Dayton, KKK group agree on rally rules
Dayton, KKK group agree on rally rules
DAYTON
A Ku Klux Klan group and an Ohio city have agreed on rules for a rally planned this month.
The city of Dayton filed a lawsuit in March against the Madison, Ind.-based Honorable Sacred Knights citing danger to the community if the group had a paramilitary-type rally May 25.
Dayton’s city attorney, Barbara Doseck, on Monday announced a court-approved consent decree settling that lawsuit. The agreement prevents the group from wearing paramilitary or tactical gear and carrying assault rifles, bats or shields. The group’s members also won’t carry flame throwers or knives. They can carry certain firearms with permits and cover their faces.
“The city’s primary goal is keeping our residents safe while this rally occurs,” Doseck said at a news conference. “The agreement does not mean that we accept their hateful views or that their presence is supported by our leadership, our community or our residents.”
Alabama Senate passes near-total ban on abortion
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
Alabama’s Senate passed a near-total ban on abortion Tuesday, sending what would be the nation’s most stringent abortion law to the state’s Republican governor.
The Republican-dominated Alabama Senate voted 25-6 for the bill that would make performing an abortion at any stage of pregnancy a felony punishable by up to 99 years or life in prison. The only exception would be when the woman’s health is at serious risk.
The measure now goes to Gov. Kay Ivey, who has not said whether she supports the measure.
Pennsylvania sues maker of OxyContin
PHILADELPHIA
The company that makes OxyContin did not stop pitching the powerful opioid painkiller to doctors even when its sales representatives raised concerns that they were prescribing the drug inappropriately, the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office said in a lawsuit announced Tuesday.
The lawsuit against Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma was filed May 2 under seal and announced Tuesday. It made Pennsylvania at least the 39th state to sue the company seeking to hold it responsible for the toll of opioids, which have been killing more people in the U.S. and Pennsylvania each year than car crashes.
City bans use of facial recognition software by police
SAN FRANCISCO
San Francisco supervisors voted Tuesday to ban the use of facial recognition software by police and other city departments, becoming the first U.S. city to outlaw a rapidly developing technology that has alarmed privacy and civil-liberties advocates.
The ban is part of broader legislation that requires city departments to establish use policies and obtain board approval for surveillance technology they want to purchase or are using at present. Several other local governments require departments to disclose and seek approval for surveillance technology.
“This is really about saying: ‘We can have security without being a security state. We can have good policing without being a police state.’ And part of that is building trust with the community based on good community information, not on Big Brother technology,” said Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who championed the legislation.
Associated Press