Free Talk Live

29-year-old Susan Mortensen allowed her daughter to draw on rocks on Belle Isle with chalk.

Mortensen will now serve 50 hours of community service in order for the judge to dismiss her charge.

Outside the courthouse, people support Susan Mortensen with their own chalk on the sidewalk. However, in court, the officer who reprimanded her back in March says she responded with an attitude and curse words.

More than 11,000 people have signed the Vienna Declaration which calls on the world’s politicians to let policies on illicit drugs to be guided by scientific evidence which proves the prohibition on drugs such as heroin is a failure. “I think there’s a real recognition in the scientific community that there’s an ethical obligation to start speaking out about this,” said Dr. Evan Wood of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS at UBC and a co-author of the Vienna Declaration.

In general, people in the sports world keep their political leanings to themselves. Sure, there are a few guys who regularly speak out on political issues, but for the most part that's considered bad business. As Michael Jordan put it, "Republicans buy shoes too." That's why what the Phoenix Suns are doing is so amazing.

The team will be wearing its "Los Suns" jerseys for Wednesday night's Game 2 against the San Antonio Spurs "to honor [the] Latino community and the diversity of our league, the state of Arizona, and our nation." Awesome...

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights has accused the international community of complicity in Israeli settlement policies and says Israel is implementing an apartheid system.

I should mention that the community comes to her aid after 6 days. And that her neighbors are originally the reason she was fined in the first place.

Massive healthcare fraud scheme uncovered in Miami
(Reuters) - The top two officials of a leading chain of community mental health centers were among four people arrested in Miami on Thursday in connection with a scheme involving about $200 million in fraudulent medical claims, U.S. prosecutors said.

An interesting pamphlet authored by a British Islamic group called Hizb ut-Tahrir calls for a Global Islamic Government to restore "Democracy". Does this conflict with the principle of freedom of religion/association and the separation of church and state? Or should individuals who choose an Islamic System of Government be left alone? Discuss.

If you want to mail a letter in Sugar Hill, N.H., you’d better be quick. The town’s postal unit has cut its hours to a mere 30 minutes per day, sparking outrage from the rural community’s 563 residents that has now caught the attention of the state’s two U.S. Senators. The Postal Service announced in May that instead of eliminating up to 3,700 post offices, it would instead reduce their hours of operation from 8 hours per day to between 2 and 4 hours, but only after holding community meetings.

The nosy federal government ran out of luck when it selected me for demographic jury duty. Having been told I'm legally required to fill out the American Community Survey and mail it back, I'm naturally determined to defy authority. The only question is how. (If you have a Facebook account, please go to the URL to read more.)