Not Defending Gay Marriage

On Thursday newly elected Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring announced a voter-approved ban unconstitutional and said that his office will no longer defend gay marriage. Although the state will continue to enforce the already existing laws he said his office would join sides with two gay couples that sued to overturn the ban. Herring said that this was a violation of the 14^th amendment and that the law was discriminatory. The decision made makes Virginia the key battleground between the Democrats and Republicans. Virginia has always been on the side that loses civil rights cases. He said that the people have always had to make their own stand fighting for civil rights while their leaders stood against them, but this no longer was the instance. The suit is trying to overturn all the bans that are on gay marriage and want it to be legal. People didn’t expect Herring to hurt their; they wanted the law to be upheld.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-gay-marriage-virginia-20140124,0,7591917.story#axzz2rYXwr6WK

Crime Rate

For the 11^th year the crime in Los Angeles has dropped again in 2013. On Monday Los Angeles’s Mayor Eric Garcetti and Police Chief Charlie Beck announced that final LAPD statistics showed that crime has fallen 5.2% in the whole city. There are double-digits drop in violent crime, homicides, reported rapes, and gang violence. Although the rate of crimes have gone down there are still neighborhoods that are dangerous and hear gunshots at night. They still read about tragedies in the newspaper when they wake up in the morning. Garcetti still wants to work with the Chief to help lower the crime rate even more and make it safer for the people living in L.A. The officers are credited for the work they have done to help lower the crime rates in the community. Before this city was known as the “City of Gang Violence”, but now it’s known as the “Home of the Solution to Gang Violence”.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-crime-falls-20140113,0,3357277.story#axzz2qEm3UCuW 

Immigration Bills

The speaker of the House John A. Boehner is trying to make immigration laws his priority. He said on Wednesday that he will soon release a document of conservative “principles” on the immigration issue that would make the Republicans pass a series of bills this year. However, Boehner is facing a lot of challenges because there are a lot of parties that are conservatives. The house Republicans oppose to the fact of giving citizenship to about 11 million immigrants who are here in the U.S illegally. It is very clear that this is not a choice the Republicans can make; it’s something that is set and will actually happen. Although the document is kind of vague it is clear that this will really help the immigrants. The document is the first step that GOP leaders are taking to consider other immigration documents by April. There are certain Republicans that are on Boehner side and do support him.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-gop-immigration-20140109,0,5532597.story#axzz2pyZCEwjw