TODAY'S TALKING POINTS 11-05-15

TODAY'S TALKING POINTS

U.S. intel suggests an Islamic State bomb might have brought down Russia’s jet. Though officials from Russia, the U.S. and Egypt previously brushed off the extremist group’s claim that it caused Saturday’s crash, which killed 224 people, that story has drastically changed. After the British and Irish governments suspended some flights out of concern that the plane had been taken down by a bomb, a U.S. official was quick to point a finger at the Islamic State group, though a formal conclusion hasn’t been reached. Meanwhile, Metrojet's entire Airbus A321 fleet has been grounded.

Mexico’s Supreme Court decided that access to weed is a constitutional right. The court decision effectively legalizes marijuana for just one advocacy group, but it paves the way for widespread legal weed. A larger move could nip the country's damaging war on drugs in the bud by potentially lowering violent crime rates and reducing prison overcrowding, while taking away business from drug cartels. The war on drugs in Mexico has resulted in a whopping 70,000 plus deaths since 2006.

Across the border in the U.S., Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders introduced a bill to end the federal prohibition of marijuana and allow states to decide if they want to legalize the herb. In Colorado this week, voters approved a measure that gave lawmakers the green light to use legal weed money to build schools.

The Fox Lake, Illinois, officer's death has been ruled a "carefully staged suicide." The news of police Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz's death made national headlines and sparked a massive manhunt since it appeared that he was killed in the line of duty. It turns out that wasn't exactly the case. He had been stealing money from a police program for youth and was on the brink of getting caught, so he staged his suicide to make it look like a homicide.

A new study shows that half of black millennials know victims of police violence. The “Black Millennials in America” report, released by the Black Youth Project at the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, reveals that this was an issue long before the Black Lives Matter movement began. While the study also showed that black millennials are the most disenchanted with the legal system, 71% said they were confident they could make a difference by getting involved with politics.