Is There Censorship Surrounding The Death Penalty?

Due to a European Union ban on selling drugs used in lethal injections, death penalty states now rely on compounding pharmacies, according to Business Insider.

Compounding pharmacies are typically small businesses who produce execution cocktails to order. These compounds are unregulated by the FDA, and their manufacturers are cloaked in secrecy, states ReasonTV.

“Since the 70s, America has tried to sanitize the way it kills people in death chambers by saying that this is an act of medical intervention,” says Ed Pilkington, chief reporter for The Guardian US.

Pilkington describes the botched execution of Clayton Lockett of Oklahoma in April 2014, as related to him by a Guardian colleague who witnessed Lockett’s execution:

“He was groaning, he was shouting out. They were finding it impossible to get the vein, so blood was spurting over all the people in the death chamber, I mean it was the most horrendous situation. And right at that moment they decided to shut the curtain, which would prevent any witnesses, including reporters, from seeing what happened.”

Pilkington calls this the “most visceral form of censorship” and says “there should be maximum transparency.”

He claims the current system has complete secrecy surrounding every step of the execution process, from the sources of the drugs themselves to the grisly reality when those drugs fail to kill the condemned in a timely and painless fashion.

Missouri is one of 13 states to have expanded what are known as “black hood laws,” which are meant to protect the identities of executioners, to now also make confidential everyone involved in the production and delivery of lethal injection drugs. These laws even supersede the Freedom of Information Act.

In response, The Guardian, Associated Press, and several prominent Missouri newspapers have filed suit against the state, in what is believed to be the First Amendment challenge to the death penalty.

The lawsuit argues the public has a First Amendment right to access all information pertaining to government activities in capital cases, beginning in the courtroom, through the death chamber, and into the autopsy room. No court date has been set.

ReasonTV

U.S. Won’t Return Guantanamo To Improve Cuban Ties

The Obama administration on Wednesday ruled out handing over the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, rejecting a central demand of Cuban President Raul Castro for restoring normal relations between the two countries.

Roberta Jacobson, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, also said the U.S. would continue transmitting radio and television broadcasts into Cuba that are opposed by Castro’s government. Washington believes that the broadcasts and Guantanamo are not likely to stand in the way of U.S. and Cuban embassies being re-established after a half-century interruption.

However, Raul Castro laid out last week his long-term objectives for the rapprochement, according to the AP.

They do include the U.S. returning the Guantanamo base and prison, lifting the embargo and compensating his country for damages. The U.S. established the naval base in 1903; Cuba’s communist government has sought its return since coming to power in 1959.

The U.S. is hoping to clinch an agreement with Cuba on embassies in the coming months.

An Associated Press-GfK poll found broad support in the United States for warmer ties with Cuba.

Forty-five percent of those surveyed supported full diplomatic relations between the Cold War foes, with only 15 percent opposing. Sixty percent backed the end of the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba, with 35 percent for its continuation.

But the views expressed at Wednesday’s government hearing were different than those in the poll. Senior Republicans and Democrats took turns excoriating President Barack Obama for negotiating in secret a December spy swap that also included promises from him and Castro to turn a new page in the U.S.-Cuban relationship.

Louisiana Will Save Millions By Refinancing State Debt

Louisiana has refinanced $649 million in highway project borrowing to take advantage of lower interest rates.

According to the AP, treasurer John Kennedy’s office said recently that the refinancing, done this week, will save the state $109 million over 26 years in lessened interest payments on the debt.

Under state law, the savings can only be used to pay for a list of transportation projects that were financed by the bonds, according to the treasurer’s office.

Bad Weather Could Disrupt Holiday Travel

AP video.

Mussolini’s Bunker Open To The Public

Mussolini’s bunker just opened for the public.

According to the AP: “Mussolini had the bunker made by encapsulating the 19th-century villa’s underground kitchen area in reinforced concrete. Before that, the Mussolini family would have had to dash across the villa’s sprawling lawn and gardens to reach the wine-cellar shelter in a separate structure if air raid sirens sounded.

“Work began in 1942 to expand and fortify the bunker. Archaeologist Giuseppe Granata said Mussolini had lamented in writing that the updated bunker was running behind schedule and over cost. It is not known if the dictator ever used the bunker. By the time Allied bombings hit Rome, the dictator had been deposed and, under Nazi protection, was leading a puppet state in northern Italy. In 1945, partisans captured and executed him.”

According to the BBC: “A World War Two bunker used by the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini is being opened to the public for the first time.”

It used to be a wine cellar under the grounds of what was his private villa in Rome. However, states the BBC, by the time Allied bombings hit the Italian capital, Mussolini had been deposed as dictator.

The Times of Israel states that a noble family had previously lived in the villa before Mussolini moved in, and the shelter was constructed in 1940. The bunker also has anti-gas, double steel doors.

The Times of Israel: “Visitors at a preview Saturday saw a rusting contraption to purify air in case of a gas attack. A label on the apparatus was dated November 1940 in Roman numerals, in keeping with Mussolini’s style of evoking the ancient Roman empire’s glory days as inspiration for his own rule.”

According to The Times, the tours will run on weekends starting Oct. 31, and they will also show visitors a separate underground bunker that was built for Mussolini directly under the villa.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/mussolinis-bomb-shelter-opens-to-public/#ixzz3HMDue1P8