Celebrate This Labor Day Weekend By Taking Action
by shenna | September 2, 2010 - 5:45pmLabor Day, an American tradition since 1894, celebrates the worker by giving all of us a day of rest. Not all workers are treated equally under the law however. Pay discrimination is still a persistent problem in the United States. The statistics nationally are that women make on average 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. Not just women, but everyone in a woman worker's household, suffers from these lost wages. Let's celebrate Labor Day by dedicating ourselv | continue reading
Medical Marijuana - The Focus Should Be On Providing Care For Those in Need
by alysia | September 2, 2010 - 5:21pmThis week I met with a Maine medical marijuana patient. This particular patient is fortunate. She is able to supply herself medicine, has a doctor who understands the known benefits of marijuana and believes patients should have some input and choice in deciding their course of treatment. The patient I spoke with uses marijuana to treat chronic pain (a qualifying condition under the law). She feels strongly that she does not want to take one of the many FDA approved pharmaceuticals recommended for her condition. She, like many patients who qualify under Maine law f | continue reading
Student Privacy, From Sea To Shining Sea
by zach | September 1, 2010 - 5:54pmIf you regularly read this blog (or read Maine newspapers, or watch Maine television news, or listen to Maine Public Radio), you probably know about the work the MCLU has been doing to protect student privacy. The Maine Department of Education has recently required all Maine schools to ask parents for their childrens' social security numbers--the schools have to ask, but parents do not have to turn over the numbers. Nothing ba | continue reading
Ignore SSN Data Collection Spin
by edward | August 30, 2010 - 5:41pmSunday's article on school data collection in the Kennebec Journal reads like paid advertising for the Department of Education. The subheading for the article says "privacy concerns raised" but you have to dig deep...deep...to find what those concerns are and that's after nearly ten paragraphs about how wonderful student tracking is for all involved.
Here are two of the biggest myths: | continue reading
Here are two of the biggest myths: | continue reading
The Mosque Controversy - Finding Inspiration Among Madness
by alysia | August 27, 2010 - 5:07pmThere has been much focus on the negative debate surrounding the Park51 project near ground zero. And there have been shameful expression of anti-Muslim hatred, including vicious assaults apparently linked to the controversy. But in the midst of the hateful rhetoric, some, including New York's Mayor Bloomberg are | continue reading
Strip Searches on the Street
by brianna | August 26, 2010 - 10:57amA colleague of mine joked that she may introduce a line of lead clothing in order to protect herself from virtual strip searches on the street. The sad part is, it may be a really smart idea.
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Let's Hear Each Other's Stories
by brianna | August 25, 2010 - 11:33amKatherine is a bright young woman with impressive enough a background to be admitted to West Point. Despite the demanding process for admission to the Academy and having survived the challenging adjustment to the educational institution, she has decided to leave West Point. | continue reading
Facebook Places Warning
by edward | August 24, 2010 - 12:28pmThe ACLU of Northern California has issued a resource guide on how to best protect your privacy with the introduction of the new Facebook feature called Places. Facebook immediately took exception to the suggestion that privacy safeguards are not in place. But as the ACLU resource guide indicates, privacy options are available, but they take quite | continue reading
It Could Go Away
by zach | August 23, 2010 - 2:39pmIt contrast to demagoguery over the location of mosques and Muslim community centers, which apparently will never go away, the right to privacy of medical records could indeed go away. | continue reading