Brian Chernick

Brian Chernick is a Policy Corner (PC) writer devoted to challenging ideas and seeking outlets for expression, collaboration and debate on political topics through civil and mutually beneficial discourse. He graduated from California State University, Los Angeles, with a B.A in Psychology, Pre-Law and a Minor in Philosophy. As a PC writer, he seeks to steer Public Policy by using reason and intellect backed by thorough research. Network Neutrality, Immigration, the Environment, Technology and civil rights are some issues that fuel his passion. Brian also currently hosts News Beat on KCHUNG Radio and is the former co-host of Clear Oversight. To find out more about him, visit www.Chernickov.com

 Policy CornerVendettas of the Week

Death to Capital Punishment!

Brian Chernick June 4, 2015

This past May,… References and Footnotes “Nebraska Bans Death Penalty, Defying a Veto,” New York Times, May 27, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/us/nebraska-abolishes-death-penalty.html ↩ Pema Levy, “One in 25 Sentenced to Death in the U.S. Is Innocent, Study Claims,” Newsweek, April 28, 2014, accessed June 3, 2015, http://www.newsweek.com/one-25-executed-us-innocent-study-claims-248889 ↩ “Abolish the Death Penalty,” Intelligence Squared Debates, April 15, 2015, accessed June 3, 2015, http://intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/upcoming-debates/item/1254-abolish-the-death-penalty ↩ Kent S. Scheidegger, “Mend It, Don’t End It,”April, 2011, accessed June 2, 2015, http://www.cjlf.org/deathpenalty/ConnDPReport2011.pdf ↩ Peter Singer, “The Death Penalty — Again,” October 12, 2011, accessed June 2, 2015. ↩ “U.S. Executions Since 1976,” The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney, October 1, 2014, accessed June 3, 2015, http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/usexecute.htm ↩“Cruel, Unusual and Arbitrary,” U.S. News, September 29, 2014, accessed June 3, 2015, http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/09/29/the-death-penalty-is-ineffective-and-indefensible ↩

Policy CornerVendettas of the Week

Secure Communities 2.0: Broken Promises and Broken Families

Brian Chernick May 27, 2015

Communities within Los… References and Footnotes“L.A. County ends contract with ICE, then OKs future collaboration” Los Angeles Times, May 12, 2015, http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ice-los-angeles-287g-20150512-story.html ↩Joseph Tanfani and Kate Linthicum, “L.A. County Ends Contract with ICE, Then OKs Future Collaboration,” Los Angeles Times, May 12, 2015, accessed May 27, 2015, http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ice-los-angeles-287g-20150512-story.html. ↩ “U.S. deportations of immigrants reach record high in 2013” Pew Research Center, October 2, 2014, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/02/u-s-deportations-of-immigrants-reach-record-high-in-2013 ↩ “How to improve an immigration status check” The Washington Post, March 20, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-to-improve-an-immigration-status-check/2011/02/04/ABf93O3_story.html ↩ “Legitimacy Of Secure Communities Program Weakened,” ABC News/Univision, December 12, 2012, http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/legitimacy-secure-communities-program-weakened/story?id=17921778 ↩“How to Improve an Immigration Status Check,” The Washington Post, March 20, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-to-improve-an-immigration-status-check/2011/02/04/ABf93O3_story.html ↩“Secure Communities,” Department of Homeland Security, November 20, 2014, http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/14_1120_memo_secure_communities.pdf ↩“PEP-Comm: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing?” New America Media, November 25, 2014, http://newamericamedia.org/2014/11/pep-comm-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing.php ↩“Legal Noncitizens Receive Longest ICE Detention,” TRAC Immigration, June 3, 2013, http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/321 ↩ “Gov. Brown signs 'Trust Act' prohibiting detaining undocumented for deportation in minor arrests,” Southern California Public Radio, October 5, 2013, http://www.scpr.org/news/2013/10/05/39668/california-gov-jerry-brown-signs-trust-act-into-la/ ↩“Civillmmi Ration Enforcement: Guidance on the Use of Detainers in the Federal, State, Local, and Tribal Criminal Justice Systems,” Department of Homeland Security, December 21, 2012, http://www.ice.gov/doclib/detention-reform/pdf/detainer-policy.pdf ↩ “Secretary Napolitano's Memorandum Concerning the Exercise of Prosecutorial Discretion for Certain Removable Individuals Who Entered the United States as a Child,” Department of Homeland Security, June 15, 2012,http://www.ice.gov/doclib/about/offices/ero/pdf/s1-certain-young-people-morton.pdf ↩ “Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion Consistent with the Civil Immigration Enforcement Priorities of the Agency for the Apprehension, Detention, and Removal of Aliens” Department of Homeland Security, June 17, 2011, http://www.ice.gov/doclib/secure-communities/pdf/prosecutorial-discretion-memo.pdf ↩“Secure Communities and ICE Deportation: A Failed Program?” TRAC Immigration, April 8, 2014, http://trac.syr.edu/immigration/reports/349 ↩“UIC: Latino Perceptions of Police Involvement in Immigration Enforcement,” National Day Laborer Organizing Network, May 8, 2013, http://www.ndlon.org/en/resources/item/791-uic-latino-perceptions ↩“Documents Reveal Pressure to Comply With Program to Deport Immigrants,” New York Times, March 26, 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/us/27cncimmigration.html ↩“Trust Act Passed Too Late For Sacramento Mother,” ABC 7 News, June 18th, 2012, http://abc7news.com/archive/8741313/ ↩“Domestic-Violence Victim Calls 911 And Is Nearly Deported,” ABC 7 News, May 12, 2011, http://abc7.com/archive/8128621 ↩ “Noncriminals Swept up in Federal Deportation Program,” April 25, 2011, http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/25/local/la-me-secure-communities-20110425 ↩

Policy CornerVendettas of the Week

The Wage Is Too Damn Low

Brian Chernick May 21, 2015

The federal minimum wage peaked in 1968… References and Footnotes“Minimum wage since 1938,” CNN Money, 2013, http://money.cnn.com/interactive/economy/minimum-wage-since-1938/[/ref] If you adjust for inflation that's an impressive $10.79. However, the current federal minimum wage sits at $7.25 – thirty-two percent less than it was forty-seven years ago. And while it has increased twenty-one percent since 1990, so has the cost of living – by sixty-seven percent. “Overworked America: 12 Charts That Will Make Your Blood Boil,” Mother Jones, July/August 2011, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/06/speedup-americans-working-harder-charts[/ref] Nineteen million U.S. workers currently earn at or below the federal minimum wage, with nearly half of them being over twenty-four years old. “5 Facts about the Minimum Wage,” Pew Research, December 2013 http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/12/04/5-facts-about-the-minimum-wage/ ↩ “Studies Look at What Happened when Cities Raised Minimum Wage,” The Seattle Times, March 2014, http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/studies-look-at-what-happened-when-cities-raised-minimum-wage/ ↩ “The Great Decoupling of the US Economy,” Andrew McAfee, December 2012, http://andrewmcafee.org/2012/12/the-great-decoupling-of-the-us-economy/ ↩“As Cities Raise Their Minimum Wage, Where's the Economic Collapse the Right Predicted?” Mother Jones, April 2015, http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/04/economic-collapse-prediction-minimum-wage-raise ↩ Lynn Thompson, Seattle Times, March 12, 2014, accessed May 21, 2015, http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/studies-look-at-what-happened-when-cities-raised-minimum-wage/. ↩ “Will a Higher Minimum Wage Close a Beloved Bookstore?” The New Yorker, February 2015, http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/minimum-wage-dilemma-san-francisco ↩“Do Small Businesses Deserve Exemptions From the Minimum Wage?” Mother Jones, May 2015 http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/05/small-businesses-exemptions-minimum-wage ↩ “Here's How America's Minimum Wage Stacks Up Against Countries Like India, Russia, Greece, And France” Business Insider, August 2013, http://www.businessinsider.com/a-look-at-minimum-wages-around-the-world-2013-8 ↩ “Marco Rubio says He Opposes Minimum Wage Laws. What About the Other GOP 2016 Hopefuls?” Daily Kos, February 2013, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/14/1187136/-Marco-Rubio-says-he-opposes-minimum-wage-laws-What-about-the-other-GOP-2016-hopefuls ↩ “Jeb Bush Calls For The Elimination Of The Federal Minimum Wage,” Think Progress, March 2015 http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/03/17/3634877/jeb-bush-minimum-wage/ ↩“Sen. Cruz: Minimum Wage Hike Would Cost Jobs for Young People, Hispanics, African Americans” CNS News, February 2013, http://cnsnews.com/news/article/sen-cruz-minimum-wage-hike-would-cost-jobs-young-people-hispanics-african-americans ↩“Fact Sheet #32: Youth Minimum Wage - Fair Labor Standards Act,” U.S. Department of Labor, July 2008, http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs32.pdf ↩

Policy CornerVendettas of the Week

End 215 in 2015

Brian Chernick May 14, 2015

The first step towards regaining some semblance of privacy took… References and Footnotes“NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily,” The Guardian, June 6, 2013, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order ↩“Report From The Field: The USA PATRIOT Act At Work,” U.S. Department of Justice, July 2004, http://www.justice.gov/archive/olp/pdf/patriot_report_from_the_field0704.pdf ↩Ibid. ↩ “The Whole Haystack,” The New Yorker, January 26, 2015, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/26/whole-haystack  ↩ “Independent review board says NSA phone data program is illegal and should end,” The Washington Post, January 23, 2014, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/independent-review-board-says-nsa-phone-data-program-is-illegal-and-should-end/2014/01/22/4cebd470-83dd-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html ↩“More Excuses on the Patriot Act,” The New York Times, May 1, 2015, http://nytimes.com/2015/05/02/opinion/more-excuses-on-the-patriot-act.html ↩“White House Confirms: If Section 215 Expires, So Does Bulk Phone Records Collection,” Electronic Frontier Foundation, March 24, 2015, https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/03/white-house-confirms-if-section-215-expires-so-does-bulk-phone-records-collection ↩

Policy CornerVendettas of the Week

The Struggle Against Non-Violence

Brian Chernick May 7, 2015

On April 19, Freddie Gray… References and Footnotes “Killed By Police – 2015,” Killed By Police, 2015, accessed May 7, 2015, http://killedbypolice.net ↩ "Baltimore’s Violent Protesters Are Right: Smashing Police Cars Is a Legitimate Political Strategy," Saloncom RSS, accessed May 7, 2015,http://www.salon.com/2015/04/28/baltimores_violent_protesters_are_right_smashing_police_cars_is_a_legitimate_political_strategy/ ↩

Policy CornerVendettas of the Week

A Secret Agreement

Brian Chernick May 4, 2015

After ten years… References and Footnotes"Trans-Pacific Partnership Announcement," United States Trade Representative, 2009, accessed May 3, 2015. https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2009/december/trans-pacific-partnership-announcement. ↩Roger Altman and Richard Haass, "Why the Trans-Pacific Partnership Matters," The New York Times, April 3, 2015, accessed May 3, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/04/opinion/why-the-trans-pacific-partnership-matters.html. ↩"Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) - Investment Chapter," WikiLeaks, 2015, accessed May 3, 2015, https://wikileaks.org/tpp-investment/WikiLeaks-TPP-Investment-Chapter/page-1.html. ↩Bernie Sanders, "The Trans-Pacific Trade (TPP) Agreement must be Defeated," Bernie Sanders - United States Senator for Vermont, accessed May 3, 2015, http://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/the-trans-pacific-trade-tpp-agreement-must-be-defeated?inline=file. ↩Laura Carlsen, "Under Nafta, Mexico Suffered, and the United States Felt Its Pain," November 24, 2013, accessed May 3, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/11/24/what-weve-learned-from-nafta/under-nafta-mexico-suffered-and-the-united-states-felt-its-pain. ↩