In brief: State of emergency lifted in Baltimore
Baltimore – Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan lifted the state of emergency in Baltimore on Wednesday, shortly after Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said she has asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the city’s Police Department.
Rawlings-Blake, who also announced that Baltimore officers would have body cameras by the end of the year, told reporters she aimed to ensure the department is not engaging in “a pattern of stops, searches or arrests that violate the Fourth Amendment.”
Rawlings-Blake’s request for Justice Department help comes one day after a visit by U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who pledged to improve the Police Department. Lynch met with members of Freddie Gray’s family, community, civic leaders and police.
Gray died April 19, a week after he was arrested by Baltimore officers, who had placed him in a police van to take him to precinct headquarters. But Gray, handcuffed with feet shackled, arrived unconscious and with a severed spine.
Bill puts end to fuel’s ethanol requirement
Honolulu – Hawaii lawmakers have put the state at the front of a national discussion over the future of ethanol in gasoline by passing a bill that puts an end to a requirement that the corn-based additive be mixed into fuel sold in the state.
The move comes as Congress faces pressure to review a federal mandate that calls for ethanol and other renewables in the nation’s fuel supply.
City to pay $5.5M to police-abuse victims
Chicago – Chicago’s leaders took a step Wednesday typically reserved for nations trying to make amends for slavery or genocide, agreeing to pay $5.5 million in reparations to the mostly African-American victims of the city’s notorious police torture scandal and to teach schoolchildren about one of the most shameful chapters of Chicago’s history.
Chicago has already spent more than $100 million settling and losing lawsuits related to the torture of suspects by detectives under the command of disgraced former police commander Jon Burge from the 1970s through the early 1990s.
The city council’s backing of the new ordinance marks the first time a U.S. city has awarded survivors of racially motivated police torture the reparations they are due under international law, according to Amnesty International.
Each of the approximately 80 victims will be eligible to receive up to $100,000 of the money. In addition, the ordinance calls for the council to issue a formal apology, for the construction of a memorial to the victims, and for the police torture scandal to be added to the city’s school history curriculum. Victims will receive psychological counseling and free tuition at some community colleges.