Contributors

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations today released a letter sent to DMV Commissioner Richard Holcomb renewing a request that he rescind a recently implemented policy refusing to accept federally-issued work papers as proof of legal presence to obtain either a driver license or ID in Virginia….

ACLU leads fight against warrantless GPS placements

Chris Graham

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia today filed an amicus brief with the Virginia Court of Appeals contending that our constitutional right to privacy is violated when police surreptitiously place GPS devices on cars without first obtaining a warrant. “If the police are allowed to attach a GPS device to anyone’s car and remotely…