Plus, Madison Cawthorn got cited for carrying a handgun through airport security — again

One-hundred and twenty days in solitary confinement is one of the harshest punishments available within Oregon prisons. It’s the type of punishment given to people who commit assault or arson, take a hostage or try to escape. It’s also the punishment imposed on Mark Wilson, a prominent incarcerated legal assistant with a near-perfect disciplinary record who has helped thousands of other prisoners pursue legal claims.

Wilson’s offense? A prison staff member had left a plastic toy telephone with blue wheels and a smiley face on his desk — a joking reference to the number of calls Wilson fielded at work. More than a year later, Oregon’s Department of Corrections said the toy phone was evidence that Wilson had “compromised” the employee who gave it to him. They fired him from his job, and subjected him to a punishment defined by the United Nations as torture.

A HuffPost investigation — based on hundreds of pages of court documents, emails and audio recordings of Wilson’s disciplinary hearings obtained through public records requests, as well as extensive interviews with Wilson, prisoners he has assisted and lawyers he has worked with — reveals a pattern of retaliation by DOC against one of its most effective incarcerated legal assistants.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was no fan of Donald Trump’s incendiary tweets, repeatedly expressing concern with the former president’s attacks on fellow Republicans, Democrats and people of color, and even calling one post “appalling.” But now that Tesla CEO and self-styled free speech advocate Elon Musk is buying Twitter, the moderate Republican says Trump’s Twitter account should be reinstated. “Although I obviously don’t agree with a lot of President Trump’s tweets, I do think he should have his account back. To me, it’s ironic that we allow Russian government sites to be on Twitter but we don’t allow President Trump,” Collins told HuffPost on Tuesday, questioning what she called “uneven” standards the social media company applied to boot Trump from the platform.

A nonlethal shooting took place outside a South Carolina baseball field Monday night while several Little League games were underway, forcing panicked children to flee and seek cover as dozens of shots rapidly fired. The incident in North Charleston is under investigation by police, who have recovered guns from the scene. No injuries have been reported. Video of the incident shows young children fleeing the field and dropping to the ground mid-game as around 50 shots rang out.

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