November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

BLACK HISTORY

Race revolt

November 3, 1883: riots occurred in Danville, Va. White conservatives seized control of the local government, killing four African Americans in the process. [Ency Va article] (BH, see May 4; RR, see November 8, 1898)

Greensboro Massacre

November 3, 1979: five protest marchers were shot and killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party. The protest was the culmination of attempts by the Communist Workers Party to organize mostly black industrial workers in the area.

Five Klansmen were charged with murder. None were convicted. (NYT article) (see Dec 17)

Carol Moseley Braun

November 3, 1992: Carol Moseley Braun, a Democrat from Illinois, became the first African American woman elected to the U.S. Senate. (NYT article) (BH, see Dec 16; Feminism, see Nov 11)

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

Elk v. Wilkins

November 3, 1884, the question was whether an Indian, born a member of one of the Indian tribes within the US was, merely by reason of their birth within the US, and of their afterward voluntarily separating themselves from the tribe and taking up residence among citizens, a citizen of the US, within the meaning of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.

The Court decided that although “Indian tribes, being within the territorial limits of the United States, were not, strictly speaking, foreign states,” “they were alien nations, distinct political communities,” with whom the United States dealt with through treaties and acts of Congress.

Native Americans were not US citizens. (next Citizenship, see June 2, 1924; next NA, see September 4, 1886)

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

INDEPENDENCE DAYS

Panama

November 3, 1903: with US assistance and plans to build a canal after independence, Panama separated from Colombia. (see September 22, 1908)

Dominica

November 3, 1978: Dominica independent of United Kingdom. (see February 22, 1979)

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

Milk driver strike

November 3, 1921: striking milk drivers dump thousands of gallons of milk on New York City streets. (see Dec 15)

Transit worker strike

November 3, 2009: nearly 5,000 transit workers represented by Transport Workers Union Local 234 begin a strike in Philadelphia over wages, pensions, and benefits. The strike shut down the city’s bus, subway, and trolley service and after six days, a five-year contract deal was reached that provided pay and benefit increases.  [NYT article] (see January 22, 2010)

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Space Race, Sputnik 2

November 3, 1957: Sputnik 2 carried Laika, a female dog, into space. Although the satellite will remain in orbit for 162 days, scientists plan to put Laika to sleep after a week because there is no way to return her to Earth safely.

Later reports indicate that Laika died soon after liftoff, from stress and high temperatures inside the capsule. [Smithsonian article] (see Dec 6)

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

FREE SPEECH

November 3, 1960: an Alabama State Court jury awarded Police Commisioner L.B. Sullivan a libel judgment of $500,000 against The New York Times and four Alabama Negro ministers. [Wiki article] (see February 15, 1961)

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

November 3 Music et al

November  3 – 16, 1962: “He’s a Rebel” by The Crystals #1 Billboard Hot 100. The first of many Phil Spector produced hits.

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Presidential elections

Lyndon B Johnson

November 3, 1964: Lyndon Johnson elected president in a landslide over Barry Goldwater. Johnson wins 486-52 in the electoral vote. Residents of the District of Columbia cast their ballots in a presidential election for the first time. (NYT)

Candidate	Popular vote	% popular vote	Electoral vote	% electoral vote
Lyndon Johnson (Hubert Humphrey)	43,127,041	61.05%	486	90.3%
Barry Goldwater (William Miller)	27,175,754 (-15,951,287)	38.47%	52	9.7%

Bill Clinton

November 3, 1992: Bill Clinton is elected the 42nd President of the United States. (NYT article)

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

Candidate Nixon lies

November 3, 1968: after President Johnson had spoken to Senator Everett Dirksen, a trusted friend, about how Nixon had tried to undermine the peace negotiations the day before, Johnson spoke to Nixon directly. Nixon assured him, and LBJ believed Nixon, that he, Nixon, would never do anything to undermine the peace negotiations. (see Nov 5)

Effect corps

November 3, 1969: President Nixon addressed the nation on television and radio, asking the “silent majority” to join him in solidarity with the Vietnam War effort, and to support his policies.

Vice President Spiro T. Agnew denounced the President’s critics as ‘an effete corps of impudent snobs‘ and ‘nattering nabobs of negativism‘. [NYorker article] (see Nov 13)

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Feminism

November 3, 1970: representing Manhattan on a feminist and anti-war platform, Bella Abzug, a lawyer specializing in civil rights, won a Congressional seat. (NYT re Bella Abzug) (see Dec 1)

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Symbionese Liberation Army

November 3, 1974: after months without hearing from Patty, Randolph Hearst withdrew his offer of a $50,000 reward for her safe return. (see January 2, 1975)

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Iran–Contra Affair

November 3, 1986: the Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reported that the United States had been selling weapons to Iran in secret, in order to secure the release of 7 American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon. (NYT re Iran) (see Nov 19)

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Medical Marjuana

November 3, 1998: Alaska, Arizona Oregon, Nevada, and Washington legalized medical marijuana. (NYT article) (see July 1999)

• Arizona voters passed a marijuana legalization initiative, four years after defeating a similar measure.
• Mississippi voters approved a robust medical cannabis ballot over a restrictive alternative placed on the ballot by lawmakers.
• Montana voters approved marijuana legalization.
• New Jersey voters approved a referendum to legalize cannabis. (see February 22, 2021)
• Oregon voters made their state the first in the nation to decriminalize possession of all drugs. The ballot measure they approved also uses existing marijuana tax revenue to fund expanded treatment services.
• South Dakota voters approved separate initiatives to legalize marijuana and medical cannabis.  (next Cannabis, see , or see CCC for expanded cannabis chronology) [Marijuana Moment articles] (next Cannabis see Dec 3 ; South Dakota, see November 24, 2021 or see CCC for expanded Cannabis chronology)

Cannabis

November 3, 2023: Ohio voters approved a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana making the state the 24th in the U.S. to end prohibition.

The measure, campaigned for by the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CTRMLA), established a regulatory framework to allow adults 21 and older to purchase, possess and cultivate cannabis. [MM article] (next Cannabis, see Dec 22,  or see CAC for broader chronology)

LSD

November 4, 1998:

• Oregon voters also approved a first-of-its-kind measure to legalize psilocybin therapy.
• Washington, D.C. voters approved a measure to decriminalize psychedelics in the nation’s capital. [current Marijuana Moment articles] (next LSD, see April 15, 2021)

Physician-assisted Suicide

November 3, 1998, Michigan voters reject a proposal to legalize physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill. (NYT article) (see Kevorkian for expanded story)

Sexual Abuse of Children

November 3, 2002: Boston’s Cardinal Law apologized for “decisions which led to suffering.” (see Nov 7)

LGBTQ

Hawaii

November 3, 1998: anti-gay proponents succeeded in amending the Hawaii Constitution so as to prevent the courts from ending the exclusion of same-sex couples; under the Amendment, only the legislature could change that discrimination, notwithstanding the Equal Protection Clause. On the same day, anti-gay forces in Alaska pass Ballot Measure 2, which amended the state constitution to restrict marriage to different-sex couples. (NYT article) (next LGBTQ, see Nov 19; Hawaii, see December 9, 1999)

Maine

November 3, 2009: anti-gay forces in Maine pushed through an anti-gay ballot measure to overturn the freedom to marry in the state and restrict marriage to different-sex couples. (NYT article) (see Dec 15)

KedarieJohnson murder

November 3, 2017: a jury in Iowa found Jorge Sanders-Galvez guilty of first-degree murder in the death of KedarieJohnson, a gender-fluid teenager. The sixteen-year-old Johnson was found shot to death last year in Burlington, Iowa

Prosecutors suggested that Sanders-Galvez, 23, and co-defendant Jaron Purham, 26, intended to have sex with Johnson ― as they routinely did with women in the house where they stayed ― but that they became violent after discovering that Johnson was assigned male at birth. A plastic bag was stuffed down Johnson’s throat, and the teenager was found shot and killed in an alley. (LGTBQ, see Nov 14; Johnson, see Nov 27)

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

CLINTON IMPEACHMENT

November 3, 1998: Democrats pick up five seats in the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, and held off a Republican super-majority in the Senate. (see CI for expanded story)

Immigration History

November 3, 2017: authorities released Rose Marie Hernandez from immigration custody and allowed to return to her family in Lorado, TX 11 days after the Border Patrol stopped the ambulance she was riding in on her way to emergency gallbladder surgery.

Hernandez, had been held in a facility for migrant children since last week as she recovered from surgery, not quite aware that her case was inflaming the national debate over illegal immigration, that a phalanx of lawyers was suing over her detention or that figures including members of Congress and Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the musical “Hamilton,” were calling for her release.

She still faced the possibility of deportation. [NPR story] (see Nov 6)

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Trump Impeachment Inquiry

November 3, 2019: Mark Zaid, an attorney for the anonymous whistleblower whose allegations about President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine ignited the House impeachment inquiry into the President, said he offered to have Republican lawmakers submit questions to his client directly without having to go through the committee’s Democratic majority.

The whistleblower had previously offered to answer lawmakers’ questions under oath and in writing if they were submitted by the House Intelligence Committee as a whole. This new offer would be a direct channel of communication with the Republicans who are in the minority on that committee. Republican leadership has complained that the process is unfair and overly restrictive on their ability to question witnesses. [CNN story] (see TII for expanded chronology)

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis (and more)

November 3, 2020:

• Arizona voters passed a marijuana legalization initiative, four years after defeating a similar measure.
• Mississippi voters approved a robust medical cannabis ballot over a restrictive alternative placed on the ballot by lawmakers.
• Montana voters approved marijuana legalization.
• New Jersey voters approved a referendum to legalize cannabis. (see February 22, 2021)
• Oregon voters made their state the first in the nation to decriminalize possession of all drugs. The ballot measure they approved also uses existing marijuana tax revenue to fund expanded treatment services.
• South Dakota voters approved separate initiatives to legalize marijuana and medical cannabis.  (next Cannabis, see , or see CCC for expanded cannabis chronology) [Marijuana Moment articles] (next Cannabis see Dec 3  or see CCC for expanded Cannabis chronology)

LSD

November 4:

• Oregon voters also approved a first-of-its-kind measure to legalize psilocybin therapy.
• Washington, D.C. voters approved a measure to decriminalize psychedelics in the nation’s capital. [Marijuana Moment articles]

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

Consumer Protection

November 3, 2023: the US Food and Drug Administration proposed revoking its regulation authorizing the nationwide use of brominated vegetable oil, or BVO, as an additive in food.

The FDA’s decision came after California banned the ingredient in October by passing the California Food Safety Act, the first state law in the United States to ban brominated vegetable oil. The additive was already banned in Europe and Japan.

“The agency concluded that the intended use of BVO in food is no longer considered safe after the results of studies conducted in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health … found the potential for adverse health effects in humans,” said James Jones, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for human foods, in a statement. [CNN article] (next CR, see )

November 3 Peace Love Art Activism

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Black History

The Mississippi Plan of 1875

November 2, 1875: The Mississippi Plan of 1875, which included violence against African Americans to keep them from voting, resulted in huge victories for white Democrats across the state. John R. Lynch, the last African-American congressman for Mississippi until the 1986 election of Mike Espy, wrote: “It was a well-known fact that in 1875 nearly every Democratic club in the State was converted into an armed military company.” A federal grand jury concluded: “Fraud, intimidation, and violence perpetrated at the last election is without a parallel in the annals of history.” [AAREG article] (see January 4, 1876)

Ocoee Election Day Massacre

November 2, 1920: white mobs in Ocoee, Florida, began a campaign of terror and violence, designed to stop Black citizens in Ocoee from voting, that resulted in the deaths of dozens of Black people and the destruction of the Black community.

Over a two-day span, a mob of white Floridians killed dozens of Black people, burned 25 Black homes, two Black churches, and a masonic lodge in Ocoee. Estimates of the total number of Black Americans killed during the violence range from six to over 30. Because neither the government nor the newspapers at the time thought it was important to establish how many Black people were killed during this attack, we will never have an adequate accounting of this violence. [EJI article] (next BH & Lynching, see Dec 26 or see AL2 for expanded chronology)

Coleman Young/Tom Brady

November 2, 1971: Coleman Young elected first African American mayor of Detroit; Tom Bradley elected first Black mayor of Los Angeles. (see February 28, 1972)

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

November 2, 1983:  President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a federal holiday on the third Monday of every January. [King Center article]  (see Nov 8)

School Desegregation

November 2, 2004: Alabama voters narrowly voted to retain a state constitutional provision mandating separate schools for black and white children. The amendment would have removed a provision from Article XIV, Section 256, of the Alabama Constitution of 1901, which reads: “Separate schools shall be provided for white and colored children, and no child of either race shall be permitted to attend a school of the other race.”

The amendment also would have removed language added to Section 256 in 1954, which stated that the Alabama Constitution does not create a right to public education. As Alabama resisted school desegregation following the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the 1954 language was enacted to authorize the state to dismantle its public education system if forced to integrate. Proponents of the 2004 amendment argued that removing both the 1901 and 1954 language would purge the constitution’s educational provisions of that pro-segregation legacy.

Shortly before the election, some conservative officials mounted a campaign arguing that removal of the “no right to public education” language would expose the state to potential legal challenges and could allow the state to raise taxes. The proposed amendment failed by 1850 votes (0.13%). In November 2012, Alabama voters again had the opportunity to remove the school segregation provision from the state constitution and again voted to retain it.

Meanwhile, many school systems in Alabama remained segregated. Following the forced implementation of the Brown decision, all-white private schools and academies opened across the state. These academies still exist, especially in the Alabama’s Black Belt region, where white enrollment in public schools is particularly low. In 2008-09, 94% of students enrolled in the Bullock County public school system were African American and less than 1% were white. (BH, see January 6, 2005; SD, see June 28, 2007)

Church Burning

November 2, 2016:  someone burned and vandalized Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi. The Delta Daily News reported that the majority of the damage was to the main sanctuary and that there were no reported injuries. Someone had spray-painted the words “Vote Drumpf” along the side of the building.

Two months later, police arrested 45-year-old Andrew McClinton, a member of the church  (BH, see Dec 16; CB, see March 26, 2019)

Emmett Till

November 2, 2019: a group of people carrying a white nationalist flag were caught on camera attempting to record a video in front of the Emmett Till memorial in Sumner, Mississippi.

Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, told NBC News that the group was captured on camera by a new surveillance system that was updated when the bulletproof memorial was dedicated on Oct. 19.

“This is the first incident we’ve seen of what appears to be white nationalists making a propaganda video,” Weems said.

One man can be heard in the video identifying the sign as a monument representing the “civil rights movement for blacks.”

“What we want to know is, where are all of the white people?” he continued.

In another clip, the group can be seen scrambling for their cars after sirens go off, a newly added security feature. (next BH, see Nov 12; next ET, see December 6, 2021)

Church Burning

November 2, 2020: Louisiana man Holden James Matthews (23) was sentenced to 25 years in prison for setting fire to three predominantly Black churches in what federal prosecutors say was an effort to raise his profile as a “black metal” musician.

Matthews, who burned down the churches over a 10-day period ending on April 4, 2019, was also ordered to pay nearly $2.7 million to the churches. He had pleaded guilty in federal court in February to three counts of violating the Church Arson Prevention Act and to one count of using fire to commit a felony. [NYT article] [ABC News article] (next BH, see  Nov 12; next CB, see)

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Technological Milestone

Locomobile

November 2, 1902: engineer Andrew Riker delivered the first four-cylinder, gas-powered Locomobile—a $4,000, 12-horsepower Model C—to a buyer in New York City. The Locomobile Company had been known for building heavy, powerful steam cars, but by the turn of the century it was clear that the future of the automobile—and thus of the Locomobile—lay in the internal-combustion engine. (see December 17, 1903)

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Presidential elections

Harry Truman

November 2, 1948: Truman’s surprise re-election. President Harry S. Truman elected to a second term as president, defeating Republican Thomas Dewey, Progressive Henry Wallace, and Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond in the election of 1948. (see Dec 3)

Jimmy Carter

November 2, 1976: Jimmy Carter defeated incumbent Gerald Ford, becoming the first candidate from the Deep South to win since the Civil War.

George W Bush

November 2, 2004, Bush re-elected President.

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Cold War

November 2, 1949:  The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) voted in its national convention to revoke the charter of the United Electrical Workers, the third largest union in the CIO, for failing to purge itself of Communist influence. Ultimately twelve left-leaning unions, and countless individual left-wing organizers, will be booted from the CIO. (see December 10, 1949)

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Cannabis

Boggs Act

November 2, 1951:  President Harry Truman signed the “Boggs Act” into law, setting minimum federal sentences for drug offenders. A first-offense marijuana possession carried a minimum sentence of 2-10 years with a fine of up to $20,000. [Prohbtd article] (C & P, see May 22, 1964; Marijuana, see March 30, 1961)

Maine

November 2, 1999: Maine became the fifth state to legalize medical marijuana when ballot initiative Question 2 was passed with 61% of the vote. The law “provides a simple defense, which means the burden is on the state to prove that a patient’s medical use or possession was not authorized by statute.” (see June 4, 2000)

Medical marijuana

November 2, 2004: sixty-two percent of voters in Montana approved Initiative 148. The law took effect that same day. It removed state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients who possess written documentation from their physicians authorizing the medical use of marijuana. The law established a confidential state-run patient registry that issues identification cards to qualifying patients. (see January 3, 2006)

Arizona

November 2, 2010: Arizona became the 15th state to legalize medical marijuana when Proposition 203, the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, passes by a margin of 4,341 votes out of 1,678,351 votes cast in the Nov. 2, 2010 election. The law allows registered qualifying patients to obtain marijuana from a registered nonprofit dispensary, and to possess and use medical marijuana to treat the condition. (see May 13, 2012)

American Legion

November 2, 2017: the American Legion financed an independent survey as part of its continued efforts, under Resolution 11 (see August 30, 31 & Sept 1 2016) urging Congress to amend legislation to remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act and reclassify it, at a minimum, as a drug with potential medical value.

According to the survey – which included more than 1,300 respondents and achieved a +/- 3.5 percent margin of error at a 95 percent confidence level – 92 percent of veteran households support research into the efficacy of medical cannabis for mental and physical conditions.

Eighty-three percent of veteran households surveyed indicated that they believe the federal government should legalize medical cannabis nationwide, and 82 percent indicated that they would want to have medical cannabis as a federally-legal treatment option, the survey said. (Marijuana, see Nov 7; Veterans, see January 16, 2018)

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Vietnam

South Vietnam Leadership

November 2, 1963: Ngo Dinh Diem and brother Ngô Đình Nhu surrendered and were murdered. The military took power, calling itself The Military Revolutionary Council. The Council dissolved Diệm’s rubber stamp National Assembly and the constitution of 1956. It vowed support for free elections, unhindered political opposition, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and an end to discrimination, and that the purpose of the coup was to bolster the fight against the Vietcong. (see Nov 5)

Norman R. Morrison

November 2, 1965: Norman R. Morrison, a Baltimore Quaker and a pacifist sacrificed himself in flames in front of the Pentagon. His widow said he gave his life “protesting our government’s deep military involvement” in Viet Nam. He had clutched his year-old daughter Emily in one arm late as he began to burn. Screams of “drop the baby” from onlookers may have saved her life, for she fell uninjured to the ground. Morrison, 31, drenched in kerosene, kindled himself as a human torch in full view of hundreds of Defense Department workers and military men. (Baltimore Sun article) (See immolations for other examples) (next Vietnam, see Nov 9)

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism

November 2 Music et al

see British Beatlemania for more

November 2, 1963: London’s Daily Mirror used the term “Beatlemania” in a news story about the group’s concert the previous night in Cheltenham. (see Nov 4)

Peter, Paul and Mary

November 2 – December 6, 1963: Peter, Paul, and Mary’s Blowin’ In the Wind  is the Billboard #1 album. The best-known cover of Bob Dylan’s song. In the liner notes to Dylan’s original release, Nat Hentoff calls the song “a statement that maybe you can say to make yourself feel better… as if you were talking to yourself.” The song was written around the time that Suze Rotolo had indefinitely prolonged her stay in Italy. The melody is based on an older song, “Who’s Gonna Buy Your Chickens When I’m Gone”. The melody was taught to Dylan by folksinger Paul Clayton, who had used the melody in his song “Who’s Gonna Buy Your Ribbons When I’m Gone?”  (next Dylan, see Nov 4)

Cream’s Disraeli Gears

 

November 2, 1967: Cream released second album, Disraeli Gears.

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Women’s Health

November 2, 1965: The New York Times reported that the first federally supported Women’s Health program had opened in a rural area near York, Pennsylvania.

The clinic was funded through President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, and it marked the beginning of federal aid for family planning services. Federal support became institutionalized with the 1970 Family Planning Services Act, passed by Congress on December 24, 1970 and signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 26, 1970.  (see March 1, 1966)

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Native Americans

November 2, 1972: more than 2,000 Indians go to Washington on the eve of the presidential election to present Nixon with their 20-point program. They occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) headquarters for seven days, demanding that the U.S. recognize tribal self-determination.  (see February 27, 1973)

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Dissolution of Yugoslavia

November 2, 1991: The UN Security Council unanimously adopts a resolution opening the way to the establishment of peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia. (see January 9, 1992)

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

November 2, 2002: an estimated 2,000 people assembled on the National Mall on this day in the first Godless March on Washington.

Participants included atheists, agnostics, humanists, and free-thinkers. Twenty people spoke at the four-hour event, which attracted some protesters. Marchers carried signs and T-shirts reading “What Our Schools Need is a Moment of Science,” and “Atheism is Myth-Understood.” (see Nov 18)

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism

LGBTQ

Amendments deny same-sex marriage

November 2, 2004: marshaled by Karl Rove, anti-gay forces in eleven states push through constitutional amendments to deny same-sex couples the freedom to marry.

In Mississippi, Montana, and Oregon the amendments restrict marriage to different-sex couples. In the other states – Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Utah – the amendments deny all forms of family recognition or status, including civil union and domestic partnership. A similar amendment banning marriage was passed in Missouri in August 2004. (NYT article) (see January 19, 2005; Oklahoma, see January 14, 2014)

November 2, 2015

• federal education authorities, staking out their firmest position yet on an increasingly contentious issue, found that an Illinois school district violated anti-discrimination laws when it did not allow a transgender student who identifies as a girl and participates on a girls’ sports team to change and shower in the girls’ locker room without restrictions. Education officials said the decision was the first of its kind on the rights of transgender students, which were emerging as a new cultural battleground in public schools across the country. In previous cases, federal officials had been able to reach settlements giving access to transgender students in similar situations. But in this instance, the school district in Palatine, Ill., had not yet come to an agreement, prompting the federal government to threaten sanctions. The district, northwest of Chicago, had indicated a willingness to fight for its policy in court.
• Kim Davis, the clerk of Rowan County, asked the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to scrap a series of rulings issued by the district judge Judge David L. Bunning who sent her to jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Ms. Davis’s lawyers called Bunning’s order that Ms. Davis license same-sex marriages a “rush to judgment” that trampled her religious liberty. (LGBTQ, see Nov 14; Davis, see August 18, 2016)

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism

Nuclear/Chemical News

ICAN

November 2, 2015: after mobilizing campaigners behind the Humanitarian Pledge for almost a year, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons [ICAN] took significant credit for bringing 127 onto the Pledge as signatories; another 23 States vote in favor of Pledge goals at General Assembly.

Also, the UN General Assembly established the Open-Ended Working Group [OEWG] to review the evidence of catastrophic humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons and to make concrete recommendations for taking forward multilateral nuclear disarmament. ICAN called on the OEWG “to begin the serious practical work of developing the elements for a treaty banning nuclear weapons.” (Nuclear, see January 6, 2016; ICAN, see see February – August 2016)

North Korea

November 2, 2018: an official with North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a veiled threat warning that Pyongyang could restart “building up nuclear forces” if the US did not ease the crippling sanctions levied on North Korea. [CNN report] (see Nov 12)

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism

US Labor History

November 2, 2017: Joe Ricketts, the billionaire founder of TD Ameritrade who owned the DNAinfo and Gothamist, shut them down.

A post by Mr. Ricketts went up on the sites announcing the decision. He praised them for reporting “tens of thousands of stories that have informed, impacted and inspired millions of people.” But he added, “DNAinfo is, at the end of the day, a business, and businesses need to be economically successful if they are to endure.”

All other articles promptly vanished from the sites; an official at DNAinfo said they would be archived online.

The decision put 115 people out of work, both at the New York operations that unionized and at those in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington that did not. They are getting three months of paid “administrative leave” at full salary, plus four weeks of severance, DNAinfo said. [NYT article] (see Nov 14)

Nuclear/Chemical News

November 2, 2018: an official with North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a veiled threat warning that Pyongyang could restart “building up nuclear forces” if the US did not ease the crippling sanctions levied on North Korea. [CNN article] (see Nov 12)

Immigration History

Trump’s Wall

November 2, 2019: according to the Washington Post, smugglers were using a commercial saw to cut through newly built sections of the president’s wall— which is made of steel bollards that are partially filled with concrete.

The tool can cut through the wall’s steel and concrete in minutes when fitted with the appropriate blades, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have said. After cutting the steel bollards, smugglers have taken to returning them to their original positions in hope of reusing the passage without being detected by border officials.

Agents mended the breach, however, repaired sections are still targeted by smugglers, as it was easier to cut through the welded metal than to make new cuts. And the repair policy had also been targeted by smugglers who attempt to fool agents into believing a severed bollard has been fixed by applying putty to the site of the cut. [VOX story] (see Trump’s Wall for expanded chronology)

Health Insurance

November 2, 2019:  U.S. District Judge Michael Simon Portland, Oregon put on hold a Trump administration rule requiring immigrants prove they would have health insurance or could pay for medical care before they could get visas.

Simon granted a temporary restraining order that prevented the rule from going into effect November 3. (next IH, see Nov 6)

Environmental Issues

November 2, 2021:  more than 100 countries vowed to end deforestation by 2030.

President Biden said the United States would contribute billions to the global effort to protect the ecosystems that are vital for cleaning the air we breathe and the water we drink, and keeping the Earth’s climate in balance.

The pact — which also includes countries such as Brazil, Russia and China — encompasses about 85 percent of the world’s forests, officials said. It is one of the first major accords to emerge from the United Nations climate summit known as COP26, which is seen as a crucial moment in efforts to address climate change.

“These great teeming ecosystems — these cathedrals of nature,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain said in announcing the agreement, “are the lungs of our planet.” [NYT article] (next EI, see Nov 13)

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism

LSD

November 2, 2021: Detroit voters decriminalized therapeutic mushrooms – also known as psychedelic or “magic” mushrooms. Voters were asked to vote on Proposal E, which would make “the personal possession and therapeutic use of entheogenic plants by adults the city’s lowest law-enforcement priority.”

The measure passed with 61.08% of the vote.

Although scientists are still doing research, Psilocybin can be used to treat a variety of psychological issues, including depression, .

Last year, voters in another Michigan city, Ann Arbor, also voted to decriminalize psychedelic plants, as did voters in Washington, D.C. and voters in Denver in 2019. [CBS News article] (next LSD, see August 24, 2022)

November 2 Peace Love Art Activism