Valerie Richardson
Articles by Valerie Richardson
Pamela Geller takes heat over shooting at Muhammad drawing contest
Pamela Geller and other hosts of the "draw Muhammad" contest were lucky to emerge unscathed after two Muslim gunmen attacked the event Sunday, but they haven't escaped the wrath of critics who insist the organizers share the blame for what happened. Published May 4, 2015
Supreme Court weighs marijuana suit brought by Colorado’s neighbors
DENVER | Advocates on both sides of the pot debate were busily reading the tea leaves Monday after the Supreme Court asked the solicitor general to weigh in on the two-state lawsuit against Colorado's legalized marijuana market. Published May 4, 2015
Elton Simpson avoided no-fly list, received probation after judge threw out terrorism charge
Had federal prosecutors been able to make a 2011 terrorism charge against Elton Simpson stick, he could have been sentenced to as many as eight years in prison and still be behind bars alive rather than killed in an attack on a Texas Muhammad-cartoon contest. Published May 4, 2015
Swarthmore College rejects divesting from fossil fuel
Swarthmore College has dealt a blow to the climate-change movement by rejecting calls to divest from fossil fuels, an unexpected move given the college's status as a birthplace of the college divestment drive. Published May 3, 2015
GoFundMe drops campaign for Baltimore rioters after conservative complaints
GoFundMe removed a crowdfunding campaign on behalf of jailed Baltimore rioters Sunday, a day after conservatives began complaining about the effort. Published May 3, 2015
GoFundMe yanks crowdfunding campaign for Baltimore cops
A GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign set up on behalf of Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray was quickly removed Friday by the company. Published May 2, 2015
New GoFundMe rule makes it easy to kill Christian campaigns
GoFundMe's old policy on crowdfunding may not have been enough to justify its decision last weekend to kill campaigns on behalf of a Christian-owned florist and bakery -- but its new policy is. Published April 30, 2015
Yong Soo Lee, Japan World War II ‘comfort woman,’ demands Shinzo Abe apology
When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe makes his historic address Wednesday before a joint session of Congress, most in the audience will be watching him. But some will focused on Yong Soo Lee. Published April 28, 2015
Fracking politics trump science as oil industry, environmental lobby push biased views
The old saw about statistics — that, given enough spin, they can be used to support anything — is being increasingly applied to science, especially, critics say, when it comes to the fight over hydraulic fracturing. Published April 28, 2015
Gay marriage advocates expect Supreme Court to rule in their favor
Advocates on both sides of the gay marriage issue prepared Sunday for High Noon — at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Published April 26, 2015
Newt Gingrich accuses Hillary Clinton of illegal activity, as Clinton Foundation admits ‘mistakes’
The Clinton Foundation likely will refile some tax documents after making "mistakes" by combining government grants with other donations even as former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton moves to deflect an escalating money-for-influence scandal. Published April 26, 2015
John McCain, John Kasich call for change in CIA drone program after hostage-killing attack
Calls for moving the U.S. drone strike program from the CIA to the Pentagon intensified Sunday in the wake of a counterterrorism attack that accidentally killed two Western hostages. Published April 26, 2015
Sweet Cakes Christian-owned bakery GoFundMe drive pulled after gay-rights advocates complain
A crowdfunding campaign that raised more than $109,000 for the Christian-owned bakery Sweet Cakes by Melissa in Oregon was removed Saturday after complaints from gay rights advocates. Published April 25, 2015
Lawsuit alleges Columbia ‘mattress girl’ made rape claim after being scorned
Emma Sulkowicz has been lionized as a feminist icon for her "mattress girl" anti-rape protest targeting a fellow Columbia University student, but his lawsuit paints her as a woman scorned who sought revenge after being rejected. Published April 24, 2015
Columbia ‘mattress girl’ case sparks lawsuit against university
The Columbia University student targeted by a mattress-carrying protester filed a lawsuit Thursday against the school, arguing that it failed to shield him from harassment even though police and campus authorities refused to pursue rape charges against him. Published April 23, 2015
Christina Hoff Sommers, speaker at Oberlin, triggers debate about feminist ‘trigger warnings’
You wouldn't know it to look at her, but Christina Hoff Sommers is apparently the kind of speaker whose very presence on college campuses is so alarming that students require advance notice, also known as a trigger warning. Published April 22, 2015
Sally Jewell, interior secretary, leaves bi-state Mono Basin sage grouse off Endangered Species List
It turns out there is a species that the Obama administration doesn't want to place on the Endangered Species List — the bi-state Mono Basin sage grouse. Published April 21, 2015
Police kill more whites than blacks, but minority deaths generate more outrage: analysis
Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison says she wants to see an officer shoot an unarmed white teenager in the back before agreeing that the "conversation about race" is over, but she almost certainly already has received her wish. Published April 21, 2015
Fracking boom only creates jobs for women as prostitutes, maids: N.Y. activist
A key figure behind New York's statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing says that losing out on oil and gas jobs is no big deal because the industry only creates work for women as prostitutes and hotel maids. Published April 20, 2015
Colorado gun advocates in firefight over raising magazine limits to 30 rounds
There is nothing that infuriates Colorado firearms owners more than the 15-round ammunition magazine limit enacted two years ago by Democrats, but a proposal to raise the limit to 30 rounds has split the state's gun rights movement. Published April 20, 2015
