Public officials who betray the public trust pay the price—so should the president

  A New Jersey official sentenced to 18 months in prison for scheming to punish a local mayor deemed not loyal enough to former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ). A Kentucky agriculture commissioner sentenced to 21 months for using official funds for personal gain. A Pennsylvania state treasurer sentenced to 30 months for threatening two citizens if they did not help his gubernatorial campaign.

  Public officials who break the law face real consequences. The president should be no different.

SPLC prompts 50 Alabama cities to reform discriminatory bail practices

  Fifty cities in Alabama have changed their bail practices to ensure that poor people charged with minor offenses no longer languish in jail when they can’t afford to post bond – reform that comes after the Southern Poverty Law Center urged municipal courts across the state to end practices that unfairly punish the poor.

  The 50 cities collectively account for 40 percent of the state’s population.

  Instead of incarcerating people who don’t have money to post bond for minor infractions such as loitering, littering, disorderly conduct, and driving with a suspended license, the cities are either releasing them with a court date or taking into account their ability to pay before imposing bond.

Gene Policinski: Second try at a shield law echoes the first

  An irony of timing twice has put U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning in the headlines at critical moments in gaining congressional approval of a federal shield law that would protect journalists and their confidential sources.

  On Capitol Hill, there’s new-found  White House support and congressional action behind  proposals to for the first time provide legal means in federal courts for journalists to keep secret their confidential sources and unpublished information. President Obama called for passage of federal shield law in the wake of two controversies in May involving Department of Justice moves to seize journalists’ phone record, e-mail and other data.