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Fourteen organizations have called on the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education to refrain from voting today, as planned, on revised regulations governing high school graduation requirements for students in Rhode Island. In a four-page letter to Board members, the groups said that the revised proposal “includes very significant changes from the proposal presented for public comment in January, raises more questions than it answers, and creates new and additional concerns.”

Claiming that it violates the Department of Justice’s own standards, the RI ACLU and four other organizations have asked the United States Solicitor General to “halt any further efforts” by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Rhode Island to seek to impose the death penalty on Jason Wayne Pleau. The letter follows actions by that office to appeal a federal court ruling two weeks ago that Governor Lincoln Chafee acted lawfully in refusing to transfer Pleau’s custody to the federal government, which is seeking to prosecute him even though he has already agreed to serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Eight organizations – including the RI ACLU, the RI Commission for Human Rights, the RI State Council of Churches, the Urban League of RI and the American Friends Service Committee – have today issued a statement that commends Governor Lincoln Chafee for seeking to prevent the institution of federal death penalty charges against Jason Wayne Pleau, and calls on the U.S. Attorney to cease those efforts.

Consideration of a seemingly innocuous bill setting up the framework for a health insurance exchange to implement the new federal health care reform law took a nasty turn when Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed inserted a surprise anti-abortion amendment into the bill.

Responding to a complaint filed by the Rhode Island ACLU at the end of 2009, the R.I. Commission for Human Rights has issued a finding that there is “probable cause” to believe that a job application form used by CVS Pharmacy, Inc. for various customer service positions violates state anti-discrimination laws that bar employers from eliciting information that pertain to job applicants’ mental or physical disabilities.