Latest news with #SenateBill141
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US Education Dept cuts ‘an intentional spiral' downward
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Washington Sen. Patty Murray minced no words talking about the massive cuts President Trump made to the Education Department. 'Trump wants to suck away money from public schools, suck away money from our schools, and give it to billionaires,' Murray said at a forum of Senate Democrats in DC on Tuesday. Since Trump took office, the US Department of Education has been nearly cut in half — from 4000 staff members to 2183 in a little more than 3 months. Washington US Sen. Patty Murray in DC, May 6, 2025 (KOIN) Oregon and Washington are two of 20 states to sue the Trump Administration over the cuts to DOE. Those cuts severely impacted the department's Institute of Education Sciences, which generates critical research on K-12 public education in the US. 'Beer has staying power': Oregon beer generated nearly $9B in economic output last year Data from that research is then used to determine if support and intervention is required on the federal level. State Sen. Lew Frederick, May 4, 2025 (KOIN) Oregon State Sen. Lew Frederick, the chair of the senate's education committee, said the absence of that research could send public schools in Oregon and around the country into a tailspin. 'The information will not come in, the information that does come in won't be positive,' Frederick told KOIN 6 News. 'It is a spiral, an intentional spiral.' Foundations for a Better Oregon, a non-profit that tracks student outcomes and state investments in education, told KOIN 6 News the cuts at DOE make it more critical than ever for Oregon to collect its own data on student learning. New legislation proposed by Gov. Tina Kotek would do exactly that. House Bill 2009 and its corresponding Senate Bill 141 both direct school districts to collect their own data about student learning. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Yahoo
Indiana lawmakers want to add 'common sense' approach to police lineups
For 25 years, Leon Benson remained behind bars after the execution-style killing of a Plainfield man. His fate changed in March 2023 when investigators retraced Benson's case and no longer believed police or prosecutors had the right man. Investigators had relied on a vague description from an eyewitness in the shooting, officials determined, and court records pointed to another man as the perpetrator, one whom at least two eyewitnesses spotted pulling the trigger on Kasey Schoen. But the records state Indianapolis police never shared that information with prosecutors or Benson's defense. A judge soon exonerated Benson from his 1999 sentence, 10 years of which he served in solitary confinement as his young children grew up. Tuesday, Benson stood in front of Indiana lawmakers as a free man to support a bill making its way through the General Assembly that aims to decrease wrongful convictions by tightening state law surrounding how eyewitnesses identify suspects. "An ounce of prevention is better than a ton of cure," Benson said. Senate Bill 141, if passed, would create guidelines for how police should conduct lineups for eyewitnesses of a crime to point out a suspect. More: Murder. A conviction. An exoneration. Was evidence of another suspect ignored — or hidden? Under the bill, lineups would change in the following ways: The lineup administrator cannot know which individual is the suspect to prevent unintentional suggestions or clues about who it may be. Investigators must tell the eyewitness that a suspect may or may not be in a lineup before the investigation, that witnesses are not required to make an identification and that police will continue to investigate whether they identify a suspect or not. To fill out the lineup, police must use non-suspects who resemble the witness's description of the perpetrator so a suspect does not stand out. Police must document the eyewitness's level of confidence following the lineup by asking them to provide a statement in their own words. The changes, advocates and Benson said, would align Indiana with 30 other states that have established similar safeguards – ones they say target the most common ways erroneous identifications occur. "Eyewitnesses are relied upon by law enforcement and expected to identify perpetrators by memory but that is incredibly malleable," said Winnie Ye, a state policy advocate for the Innocence Project, a nonprofit that seeks to exonerate wrongfully convicted people. Since 1989, Indiana has seen at least 47 people wrongfully incarcerated, a third of which officials estimate is due to mistaken eyewitness identification, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, the most comprehensive list of wrongful convictions in the country. Supporters backing the bill include the Indiana Public Defender Council, the Innocence Project and the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic, which helps investigate and overturn wrongful convictions. "(This bill) provides some very common-sense measures that will substantially reduce the risk of wrongful convictions in Indiana,' said Professor Jimmy Gurulé, director of the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic and former federal prosecutor. The bill also stipulates police cannot conduct a lineup if investigators used facial recognition technology to identify a suspect, unless they show another basis to believe the alleged perpetrator committed the crime. The bill passed in a 9-0 vote during its second reading Tuesday in the Indiana Senate's committee on Corrections and Criminal Law, receiving bipartisan support and praise. 'Protecting the constitutional rights of Hoosiers is paramount,' said Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, who authored the bill alongside Sen. Susan Glick, R-LaGrange. Sen. Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton, co-authored the proposal. IndyStar reporter Kristine Phillips contributed to this report. Contact IndyStar reporter Sarah Nelson at This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana police lineups often unreliable. Bill hopes to change that
