During her first major policy speech as a presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton today is expected to lay out an ambitious plan to reform the criminal justice system. The plan, according to a Clinton aide, will include calling for the “end of an era of mass incarceration” and for increasing the use of body cameras by law enforcement agents nationwide.

The former secretary of state will announce her new policy proposals – likely to be her most specific yet since launching her campaign – during a policy forum at Columbia University in New York City this morning.

The announcement of her plan comes amid unrest and riots in Baltimore, Maryland following Monday’s funeral of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died of a spinal injury apparently suffered in police custody. This situation in Baltimore, like that of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in Staten Island, was sparked by concerns of police use of force and institutionalized racism.

At a fundraiser Tuesday night, Clinton made her most extensive comments yet on the situation in Baltimore, and called for widespread reform of the country’s criminal justice system.

“It is heartbreaking,” the Democratic presidential candidate said, according to a pool report of the event. “The tragic death of another young African-American man. The injuries to police officers. The burning of peoples’ homes and small businesses. We have to restore order and security. But then we have to take a hard look as to what we need to do to reform our system."

During her remarks today, Clinton is expected to “lay out a broader vision” for reform that will “include specific policy proposals,” according to an aide.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/amid-baltimore-violence-hillary-clinton-set-unveil-plan/story?id=30664649

This is an incredibly important issue. It is good to hear that she will be laying out policy proposals.

Warren is handling Obama masterfully on this deal. She has the Democratic President running defense as he sides with the conservatives.

We will need her leadership for the next 4-8 years. She is likely more effective in pushing a Democratic President than a repug president, who would just ignore and denigrate her. She'll be a great liberal counter to President.

This is a preview of how Warren could influence the presidential debate without even running.

The parents of Martin Richard, the 8-year-old boy killed in the Boston Marathon bombings two years ago, have writtten a plea to end the attention convicted killer Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has received and spare him from the death penalty.

In an essay written for The Boston Globe, Bill and Denise Richard ask that the case come to a close, writing, “We know that the government has its reasons for seeking the death penalty, but the continued pursuit of that punishment could bring years of appeals and prolong reliving the most painful day of our lives.”

The essay continues:

As long as the defendant is in the spotlight, we have no choice but to live a story told on his terms, not ours. The minute the defendant fades from our newspapers and TV screens is the minute we begin the process of rebuilding our lives and our family.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2015/04/16/parents-year-old-boy-killed-marathon-bombings-don-want-tsarnaev-get-death-penalty/RV4ziGRsSPJfi85KWp2NFM/story.html?p1=feature_stack_1_hp

Liberia has gone 25 days without any new Ebola case reported in its second countdown to being declared Ebola-free.

The head of the Incident Management System team, Tolbert Nyenswah, said that Liberia has less than 20 days before being declared Ebola free as specified by the World Health Organization.

After having initially gone 28 days without a new Ebola case, the country faced a setback when on March 25, a Liberian tested positive for the virus and subsequently died.

Nyenswah said that all contacts from that case have completed their 21 days of follow up.

According to the United Nations Mission on Ebola Emergency Response, the number of confirmed Ebola cases in the three most affected Ebola hit countries of Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone has declined.

Nyenswah said, “Guinea currently has the highest rate while the cases in Sierra Leone have decreased and Liberia remains at zero.’’

http://www.bushchicken.com/liberia-now-25-days-without-ebola-in-2nd-countdown/

The gay couple featured in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 announcement video said Monday that they were so delighted to have been included in the ad that they invited the Democratic presidential contender to their wedding this summer.

Jared Milrad and Nate Johnson, two Democratic campaigners who were filmed in Clinton’s online launch ad talking about their commitment to each other said in an interview with the Washington Blade that they didn’t know they were being filmed for the announcement but were nevertheless ecstatic to have been featured.

“When we were first contacted, they basically told us a little bit about what they would be doing and said they were interviewing people going through big changes in life and also said that it was something affiliated with Hillary, but didn’t exactly say what it would be,” Johnson said.

“They just mainly wanted to hear our story about that and our life and decision to get married and how we’re dealing with that and how excited we are about that,” he said.

Milrad told the Blade that he and Johnson were “really excited” after they saw themselves in the video Sunday. In fact, shortly after the video was posted, Milrad took to Twitter to invite the former Secretary of State to their July 19 wedding in Chicago.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/gay-couple-clinton-2016-video-invite-wedding-article-1.2183449

&feature=youtu.be

Maybe it's here in GD as a stand alone post, but I didn't see it. So here is a link to it.

Hillary is going to tweet the announcement of her second run for president on Sunday. What #hashtags will she, or should she use?

How about some suggestions and predictions, DU?