The Daily Populous

Sunday December 29th, 2019 evening edition

image for The Citizens United ruling broke American democracy at the start of the decade. It never recovered

The impact of the Citizens United ruling and subsequent campaign finance changes are undeniable.

In 2010, the biggest Republican donor of the election cycle spent $7.6 million to support conservative candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (CPR).

There was certainly loads of money pumped into elections prior to Citizens United.

“We find that Citizens United increased the GOP’s average seat share in the state legislature by five percentage points.

“Without Citizens United every frontline Congressional race of the last two cycles are TOTALLY different,” Fordham Law Professor Zephyr Teachout tweeted .

Obama warned in a State of the Union speech that the Citizens United ruling could lead to foreign interference in U.S. elections.

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has proposed a similar “Democracy Dollars” program, which would expand this initiative across the country. »

Grooming ‘epidemic’ as almost 19,000 children identified as sexual exploitation victims in England

Authored by independent.co.uk
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More than 18,700 suspected victims of child sexual exploitation were identified by local authorities in 2018-19, up from 3,300 five years before.

“Too many times, government has said it will ‘learn lessons’, yet 19,000 children are still at risk of sexual exploitation,” she told The Independent.

Gloucestershire County Council said increased awareness of child sexual exploitation had led to the identification of more child victims. »

Growing cannabis for personal use not illegal, Italy supreme court rules

Authored by independent.co.uk

Italy’s Supreme Court has ruled growing small quantities of cannabis at home for private usage is legal in a landmark verdict.

The court declared the crime of growing narcotic drugs should exclude “small amounts grown domestically for the exclusive use of the grower”.

Meet the nuns who rake in £850k a year growing and selling cannabis Show all 7 left Created with Sketch. »

Adolescent depression is unrelated to adult cannabis use among those with a history of ADHD

Authored by psypost.org
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Adults tend to use cannabis more frequently if they had elevated depressive symptoms in adolescence, but this does not appear to be the case among adults with a history of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to new research.

The findings have been published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.

The researchers found that depressive symptoms were linked to the use of drugs and alcohol in adolescence. »