People of color accounted for more than nine out of 10 arrests made on suspicion of marijuana possession and sale in New York City from January to March, according to statistics from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services obtained by the Police Reform Organizing Project.

PROP also found that 86.5% of New York Police Department misdemeanor arrests involved people of color, up 2% from 2015.

Arrests for "small amounts" of marijuana were up a whopping 33.7% from last year.

Robert Gangi, PROP's director, said in a press release that the statistics showed that NYPD arrest practices are marked by "waste and racial bias" and that, despite the rhetoric in City Hall, marijuana infractions remain a major focus of the police.
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Researchers fear that the 26 percent of cancer patients who can't afford to obtain care, and 18 percent who can't afford prescription medications, will get worse as the cost of care and health insurance continues to increase.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C., June 3 (UPI) -- A significant number of cancer patients report they cannot afford treatment, a problem researchers in a recent study fear will become worse as the costs of new cancer treatments continue to increase.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina report more than one-quarter of cancer patients can't afford to pay for their treatment, and nearly one in five can't afford their prescriptions, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Cancer patients are often treated with tight drug regimens designed around regularity and must be closely monitored, but if this cannot be done, not only does it risk the efficacy of the treatment, but the potential for patients to beat the disease.

Making concerns worse, researchers say the cost of cancer treatment continues to increase as deductibles and premiums increase at the same time, almost guaranteeing the problem will get worse over time if nothing is done.
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LOS ANGELES — Bernie Sanders on Saturday called Muhammad Ali not only a sports icon, but a “man of conviction and enormous courage” for his refusal to be inducted into the military during the Vietnam War.

“Clearly, Ali was one of the great heavyweight champs of all time, a beautiful boxer and a great athlete,” Sanders said at a news conference. “But the reason that Ali struck a chord in the hearts of so many Americans was not just his great boxing skill. It was his incredible courage. At a time when it was not popular to do so, Ali stood up and said, ‘I am opposed to the war in Vietnam, and I’m not going to fight in that war.’ ”

Ali, who died Friday night in Scottsdale, Ariz., famously refused to be drafted in April 1967. Months later, he was convicted of draft evasion and was temporarily banned from boxing.
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“That incredibly courageous decision cost him three and a half years of his prime fighting life and cost him, probably, tens and tens of millions of dollars,” Sanders said. “... But he chose to stand by his ideals, his views.”

The senator from Vermont went on to say that Ali’s Muslim faith was central to the boxer’s life — and a part of the Ali story that should be highlighted “at a time when we are seeing a growth in Islamophobia.”
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The Democratic National Committee forbade the Bernie Sanders campaign from appointing a labor union leader to the Platform Drafting Committee, according to Sanders himself.
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Sanders is now blasting the DNC for rejecting Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, for the platform committee on the grounds that the party didn’t want too much influence from labor...

“What we heard from the DNC was that they did not want representatives of labor unions on the platform-drafting committee,” Sanders said.

The DNC’s defense is that labor is already adequately represented in Clinton campaign appointee Paul Booth, an executive assistant at the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees — a labor union backing Clinton. DNC spokeswoman Dana Vickers Shelley told the Washington Post that Booth’s appointment meant “no union leadership would be represented on the platform drafting committee.”

“Labor built this party. Labor built this country. One person is enough to represent all of that?” DeMoro said. “If you look at the composition of who they chose, besides Bernie’s choices, K Street’s far better represented than the labor movement.”

Indeed, corporate lobbyists appointed by the Clinton campaign and DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz appear to have an outsized influence on the committee. Former Congressman Howard Berman, a DNC appointee to the committee, left Washington to become a lobbyist for Covington and Burling, LLP. Clinton appointee Wendy Sherman, a former deputy Secretary of State, is now a top lobbyist for Albright Stonebridge Group. Carol Browner, another Clinton appointee, works at the same lobbying firm. Bonnie Schaefer, another DNC appointee to the platform committee, is the former co-CEO and co-chair of Claire’s, a clothing and jewelry chain catering to teenage girls.