Datasets:
PaulPauls
/
openwebtext-sentences

Dataset card Data Studio Files Community
2
text
stringlengths
1
100k
"I trust that will never change.
I trust that I will always stand humbly before the law."
Chief Justice Patience Roggensack appeared with Walker and Kelly and said she had known Kelly for a long time and was impressed with his scholarship.
"I am very, very pleased with the governor's appointment," she said.
Kelly was with the large Milwaukee law firm Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren for 15 years, but left it in 2013.
He spent a year as the vice president and general counsel for the Kern Family Foundation, which was established by the founders of Generac Power Systems.
In 2014, Kelly formed a small law firm in Waukesha with attorney Rod Rogahn.
Kelly has been closely involved with conservative legal groups.
The president of the Milwaukee chapter of the Federalist Society, he also sits on an advisory panel to the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.
Throughout his application, he praised two of the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative justices — Antonin Scalia, who died in February, and Clarence Thomas.
Kelly was an adviser to state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley's campaign this year and served as an attorney on Prosser's campaign during a recount after he narrowly won re-election in 2011.
He also was on the legal team that defended legislative and congressional maps that Republican lawmakers redrew in 2011.
In that litigation, a panel of federal judges made changes to the districts for two Assembly districts on Milwaukee's south side after it found those maps violated the voting rights of Latinos.
The other maps — which greatly favor Republicans — were left in place.
(A separate challenge to the maps is pending in federal court in Madison; Kelly is not involved in that litigation.)
The appointment to the Supreme Court is the second one Walker has made since he was first elected in 2011.
Last year, the GOP governor put Bradley on the bench, six months before she was elected to a full 10-year term.
Walker has the sole say on the appointment.
Kelly does not need the confirmation of the state Senate or any other body.
The governor acknowledged Kelly did not have judicial experience, but noted two other members of the high court — Prosser and Justice Shirley Abrahamson — had not served as a judge before they became justices.
To get on the Supreme Court, Kelly beat out 10 others.
He was the only applicant who kept his name secret in the early going, but his name was released once he made the first cut.
The field was later cut from five to three and Kelly beat out the other two finalists, Appeals Court Judges Mark Gundrum and Thomas Hruz.
Gundrum, who served alongside Walker in the Assembly, was the early favorite among observers.
Walker appointed Gundrum to the District 2 Court of Appeals in Waukesha in 2011 — passing over Kelly for that spot.
Under state law, appointees to the state Supreme Court stand for election at the first year in which a Supreme Court election isn't already scheduled, and in this case contests are already planned for 2017, '18 and '19.
That means that — should he choose to run — Kelly would be on the ballot in 2020.
Protesters take to the street in Chicago after recent grand jury decisions in police-involved deaths in New York, Cleveland and Ferguson, Mo.
(Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images) Congress reauthorized legislation this week that will require states to report the number of people killed during an arrest or while in police custody.
"You can't begin to improve the situation unless you know what the situation is," Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), one of the bill's sponsors, said in an interview with the Washington Post.
"We will now have the data."
The Death in Custody Reporting Act was originally passed in 2000, but expired in 2006.
Scott has attempted to reauthorize the bill unsuccessfully four times since then.
The first time the bill was passed, it took years for data to start coming in, and it expired shortly thereafter, Scott said.
"It's the way government works," he said.
"You're trying to get local governments to make periodic reports.
It just takes some time for this to become routine."
The lack of reliable information about how many people are killed by police annually has come into focus following the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
In place of government-provided data, crowd-sourced efforts like Fatal Encounters and one by the Gawker Media-owned sports Web site Deadspin have been created that rely on local media reports and volunteers who input information.
Fatal Encounters, founded in 2012 by Reno News & Review editor and publisher Brian Burghart, has recorded 3,010 deaths, with another 9,000 in its "development queue" where various leads from places like Wikipedia and FBI data are available for users to research.
The site sees an increase in traffic whenever a death captures the public attention, and since Sunday, Burghart said, there's been about 600 new records submitted.
But despite the reauthorization of the Death in Custody Reporting Act, Burghart said he'll continue collecting data and keep the site up.
"I don't know that anything changed," he said of the first time the law was passed.
But if its second iteration produces meaningful data this time around, he said, then he might consider shuttering the project.
"I hope [the law] really means something," he said.
Lawmakers are confident it does.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a sponsor, said the law "will give the information needed to strengthen trust at every level."
"Alarmingly, on an issue this profoundly important and potentially explosive, there is no reliable data on the overall scope of the problem," he said in a statement.
"The stark, staggering fact is that the nation has no reliable idea how many Americans die during arrests or police custody each year.
This legislation will fix that unacceptable factual gap."
The law requires the head of every federal law enforcement agency to report to the attorney general certain information about individuals who die while detained, under arrest or incarcerated.
Among the information that must be reported are the deceased individual's name, age, gender, race, and ethnicity, the date, time, and location of their death, and a brief description of the circumstances involving their death.
Under the bill, the Justice Department has the authority to withhold federal funds from states that don’t comply in sending the information to federal agencies.
The funds total $500 million a year and are divvied up among states based on a formula that includes factors such as population and violent crime.
The attorney general would then have two years to determine if the data could be used to reduce deaths and submit a report to Congress.
Scott "wasn't satisfied" with how the information was used when the law was first passed, but is hopeful things will be different now.
"I think providing the data should not be a hardship," he said.
"You really can't have an intelligent discussion without good information."
The moose on the now eight-hour loose in Markham is believed to be taking a nap, although Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry staff and police tracking the animal don’t know for sure.
But the trackers, themselves, have turned in for the night.
The York Regional police and MNRF staff have been following the lost animal by way of drone since around 10:30 a.m. on Friday, with the hopes of tranquilizing it and returning it to the wild.
The moose put in a guest appearance in many surprising places.
But as day turned to night, officials decided to call it a day because they felt attempting to tranquilize the moose in the dark was not a good idea.
“It’s too dangerous,” said Jolanta Kowalski, with the MNRF.
“We haven’t seen the moose for several hours.
I think the last time anyone saw (it) moving was around 3 p.m.” Attempts to locate the moose depend on any sightings through the night, said Kowalski.
“In the event that someone sees it running around, we can go in and begin our search again.” Article Continued Below Kowalski added that she hopes the creature has just fallen asleep, or even better “has found its way back from where it came.” The moose was last seen in the area of Kennedy Rd.
and 16th Ave.
Since its appearance in the morning, the animal could be seen on CP24 TV as filmed by the station’s helicopter which followed it close above, as the beast barreled over suburban backyards and front lawns.
The moose even ventured onto major roadways.
Perhaps seeking refuge, the animal made its way to the Rouge River area, said Sgt.
Kerry Schmidt of the Ontario Provincial police at around 11:30 a.m.
Both the ministry and police asked the public to keep their distance.
“We need people to back off.
Let us know if they see it — but stop chasing it,” said Sgt.
Scott Hunter at the time.
Kowalski said the ministry asked CP24 to stop hovering near the moose with its helicopter because the noise was likely agitating it.
Article Continued Below “It needs the space to calm down and relax.” No injuries were reported, but Hunter said the moose’s run had caused several car accidents, broken windows and smashed fences over the course of the day.
Moose can run at speeds of 50 km/h.
“It needs to rest or it’s going to die,” Hunter said.
Read more about:
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Cindy Sui speaks to Taiwanese students holding a rally to demonstrate their support for the protests in Hong Kong In January, 13 groups from Hong Kong and Taiwan gathered in Taipei for a weekend conference.
The meeting attracted little attention, but it marked the first time democracy advocates, including representatives from Hong Kong's political parties and students from both sides, had met in an organised fashion.
Despite their proximity, the two sides previously worked little together.
Taiwan has enjoyed full universal suffrage since 1996; but a year later, Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule.
It seemed they had different fates.
Growing worries about Beijing have drawn the two sides closer, however, culminating in mutual support for the Occupy Central movement in Hong Kong and an Occupy Parliament movement in Taipei earlier this year.
"Taiwan's democracy and Hong Kong's democracy have the same threat - the Beijing government," said Lai Chung-chiang, a Taipei-based lawyer and long-time activist.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Students present John Leung, director of Hong Kong Trade Office in Taipei, with a protest letter on 29 Sep Now the two sides feel they share similar goals and they are working together more closely, something that will surely worry Beijing.
Hong Kong supported us and now we're supporting them Karen Cheng, Taiwanese activist After all, Taiwan could be seen as a bad influence - it's had decades, and some would say more than a century, of experience fighting for democracy.
Some of its people are deeply anti-China and want independence, and its protesters have been bolder and more defiant than Hong Kong's.
Many believe the success of Taiwan's movement greatly encouraged Hong Kong activists.
Two months after the January meeting, Taiwanese students occupied parliament for 24 days and didn't leave until the legislature agreed to pass a law allowing stringent public supervision of agreements signed with China.
"Because Taiwan's occupy movement was successful, Hong Kong people felt it was also possible for them," said Mr Lai.
Many Hong Kong students came here then to learn, including how to disseminate information online in timely manner and co-ordinate supplies and donations.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Student activists organised a protest at the Hong Kong office in Taipei on Monday 'Support each other' In recent days, Taiwanese activists have flown to Hong Kong to lend support.
One of them, Karen Cheng, has just returned.
"We strongly care about Hong Kong because we really cherish our freedom and democracy," said Ms Cheng.
"We're worried that today's Hong Kong will be tomorrow's Taiwan (if it one day reunifies with the mainland)."
Beijing should have foreseen these fears as it worked in recent years to woo Taiwan - the next on a list of territories China feels were unfairly taken away when it was weak and wants to take back, to unify the "motherland".