The EU says it may retaliate if the US goes ahead with plans to impose visas reform on members already part of the Visa Waiver Program.

EU warns of visas for US citizens if Washington implements visa waiver reforms

Published time: 17 Dec, 2015 14:59Edited time: 17 Dec, 2015

 

 

© Fred Greaves / Reuters

 

 

The EU says it may retaliate if the US goes ahead with plans to impose visas for some members of the bloc who are currently part of the Visa Waiver Program. Brussels says it will not increase security and that US nationals may require visas to enter the EU.

A letter signed by 28 European member state ambassadors to the US was published in The Hill after Europe reacted furiously and with disbelief to plans by Washington to tighten-up the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which currently lets millions of citizens from the bloc travel to the US each year without a visa.

OP-ED: EU warns of visas for US citizens if Washington implements visa waiver reforms

Last week, the US House of Representatives adopted a bill to reform the visa program that would ban certain EU nationals from entering the US without a visa if they had visited Iran, Iraq, Syria or Sudan after March 2011. Some US politicians want the legislation introduced to tighten security following the November 13 Paris terror attacks.

“A blanket restriction on those who have visited Syria or Iraq, for example, would most likely only affect legitimate travel by businesspeople, journalists, humanitarian or medical workers while doing little to detect those who travel by more clandestine means overland,” the letter signed by the 28 ambassadors stated.

At present, 23 of the EU’s 28 member states enjoy visa-free travel to the US, with the remaining five nations keen to join the VWP. The bloc says it is imperative to keep the visa waiver program intact for business and tourism purposes, while the current system does not mean that it is “a license to enter the US with nothing more than the wave of a passport of an allied country.”

Read More Here

Interior Secretary: No one punished for EPA toxic mine spill

The Washington Times

Interior Sally Jewell testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015, before the House Natural Resources Oversight Committee hearing on the Animas River Spill in Colorado. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) more >

By Valerie Richardson - The Washington Times - Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Wednesday she is unaware of anyone being fired, fined or even demoted for the Gold King Mine spill, prompting Republicans to accuse her of taking the EPA off the hook for the toxic blowout.

“So you’re letting the EPA get off scot-free it sounds like. They are not being held accountable,” said Rep. Doug Lamborn, Colorado Republican, at the House Natural Resources Committee hearing.

Republicans took Ms. Jewell to task for the Interior Department’s investigation into the Aug. 5 spill, saying the October report failed to hold anyone responsible for unleashing 3 million gallons of orange, toxic wastewater into the Animas River near Silverton, Colorado.

“You’re directly responsible for this report. The EPA had promised this committee a thorough investigation,” said Rep. Tom McClintock, California Republican. “We have not gotten one. What we have gotten is a complete, deliberate whitewash.”




Read More Here

US Secretary of State John Kerry Lays Out Washington's Policy in Syria. Lays blame for rise of Islamic State at Assad's feet

 Sputnik

 

US Secretary of State John Kerry Lays Out Washington's Policy in Syria

© REUTERS/ Brendan Smialowski/Pool

US

 

21:36 12.11.2015(updated 01:23 13.11.2015) 

 

Speaking at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed Washington’s foreign policy in Syria.

 

"The stakes could not be higher," Kerry said on Thursday, before insisting that the United States is "on the right track and we are making gains and we are clear on the road ahead."

 

 

© REUTERS/ Brendan Smialowski

 

Should We Set High Hopes on the Upcoming Syrian Talks in Vienna?

 

 

The secretary of state also reiterated the Obama administration's three principle goals for ending the conflict. The first is the necessity for defeating the self-proclaimed Islamic State terrorist group, the second is the intensification of diplomatic efforts, and the third being a determination to support regional allies to ensure that Syria's instability does not spread beyond its borders.

Kerry also spent a good deal of time claiming that the Syrian government was ultimately responsible for the creation of IS. While the international community largely agrees that the principle cause for the terrorist group's formation was the instability created by the US-led invasion of Iraq, Kerry blamed local dissatisfaction with the leadership of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Read More Here

Secret TPP Text Released: GOP to Push Obama’s Dangerous Trade Deal

 

The New American

Thursday, 05 November 2015 

Written by  William F. Jasper

 

 

Photo of Secretary of State John Kerry with President: AP Images


Following years of secret negotiating, the Obama administration released the text of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at 3:30 a.m. today (Thursday, November 5). Although billed as a “trade agreement,” the treaty calls for economic and political “integration” among the TPP members. Adopting the model that transformed the European Common Market into the European Union, the TPP creates regional governing structures and processes aimed at eventual convergence into a similar EU-style super-state.

Currently, the TPP's negotiating member states include the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. However, as we have been reporting here for years (see here and here ), the TPP architects have long stated their plans to use the TPP as a “stepping stone” to a much larger Free Trade Area of the Asian Pacific (FTAAP) that includes China and Russia.
The newly released text confirms this goal officially. The TPP Preamble states:
The Parties to this Agreement, resolving to:

ESTABLISH a comprehensive regional agreement that promotes economic integration....
EXPAND their partnership by encouraging the accession of other States or separate customs territories in order to further enhance regional economic integration and create the foundation of a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific.

As Christian Gomez reported for The New American on November 4, Secretary of State John Kerry (shown above with Obama) recently invited both Communist China and Russia to join the TPP. "We invite people to come join other initiatives, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the TPP. We welcome China, we welcome Russia, we welcome other countries who would like to join, as long as they want to raise the standards and live up to the highest standards of protecting people and doing business openly and transparently and accountably," Kerry said in an interview with Russian interstate channel Mir TV.

Read More Here

.............................................................................................

The New American

Friday, 06 November 2015

Senator Blasts TPP as “Global Governance,” Says Stop Fast-Track

Written by  William F. Jasper

`

 

 

 Photo of Sen. Jeff Sessions: AP Images

 

U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has wasted no time in sounding the alarm over the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which the Obama administration unveiled to the public and Congress on Thursday.

The enormous agreement (over 5,500 pages), which had been negotiated over the past several years in strictest secrecy and kept tightly under wraps until now (see here  and here), “confirms our fears,” said Sessions, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest.

“The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership runs 5,554 pages,” declared Sessions, in a statement issued Thursday, soon after the release of the text. “This is, by definition, anti-democratic,” he charged. “No individual American has the resources to ensure his or her economic and political interests are safeguarded within this vast global regulatory structure.”

 

According to Sessions: “The predictable and surely desired result of the TPP is to put greater distance between the governed and those who govern. It puts those who make the rules out of reach of those who live under them, empowering unelected regulators who cannot be recalled or voted out of office.  In turn, it diminishes the power of the people’s bulwark: their constitutionally-formed Congress.”
Sessions, who has been one of the most trenchant critics of the TPP among Republicans in Congress, has repeatedly pointed out that hidden under the verbiage about trade and jobs, the TPP amounts to the instigation of an entirely new governance system, one that would gradually supplant our own. “Among the TPP’s endless pages are rules for labor, environment, immigration and every aspect of global commerce — and a new international regulatory structure to promulgate, implement, and enforce these rules,” he warns. “This new structure is known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission — a Pacific Union — which meets, appoints unelected bureaucrats, adopts rules, and changes the agreement after adoption.”


 Read More Here

Industrial hemp poised to become NC’s newest legal crop

.

The News & Observer

Legalization bill will become law unless McCrory vetoes
Spring Hope has one of the only hemp processing plants in the country
Supporters battle stigma: ‘We’re for rope, not dope’

 

 

Workers do final assembly of a decortification line at the Industrial Hemp Manufacturing Company in Spring Hope, NC, on Wednesday. The facility hopes to begin full-scale operations when a bill becomes law at midnight Friday, without Gov. Pat McCrory's signature. The law legalizes industrial hemp in North Carolina. Farmers are eager to grow the crop, which can be used in textiles, oil drilling fluid and other products. It has virtually no THC, the active ingredient in marijuana that is smoked. This group of machines separates the outer fibers from the inner core. The outer fibers are used in the textile industry, the core fibers are used by the oil and gas industry. The plant currently processes kanaf, a plant similar to hemp. It is used to make door panels in cars and trucks. Chris Seward cseward@newsobserver.com

 

 

By Colin Campbell

ccampbell@newsobserver.com
 

Farmers in North Carolina are likely to wake up Saturday morning with a new option for growing crops: Industrial hemp production is expected to become legal at the stroke of midnight.
Lawmakers passed the legalization legislation in September, in the final days of the session. The proposal hadn’t previously been made public, and some conservative groups worry that questions about the plant’s connections to its cousin, marijuana, didn’t get answered.
The bill has been on Gov. Pat McCrory’s desk for weeks, and unless he vetoes it, it will become law without his signature at midnight Friday.

Lee Edwards of Sugar Hill Farms in Kinston is among the farmers eager to add industrial hemp to their fields.

“Hemp really gives us a crop during the summertime that is a viable cash crop to us,” he said. “We’re in a perfect geographical location for the production of hemp with our climate.”

 

Read More Here

EU Parliament Clears a Path to Give Snowden Asylum

• Andy Greenberg Security
• Date of Publication: 10.29.15. 10.29.15
• Time of Publication: 1:17 pm. 1:17 pm

Click to Open Overlay Gallery

Platon

As winter approaches in Moscow, Snowden may have new hope of a safe haven in a warmer expatriate climate: The European Union.

On Thursday the EU parliament voted by a narrow margin of 285-281 to protect Snowden from extradition if he were to reside in Europe, a step toward allowing the NSA leaker to leave Moscow and safely live or travel on the continent. The motion, according to a statement from the parliament, will “drop any criminal charges against Edward Snowden, grant him protection and consequently prevent extradition or rendition by third parties, in recognition of his status as whistle-blower and international human rights defender.”

Snowden himself reacted with excitement to the news, calling it “extraordinary” and a “game-changer” on his Twitter feed—a strong sign that he may take the EU up on its offer.

Follow

Edward Snowden ✔ @Snowden

This is not a blow against the US Government, but an open hand extended by friends. It is a chance to move forward.

9:40 AM - 29 Oct 2015

Read More Here

Related articles

• CJEU Advocate General Calls For End To 'Mass And Indiscriminate U.S. Surveillance' Under EU-U.S. Safe Harbor Agreement
• Court adviser deals major blow to EU-U.S. data share deal
• 'The Snowden Treaty': fight against mass surveillance honours NSA whistleblower
• Edward Snowden has a new idea to end mass domestic surveillance, but it won't be easy

Court Ruling to Halt DEA from Harassing Medical Marijuana Shops

A 'promise' Obama made years ago

 

by Christina Sarich
Posted on October 28, 2015

 

 

 

In a huge legal win, a federal judge in San Francisco has issued a landmark ruling that could serve to halt the DEA’s overly liberal interpretation of laws that have allowed them power to conduct search and destroy missions for medical marijuana.

In possibly the first-ever federal decision of its kind, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, slapped more than the DEA’s wrists. His decision stated that the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment clearly prevents the Justice Department from spending taxpayer money to hunt and chase marijuana users in states that have established medical marijuana programs.

 

The federal ruling comes from a case involving the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana founder, Lynette Shaw, who was forced to close down her medical marijuana dispensary in 2011 after the Justice Department served her with a federal injunction.

Read More Here

Paul Ryan, elected 54th speaker, pledges to fix 'broken' House

........................Paul Ryan was sworn in as speaker of the House....................

Erin Kelly, USA TODAY 2:22 p.m. EDT October 29, 2015

Paul Ryan was sworn in as the 54th speaker of the House. He remarked that, to him, the House represents the best of America, but that it is broken and needs fixing. USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Newly elected Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday it is time to fix a "broken" House and begin solving the nation's problems instead of adding to them.

"The American people make this country work, and the House should work for them," Ryan said in a speech on the House floor after his election. "What a relief it would be to the American people if we finally got our act together. What a weight off their shoulders."

Ryan was elected the 54th speaker of the House as his colleagues looked to the Wisconsin Republican to help unite his fractious party and end the constant crises that have come to dominate the chamber in recent years.

He received 236 of the 432 votes cast. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., received 184. Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., got 9 votes. A handful of other people got a total of three votes.




Read More Here

Boehner gives incoming speaker parting gift with budget deal

msn

The Washington Post

Kelsey Snell

 

© Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) (R) speaks as House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) (2nd L) and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) (L)…
[Congressional leaders and White House are closing in on a budget deal]

 

Outgoing House Speaker John Boehner presented his newly forged budget deal to his Republican colleagues at a private meeting this morning, outlining his plan to avert another government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling as a parting gift to his successor.

The deal would increase federal spending by $80 billion over two years and raise the federal borrowing limit through 2017. The 144-page bill, which was released Monday shortly before midnight, was welcomed by Democrats who have been pushing for budget negotiations all year.
“We have a budget agreement,” said outgoing House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) after the meeting of House Republicans where the outlines of the deal were presented.

Boehner (R-Ohio), who will step down on Oct. 30, added that the alternative was a clean debt ceiling suspension with no extra funding for troops. “This is a good deal.”



Read More Here

See How Your Senators Voted on Sanctuary Cities

  The Daily Signal

Kelsey Harkness / @kelseyjharkness / October 20, 2015

Jim Steinle (L), father of murder victim Kathryn Steinle (in photo, R), allegedly at the hands of an undocumented immigrant, testifies about his daughter's murder during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on U.S. immigration enforcement policies, on Capitol Hill in Washington July 21, 2015. (Photo: Newscom/Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

Senate Democrats blocked legislation that would punish “sanctuary cities” in a 54-45 vote Tuesday afternoon.

The bill, called the Stop Sanctuary Policies and Protect Americans Act, needed to overcome a 60-vote threshold. It would withhold certain federal funding from states or cities that refuse to comply with requests from federal immigration officials to turn over immigrants who are in the country illegally.


Sen. David Vitter, R-La., introduced the legislation, which includes a provision known as Kate’s Law, named after 32-year-old Kate Steinle, who was fatally shot in San Francisco on July 1. The bill would impose a mandatory minimum jail sentence of five years for illegal immigrants who are convicted of re-entering the United States after being convicted of an aggravated felony or have three strikes for trying to enter the country illegally.

Read More Here

Congress has 410 different caucuses, covering everything from algae to wine. Is it any wonder that nothing ever gets accomplished ?

The Freedom Caucus Makes News, but What About the Chicken Caucus?

Congress has 410 different caucuses, covering everything from algae to wine.

Wikimedia Commons
By Eric Pianin
October 23, 2015

When members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus meet in private, they typically discuss ways to thwart or topple their more moderate House Republican leaders or alter the rules to give rank and file members more legislative clout.

Not so for the House Chicken Caucus, which was formed this year by two lawmakers, a Democrat and a Republican, from poultry regions in California and Arkansas. Members of the caucus view their mandate as educating their colleagues and the public “about the history, contributions and issues of importance to U.S. chicken producers.”

SLIDESHOW: From Babies to Bourbon: 33 Surprising Congressional Caucuses
 
While just a few high profile factions within the 435-member House get much attention these days — most notably the roughly 40-member Freedom Caucus as well as the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — a myriad of other mostly obscure cliques are focused on pet policies and issues important to their constituents back home.

Those issues range from Irish affairs, cement production, cut flowers and shellfish to “financial and economic literacy,” hockey, songwriters and rock ‘n’ roll. There are caucuses for rodeos and toys, submarines and small brewers, motorcycles and sugar — and admirers of Ronald Reagan. There are groups built around regional or national issues — from the Hong Kong Caucus to the Albanian Issues Group to the Friends of Liechtenstein — and ones devoted to almost every major disease or meOR: dical disorder, from blood cancers to malaria to arthritis.

Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY), a founding member of the House Bourbon Caucus, is ever ready to sing the praises of Kentucky’s Jim Beam and Early Times bourbon whiskey and promote the distillery industry. Reps. Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Dan Benishek (R-MI) of the Invasive Species Caucus are beating the drum to raise awareness of the dangers of the Asian Carp and other alien fish that are invading the nation’s lakes and streams.



Read More Here

An obscure Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program grants millions of dollars every year, but a government official won’t say how the money actually combats poverty.

 A store damaged from riots after the death of Freddie Gray is seen in Baltimore, Maryland, May 13, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Silent But Expensive: An Anti-Poverty Program’s Mysterious Achievements

Ethan Barton

An obscure Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program grants millions of dollars every year to only three eligible organizations, but a government official won’t say how the money actually combats poverty.

More than $429 million has been granted through Section 4 of the HUD Demonstration Act of 1993 to help local organizations – called community development corporations – combat poverty through “capacity building” – a vague phrase that essentially means building their size and expertise, according to a HUD document.

“Capacity building develops core skills that strengthen the ability of local community based organizations to implement HUD programs, raise capital for community development and affordable housing, coordinate on cross-programmatic place-based approaches and facilitate knowledge sharing,” the agency’s 2015 request for funding says.

The funds pass through one of three eligible groups, known as intermediaries, which then either redistribute Section 4 funds to local groups or provides them with direct assistance through trained staff. Those three groups defined by law are Enterprise Community Partners, Habitat for Humanity International and Local Initiatives Support Corporation.

According to HUD’s 2015 funding request, $20 million will “result in: approximately 5,000 housing units newly constructed renovated, or preserved; 600 training opportunities; and an estimate of more than $200 million in total development costs channeled to low-income communities in more than 250 communities nationwide.”

But HUD officials won’t say how indirectly backing local groups after funds pass through an intermediary will achieve those claims, and the intermediaries can still receive grant dollars without providing evidence of successful urban renewal.

Read More Here

Coal Company Faces $5,000 Fine For Displaying ‘Fire Obama’ Signs

 

 

Murray Energy reviews media inquiries on a case-by-case basis.  All media inquiries should be directed to media@coalsource.com

Image Via  Murray Energy Corp

 

Michael Bastasch

The coal company Murray Energy agreed to pay a $5,000 fine for failing to disclose it funded anti-Obama signs during the 2012 election cycle, according to a decision by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

The FEC ruled Friday that Murray Energy will be fined for not disclosing payments for signs saying “STOP the WAR on COAL — FIRE OBAMA” in the months leading up to the 2012 election. The FEC investigation found that Murray Energy had paid $22,000 for anti-Obama signs, but did not include a disclaimer on them as required by federal election laws.

Murray energy argued it didn’t know it had to disclose paying for the signs, adding that the signs could “reasonably be read to primarily advocate a policy result longtime publicized” by the company. Murray also argued it stopped distributing the signs once a complaint against them was filed, and the company noted it hadn’t included a disclaimer because other similar signs did not have one.




Read More Here

Governments use the European Union to bypass national democracy and pass laws that national parliaments would not accept, minister admits.

Independent

The EU is used to bypass national democracy, Tory minister admits

• Jon Stone Manchester
• @joncstone
• Monday 5 October 2015 15:54 BST
• 
  
• The European Parliament Creative Commons

Governments use the European Union to bypass national democracy and pass laws that national parliaments would not accept, a Home Office minister has admitted.
Karen Bradley told a fringe meeting at Conservative party conference that other countries sometimes asked British MEPs to push legislation through the European Parliament so it could not be blocked by their own national legislatures.
She used the example of mandatory passenger name records on flights, which she said British MEPs were currently pushing through in Brussels for an unnamed country.
“When I’ve sat down with my counterparts and ministers from European countries and talked about passenger name records it’s quite clear that at a government level in all these countries they also want passenger name records but they cannot get them through their national parliaments,” she told the fringe meeting organised by the pro-EU Conservative Europe Group.
“They cannot get something like passenger name records through their national parliaments. So they say to us – can you please help us get it through at the European level?

Read More Here

In Riverside County, Child Services investigates tens of thousands of complaints against parents each year. But this one was different. And they didn't dig.

The Desert Sun

They stumbled upon a child porn ring, then did nothing

'The most secretive system'

Brett Kelman, The Desert Sun


John David Yoder, a Desert Hot Springs child porn suspect, looks at the camera during a court appearance on Feb. 19. Six weeks before Yoder was arrested, social workers found pictures of boys posing in their underwear while inspecting Yoder’s home.
(Photo: Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun)



The tip came in six days before Christmas. Someone called a child abuse hotline, reporting that a parent in Desert Hot Springs was molesting two boys. The caller said the man also kept pictures of boys posing in their underwear on his computer.

And so, as it often does, Riverside County sent social workers to investigate the man, a licensed foster parent. He lived in a two-bedroom house with two adopted sons, a preteen boy for whom he was seeking guardianship, and a neighborhood teenager who had moved in after an argument with his parents.

When questioned, the children denied the abuse. But the tipster, it seemed, had been at least half right. Searching the man's computer, social workers found two photos of children, unrelated to the parent, posing in their underwear. The pictures had been taken by one of the foster parent's friends, one of the boys said. Sometimes they spent time with that friend, the boy said.

To these social workers, these underwear pictures were concerning, but they were not concerning enough. Social workers classified the investigation as "inconclusive," then closed their inquiry, according to Riverside County court documents.

The boys were left in the man's home. His foster license was left intact.

Today, that same parent, John David Yoder, sits behind bars, a suspect in what officials have called one of the worst child pornography rings in Southern California in recent years. Yoder and three other suspects have been accused of victimizing as many as 15 children in Desert Hot Springs, including some of the boys that lived with him. Yoder was arrested in February as result of a separate investigation by law enforcement in Nevada. The charges he now faces are nearly identical to the allegations that were reported to the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services shortly before Christmas.

Read More Here

................................................................................

The Desert Sun

John David Yoder: 'I have been falsely accused'

Brett Kelman 3:42 p.m. PDT May 27, 2015

John David Yoder, a suspect in a high-profile Desert Hot Springs child pornography ring, says county prosecutors are targeting him without evidence because he is gay.

Yoder made this claim in a jailhouse letter sent to The Desert Sun this month. The letter, which spans five handwritten pages, is the first time that Yoder has spoken publicly since his arrest in February.
"It is my belief that I am being unjustly scrutinized beyond the scope of reason because I am a homosexual," Yoder wrote to the newspaper.

"I have been falsely accused," Yoder added.

Yoder also wrote that he could not have committed the crimes he is accused of because his home was "buzzing" with therapists, social workers and lawyers due to his status as a foster parent. Finally, Yoder chastises the Riverside County District Attorney's Office for prosecuting him by convening a grand jury, a court proceeding that does not allow him to defend himself.

The DA's office declined to comment on Yoder's letter on Tuesday.


Read More and Watch Video Here

State Takes Legal Action to Seize $135K From Bakers Who Refused to Make Cake for Lesbian Couple

  The Daily Signal

Kelsey Harkness / @kelseyjharkness / October 01, 2015

 

Aaron and Melissa Klein were ordered to pay $135,000 for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. (Photo: Patchbay Media/The Daily Signal)

The agency that ordered Aaron and Melissa Klein to pay $135,000 in damages for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex couple began the legal process last week to seize the money the Oregon bakers are refusing to pay.

“Our agency has docketed the judgment and is exploring collection options,” Charlie Burr, communications director for the agency, told The Daily Signal. “They are entitled to a full and fair review of the case, but do not have the right to disregard a legally binding order.”

Docketing the judgment is a preliminary step the agency must take in order to seize the Kleins’ house, property, or other assets in lieu of payment.

On July 2, Brad Avakian, commissioner of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, ordered the Kleins to pay $135,000 for the emotional, physical, and psychological damages they caused Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer for refusing to make a wedding cake.

Read More Here
 

..........................................................................................

  The Daily Signal

State Silences Bakers Who Refused to Make Cake for Lesbian Couple, Fines Them $135K

Kelsey Harkness / @kelseyjharkness / July 02, 2015 

Melissa Klein. (Photo: Patrick Frank)

Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian finalized a preliminary ruling today ordering Aaron and Melissa Klein, the bakers who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, to pay $135,000 in emotional damages to the couple they denied service.

“This case is not about a wedding cake or a marriage,” Avakian wrote. “It is about a business’s refusal to serve someone because of their sexual orientation. Under Oregon law, that is illegal.”
>>> Related: Colo. Bakery Makes Case for Not ‘Expressing’ Support for Same-Sex Marriage
In the ruling, Avakian placed an effective gag order on the Kleins, ordering them to “cease and desist” from speaking publicly about not wanting to bake cakes for same-sex weddings based on their Christian beliefs.

“This effectively strips us of all our First Amendment rights,” the Kleins, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, which has since closed, wrote on their Facebook page. “According to the state of Oregon we neither have freedom of religion or freedom of speech.”

Read More Here

..............................................................................................

  The Daily Signal

Emails Raise Questions of Bias in Case Against Bakers Who Denied Service for Same-Sex Wedding

Kelsey Harkness / @kelseyjharkness / June 01, 2015

The Daily Signal has exclusively learned that the government agency responsible for enforcing Oregon’s anti-discrimination law appears to be working closely with a powerful gay rights advocacy group in its case against Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa.

Communications between the agency, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, and the LGBT organization, Basic Rights Oregon, raise questions about potential bias in the state’s decision to charge the Kleins with discrimination for refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding.
In April, a judge for the agency recommended the Kleins be fined $135,000.

Communications obtained through a public records request show employees of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries—which pursued the case against the Kleins—participating in phone calls, texting, and attending meetings with Basic Rights Oregon, the largest LGBT advocacy group in the state.

Read More Here