For Detroit’s new school board, state still wields the power | MLive.com

“After more than a year of statewide debate over Detroit’s debt-ridden public schools, this fall’s school board elections are being touted as a return to local control for the district. Scores of candidates will fill the ballot for seven seats that will, unlike the previous board, legally have a role in running the city’s troubled schools.

But the hard reality behind this November’s crowded election is that Detroit’s new school board will only have as much authority as a state-controlled oversight commission is willing to give it.”

Read the full report here:
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2016/08/for_detroits_new_school_board.html#incart_river_mobile_index
Note: Going back to 1999, every Michigan Governor since John Engler, has sought and received GOP controlled legislative authority to manage and operate the Detroit schools system. The responsibility and blame for the present state of the district rests in Lansing not in Detroit. – JLS

Court Throws Out Terrorism Conviction in Canada, Citing Police Entrapment

“Sting operations — in which an undercover agent or informant provides the means and opportunity to lure otherwise incapable people into committing a crime — have represented the default tactic for counterterrorism prosecutions since the 9/11 attacks.

Critics believe these stings amount to entrapment. Human Rights Watch, for instance, argues that law enforcement authorities in the U.S. have overstepped their role by “effectively participating in developing terrorism plots.” Nonetheless, U.S. courts have rejected entrapment defenses, no matter how hapless the defendants.

In Canada, however, the legal standing of counterterrorism stings has suddenly shifted.”

Full story gets:
https://theintercept.com/2016/08/03/court-throws-out-terrorism-conviction-in-canada-citing-police-entrapment/