License-plate scanners let government track your travels
According to this article when you are driving around in Southern Arizona there is a good chance the DEA may be taking pictures of your car's license plates and tracking where you are going.License-plate scanners let gov't track your travels
August 05, 2012 12:00 am
Tim Steller Arizona Daily Star
When you drive the highways of Southern Arizona, the government may be taking a picture of your license plate, recording where you were and when.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has installed automatic license-plate readers along Interstate 19 and uses them along other highways, like Arizona 86. Some local agencies in Arizona, such as Tucson police, also sometimes use readers in patrol cars.
The agencies using the devices say they are largely for detecting stolen cars and drug loads, and that information on innocent vehicles goes nowhere. But some people worry that the readers are ripe for abuse.
"They take pictures of everyone who goes past the camera," said Anjali Abraham, public policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union in Arizona "Everybody's sharing in this pool of information about us, about how we move around in our day. It's being accessed at all levels of government, perhaps quite easily."
For residents of the border area, the readers are just the latest element of surveillance added to daily life, along with checkpoints on the highways, sensors in the ground and drones in the air.
Last week, the ACLU filed public-records requests in 38 states seeking detailed information about how law enforcement agencies are using the license-plate readers and the data they collect. In Arizona, the group filed requests with the Tucson, Chandler and Phoenix police departments, as well as the Pinal County Sheriff's Office and the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
However, the DEA may be the most visible user of the readers. The agency has installed one set of equipment along southbound Interstate 19, just south of the Border Patrol's checkpoint at kilometer 40. It's a set of a dozen devices that look like cameras and lights on stands, powered by a generator attached to a trailer.
"We cannot provide specific locations of the scanners, only that they are located in the Southwest border states including Arizona; doing so can potentially compromise ongoing investigations and threaten the safety of our agents and the public," a DEA spokeswoman, Special Agent Ramona Sanchez, said in an email.
License-plate readers "are used to monitor and target vehicles commonly used to transport bulk cash and illegal contraband along U.S. interstates," she wrote. "They promote information sharing and coordination" through a mechanism that notifies authorities when common links between investigations are identified.
The DEA has also used clusters of readers along Arizona 86 and other highways on the Tohono O'odham Nation, an area frequented by smugglers.
Last year, Tohono O'odham Police Chief Joseph Delgado told The Runner newspaper that the devices also were being used in two places along Federal Route 15 and along Federal Route 42 in the northern part of the reservation.
A Tohono O'odham spokesman did not return emails seeking comment.
The DEA has reduced the length of time that it keeps the information collected from two years to 180 days, an agency spokesman told the California Watch news agency last month.
Tucson police don't retain any of the information collected by the readers they use, said Sgt. Maria Hawke. They use readers as part of an auto-theft task force operated by Arizona DPS, often by driving through apartment-complex parking lots and checking for stolen cars.
"What essentially happens is the reader is a mechanism used to do those queries. The reader doesn't retain the information," she said.
Members of a group that raised concerns about the Border Patrol's checkpoint on I-19 were not especially worried about the privacy considerations involved in license-plate checks, said Rich Bohman, president of the Santa Cruz Valley Citizens Council. They were more concerned about the lights used with the scanners at night, because they can distract drivers, especially elderly ones, Bohman said.
"From my own personal standpoint, if this is effective in helping stop money and guns from traveling into Mexico, I think our citizens would support it," he said.
There is some public resistance to license-plate readers. In June, public protests forced the DEA to drop a proposal to install readers along Interstate 15 in southwestern Utah.
But things like this are just the way of the future, said David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.
"Governments and law enforcement have so much capacity today, thanks to technology, to monitor our every day movement," Shirk said. "To me, license plate readers on freeways is the least of our problems.
Contact reporter Tim Steller at 807-8427 or tsteller@azstarnet.com
"Drug War" kills dozens in Acapulco, San Luis Potosi, Mexico City
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Dozens dead in attacks in Acapulco, San Luis Potosi, Mexico City
August 9, 2012 | 3:20 pm
MEXICO CITY -- Fourteen bodies were found in a truck Thursday in the state of San Luis Potosi, at least 17 people have been killed since Sunday in the port of Acapulco, and 12 others were reported killed in 24 hours in metropolitan Mexico City.
The string of bloody reports grabbed headlines in Mexico, reminding the public that drug-related violence continues unabated as the six-year mark approaches in the federal government's declared war on drug cartels.
The bodies were found Thursday in a truck left near a gasoline station on the highway between the city of San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas state. Authorities said in initial statements that all the victims were male and had come from the neighboring border state of Coahuila.
Body dumps along highways are a fixture of the conflict between Mexico's most powerful drug cartels, Sinaloa and the Zetas. San Luis Potosi, however, until recently had not seen the same level of violence as other parts of the country.
In Acapulco, where smaller rival drug-trafficking groups are still locked in a struggle for control, the victims of an attack on a family included a pregnant woman and a 3-year-old boy, El Sol de Acapulco reported, accompanied by graphic images.
They were killed along with a man and two other women in an early Wednesday morning attack on a "humble house" in a low-income neighborhood called Colonia Ampliacion 5 de Mayo, the newspaper said. At least 12 other people have been killed in Acapulco since Sunday.
In Mexico City, seen as a relative haven from the drug-related violence that besets many other regions of the country, 12 people were killed in the metropolitan zone on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Four men were shot to death during a neighborhood street festival in the populous borough of Iztapalapa on Tuesday afternoon.
In Colonia Country Club, an upper-class neighborhood in the Coyoacan district, one suspected criminal was killed in a gunfight when federal authorities served a search warrant on a house. The federal prosecutor's office said two Colombians and one Israeli were arrested, but they were not identified.
Early Wednesday, the owner and five employees of a bar in the suburb of Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl were slain by armed men, reports said.
The Mexico City tabloid La Prensa reported that a local crime group that calls itself "The Business" killed the six victims because the bar, La Pachangona, would not pay an extortion fee.
Later, a real estate businessman was gunned down as he left his offices in the middle-class central district of the capital. Jaime Quiroz Gutierrez, 59, was shot three times on New York Street in Colonia Napoles as his two bodyguards watched, some reports said.
With a population of 20 million spread over the Valley of Mexico, the capital's enormous size often means multiple violent attacks can have little effect on daily life, yet the drug war has not been absent from the urban zone.
Scores have been killed in Mexico City and the neighboring state of Mexico since the government's offensive against cartels began in December 2006, official figures show (link in Spanish). Violence against women has surged in the state recently governed by President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto, The Times reported.
President Felipe Calderon told the National Security Council on Aug. 2 that drug-related homicides had dropped nationally in the first half of the year over the same period last year by 15%. Homicides overall have dropped 7%, Calderon said.
The federal government's drug war death toll remains tallied only until September 2011, at 47,515. Peace activists and some independent analysts say the toll now surpasses 60,000, with at least 10,000 missing.
Other grim stories were circulating in Mexico on Thursday. Four women were found tortured and strangled to death in the northern city of Torreon. In the western state of Sinaloa, armed men killed seven ranchers on Wednesday.
Smoke never settles in L.A. fight over pot shops
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Smoke never settles in L.A. fight over pot shops
Posted: Thursday, August 9, 2012 8:49 pm
By Peter Hecht, Sacramento Bee
LOS ANGELES -- Five years ago, the Los Angeles City Council thought it had reined in an explosion of pot businesses across this sprawling metropolis with a moratorium against new medical marijuana dispensaries.
Now L.A., with 762 documented dispensaries and scores more thought to be operating under the radar, has approved an outright ban on storefront marijuana providers. The city also enacted a controversial plan for medical marijuana users to grow their own pot.
But many question whether Los Angeles -- where Snoop Dogg blazes a fatty joint in ads for "free bong hits" at Hollywood's KushMart and City Compassionate Caregivers near downtown invites patrons to "medicate" in its 3-7 p.m. "happy hour" -- has finally figured out how to control its marijuana landscape.
While hundreds of dispensaries have closed elsewhere in California amid local crackdowns, federal raids and threats of prosecution, the City of Angels flutters in an alternative cannabis universe.
Los Angeles has become the morality play for medical marijuana and a failure of city regulation. It has lost key court rulings in favor of dispensaries and in some cases failed to enforce local standards that withstood legal challenges.
After its ineffectual 2007 moratorium, the city in 2010 passed a medical marijuana ordinance setting a limit of 186 dispensaries. Scores of stores shuttered, and the city threatened legal actions against 450 others that refused to close. But then a judge's order froze the ordinance. And another city effort to stem pot operations -- holding a lottery to set a limit of 100 dispensaries -- drew a slew of lawsuits.
Even as Los Angeles won in court -- such as a 2011 ruling affirming the city's right to restrict dispensaries -- it failed to stop new pot clubs from opening, often with retail licenses not specifying that they sold.
Los Angeles was one of the last major cities in California to try to tackle the spread of cannabis outlets, which now flourish in much of the city. As many as 250 dispensaries sprouted on Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley. Pot leaf signs greet traffic on Melrose Avenue near Hollywood.
Councilman Jose Huizar, who represents Rodriguez's East Los Angeles district, led the move for the dispensary ban. He argued the city had dithered too long, creating an intractable challenge.
"If we wait any longer" to close stores en masse "we will continue to chase our tail," Huizar said.
The City Council voted 14-0 last month to ban dispensaries and use some of the $2.5 million the city has collected in voter-approved medical marijuana taxes to mail closure orders to cannabis clubs and pursue legal actions to shutter them.
Advocates say there are hundreds of thousands of medical marijuana users within the Los Angeles city limits. Under the ban, they can cultivate or share cannabis in groups of three or fewer people. The city plan will let hospices, home health care agencies and primary caregivers provide marijuana to sick people who have a doctor's recommendation. It's not clear who would grow that marijuana.
Councilman Dennis Zine, who championed the city's 2010 dispensary ordinance, wonders whether Los Angeles can succeed in its latest attempt to rein in its teeming cannabis industry.
"Whichever way we go," Zine said, "there will be another cycle of lawsuits."
The city's latest efforts come amid continuing confusion over the rights of local governments and marijuana providers. While medical marijuana has been legal in the state since 1996, state legislators have provided only vague guidelines on how it can be distributed.
The state Supreme Court is reviewing four cases involving conflicting local ordinances in cities that have sought to license or ban dispensaries.
Meanwhile, California's four U.S. attorneys charge that marijuana outlets are profiteering in violation of both federal and state laws. In counties across the state, including Sacramento, U.S. authorities have raided dispensaries or scared hundreds out of existence with letters threatening landlords with prosecution.
Contact reporter Peter Hecht at phecht@sacbee.com.
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The move comes in the wake of Horne’s formal legal opinion that the state cannot legally permit anyone to sell marijuana, even only to those who have a doctor’s recommendation to use the drug. Horne said as long as the drug remains illegal under federal law, the state is powerless to authorize anything to the contrary.
But the governor said Thursday she does not intend to block Health Director Will Humble from continuing the process of issuing state permits. And Humble, who conducted a lottery Tuesday to see who gets to serve each of the 126 health districts in the state, said the first of those shops could be open by the end of the month.
The issue arises because the Attorney General’s Office represents all state agencies. That means it would be up to Horne’s lawyers to defend the Department of Health Services in any legal proceeding challenging its actions.
“I gave him a waiver and put kind of a wall between Mr. Horne and myself so that he could represent this position and he could still represent me with other attorneys on the other side,” Brewer said.
Horne said this arrangement will allow one of his deputies to continue to provide legal advice to Humble even as he personally pursues a court order declaring the dispensaries preempted by federal law.
But he insisted this won’t create a situation where he will be facing off in court against one of his deputies.
Horne said he intends to legally intervene in a legal fight between Maricopa County and the owner of a clinic that wants to open a marijuana dispensary in Sun City. That has been thwarted because the board of supervisors, acting under advice of County Attorney Bill Montgomery, refused to provide the necessary zoning certification.
The attorney general figures that could become a test case for the larger issue of whether government agencies can process requests to do something that remains a crime under federal law. By extension, that would require a judge to decide if federal law trumps the provisions of the 2010 voter-approved Arizona Medical Marijuana Act which specifically authorizes people with certain ailments to possess the drug and those licensed by the state to sell it to them.
“The health department isn’t taking a position,” Horne said, meaning that his office won’t have someone representing the agency at the hearing to defend the legality of the dispensaries even as he works to shut them down.
And he said the fact that the health department is going ahead with the licensing of the dispensaries does not mean it believes operation of the outlets is legal.
“They’re proceeding right now because that’s their duty,” he said.
Brewer pointed out that she had some concerns about the legality of the dispensaries and specifically whether state health workers who process the licenses could be charged with violating the federal Controlled Substances Act for “facilitating” others to obtain the drug. She even had ordered Humble not to process the applications.
“I took it to court and I was ruled against, (with a judge) saying that I had to implement the law,” Brewer recalled Thursday. “So we moved forward under the direction of the court.”
But the governor said Horne and Montgomery remain free to try to shut down the dispensaries anyway.
“If they believe they have a reason to think they can get that overturned, they have that right and privilege to do that,” Brewer said. “But in the meantime we have and will continue to move forward until we hear differently.”
The fact that Horne is joining forces with Montgomery in the Sun City case does not mean he shares all of the county attorney’s views about how far Arizona can go with its medical marijuana law.
Montgomery said he believes all portions of the law are preempted, including the ability of the health department to issue cards entitling those with a doctor’s recommendation to obtain up to 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana every two weeks. The county attorney said he hopes to get a ruling which would allow him to advise police officers that they are free to arrest those who possess marijuana even if they have a state-issued card.
Horne, in his formal legal opinion, said he does not believe that the Controlled Substances Act prevents the state from issuing cards that identify people as medical marijuana users who are exempt from arrest under state drug laws.
“It is beyond Congress’ power to dictate the parameters of state criminal conduct,” he wrote.
Horne said courts are not bound by formal opinions of the attorney general. “But they do treat them with respect,” he said.
If drugs were legal none of these thefts would be occurring.
But since drugs are illegal, that causes the price of drugs to cost hundreds of times what they would if drugs were legal. And of course people steal the drugs because of the huge black market prices they bring.
If drugs were legal a bottle of OxyContin wouldn't cost any more then a bag of onions in a grocery store and people wouldn't be breaking into pharmacies to steal the stuff.
Walgreens strives to foil drug thieves
by David Rookhuyzen - Aug. 10, 2012 09:40 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Walgreens is betting that a few minutes' wait at its pharmacy can stop a drug theft before it happens.
Last week, the drugstore chain activated time-delayed safety cabinets in nearly all its 248 Arizona locations. The cabinets, which take a few minutes to open after being activated by a pharmacist, were installed to stop thefts of controlled medications such as OxyContin and oxycodone.
During the past 12 months, Walgreens had 47 thefts and attempted thefts in the Phoenix area and nine in the Tucson area, said Robert Elfinger, a spokesman for the national drugstore chain.
"We have seen an uptick in Arizona, and we took this step to proactively stop it," Elfinger said.
The tactic has been successful elsewhere. Walgreens installed the cabinets in Washington, Colorado and select regions of Oregon and Tennessee in the past three years and saw an 84 percent decrease in pharmacy thefts in those locations, Elfinger said.
The delay forces would-be thieves to wait, allowing video-surveillance cameras to capture their likeness and giving police time to respond.
Elfinger hopes as word of the safety cabinets spreads, potential thieves will be scared off. The stores have posted signs warning that the time-delayed cabinets are in use, he said.
Officer James Holmes, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department, said pharmacy thefts have been an issue for several years. Usually, they come in spikes as the same group hits multiple locations and sells the medicines on the street.
He said the department is certain the wait time for the cabinets will be a deterrent.
"We believe the whole point of these robberies is to get in and get out as fast as possible," Holmes said.
Holmes said Walgreens is the first store he has heard of to take this step, but he hopes other companies will take similar precautions.
Sgt. Chris Widmer, a spokesman for the Tucson Police Department, said pharmacy thefts are not as prevalent in Tucson as in the Phoenix area.
Widmer also believes the cabinets will be a strong deterrent, and the department believes the signs Walgreens has posted and word of mouth will stop some from even contemplating a robbery, he said.
The Tucson department also agrees with Walgreens' decision to install the cabinets across the state because it expects potential thieves to move to other areas once medications become less available in Phoenix, he said.
Like Holmes, Widmer has not heard of other pharmacies installing the cabinets but says it would be a prudent move after Walgreens' action.
"If (thieves) will move from Phoenix to Tucson, they will move from Walgreens to another pharmacy," Widmer said.
Michael DeAngelis, a spokesman for CVS Caremark, which operates 133 drugstores in Arizona, declined to comment on whether the chain has considered using the cabinets. He said CVS stores have security policies and procedures in place that are regularly reviewed to ensure effectiveness.
Chicago cop whose home was raided is awarded $565,000 in damages
By Annie Sweeney, Chicago Tribune reporter
9:02 p.m. CDT, August 10, 2012
When Chicago police broke into his Austin home with guns drawn and a search warrant, Markee Cooper Sr., a cop himself, and his family could only look on as drawers and closets were searched for crack cocaine based on an alleged informant's tip.
On Friday, a federal jury awarded Cooper and his family $565,000 in damages after finding one officer at fault for a falsified warrant and two others responsible for the illegal 2007 search.
The officer and his wife testified at the trial that their two young sons, Markee Jr., 13, and Zion, 8, were traumatized at seeing their father confront a roomful of cops with guns before kneeling to the living room floor and handing over his badge and weapon.
"It's a horrible experience for a child to see or even think about," Cooper's wife, Sherita, said after the verdict was announced. "I'm just glad that justice was served."
The city of Chicago will have to pay $450,000 in compensatory damages awarded by the seven-woman, three-man jury, said Cooper's attorney, Brendan Shiller. The jury also assessed punitive damages against three of five officers — money they will be responsible for paying, Shiller said.
Officer Sean Dailey, who testified that he secured the warrant based on information from an informant named "Lamar" who told him crack was being sold out of the second-floor apartment in the Cooper's building, was assessed by far the most — $100,000. Sgt. Salvatore Reina was found liable for $10,000 and former Lt. Dennis Ross for $5,000.
Gregory Mitchell, an attorney for the officers, declined comment on the verdict.
The often murky use of confidential informants by police was at the center of the two-week trial.
Cooper's legal team argued that Dailey either made up the informant or was reckless by making no effort to try to verify the tip. They pointed to the sketchy information Dailey initially had about Lamar's background — no last name, phone number or address.
"I think this verdict shows that the informant didn't exist, and he made it up," Shiller said of Dailey. "And if he made up an informant, the city needs a better policy to prevent this from happening again."
The officers' attorneys argued that Dailey played by the rules, informing the Cook County state's attorney's office before going to a judge for the warrant. Dailey testified that the same informant had given him three previous tips that led to criminal charges. That the information turned out to be bad was not intentional, the defense argued.
"That's called, 'I ain't perfect,'" Mitchell said during closing arguments Thursday. "Was it serious? Yes. Was it malicious? No."
Cooper, a nine-year police veteran, is assigned to the department's elite Organized Crime Division, working undercover investigations that often involve getting warrants.
He testified at trial that he thought he was the victim of a home invasion when he first heard someone breaking into his residence, only to find about a dozen plainclothes officers with guns drawn.
asweeney@tribune.com
From this article it sounds like it's time for the cops to begin raising revenue by writing people tickets who go 16 mph in those silly 15 mph school zones.
Also it sounds like the cops are using those silly bicycle traffic laws that nobody obeys as an excuse to stop people on bicycles and run them thru their computer looking for arrest warrants.
On these bicycle stops the cops also use that as a reason to illegally search people looking for drugs.
With school starting, police remind all to pay attention
by Jackee Coe - Aug. 11, 2012 07:34 AM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Not only should returning students be mindful of their classwork, but they, their parents and those on the road nearby should be well-schooled in safety.
With classes back in session, Southeast Valley police encourage drivers, parents and students to pay attention to their surroundings and property.
Police the first few weeks of school have saturation patrols in school zones to reduce collisions with bicyclists, pedestrians and other vehicles. Increases in thefts of bicycles and personal-electronic devices have led police to remind the public to keep a close eye on belongings.
Chandler students returned to school July 23. Tempe, Gilbert and Mesa students returned this week. Students at Arizona State University return Aug. 23.
Tempe Police Chief Tom Ryff said officers see an increase in traffic and property crime at the start of the school year, so partnering with other city departments, school districts, community groups and the Governor's Office of Highway Safety is key for their back-to-school campaigns.
"We just want to make sure that we're out in front of this," Ryff said, "and that we not wait for a tragedy to occur." [Translation from government double speak to English - We are using this as an excuse to raise revenue by writing people tickets for trivial traffic violations]
Drivers must be aware of students walking and riding bicycles near schools, police say.
Collisions involving bicycles and pedestrians have risen in the Southeast Valley. In Gilbert, bicycle collisions increased from 123 in 2009 to 239 in 2011, including one fatality. Pedestrian collisions rose from 27 in 2009, with one fatality, to 32 in 2011, including one fatality.
Fatal collisions in Tempe have decreased from seven in 2009 to one through July 2012, but collisions are on pace to increase from 4,649 to about 4,750 in 2012. Bicycle accidents in Chandler stayed relatively steady from 65 in 2009 to 68 in 2011, but there were already 26 in the first quarter of 2012.
Police said people can avoid collisions by not text messaging, talking on a cellphone or listening to a portable music player while walking or riding a bicycle. [Hmmm... Arizona law makes it illegal for motorists to text and drive, but cops are exempted from the law. Sounds like another one of those double standards where cops don't have to obey the law. For the record I think it is stupid to text or talk on a cell phone while driving a car or bicycle, but just because it is stupid doesn't mean it should be illegal.]
"Your attention is divided when you have your ear buds in your ears and you're facedown texting and you're walking down the sidewalk or down the street," Tempe police Lt. Scott Smith said.
It's imperative that drivers keep an eye out for bicycles and pedestrians, who Chandler police Sgt. Joe Favazzo said usually are "not on the driver's radar at all."
Chandler Detective Seth Tyler said state law requires bicyclists to ride on the road and follow state traffic laws. He encouraged them to stop at all intersections and driveways, and walk their bikes across crosswalks, in which case they are considered pedestrians.
Another issue, officers say, is the growing number of thefts of bicycles and personal electronic devices.
"The biggest property crime we have is bike theft and even though most people would think, 'It's bike theft, it's not the end of the world,' but to a student it's a big lifestyle impact to have their bike stolen," ASU police Assistant Chief Jim Hardina said.
Bicycles often are stolen because they are locked improperly or not locked at all, he said.
Hardina recommended using two locks: a cable lock to loop through both wheels, the frame and onto the bike rack, and a U-lock through the back wheel and frame and onto the bike rack.
It also is important for owners to register bicycles, which serves as a deterrent to would-be thieves. ASU students can register their bikes online at cfo.asu.edu/bike-theft.
Chandler requires all bike owners to register their bikes with the Police Department. They can do so by bringing them to any Chandler police station.
While police departments don't separately track thefts of personal devices, Tempe police Sgt. Josie Montenegro said resource officers constantly take an "overwhelming number" of reports of stolen electronic devices.
"Most of the time they're quick thefts," she said. "Someone just leaves it on a desk for a second and they turn around and the phone's gone."
There's no substitute for vigilance when it comes to personal items, Mesa police Sgt. Anthony Landato says.
Police recommend people record the serial numbers of their bicycles and electronic devices.
Safety tips for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians
For drivers:
• Be very aware of surroundings, especially around schools.
• Follow posted speed limits and no-passing zone signs.
• Wear seat belt.
• Avoid text messaging or talking on a cellphone.
For bicyclists:
• Be aware of surroundings.
• Use bike lanes when provided.
• Cross at crosswalks and intersections, not midblock.
• Wear a Department of Transportation-certified helmet.
• Avoid listening to music or talking on a cellphone.
• Follow the same traffic laws as vehicles.
For pedestrians:
• Be aware of surroundings.
• Cross at crosswalks and intersections, not midblock.
• Avoid listening to music or talking on a cellphone.
Source: Southeast Valley police departments
Bicycle thefts
Chandler
2009: 180
2010: 231
2011: 239
2012 (through May): 108*
Gilbert
2009: 85
2010: 57
2011: 83
2012 (through June): 61
Mesa
2009: 409
2010:462
2011: 515
2012 (through June): 279
Tempe (June through May)
2010: 570**
2011:584**
2012: 603**
Arizona State University (August through July)
2010: 497***
2011: 428***
2012: 488***
Source: Southeast Valley police departments
Walgreens strives to foil drug thieves
As usual government is the cause of the problem, not the solution to the problem.
Chicago cop whose home was raided is awarded $565,000 in damages
Source
Cops using trivial bike traffic laws to search people for drugs
Cops using 15 mph school zones to raise revenue
Cops raising revenue with 15 mph school zone tickets.
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He’s actually worse than that. He’s a lawyer.
Which still puts him ahead of Horne and Montgomery, who are lawyers AND politicians, as well as two men doing everything they can to keep the state from fully implementing the medical marijuana law that -- for a third time -- was approved by voters.
Apparently the top law enforcement officials in the state have solved Arizona’s crime problem and now have time to frighten sick people and threaten those who want to help them.
Most recently, Horne issued a non-binding opinion saying that federal law supersedes Arizona’s medical marijuana law and that allowing marijuana dispensaries to move forward could get people arrested. Not by federal authorities, who have expressed no interest in prosecuting medical marijuana cases, but by Montgomery, who publicly proclaimed that he is prepared to consider prosecuting cases the feds aren’t interested in.
Hurley represents some of the folks who plan to open medical marijuana dispensaries in Arizona.
He told me, “His (Montgomery’s) press conference amounted to fear and intimidation rather than anything new. The county attorney enforces and prosecutes state law, not federal law… So this sort of notion that he’s going to be out there arresting people under state law is just silly.”
Silly, yes.
But also predictable.
The state’s elected officials have been attacking the voter-approved law from the beginning. It began when Gov. Jan Brewer and Horne filed a [frivolous] federal lawsuit, which went nowhere.
Since then there has been hand-wringing and foot-dragging and doom-saying until finally, last week, the state Health Department issued 97 dispensary registration certificates. These were selected by a lottery from among 433 applicants. Each of those potential dispensary owner apparently was unimpressed by the dire predictions of arrest and financial ruin by Horne and Montgomery.
I asked Hurley if he was surprised by the vehemence with which the politicians are fighting implementation.
“It was a little surprising,” he said. “Their stated intention from day one was to try to resolve this in a civil fashion in the courts and that seems to have gone the other way. It’s unfortunate because what they’re going to end up doing is forcing cancer patients into the black market, into back alleys to pick up their medicine.”
Montgomery and Horne want the issue back into the courts.
“If he (Montgomery) is successful in delaying or impeding the dispensary program all he is going to be doing is allowing this unregulated grey market to pop up,” Hurley said. “And patients aren’t protected and growers aren’t protected. The dispensaries offer a safe, legal, complaint way for people to get their medicine and that is what people voted for.”
Horne and Montgomery point to problems with medical marijuana in California and Colorado.
“Arizona is more like Colorado than California,” Hurley said. “California has no specific state law that authorizes dispensaries … But unlike any state in the nation we strictly limited the number of dispensaries we have. And the regulations people had to go through here to get a license were much steeper than other places. Our model, our law, is better than anyone else’s so far and should be allowed to work the way it was designed.”
He added, “Besides, even in California, where there is a lot of uncertainty, these notions that the sky is going to fall just don’t hold up. You talk to LAPD, you talk to Denver PD, you look at the studies by the Rand Corporation and there is absolutely no statistical increase in crime associated with medical marijuana. Period.”
Trying to keep Arizona’s medical marijuana law from taking effect isn’t about crime, however. It’s about politicians who hate the idea of medical marijuana so much they are trying to override the will of voters. Or are they?
After all, the same voters who approved the marijuana initiative elected Brewer, Horne and Montgomery.
A fact that lends itself to a question I’ve heard from many out-of-state colleagues: “What are you people smoking?’
It's time to end the insane war on drugs and re-legalize ALL drugs!!!!
Cross-country tour to point out the failure of the war on drugs
By Steve Lopez
August 12, 2012
SAN DIEGO — If there is a more profound and costly failure than the war on drugs, it hasn't come to my attention.
In Mexico, an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 people have been killed or have disappeared since 2006, as drug cartels wage bloody battles in the lucrative business of feeding demand north of the border.
In the United States, billions of dollars are spent annually to arrest, prosecute and incarcerate people for drug crimes, with little or no effect on either supply or demand.
We don't have as many fresh graves in the U.S., but we've got some staggering losses of our own.
"We're losing our kids here, too," said activist and mom Gretchen Burns Bergman, to addiction, to prison and to death by overdose.
Bergman's living room in suburban San Diego is a command center and clearinghouse for information on Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing, Families to Amend California's Three Strikes, and Grief Recovery After Substance Passing. Both of Bergman's grown sons have served time for nonviolent drug crimes, and she invited five other working, middle-class moms with stories of addiction and loss.
Today, all of them will be speaking at the kickoff of a cross-country tour whose aim is to reform drug policy on both sides of the border. They'll be telling their stories along with Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, who lost his son to drug violence last year and will lead the caravan toWashington, D.C.
When the women told me they'll each have only one minute to tell their story at the rally, I wondered how they could possibly pull that off. They could each speak for hours about promising young lives that went off track, about the sleepless nights spent worrying, and about the pain of watching a child slip away despite their best efforts. And as I heard these stories from solid citizens, I was reminded that this could happen to any of us.
"This is not a disease of bad parenting," said Bergman, but that's often how it's judged.
Shawn Norton, a behavioral sciences student, said her daughter Candice "was an all-star softball player, and she was supportive of her younger sisters and brothers. But as soon as she started to experiment with drugs, something changed within her."
After several years of drug abuse and incarceration, Candice died of organ failure. She was 18.
Diane Pierce, who works in medical transcription, said her son was "a typical kid growing up" but had begun experimenting without her knowledge. She got a call from school one day informing her he appeared to be high.
Pierce scolded him, pulled for him, loved him, got tough with him, pushed him out of the house when she thought that might help. "My every waking moment was spent trying to help him get better."
She got a call one day. Better come fast, she was told.
Pierce drove to her son's apartment, knowing he'd relapsed and trying to buck herself up for another tour of duty.
"I parked the car, I see his friends outside. People are crying. I'm still marching past them, angry at this point, and that's when the sheriff told me."
Her son was dead.
"He'd just turned 20," said Pierce.
After the women had all spoken, Elizabeth Stewart, a registered nurse, turned to Pierce and said:
"I know you've lost your child, but I feel like I've lost mine, too. Because he's never coming home for Christmas."
Why not? Because her 25-year-old son is serving 70 years as a three-strikes offender despite committing what she called nonviolent crimes that stemmed from his addiction.
Why, asked Bergman, must we treat nonviolent drug use as a crime rather than a health issue? Why do we spend billions trying to cut off the supply despite no evidence that such a thing is possible? And why are we wasting precious resources going after marijuana that could be better spent on drug education and treatment?
The moms said their children had made bad choices, fueled in some cases by mental health issues. But once you've been kicked out of school or arrested, it's hard to rebuild your life.
"There's so much money in the prison system and criminal justice system," Bergman said. "They're so well-organized to scoop people into their big nets. But healthcare is so disjointed and parents and families have to mortgage their homes" to pay for drug treatment.
In Mexico last year, the poet Sicilia made a declaration after his son's murder. Loosely translated, he said:
"We've had it."
Sicilia said his son, 24, was asked by five friends to go with them to a bar to retrieve some items stolen from their car.
The bar was run by narco-traffickers, said Sicilia, and his son and five friends were murdered.
"My son was an extraordinary person," Sicilia said Friday in an email to me, "hard-working, brimming with a sense of humor and in love with life."
Sicilia has led a call for policy changes on both sides of the border, arguing that economic and human investment in Mexico makes more sense than continued militarized attacks on cartels. As for the trip across the U.S., Sicilia said, "the goal is to provoke the conscience of American society as to the role it has in this war and the necessity that we work together for peace."
On Monday, the caravan will be on Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sicilia is scheduled to be there, a cross-border messenger representing a lost son and letting out a cry for the San Diego moms and all the others, too.
"We've had it."
steve.lopez@latimes.com
Cross-country tour to point out the failure of the war on drugs
The only people that are winners in the insane "War on Drugs" are the government bureaucrats who run it and the cartels that sell us the drugs at outrageous black market prices.
Well the pot won't kill you but cops who are brainwashed to hate marijuana smokers will kill you like they murdered Darrius Kennedy in New York City.
After the cops murdered Darrius Kennedy they demonized him as they always do to people they kill. The cops told the media that Darrius Kennedy was a big time criminal who had been arrested 7 times for marijuana possession.
Wow, that terrifies me. Not not that Darrius Kennedy had been popped 7 times for smoking pot, but that the police will murder a person for the victimless crime of smoking marijuana.
In NYPD shooting, many witnesses follow the chase
Aug. 12, 2012 02:54 PM
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Lincoln Rocha had just taken some photographs of his wife while they visited crowded Times Square on a hot summer day when he saw a man nearby start to back away from police officers who were talking to him.
When they reached out to try to grab hold of the man, Rocha said, "He just went for his knife." The officers went for their guns, and Rocha went for his camera.
"When I saw the officers draw their guns, I was sure they would kill him," the Brazilian tourist said Sunday, the day after the man, 51-year-old Darrius Kennedy, was shot to death by police, who said he had lunged at officers with the 11-inch (28-centimeter) kitchen knife.
"If they're going to kill him, I want to take some pictures, I want to record it," Rocha said.
Kennedy was smoking marijuana near the military recruiting station in Times Square about 3 p.m. Saturday when officers first approached, police said. It was the beginning of an encounter that would stretch for seven of the most crowded blocks in New York City in midafternoon and end a few minutes later with 12 gunshots and many witnesses.
As officers spoke to Kennedy, he became agitated, pulled out the knife and began to put a bandanna on his head, police said. He ignored repeated orders to drop the knife and began backing away from them, continuing for blocks as he waved the knife and drew many officers into a slow-speed pursuit that itself lured onlookers.
Rocha said the unusual scene was the first time he had ever seen anything like it in any of his several visits to New York City.
"You see something like this, you want to record it," he said. And in Times Square, crowded with countless tourists, street vendors and New Yorkers, many others apparently felt the same way.
Though Rocha stayed put, held back by his wife's insistence, the others following the chase pulled out cellphones to capture footage and, in some cases, offer commentary.
"They're going to shoot you, boy," a man's voice is heard yelling on a video that an onlooker provided to The New York Times.
Numerous officers can be seen going down the street in another video on the website of the New York Daily News.
According to the police, officers pepper-sprayed Kennedy six times but he held onto the knife throughout, wiping the spray off his face. Finally, he lunged at police and two officers shot him in the torso, police said.
In one video segment, police cars with sirens blaring pull up as gunshots are heard. Officers moved quickly to corral onlookers.
Kennedy was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.
Rocha acknowledged that it made a difference that Kennedy was only holding a knife, and that there were so many officers on scene.
"If it was a gun, a revolver, I don't know that people would stay there and take pictures," he said.
"I just stayed because I saw he was holding a knife," Rocha said. "I was behind the officers, I knew he couldn't reach me."
Kennedy, who lived in Hempstead, New York, and was a native of South Carolina, had been arrested 10 times, including seven for marijuana possession, police said. In 2008, he was taken to a hospital for observation after knocking down garbage cans in Times Square.
Officials Defend Fatal Shooting of a [pot smoking] Man Near Times Square
It's interesting that the New York Times didn't even mention that the man the police murdered was accused of the victimless crime of smoking marijuana.Officials Defend Fatal Shooting of a Knife-Wielding Man Near Times Square
By PATRICK McGEEHAN
Published: August 12, 2012
The New York police officers who fatally shot a knife-wielding man after he escaped arrest near Times Square did what they were trained to do, city officials and experts on police procedure said Sunday.
The confrontation occurred on Seventh Avenue.
Two officers fired 12 shots at the man, Darrius H. Kennedy, after he ignored their orders on Saturday to drop the long kitchen knife he had been waving as he skipped backward down Seventh Avenue, frightening the tourists wandering around on a summer day, police officials said. At least seven of those bullets hit Mr. Kennedy, including three shots to the chest, the police said.
Raymond W. Kelly, the police commissioner, said that he thought “the police responded appropriately” and that the number of rounds the officers fired was not unusual. Police officials said officers tried six times to subdue Mr. Kennedy with pepper spray, without effect. None of the officers at the scene had Tasers or other stun guns, the police said.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg agreed with Mr. Kelly, saying the officers “probably acted in responsible ways” in trying to stop “somebody who must have been mentally deranged.” He added that “taking a knife and going after other people, particularly police officers, isn’t something that a sane person would do.”
Police officials said they did not know whether Mr. Kennedy, 51, had a history of mental troubles. But they said that in October 2008, he was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center for a psychiatric evaluation after he was found knocking over garbage cans in Times Square. Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said he did not know the results of that evaluation.
A month later, in November 2008, Mr. Kennedy was arrested near Lincoln Center after he threatened to harm police officers with a screwdriver when they tried to stop him from harassing drivers on Broadway, Mr. Browne said. He was sentenced to 40 days in jail for resisting arrest.
Mr. Kennedy had not had any run-ins with the New York City police since then, according to Mr. Browne. He said the police believed that Mr. Kennedy had been unemployed but did not know where he had been living. The last known address for him was in Hempstead, on Long Island.
Marcus Bryan, 27, who sells self-produced CDs in Times Square, said he had spoken several times to the man who was shot on Saturday, though he did not know his name. He said the man would dress up as a ninja, in black clothing with a black mask, and do back flips for tips.
Keith Watson, 31, who was selling tickets to a comedy club, also identified the man who was shot as “the Times Square ninja,” but did not know his name. “He’s never had an actual blade before,” Mr. Watson said. “It was a play sword. He’s a regular here.”
An aunt of Mr. Kennedy’s, Mary Johnson, said by phone that she had not noticed anything out of the ordinary when her nephew visited her home in Hempstead in June. She said he had been living in Manhattan in recent years, doing odd jobs like cleaning buildings.
Ms. Johnson was critical of the police. “This could have been handled in a different way,” she said. “It doesn’t take 12 or 15 bullets to kill a horse, so it wouldn’t take that many to kill a person.”
But Charles H. Ramsey, commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department, said officers were trained to aim for “center mass,” not the limbs of a suspect, when using deadly force.
“You can’t just sit and watch people get hacked to death or have an officer get slashed,” Mr. Ramsey added.
The episode — bizarre even by the standards of Times Square — sent tourists running for cover (or their cellphone cameras), but nobody other than Mr. Kennedy was in danger of being shot, Mr. Browne said. He said that no police officers or civilians were in the line of fire when the two officers shot their 9-millimeter pistols from close range.
By that point, the police had backed Mr. Kennedy up to the entrance of an office building on Seventh Avenue near 37th Street and had hemmed him in with a patrol car parked perpendicular to the sidewalk, Mr. Browne said. The two officers in that car jumped out and ordered Mr. Kennedy to drop his weapon, a nearly foot-long kitchen knife with a six-inch blade.
When he moved within three feet of the officers, still holding the knife, the police said, they let loose a burst of bullets, drawing gasps from the rapt witnesses. Some of them had trailed the police down the avenue, capturing the drama in photographs and video.
One officer fired nine shots, and the other fired three, Mr. Browne said. He added that neither officer previously fired a weapon in the line of duty.
Wendy Ruderman, Michael Schwirtz and Kate Taylor contributed reporting.
Deputy Maricopa County attorney faces ethics claims
Bar ethics complaint filed against Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Peter Spaw
I suspect that if Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Peter Spaw allowed bogus criminals charges to be filed against powerful Arizona judges and Maricopa County Officials that he also allow bogus charges to be filed against other people.Sadly I suspect that Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Peter Spaw won't be punished for his crimes, other then getting a token slap on the wrist.
Deputy Maricopa County attorney faces ethics claims
by Michelle Ye Hee Lee - Aug. 13, 2012 09:42 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
A state Bar ethics complaint has been filed against Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Peter Spaw containing charges of ethical misconduct stemming from his role in prosecuting a 2010 federal racketeering suit.
The complaint does not specify what sanctions might be sought against Spaw.
In the complaint, the Independent Bar Counsel alleges that even though Spaw knew a racketeering suit brought against retired judges and county officials was not viable, he nonetheless helped former County Attorney Andrew Thomas and a deputy, Rachel Alexander, prepare the suit. The details of Spaw's role came to light during testimony in ethical-misconduct hearings for Thomas, Alexander and another former Thomas deputy, Lisa Aubuchon.
The complaint blames Spaw for failing in his duties as Alexander's supervisor.
This is the fourth Bar complaint against county prosecutors relating to the racketeering suit. Thomas and Aubuchon were disbarred this spring for pursuing the suit and other prosecutions against county officials, supervisors and judges. Alexander was suspended for six months and a day.
Dozens of 'innocent' prisoners could be freed
You will always hear the cops and prosecutors telling us that the American Criminal InJustice system is prefect and that they would rather have 100 guilty people go free before allowing one innocent person to be falsely convicted and jailed.That is 100 percent BS and this article seems to verify that.
Sadly the way prosecutors and cops operate is they would rather have 100 innocent people railroaded for crimes they didn't commit if that prevents one guilty person from going free.
Dozens of 'innocent' prisoners could be freed
By Brad Heath, USA TODAY
Dozens of federal prisoners who are locked up even though prosecutors concede they are "legally innocent" could soon be released under new orders from the U.S. Justice Department.
Neither Justice Department lawyers nor defense attorneys would speculate Monday how many innocent prisoners eventually might be released.
The department confirmed Monday that it had instructed its lawyers to abandon legal objections that could have blocked — or at least delayed — the inmates from being set free. In a court filing , the department said it had "reconsidered its position," and that it would drop its legal arguments "in the interests of justice."
The shift follows a USA TODAY investigation in June that identified more than 60 people who were imprisoned for something an appeals court later determined was not a federal crime. The investigation found that the Justice Department had done almost nothing to identify those prisoners — many of whom did not know they were innocent — and had argued in court that the men were innocent but should remain imprisoned anyway.
Neither Justice Department lawyers nor defense attorneys would speculate Monday how many innocent prisoners eventually might be released. Some who were convicted of other crimes might receive shorter sentences; others might be tried for different offenses.
Chris Brook, the legal director of the ACLU of North Carolina, called the move "an encouraging first step," but said "much more has to be done for these wrongly incarcerated individuals." He said the department still had not offered to identify prisoners who were sent to prison for something that turned out not to be a federal crime.
Federal law bans people from having a gun if they have previously been convicted of a crime that could have put them in prison for more than a year. In North Carolina, however, state law set the maximum punishment for a crime based in part on the criminal record of whoever committed it, meaning some people who committed crimes such as possessing cocaine faced sentences of more than a year, while those with shorter records face only a few months.
For years, federal courts there said that didn't matter. If someone with a long record could have gone to prison for more than a year, then all who had committed that crime are felons and cannot legally have a gun, the courts maintained. But last year, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals said judges had been getting the law wrong: Only people who could have faced more than a year in prison for their crimes qualify as felons. Its decision meant thousands of low-level offenders are not committing a federal crime by having a gun.
In many cases, prosecutors did not dispute that prisoners convicted of gun possession before that decision were innocent, but argued that they should remain locked up because of strict laws that limit when and how inmates can challenge their convictions. The department's new instructions directed prosecutors to drop those arguments.
Justice spokeswoman Adora Andy said the department had "decided to take a litigating position designed to accelerate relief for defendants in these cases who, by virtue of a subsequent court decision, are no longer guilty of a federal crime." She declined to elaborate on the details of the department's instruction. In at least one case on Monday, the government asked a court to set aside a defendant's gun possession conviction.
The shift was met with cautious praise Monday from defense lawyers scrambling to file challenges based on the court's ruling. Eric Placke, an assistant federal public defender in Greensboro, N.C., said it was "an appropriate response, a fair response, by allowing things to be handled on the merits rather than based just on procedural defenses."
One of those prisoners, Travis Bowman, said in an e-mail that he was hoping for "another chance at life" if his gun possession conviction is overturned. Bowman was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm; he was arrested after a high-speed police chase through rural Murphy, N.C. Under the appeals court's ruling, his prior convictions weren't serious enough to make having a gun a crime.
Bowman said he didn't know he was innocent until USA TODAY contacted him earlier this year. He later asked a federal judge in North Carolina to release him. "If that happens, I got so much stuff I wanna do with my life," he said.
Many of the practical effects of the Justice Department's new instructions remained unclear on Monday.
The legal issue underlying the gun possession cases could also have implications for many other federal inmates. That's because a person's felony record plays a key role in deciding how long a prison sentence he will receive when he's convicted of a federal crime. Hundreds of inmates have already gone to court arguing their prison sentences are too long because at least one of their prior convictions no longer qualifies as a felony under the appeals court's decision.
The ACLU, which last week asked Justice officials to do more to help the inmates, estimated last week that as many as 3,000 people could be eligible to either be released or have their sentences reduced. because of the 4th Circuit's decision. The department did not say on Monday whether it would also drop its legal objections in those cases.
TSA 'chat-downs' investigated at Boston's Logan airport
Read on for some good reasons on why you should always take the 5th and NEVER talk with cops for any reason.The cops will use anything you say against you and these TSA thugs were jerking people around based on the answers they gave to innocent questions.
TSA 'chat-downs' investigated at Boston's Logan airport
By Bart Jansen, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security is investigating complaints from airport security officers that the "chat-down" program at Boston's Logan airport has become a magnet for racial profiling.
The Transportation Security Administration said Monday that the department's inspector general will examine the complaints that Middle Easterners, Hispanics and blacks have been targeted in the program. The New York Times reported Sunday that 32 TSA officers at Logan made the complaints.
The chat-down program at Boston and Detroit airports is at the fore of TSA's effort to focus security on the riskiest passengers, rather than treating all travelers the same.
Under the year-old program, officers pose casual questions to all passengers before they screen their carry-on bags to look for deception or hostility that could lead to more interrogation.
The Times reported that officers say their co-workers were targeting minorities, thinking that the stops would lead to the discovery of drugs, outstanding arrest warrants and immigration problems in response to pressure from managers.
"If any of these claims prove accurate, we will take immediate and decisive action to ensure there are consequences to such activity," the TSA said in a statement. "Profiling is not only discriminatory, but it is also an ineffective way to identify someone intent on doing harm."
Chat-downs, as opposed to physical pat-downs of passengers, grew from TSA's behavioral-detection program, which fields 3,000 officers to look for suspicious people at airports nationwide.
Chat-down questions — Are you traveling alone? Where did you stay when you were here? — may seem innocuous, but the TSA says its goal is to detect behavior such as lack of eye contact or fidgeting that could signal a possible terrorist or criminal. If a passenger refuses to answer the questions, TSA will search their carry-on bags.
The TSA says its programs are designed to comply with civil rights policies of the departments of Justice and Homeland Security. The agency says officers "are trained and audited to ensure referrals for additional screening that are based only on observable behaviors and not race or ethnicity."
Critics in Congress such as Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., who chairs the Transportation Committee, have been skeptical that security officers can be trained to spot such subtle behavior, however, and some have urged an end to the program.
Rep. Bill Keating of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee's oversight subcommittee, called for a hearing to investigate the complaints.
"There is no place for racial or ethnic profiling in our security policies, period," Keating says. "These are serious accusations that urgently need to be investigated."
Mushroom growers switch to pot???
Italian police follow their noses to Rome's biggest marijuana bust
Source
Italian police follow their noses to Rome's biggest marijuana bust
August 14, 2012 | 7:42 am
ROME -– Led by the unmistakable smell of pot, Italian authorities stumbled across the biggest marijuana-plant cultivation site ever discovered in Rome –- right below the vaults of the Bank of Italy.
On the outskirts of the Eternal City, where the ruins of ancient aqueducts stand next to dilapidated warehouses, officers out on a routine patrol Monday detected the odor of marijuana rising from an air duct of an underground tunnel, according to a statement by the Guardia di Finanza, or financial police. The officers followed their noses to a metal door that opened on to what appeared to be a subterranean mushroom-growing business.
But after pushing aside a few bricks of a false wall, the agents stepped into a 43,000-square-foot tunnel filled with marijuana plants in various stages of growth, dozens of halogen lights to help them along and advanced climate-control, irrigation and fertilization systems, police said.
The ostensible mushroom growers had in fact been cultivating 750 pounds of pot, worth about $3.7 million, police said. Rome's record heat this summer had given rise to the distinctive aroma that tipped off authorities.
The owner of the mushroom-growing business was arrested and police are investigating possible connections to organized crime. Authorities are also looking for people who may have worked in the tunnel.
News reports said part of the underground hot house was located just beneath vaults belonging to the Bank of Italy, the country's equivalent of the U.S. Federal Reserve. The marijuana plot was inside a tunnel built in the 1930s as part of a subway project ordered by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The advent of World War II halted work, and the tunnel was abandoned.
That's what Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk is doing to shake down people who use or sell legal recreation drugs.
What's next??? Will County Attorney Sheila Polk declare "Gays", "Negros" or "Jews" a public nuisance??? Hitler used that excuse to get rid of the Jews and Gays in Nazi Germany.
My advice to Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk is to stop shaking down people that are involved in victimless crimes and go after real criminals that hurt people like robbers, rapists, muggers, burglars and murderers!
Legal tactic could succeed
Aug. 15, 2012 12:00 AM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Designer drugs are a highly adaptable enemy. But the top Yavapai County prosecutor is showing a nimbleness that could give public safety an edge. If this new strategy works, it will be a powerful tool to stop the legal sale of very dangerous substances.
County Attorney Sheila Polk won a temporary ban on the sale of unsafe, but legal, drugs by calling them what they are: a public nuisance.
Polk filed a lawsuit naming all known stores that sell the synthetic drugs in the county. She won a temporary restraining order last week that banned those stores from selling what Judge Patricia Trebesch of Yavapai County Superior Court recognized as "a serious and ongoing health hazard."
Two days of hearings with the retailers and property owners begin Thursday. If the injunction against these retailers is made permanent, other counties across the state can use this model to keep dangerous substances from being sold legally.
Marketed in fun-looking packages with benign-sounding names such as "Potpourri" or "Herbal Sachets," these substances produce unpredictable effects on users. Because the chemical formulations of these drugs are changed often, it can be tough for doctors to know how to stop a bad trip.
Use of novelty powders in Yavapai County is straining the resources of emergency medical personnel, threatening public safety and causing great suffering for users and their families.
But Yavapai County is not unique. "What we are experiencing is being experienced across the state," Polk says.
Paramedics, substance-abuse experts and emergency-room doctors were among the more than 100 county residents who signed affidavits as part of Polk's lawsuit. They explained the horrors of novelty powders that are cheap to buy and widely available, often in stores that cater to young people.
The stories are chilling. A 12-year-old girl arrived at the ER numb from her feet to her waist, her blood pressure and heart rate high and her head twitching uncontrollably. A young man, incoherent, hallucinating and violent, was so far gone into what a paramedic called a "severe psychotic episode" that Valium didn't calm him down. He had to be physically restrained in the ambulance.
These novelty powders skirt the law in several ways. First, they are marked "not for human consumption," even though they are clearly intended to be smoked or ingested.
Second, the chemical formula of these drugs can be easily tweaked to evade laws that specifically ban them. Polk says it took only weeks for manufacturers to reformulate their products to evade the 2011 state law against selling "spice," an artificial marijuana, and this year's law banning meth-mimicking "bath salts."
This year, lawmakers rejected a push to grant the Board of Pharmacy the agility to ban new formulations as they emerge. That was a mistake.
Polk found a different tactic to go after substances that can cause anxiety, suicidal thoughts, paranoia, violence, permanent organ damage or death, even in first-time users. If it holds up in court, her strategy will give prosecutors across the state a way to move against a genuine threat to public safety.
Medical marijuana ads under attack in Denver
By By KRISTEN WYATT – 1 day ago
DENVER (AP) — Free joints! Cheap weed! Come on down! Marijuana advertising in Denver can be shockingly aggressive, with psychedelic billboards and sign wavers promoting potent weed and an affordable high.
But in-your-face advertising messages in Colorado's largest city look like they're on their way out after the city council voted 13-0 to ban outdoor advertising for medical marijuana.
The Denver ordinance passed Monday night seeks to curb the city's vibrant and competitive marijuana industry. Council members said the city needs to crack down on the advertising.
"I don't appreciate folks that are out in front of a creepy old van slinging this dope, and they're making this industry look bad," said Councilman Paul Lopez, who voted for the measure. "I'm sick and tired of my neighborhood being overrun by folks who don't respect it."
The advertising ban would apply to billboard, bus-bench and sidewalk sign-twirler advertising. The ordinance doesn't affect print advertising or radio or television ads, but the ads would have to include the disclaimer that pot is "for registered Colorado medical marijuana patients only."
The marijuana industry in Denver was itself deeply divided on the advertising ban, which requires one more vote next week but appears certain to pass.
One Denver group, the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, actively pushed for the advertising ban, saying that unseemly ads give people a bad impression of the industry. Other industry groups, including the influential Cannabis Business Alliance, argued unsuccessfully that the advertising ban goes too far.
"We don't necessarily need sign spinners on the side of the road. But we do need to opportunity to educate," said dispensary owner Cheri Hackett.
Marijuana advertising is a murky area for regulators dealing with an industry whose very existence violates federal drug law. Medical marijuana is illegal to grow and sell, and also illegal to advertise, but regulations vary widely in the 17 states that flout federal drug law and consider pot legal for people with certain medical conditions.
Delaware and Vermont ban marijuana advertising. Montana passed a statewide ban last year, though a judge blocked it from taking effect while a legal challenge is under way.
District Judge James Reynolds, of Helena, ruled that the advertising ban is a First Amendment violation and that "any violation of the right to free speech is an irreparable injury."
Washington state bans physicians from advertising that they recommend the drug. Doctors that violate that state's advertising ban can face sanctions from the state Department of Health.
"A health care professional shall not ... include any statement or reference, visual or otherwise, on the medical use of cannabis in any advertisement for his or her business or practice," Washington law reads.
California and Colorado, two states known for their vibrant marijuana industries, are flush with advertisements for the drug.
A U.S. attorney in San Diego last year vowed to crack down on companies that accept marijuana advertising in violation of federal drug law, but so far there have been no criminal charges brought. The U.S. attorney in Denver has told dispensaries near schools to close or face federal seizure, but he has not addressed advertising for the drug.
A California weekly newspaper that accepts marijuana advertising, the Sacramento News & Review, once published a stand-alone publication devoted entirely to marijuana ads. An editor said the federal saber-rattling scared away some advertisers, but didn't affect the company's intention to accept the ads.
"We're well within our legal and constitutional rights," Sacramento News & Review co-editor Nick Miller said.
Colorado lawmakers have considered but rejected advertising regulations.
Marketers that advise marijuana companies say they're treading lightly. Marijuana marketing is in its infancy, and companies are still tiptoeing around federal threats, said John Nicolazzo of the New York-based Medical Cannabis Network, which provides business services for the medical marijuana industry and owns more than 1,000 marijuana-related Internet domains.
"Our industry has been under constant scrutiny, and advertising is a big part of that," Nicolazzo said. "It does kind of hinder us from going mainstream, to where we want to be."
Nicolazzo said marijuana providers face tighter scrutiny than even alcohol and tobacco sellers, both of which have advertising limits.
"What's the difference between advertising for marijuana or when you go to the gas station and they have sign for $1 off cigarettes? At nightclubs, they're handing out shots. When you try to compare alcohol and tobacco, there's a very thin line."
But even some of marijuana's loudest advocates say advertising the drug is distasteful. Colorado's Lenny Frieling, an attorney and prominent marijuana legalization advocate, said marijuana shouldn't face special limits.
"I don't think any medicines should be advertised, period, end of story. Whether it's medical marijuana or something that will give me an erection for eight hours, I find it all inappropriate," said Frieling, head of Colorado's chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "Ban it all or don't ban any of it, singling out marijuana is just willful ignorance."
Most Denver councilmembers disagreed, saying medical marijuana is a product that merits special limits.
"We are still allowing advertising. We just don't want it in your face," said Denver Councilman Christopher Herndon, who voted for the measure.
Proposed Denver medical-marijuana ad ban set for public hearing
Posted: 08/13/2012 12:01:00 AM MDT
By John Ingold
The Denver Post
A proposal to ban billboard, bus-bench and sidewalk sign-twirler advertising by Denver medical-marijuana dispensaries has pitted the state's two most prominent cannabis trade groups against each other.
On one side is the Cannabis Business Alliance, which denounces the proposal by saying it creates too many uncertainties for the industry.
On the other is the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, which supports the proposed ban by arguing that it is a show of neighborliness for an industry that is not always embraced.
The debate comes to a Denver City Council meeting Monday evening, when there will be a public hearing on the proposed ban.
The proposal would eliminate outdoor medical-marijuana ads in the city, except for signs on the businesses themselves.
Dispensaries would still be able to advertise in newspapers and magazines and would also be able to display their logos on items for charity events they sponsor.
The ban, proposed by council members Christopher Herndon and Debbie Ortega, expands upon a separate proposal by Ortega that would ban outdoor medical-marijuana advertising within 1,000 feet of schools, day cares and parks. That proposal is still alive but is expected to be supplanted by the citywide ban should it survive Monday night.
"I think this is in the best interests of our children across the city," Ortega said of the broader ban.
In making that argument, Ortega has picked up an unlikely ally in the Medical Marijuana Industry Group.
Mike Elliott, the group's executive director, said a citywide ban creates a level playing field for all dispensaries and addresses some of the most persistent complaints that officials receive about dispensaries — advertising that is too in-your-face.
"Because we want to be good community members," Elliott wrote in a statement, "we can make reasonable concessions that satisfy community concerns."
But Kristen Thomson, a spokeswoman for the Cannabis Business Alliance, said the proposed ban's reach isn't clear. She questions, for instance, whether dispensaries would be able to give branded T-shirts or coffee mugs to customers as a reward for loyalty.
And while dispensaries can display their logos at sponsored charity events, could they do the same at sponsored trade fairs or street festivals?
While Thomson said her organization isn't opposed to ad restrictions — the group is supportive of a ban around schools and day cares — the citywide ban, she said, goes too far.
"It's pretty short on specifics," Thomson said, "and for us it leaves many unanswered questions."
John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/john_ingold
Also the city of Tucson didn't include police officers in it's salary list it gave the Star. Cops are vary well paid. In the Phoenix area an entry level cop starts at about $50,000 a year. Higher ranking cops in the Phoenix area routinely make over $100,000 a year. And for most cities, the wages they pay cops are over 50 percent of the cities budget.
Top 1,000 city salaries dwarf area's average pay
192 municipal workers make $100K or more as road bond pends
August 05, 2012 12:00 am • Darren DaRonco and Rob O'Dell Arizona Daily Star
If you feel a tad underpaid in your current job, you may want to consider dropping off an application at the city of Tucson or Pima County.
An Arizona Daily Star review of city salaries last year showed the 1,000th highest-paid employee earned $72,411, which is $37,000 more than the average Tucsonan.
Pima County paid its 1,000th top earner $63,258, about $28,000 more than the average resident pulls down.
Collectively, those top 1,000 city paychecks clock in at $89.4 million, excluding benefits and pensions. For the county, it was $85.3 million.
Tucson pays 192 employees $100,000 or more and spent $22.1 million total on those salaries, or roughly $2 million more than what the city is asking taxpayers to approve for a road repair bond in this November's bond election.
In comparison to similar communities in the region, the Star's analysis shows Tucson trends toward the high side in how much it pays its top workers. Only Mesa showed a higher figure for its 1,000th salaried employee, at nearly $78,000.
The city provided the Star with its own spreadsheet that showed its 1,000th highest-paid employee makes $50,939, but that list did not include any sworn police or fire officials. As with most municipalities, fire and police salaries make up a large portion of the highest-paid employees.
Of the five municipalities reviewed, Tucson spent the most for fire and police - it paid $39 million to 441 police officers and $22 million to 221 firefighters. Pima County paid $22 million for 291 law-enforcement personnel. The county does not offer fire services. The other cities paid between $31 million and $34 million for police and between $18 million and $22 million for fire.
Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said these numbers only represent the top quarter of Tucson employees. If you looked at similar positions around the country, the city's wages would be either comparable or lower, he said.
"If you compare like jobs to like jobs, such as attorney to attorney, engineer to engineer, in similar-sized cities and to the private sector, I think you will see that the employees are not overpaid," Rothschild said. "You are looking at a lot of advanced-degree personnel and senior staff, not the average employee."
In fact, he said, the city loses numerous highly skilled employees each year because it can't match what other cities can pay.
"We regularly lose employees to other cities around the state, to the county and to the private sector because those folks pay more," he said. "There are over 4,000 employees in the city, down over 20 percent from several years ago."
He said talented employees come at a price and those employees are integral to the quality of life in a city.
"I would not want to live in a place where the people responsible for my water, sanitation system, police, fire, and managing the finances of one of the largest organizations in the region are not competitively paid," Rothschild said.
[Translation - I'm a government bureaucrat and I think us government bureaucrats should be well paid!]
Finance Director Kelly Gottschalk said comparing Tucson's pay scales to other cities does not accurately reflect the environment in which the city must compete with other companies for skilled employees.
She said companies like Raytheon, Tucson's health-care industry, the University of Arizona and others consistently lure city workers away with higher pay. She said the city needs to find a way to retain workers, since the work the city performs is vital to a healthy community.
"You just can't take a number and compare it," Gottschalk said. "We are a $1.3 billion corporation. The decisions we make affect people's lives both now and in the future. It's not OK in the environment we are in to start skimping on pay."
She said the top salaries of Tucson police officers are an example of how numbers can be misconstrued. Even though police make up a large part of the top 1,000 paid employees, a recent Arizona League of Cities and Towns survey showed Tucson police are among the lowest paid in the state, just above Yuma.
The city's human resources director, Lani Simmons, said the public needs to weigh in on what kind of services it wants to receive from the city and how much it is willing to pay for quality.
Simmons said most of the jobs that draw a top-1,000 paycheck require college degrees - and those jobs command higher salaries. [Not really. Entry level police officers start at around $50,000 and you don't even need a high school diploma to be a cop in Arizona!]
City Councilwoman Regina Romero said she was surprised by the figures and wonders if residents are getting a good return on their investment. [But don't count on him to vote to reduce the salaries of those over paid bureaucrats who work for the city. He can count on those overpaid bureaucrats voting for him, if he continues to pay them well]
"For me, it's about are you doing your job well," Romero said. "It's about accountability."
She said it's time for City Manager Richard Miranda to take a look at how the city sets its compensation so workers on the lower end of the pay scale are not sacrificing so the top can continue to enjoy high salaries.
"If you are making that kind of money, you need to be accountable to the people of Tucson," she said. "I think the city of Tucson is due for a review of its compensation. We need to do a classification review because one hasn't been done since 2000."
Romero also worries if a well-paid workers protected by civil-service rules are interested in following instructions from poorly paid elected officials on the council.
"Problems occur when bureaucracy doesn't understand the relationship between them and the mayor and council," she said. "If our professionals are being paid well, they need to understand mayor and council set the rules and they have to comply with policy."
[And when they don't they should be fired by the mayor and council, but the mayor and council never fire anybody!]
County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said county salaries are aligned with salaries in similar fields.
"Given our range of professional services in law, courts and medical services where we employ a large number of attorneys, judges and medical professionals, the salary comparisons look reasonable," Huckelberry said in an email. "It should also be remembered county employees have not received a general salary increase for five years."
[Yea, and he forgot to mention that most of those attorneys and judges are used to run the "War on Drugs" which arrests and jails people for the victimless crime of using marijuana or other drugs. Arrests for victimless drug war crimes account for about two thirds of the people in American prisons]
City Councilman Steve Kozachik said the high salaries could raise a red flag for voters this November.
"The message being sent to the taxpayers is that we can pay our workers several times the local median wage, and we also want your tax money to fix the roads. Much as I would like to see the road bonds pass, we just can't get out of our own way and keep making decisions that give people the right to question how we spend their tax money," Kozachik said.
Kozachik said he would like to see the money distributed a little more evenly, so workers on the bottom would see a little more pay each month.
"I voted 'no' on the salary increase because it disproportionately rewards the people at the top end of the salary scale, increases our structural deficit because they'll carry higher pensions into retirement, and ignores the fact that the front-line workers could have had a legitimate increase" if raises had been offered only to employees at the lower end of the pay scale, he said. "It's sort of a Marie Antoinette situation, the rich get richer and the rest can eat cake, if they can afford it."
Contact Darren DaRonco at 573-4243 or ddaronco@azstarnet.com
He is threatening people whole are legally involved in medical marijuana with criminal prosecution. Despite the fact that medical marijuana is 100 percent legal under Arizona law.
If us civilians threatened a group we didn't like with physical violence we would be thrown in jail for assault. Sadly when government tyrants like Bill Montgomery commit crimes like that, they are not prosecuted like us civilians would be.
Source
Montgomery's threats do little
Aug. 16, 2012 12:00 AM
The Republic | azcentral.com
He worries that a combination of cash and drugs will attract criminals. He's concerned that state employees implementing the program are at risk of federal prosecution. He warns that the voter-passed initiative conflicts with federal drug laws, which ban the cultivation, sale and use of marijuana.
His concerns are well grounded. But that doesn't excuse the saber rattling he engaged in last week.
Growing and selling marijuana is illegal, Montgomery said, and neither the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act or the awarding of licenses for dispensaries through a lottery changes that.
"Anyone who received their lucky ball by (the Department of Health Services), if they open a dispensary in Maricopa County, they're subject to prosecution," he said at a news conference. "I intend to enforce the law."
If he had been warning potential dispensary operators that federal drug agents and prosecutors have targeted stores in other states, that would have been one thing. Potential operators already know that.
But he was threatening state prosecution, and that seems an empty threat. It's unlikely any jury would convict a business owner operating under a state license, the possession of which required jumping through multiple and expensive hoops. How could someone operating with state permission be found guilty of violating state law? It just doesn't make sense.
"My statement that they are 'subject to prosecution' is not a guarantee of prosecution," Montgomery told The Arizona Republic on Wednesday. "Law enforcement still has to put a case together for us to review and a reasonable likelihood of conviction is still the charging standard."
Which, translated into the real world, means state charges are highly unlikely. Federal charges may be a different matter, but Montgomery can't control that.
Montgomery's warning made for good TV, but that's all.
His more significant contribution comes in a West Valley case, where a potential pot dispensary wants a court to force Maricopa County to give it zoning verification, which is required to apply for a state permit. In that case, Montgomery is trying to insert the issue that federal law pre-empts the state measure. If he's successful, no dispensary will open anywhere.
There would be complaints that Montgomery and the courts are overruling the will of the people. Voters, though, cannot pass measures that violate constitutional provisions.
Medical-marijuana laws raise issues about federal and state powers. It may be odd for states-right advocates such as Gov. Jan Brewer and Attorney General Tom Horne to now argue that federal law pre-empts a voter-approved state measure, but politics takes odd twists.
And it doesn't change the fact that this is a legitimate question. If federal law prevails, then medical marijuana is dead.
It's better to achieve that result through a substantive court case than by issuing unreasonable threats of prosecution. Montgomery should know the difference.
On the other hand Jan Brewer has a double standard and she says the 10 Amendment doesn't apply to Arizona's medical marijuana law and that the Federal government has a right to declare Arizona medical marijuana law which is Prop 203 null and void.
Brewer bars public benefits for illegal immigrants
by Daniel Gonzalez and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez - Aug. 15, 2012 11:20 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
As young undocumented immigrants on Wednesday celebrated the start of a new federal program allowing them to apply to stay and work temporarily in the United States, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer issued an executive order telling state agencies not to grant driver's licenses to program participants.
Brewer's order, issued late in the day, reiterates that state agencies are required to deny licenses and other public benefits to all undocumented immigrants, even those who gain approval under President Barack Obama's new "deferred action" program.
Wednesday was the first day that as many as 1.76 million undocumented immigrants under the age of 31 nationwide who were brought to this country as minors could begin applying to stay and work in the U.S. for two years. As many as 80,000 in Arizona could be eligible to apply.
Earlier in the day, Maricopa County Community Colleges announced that students who get work authorization through deferred action would be eligible to apply for in-state tuition, but hours later, district officials said they would reconsider the decision because of Brewer's order.
State law currently requires undocumented immigrants to pay out-of-state tuition, which costs significantly more.
"It's really, really disappointing," Dulce Vazquez, 21, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who lives in Phoenix, said about the prospect of still being denied a driver's license.
About 150 to 200 people, many of them undocumented immigrants, marched to the state Capitol on Wednesday night to protest Brewer's order.
"She shattered my dreams today," said Lorenzo Santillan, 24, of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition, one of the protesters.
Members of the coalition said Brewer's order shows the deferred-action program is only a stopgap measure. They said that a more permanent solution is needed, such as the Dream Act, a law that has languished in Congress that would allow undocumented immigrants to eventually gain citizenship if they attended college or joined the military.
"It's a reality check for everyone who thinks deferred action is the best thing out there," said Yadira Garcia, 23, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who lives in Phoenix.
Brewer has been sharply critical of Obama's immigration policies, saying he hasn't done enough to control illegal immigration or secure the border. She has called the deferred-action program "backdoor amnesty."
The program has created confusion in many states unsure how to treat undocumented immigrants who receive deferred action.
White House and Department of Homeland Security officials have repeatedly stated that receiving deferred action does not amount to legal residency or a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, only a chance to stay and work in the U.S. temporarily without fear of being deported.
In her executive order, Brewer essentially said that undocumented immigrants granted deferred action will not be recategorized as lawful residents. The order is intended to cut through some confusion created by the president's program, Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson said.
"As the (DHS) has said repeatedly ... these individuals do not have lawful status," Benson told The Republic. "They are able to remain in the country and not be deported and not be prosecuted, but they do not have lawful status."
Regina Jefferies, a Phoenix immigration lawyer who chairs the Arizona chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said Brewer's order contradicts state law.
She said that deferred action existed before the program started on Wednesday and that there are "many, many" instances in Arizona of immigrants granted deferred action for other reasons who have received licenses.
She said Brewer will likely face a lawsuit.
Brewer's order bars undocumented immigrants who receive deferred action from public benefits that include state-subsidized child care; KidsCare, a children's health-insurance program; unemployment benefits; business and professional licenses and government contracts, Benson said.
Brewer's order does not address tuition to community colleges or the state's universities.
On Wednesday, the Maricopa Community Colleges announced that undocumented immigrants who received work authorization through deferred action would be able to apply for in-state tuition because federal work authorization cards are among the documents that qualify to establish "legal presence" in the state.
But after Brewer's order, colleges spokesman Tom Gariepy said officials were reconsidering the decision.
Carmen Cornejo of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition said thousands of undocumented immigrants dropped out of college when they were forced to pay out-of-state tuition, which at Maricopa Community Colleges is $317 per credit compared with $76 per credit for in-state students.
Attorneys for the Arizona Board of Regents, the governing body that oversees the three state universities, are still analyzing what effect the deferred action could have on tuition, said Katie Paquet, a regents spokeswoman.
Benson, however, referred to a state law stating that those who are not "a citizen or legal resident of the United States or who is without lawful immigration status is not entitled to classification as an in-state student."
"It's illegal," Benson said. "Any public institution that is seeking to grant in-state tuition to these individuals, should beware: It's against the law."
Republic reporter Haley Madden contributed to this article.
Arizona database allows employer to find out if you're a medical marijuana user
Posted: Saturday, August 18, 2012 10:30 am
By Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Service
Think you can show up at work with your clothes reeking of marijuana and get away with it just by saying the doctor told you to inhale?
Think again.
You may not know it, but your boss is entitled to check with the state Department of Health Services to find out if you are, in fact, a medical marijuana user. In fact, the database will even disclose how much marijuana you've bought legally in the last 60 days.
And so far about 170 firms, from small shops through Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold and U-Haul International, have signed up to do just that.
Those same firms also can use the online database to check out the accuracy of claims by job applicants who say they can't pass a drug test -- and don't have to -- because they are legally using marijuana.
There also are dozens of police departments that also are registered users of an online database to verify just who is and is not entitled to possess and smoke the drug. And that means officers can quickly tell if those they have stopped are entitled to have that baggie of Dutch dragon, Maui blue or white widow on the seat next to you.
The database is an outgrowth of the voter-approved 2010 law which allows those who have a doctor's recommendation to obtain up to 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana every two weeks.
But the measure also spells out that employers cannot fire or discipline workers solely because they test positive on a drug test. Organizers admitted they inserted that provision after workers with medical marijuana cards in other states were fired and the courts there ruled they had no right to sue for their jobs back or get damages.
That left employers with lots of questions, including how to determine who is entitled to that protection.
The database actually is part of the original medical marijuana law. It currently contains the names of all the approximately 30,000 individuals who so far have been approved to legally buy, transport, possess and use the drug.
But it initially was designed only to be accessible to police who had stopped someone and by the still-to-be-opened state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries to verify that they can, in fact, sell drugs to the person standing there.
Last year, in a bid to help employers, lawmakers agreed to add them to the list of permitted users. But state Health Director Will Humble said this isn't an invitation for companies to poke around in the private business and health affairs of their workers.
"An employer can't punch in names and push 'enter' and find out if they have (medical marijuana) cards,'' he said.
Humble said the system is set up to deal with a situation where an employee fails a drug test for marijuana but says he or she is entitled to use the drug away from work.
"The employer can sign up, get a password, enter the 20-digit number, and verify the card,'' he said. "But they can't fish.''
Humble said the same restrictions apply to police and dispensaries: They can find out if a card is valid. But they cannot simply look up names.
If anyone had any doubts about the need to protect employees from discrimination, all they need do is ask Esther Shapiro.
Shapiro, a nurse, was required to submit to a pre-employment drug test last year when she was hired at Verde Valley Community Hospice in Cottonwood. She said she informed the supervisor she was a registered medical marijuana cardholder but did take the test.
The following day, according to Shapiro, the supervisor told her the hospice's insurance carrier considered her too much of a liability because of that status, and she was fired.
Her attorney David Weissman said Shapiro never did get her job back. But in what he said is the first case of its kind in Arizona, the hospice did just cut her a check for $5,000.
He said that provided Shapiro a "sense of vindication.''
Weissman conceded that the settlement sets no precedents. And it remains to be seen exactly how far courts will allow employers to go in firing or disciplining those who use marijuana for medical reasons.
There are limits to those protections.
Cardholders would be mistaken if they hope to parlay the protections of the law into an excuse to go outside for a quick hit of their medication. Smoking or otherwise consuming the drug on company property was never allowed in the 2010 initiative.
In fact, the measure also says there is no protection for employees who show up at work "impaired'' by marijuana.
That, however, has been a much grayer area, especially since the original measure never defined exactly what that means.
In a bid to give employers some guidance, attorney David Selden, who represents business interests in labor matters, crafted legislation last year to tighten up that language.
For example, the law now defines "impairment'' as symptoms that someone may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol that may decrease the person's ability to perform the duties assigned. But Selden said any employer who intends to drug test a worker still needs to be careful.
"The main thing is to make sure that the decisions being made are based upon observable symptoms and behaviors,'' he said.
"Maybe they're not coordinated and slothful and really look 'out of it, not something where you think, 'Do I really want to trust this person doing a job that could endanger others?' '' Selden explained. "You do it based upon that condition, not based upon, 'Oh, gee: I smelled marijuana in his clothes.' ''
And that 2011 change also give employers the opportunity to declare certain jobs off-limits to medical marijuana users. It allows companies to designate certain jobs as "safety sensitive.''
Selden said that change covers not just marijuana cardholders but also anyone who may be taking certain prescription medications legally that caution against operating heavy equipment.
Still, employers who never liked the medical marijuana law -- and its personnel action exemptions -- were not able to get everything they wanted last year, even from a Legislature generally considered friendly to business interests.
As originally crafted, the measure would have exempted employers from being sued for taking action if they had a good faith belief that the worker "had consumed (drugs) in the recent past or intended to consume in the near future." That language would even include an employee with a medical marijuana card whose only offense was intending to smoke the drug after going home from work.
Lawmakers removed that language about past or future use.
At the same time they tweaked the language requiring that an employer have information from a "reliable source'' that a worker actually used the drugs at work to say that has to be someone who was an actual witness.
The case sounds a lot like the case where the Phoenix Police accused New York socialite Carol A. Gotbaum of "strangling herself to death" at Sky Harbor Airport, while she was handcuffed to a bench in a holding cell. That also sounds like a police murder.
Police release video in Chavis Carter patrol car shooting case
By Jeannie Nuss, Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Police video recorded the night a young man was fatally shot in a northeast Arkansas patrol car while his hands were cuffed behind his back hasn't resolved questions about whether he shot himself in the head as officers said.
Jonesboro police released footage to The Associated Press and other news organizations under a Freedom of Information Act request this week. They released more footage Friday amid questions about why the first batch of video appeared to end before the officers found Chavis Carter, 21, slumped over and bleeding in the back of a patrol car on July 28 as described in a police report. Police have said officers had frisked Carter twice without finding a gun.
The second batch of video occurred after Carter was discovered, police said.
"There's still nothing in there about what actually happened with Chavis," Benjamin Irwin, a Memphis-based lawyer representing Carter's family, said Friday before the second batch of video had been released.
The internal police investigation into the shooting has not yet been completed. The FBI has said it is also monitoring the case.
Sgt. Lyle Waterworth, spokesman for the Jonesboro police, said Friday morning that he hadn't yet seen the video his department released the night before. Hours later, amid questions about the dashboard camera video, he agreed to release more footage that he said occurred after Carter was discovered.
No other dashboard camera video exists, he said, but additional video was retrieved during a forensic exam of Carter's phone. He said that remains part of the active investigation and wouldn't be released yet.
To explain stops in the video, he said the camera system in both patrol cars is controlled automatically with an emergency light bar and siren system.
"After the light bar is turned off the camera system ends its recording," Waterworth said in a statement. He didn't respond to email and phone messages seeking further comment.
The second batch of video begins as what looks like light from a police car flickers on a stretch of road. A dog barks and a white SUV turns around a little ways down the street.
An unseen man curses shortly after he says, "He was breathing a second ago." An ambulance pulls up and someone, perhaps the same man, says, "I patted him down. I don't know where he had it hidden."
Later, someone instructs the others to leave everything as it is.
The video goes on to show an officer cordoning off the area with police tape. Two people can be seen looking on, but they leave after interacting briefly with an officer.
Carter is not shown in that video.
The first batch of video begins when an officer pulls up to a white pickup truck on a dark street in Jonesboro, about 130 miles northeast of Little Rock. He talks to the driver, Carter and another passenger. Police say the officer stopped the truck after someone reported a suspicious vehicle driving up and down the road.
Another officer arrives and searches Carter, who police say initially gave a different name. The officer doesn't appear to find a gun as he pats Carter down, though something else falls to the ground as the officer shines a flashlight toward Carter.
The officer leads Carter, who is not yet handcuffed, toward the patrol cars and then out of the frame. A police report said Carter was placed in the second patrol car without handcuffs, though the video doesn't show that.
Meanwhile, the other officer searches the driver and remaining passenger, who then stand in front of the first patrol car. The officer who searched Carter asked them where the rest of the marijuana was because he found some on Carter.
The driver and other passenger are handcuffed and led out of the frame, too.
Eventually, they appear without handcuffs and the officers let them leave.
They keep Carter, who had an arrest warrant out of Mississippi. Court records show it had to do with a drug-related case.
The video ends after the truck drives away and the officers talk about leaving.
"See ya later," one of the officers says. It sounds like he opens the car door and then the audio cuts out. The police car's blue lights continue to flash for several seconds, lighting a nearby bush.
Carter was shot in the head, though police have refused to give more specifics.
Police said in a statement that they're still waiting on a complete autopsy report, forensics and toxicology results from the state crime lab.
I wouldn't doubt it. The insane "war on drugs" and "war on terror" keeps getting insaner ever day.
And of course both the "war on drugs" and "war on terror" are really wars on the American people along with being a war on the Bill of Rights.
And of course the "war on drugs" and "war on terror" are also jobs programs for federal, state and local cops.
Border drug enforcers award ultralight-detection-system contract
By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times
August 18, 2012
U.S. border authorities have awarded a $99.9-million contract to a New York-based company to develop a radar system to detect low-flying ultralight aircraft used to smuggle drugs from Mexico.
The solo-piloted aircraft that resemble motorized hang gliders are difficult to detect with conventional radar technology and can carry payloads up to 250 pounds.
The planes fly slowly above areas from San Diego to Arizona, dropping their loads of marijuana before escaping to Mexico. More than 700 incursions, at least two of which occurred over San Diego's Interstate 8, have been reported since the trend began in 2008.
The Department of Homeland Security awarded the contract last week to SRCTec, a defense contractor that specializes in advanced radar systems. It will build nine ultralight aircraft detection systems for about $7 million in the first phase of a deal that includes options to extend for 10 years, said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in an interview with the Syracuse Post-Standard. The systems are to be delivered in February, Schumer said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection monitors the nation's air traffic from the Air and Marine Operations Center at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County. Although largely successful against general aviation smuggling, radar operators have difficulty detecting ultralights. The aircraft fly as low as 500 feet, and their small frames are hard to distinguish from trucks. Many appear, then disappear from radar screens.
Authorities have had some success. The pilots usually fly at night and no longer land on U.S. soil after authorities began responding quickly to off-loading sites. In Arizona, where the vast majority of the flights occur, authorities have arrested at least 36 people in connection with ultralight smuggling, most of them ground crew members who load the dropped marijuana into cars.
richard.marosi@latimes.com
Postal worker purchased drugs while on duty, police allege
August 18, 2012 | 8:57 am
A 47-year-old U.S. postal worker was arrested Friday morning after detectives allegedly observed him purchasing prescription drugs while inside his postal vehicle.
Craig Godshall of Burbank was parked around 9 a.m. near 600 N. Whitnall Highway when Burbank police officers conducting a narcotics investigation saw an alleged sale happening, according to police.
Godshall was wearing his uniform and on duty at the time of the incident, Burbank Police Sgt. Darin Ryburn said.
He allegedly purchased an unknown amount of Vicodin, said Ryburn.
The U.S. Postal Service removed the mail vehicle from the scene. Godshall's bail is set at $10,000 and his arraignment is slated for Sept. 14.
Hear Me Out: Should medical marijuana winners be prosecuted?
Posted: 8:41 AM
“Why [medical marijuana] dispensary operators should be open to prosecution”: By Bill Montgomery, Maricopa County Attorney
The question, as posed, is based on a false premise,
as there is no legal basis for prosecuting anyone simply for winning the DHS lottery,
nor has this ever been a position advocated by my Office.
The real question is whether anyone who opens and operates a dispensary in Maricopa County could be subject to prosecution, and the answer is yes for the following reasons:
1) Acting on the legal advice provided by my Office, Maricopa County is not issuing the necessary zoning certification to dispensary owners which would allow them to obtain a state license to operate. Without this necessary county approval, dispensary operators who open for business are also violating the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act (AMMA). [Sounds like Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery created this problem himself by ordering Maricopa County not to issue the necessary zoning certification. He can fix the problem by letting the county issue the zoning certifications, of course he hates medical marijuana users and would rather prosecute them, then let them legally smoke their pot as Prop 302 allows]
2) More importantly, regardless of whether a dispensary obtains an operating permit, they are in violation of state law prohibiting the possession, use, production, sale or transportation of marijuana (ARS § 13-3405). Such cases will be reviewed for prosecution by the County Attorney’s Office. [That is 100 percent BS!!! These dispensaries are 100 percent legal under Arizona's medical marijuana law which is Prop 203!!! Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery should know that. And if he doesn't he is too stupid to be the county attorney and should resign. Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery is letting his irrational hate for marijuana smokers get in the way of using logic and reason when it comes to Prop 203!]
3) Notwithstanding the first point above, the AMMA is in direct conflict with federal law, specifically the Controlled Substances Act, which prohibits the manufacture, importation, possession, use and distribution of marijuana. Article VI, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution, commonly known as the Supremacy Clause, holds that all state judges must follow federal law when a conflict arises between federal law and state law. [Again more BS from Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery. The 10th Amendment says that any powers not given to the Feds are reserved for the states and the people. Many legal experts say that all the Federal drug laws are unconstitutional because of the 10th Amendment. Of course don't expect the Supreme Court to agree with that!] Acknowledging the legitimacy of the federal Supremacy Clause is not, as some have claimed, an attempt to enforce federal law. It is a recognition of the impact our federal Constitution has on our ability to enforce state laws.
4) Dispensaries that have opened in other states have proven to be magnets for other serious crimes because they provide ready access to two things that many criminals seek: cash and drugs. [First so what! Second this is also true of liquor stores and drug stores like Walgreens! Are you arguing that the state should shut down those stores too? Last this is also true of gun stores too. They have lots of cash, and while they don't have drugs they do have guns, which is something else criminals seek. Do you want to shut down gun stores?]
5) At the very least, would-be dispensary operators should wait until a court rules on the issue of the federal preemption of state law. I anticipate this will occur in relatively short order in the pending lawsuit filed by White Mountain Health Center against Maricopa County.
6) Finally, dispensary owners should recognize the threat of federal prosecution is very real. [Well then resign from your job as Maricopa County Attorney, and get hired by Uncle Sam and let President Obama pay you to prosecute them for federal violations of the drug laws.] Prosecution policies change from one administration to the next, and with a Presidential election less than 90 days away, we may be looking at a very different set of priorities from the U.S. Department of Justice when there is a change in administrations.
'Walmart of weed' hosts marijuana farmer's market in Phoenix
Posted: Sunday, August 19, 2012 7:30 pm
By Tim Vetscher, ABC15
From actual plants, to lollipops and even cupcakes, a marijuana-themed farmers market offered a little of everything for cardholders Sunday afternoon in the west Valley.
"Gatherings like this are so important for people who don't know where to get their medicine," said Tucson resident Stu Green. "It allows them to say, 'oh wow, I can do that?' I must have heard that 100 times today."
WeGrow , the so-called Walmart of weed, hosted the farmers market for those left in limbo by the Arizona's medical marijuana dispensary program.
Earlier this month, the state awarded nearly 100 dispensary licenses but the threats of lawsuits have kept those dispensaries from opening their doors.
"I hope (dispensaries) do open and I wish the best for them because I know people who do not cultivate will benefit from these dispensaries," said Scott, who asked ABC15 only use his last name.
Make it a crime by declaring it a "public nuisance"
If you don't like something that is legal, just declare it a "public nuisance" and use that logic to arrest people that are involved with it.
Denver tyrants ban medical marijuana advertizing!!!!
Denver tyrants ban medical marijuana advertizing!!!!
Proposed Denver medical-marijuana ad ban set for public hearing
Source
Tucson & Pima County bureaucrats are paid very well
Of course the government bureaucrats the Star interviewed said that they are not well paid, but underpaid compared to the private sector. What a crock!!!
Bill Montgomery threatens to jail people involved with legal medical marijuana
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery thinks he is a royal ruler, not a public servant
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, like county attorneys across Arizona, is no fan of the state's medical-marijuana program.
Jan Brewer only supports the 10th Amendment when it fits into her plans
When it comes to immigration law, Jan Brewer thinks that the 10th Amendment gives Arizona the right to pass immigration laws that conflict with the Federal governments.
Your boss can find out if you are a medical marijuana user
Arizona database allows employer to find out if you're a medical marijuana user
Source
Did the police murder Chavis Carter because he was a pot smoker???
The death of Chavis Carter sure sounds like a police murder. The cops claim he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head while he was handcuffed sitting in the back of a police patrol car.
Contract for radar system to detect ultralight drug smugglers???
What will the cops do when this radar detects a ultralight pot smuggler??? Shoot them down with a surface to air missile???
Mailman popped for buying illegal drugs while on duty
More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our government masters.
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery is a drug war tyrant!!!!
Source
'Walmart of weed' hosts marijuana farmer's market in Phoenix
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"It's what the people voted for," said Sunny Singh, owner of WeGrow. "I think the whole federal/state issue is just an excuse to keep the program stalled."
It means farmers markets like the one at WeGrow will remain one of the only ways for cardholders to get medical marijuana unless they grow their own.
"We need to free this plant," said Green. "We don't believe there should be any regulation on it at all."
Prosecutors’ Overreaching Powers Go Unchecked
If you ask me the current system of "plea bargaining" has pretty much flushed our system where people are entitled to a trial by a jury of their peers down the toilet.Yes anybody charged with a crime can demand a "trial by jury", but with the "plea bargaining system" the way it works is you can "cop a plea" to reduced charges and get two years in prison. If you demand your Constitutional right of having a "trial by a jury", you will end up facing charges where you will get 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years in prison if you demand a trial by jury and get convicted.
So when people are faced with 2 years in prison if they "cop a plea" as opposed to the rest of their life in prison if they demand a trial, sadly they usually cop a plea, even if they are innocent.
I know two people who accepted plea bargains for crimes they were innocent of because if they demanded a trial by jury and were convicted they would have spent the rest of their lives in prison.
Laro Nicol accepted a plea bargain for having parts that could be used to make a machine gun. He got 2 years. If he had demanded a trial by jury and was convicted he would have spent 20+ years in prison.
Kevin Walsh accepted a plea bargain for having assaulting a police officer. After he accepted the plea bargain he spent 6 more months in prison. If he had demanded a trial by jury and was convicted he would have spent 20+ years in prison.
A lot of people get angry when I defend Kevin Walsh because he is a racist. But just because Kevin Walsh is a racist doesn't make it right for the government to railroad him.
Prosecutors’ Overreaching Goes Unchecked
Angela J. Davis
Angela J. Davis is a professor of law at American University. She is a former director of the D.C. Public Defender Service and the author of "Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor."
Updated August 19, 2012, 7:00 PM
Prosecutors are the most powerful officials in the criminal justice system. They decide whether criminal charges should be brought and what those charges should be, and they exercise almost boundless discretion in making those crucial decisions. Prosecutors alone decide whether to offer the defendant the option of pleading guilty to reduced charges. When one considers the fact that more than 95 percent of all criminal cases are resolved with guilty pleas, it is very clear that prosecutors control the criminal justice system through their charging and plea bargaining powers.
Unchecked power in the hands of prosecutors is as much a threat to our democracy as it is with any other government official, if not more.
Equally problematic is the fact that the charging and plea bargaining decisions are made behind closed doors, and prosecutors are not required to justify or explain these decisions to anyone. If a prosecutor treats two similarly situated defendants differently -- charging one but not the other or offering a better plea offer to one -- it is almost impossible to challenge such differential treatment. The lack of transparency in the prosecution function also leads to misconduct, like the failure to turn over exculpatory evidence -- a common occurrence made famous by the prosecutors in the Duke lacrosse and Senator Ted Stevens cases.
We live in a democracy in which we hold accountable those to whom we grant power, but we have fallen short when it comes to prosecutors. State and local prosecutors are presumably held accountable through the electoral process, but few voters know enough about the prosecution function to make a meaningful decision at the ballot box. When prosecutors run for office, they don't talk about their charging and plea bargaining policies (if such policies even exist). With a few notable exceptions, most prosecutors run on a "tough on crime" message, providing little, if any, information about anything else. There is even less accountability on the federal level where U.S. attorneys are appointed by the president.
The Supreme Court has consistently deferred to prosecutors in a series of cases, including claims of race-based selective prosecution and the failure to turn over exculpatory evidence. Bar counsel offices rarely bring charges against prosecutors who have violated ethical rules.
Unchecked power in the hands of prosecutors is as much a threat to our democracy as it is with any other government official, if not more. Prosecutorial decisions often result in a loss of liberty and even life. We must do a better job of holding prosecutors accountable -- at the ballot box and through bar counsel prosecutions, when appropriate.
The Problem With Mandatory Minimums
Rachel E. Barkow
Rachel E. Barkow is the Segal Family professor of regulatory law and policy and the faculty director at the Center on the Administration of Criminal Law at New York University.
Updated August 19, 2012, 7:00 PM
By almost any measure, federal prosecutors wield too much power. Because many federal laws govern similar behavior and are written broadly, prosecutors commonly have multiple charges from which to choose. This means they typically have many sentencing ranges to choose from as well. Thus, they can – and do – threaten defendants who want to exercise their trial rights with charges that will carry longer sentences (sometimes decades longer) than the charges they will file if defendants plead guilty. On average, federal defendants who refuse to waive their right to a jury trial receive a sentence three times longer than those who plead. And with the prevalence of mandatory minimum laws, a prosecutor’s charging decision often dictates a sentence that a judge is powerless to avoid. It is no wonder 97 percent of federal convictions are the result of guilty pleas.
Far from eliminating disparity by curbing judicial discretion, mandatory minimums simply shift power to prosecutors.
To rein in this power, Congress should no longer pass laws with mandatory minimum sentences. Far from eliminating disparity by curbing judicial discretion (their stated purpose), studies show that mandatory minimums simply shift power to prosecutors (who file charges with those mandatory minimums disproportionately against defendants of color).
Judges should scrutinize what charges a prosecutor threatens to bring if a defendant were to go to trial instead of plead, to ensure that the threatened trial charges do not carry a sentence disproportionate to the defendant’s conduct. Pleas must be voluntary, and some threats are unduly coercive.
And United States attorneys should make sure that the prosecutor who investigates a case and who would be responsible for taking it to trial does not make the charging decision. A fresh set of eyes should make sure that any threatened charges carry a sentence proportionate to a defendant’s conduct -- and are not a penalty for exercising the constitutional right to a jury trial.
The Right to Appeal Is an Issue of Fairness
Nancy Gertner
Nancy Gertner, a former U.S. federal judge, is a law professor at Harvard Law School.
Updated August 19, 2012, 7:00 PM
As The New York Times editorial noted, even in our uber-market economy, certain things should be beyond bargaining, but are not. You can waive your right to a trial by pleading guilty in exchange for concessions from the prosecutor. And 97 percent of federal defendants do just that.
You can’t bargain away your right to counsel; you shouldn’t be allowed to bargain away your right to appeal.
But there have to be limits. You can’t bargain away your right to counsel in a guilty plea deal; you shouldn’t be allowed to bargain away your right to appeal. A defendant agreed to plead guilty before me in Massachusetts in exchange for a waiver of his right to appeal. The government insisted it was a limited waiver, fairly bargained for; the man had a lawyer. He could appeal if I sentenced above the parties’ recommendation or made an error in computing his criminal record. But if I or probation made other mistakes that could have resulted in a lower sentence, there was no review. Nor could he appeal based on new legal principles; none of the recent Supreme Court decisions that have had a seismic effect on sentencing or on evidence would affect him. Significantly, the government gave up none of its appellate rights. For them, my errors would be open season.
The right to appeal should not be in the marketplace. Rejecting the appeal waiver, I said that however attractive "the idea of maximizing a defendant's power by allowing him to sell whatever he has, the market for plea bargains, like every other market, should not be so deregulated that the conditions essential to assuring basic fairness are undermined.” Judge John Kane put it even more strongly, looking at the impact of appeal waivers on the criminal justice system as a whole -- undermining the role of the appellate courts to review sentences for fairness and consistency.
Having a lawyer is not enough. It can be a lawyer who didn’t communicate the prosecutor’s offer, or didn’t mention, say, the immigration consequences of the plea, or who simply cut corners. Indeed, under the current sentencing guidelines, if the lawyer is zealous, conducts a pretrial investigation, files motions asserting client’s rights, his client runs the risk of losing “points” under the federal sentencing system, which could result in a higher sentence. In fact, during my judicial tenure, it was not unusual to see probation staff dig up issues that the lawyer had missed in his rush to deal. Mistakes, in short, are bound to be made.
This market is no longer a marginal part of the criminal justice system. As Justice Anthony Kennedy noted recently, this bargaining is the system. Procedural protections are inadequate; the playing field, unequal. Still, every appeals court has found appeal waivers to be constitutional. They did not have to; the Constitution, after all, doesn’t even mention plea bargaining. It is an issue of fairness. Rather than being protective of a defendant as they should, the appeals courts have permitted an already well-armed government to demand even more.
WikiLeaks and Free Speech
SourceWikiLeaks and Free Speech
By MICHAEL MOORE and OLIVER STONE
Published: August 20, 2012
WE have spent our careers as filmmakers making the case that the news media in the United States often fail to inform Americans about the uglier actions of our own government. We therefore have been deeply grateful for the accomplishments of WikiLeaks, and applaud Ecuador’s decision to grant diplomatic asylum to its founder, Julian Assange, who is now living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.
Ecuador has acted in accordance with important principles of international human rights. Indeed, nothing could demonstrate the appropriateness of Ecuador’s action more than the British government’s threat to violate a sacrosanct principle of diplomatic relations and invade the embassy to arrest Mr. Assange.
Since WikiLeaks’ founding, it has revealed the “Collateral Murder” footage that shows the seemingly indiscriminate killing of Baghdad civilians by a United States Apache attack helicopter; further fine-grained detail about the true face of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; United States collusion with Yemen’s dictatorship to conceal our responsibility for bombing strikes there; the Obama administration’s pressure on other nations not to prosecute Bush-era officials for torture; and much more.
Predictably, the response from those who would prefer that Americans remain in the dark has been ferocious. Top elected leaders from both parties have called Mr. Assange a “high-tech terrorist.” And Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who leads the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has demanded that he be prosecuted under the Espionage Act. Most Americans, Britons and Swedes are unaware that Sweden has not formally charged Mr. Assange with any crime. Rather, it has issued a warrant for his arrest to question him about allegations of sexual assault in 2010.
All such allegations must be thoroughly investigated before Mr. Assange moves to a country that might put him beyond the reach of the Swedish justice system. But it is the British and Swedish governments that stand in the way of an investigation, not Mr. Assange.
Swedish authorities have traveled to other countries to conduct interrogations when needed, and the WikiLeaks founder has made clear his willingness to be questioned in London. Moreover, the Ecuadorean government made a direct offer to Sweden to allow Mr. Assange to be interviewed within Ecuador’s embassy. In both instances, Sweden refused.
Mr. Assange has also committed to traveling to Sweden immediately if the Swedish government pledges that it will not extradite him to the United States. Swedish officials have shown no interest in exploring this proposal, and Foreign Minister Carl Bildt recently told a legal adviser to Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks unequivocally that Sweden would not make such a pledge. The British government would also have the right under the relevant treaty to prevent Mr. Assange’s extradition to the United States from Sweden, and has also refused to pledge that it would use this power. Ecuador’s attempts to facilitate that arrangement with both governments were rejected.
Taken together, the British and Swedish governments’ actions suggest to us that their real agenda is to get Mr. Assange to Sweden. Because of treaty and other considerations, he probably could be more easily extradited from there to the United States to face charges. Mr. Assange has every reason to fear such an outcome.The Justice Department recently confirmed that it was continuing to investigate WikiLeaks, and just-disclosed Australian government documents from this past February state that “the U.S. investigation into possible criminal conduct by Mr. Assange has been ongoing for more than a year.” WikiLeaks itself has published e-mails from Stratfor, a private intelligence corporation, which state that a grand jury has already returned a sealed indictment of Mr. Assange. And history indicates Sweden would buckle to any pressure from the United States to hand over Mr. Assange. In 2001 the Swedish government delivered two Egyptians seeking asylum to the C.I.A., which rendered them to the Mubarak regime, which tortured them.
If Mr. Assange is extradited to the United States, the consequences will reverberate for years around the world. Mr. Assange is not an American citizen, and none of his actions have taken place on American soil. If the United States can prosecute a journalist in these circumstances, the governments of Russia or China could, by the same logic, demand that foreign reporters anywhere on earth be extradited for violating their laws. The setting of such a precedent should deeply concern everyone, admirers of WikiLeaks or not.
We urge the people of Britain and Sweden to demand that their governments answer some basic questions: Why do the Swedish authorities refuse to question Mr. Assange in London? And why can neither government promise that Mr. Assange will not be extradited to the United States? The citizens of Britain and Sweden have a rare opportunity to make a stand for free speech on behalf of the entire globe.
Michael Moore and Oliver Stone are Academy Award-winning filmmakers.
Feds crack down on Calif. medical pot
Source
Feds crack down on Calif. medical pot
Aug. 21, 2012 03:12 PM
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES -- Federal prosecutors on Tuesday expanded their crackdown on California medical marijuana dispensaries, filing three lawsuits and sending warning letters to more than 60 clinics in two Orange County cities.
The asset-forfeiture lawsuits filed against landlords who own buildings that house six marijuana shops in Anaheim and the letters order the closure of the clinics or possible criminal charges will be filed.
More than 300 pot stores and grows have been targeted in the Central District of California, which stretches from Santa Barbara to San Bernardino counties, since October when the state's four U.S. attorneys announced an effort to curb dispensaries.
Prosecutors argue dealers and suppliers are using the state's medical pot law, approved in 1996, as legal cover for running sophisticated drug-trafficking ventures in plain sight. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law.
Medical marijuana advocates argue the collectives are protected by California law, which allows the drug to be cultivated and supplied to ill people on a nonprofit basis.
The crackdown comes amid a shift by municipalities and law enforcement agencies that say the clinics are abusing the law and in some cases overrunning neighborhoods. Last month, the Los Angeles City Council voted to ban as many as 900 storefront dispensaries in the coming weeks.
A medical marijuana trade group has since sued the city, claiming the ban violated constitutional rights. Activists are also working to qualify a ballot measure to repeal the ban.
In all, 66 warning letters were sent to marijuana dispensaries in Anaheim and La Habra. Some have closed recently, but federal authorities said 38 remain open.
Drought makes it easier for police to spot pot plants
By Charlie White, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal
As Indiana State Police got an early start to the annual marijuana eradication season Tuesday morning, Sgt. Jerry Goodin said the browning of drought-stricken corn makes the resilient green pot plants interspersed between them "stick out like a sore thumb."
State police chopped down about 30 newly flowering pot plants -- an estimated $30,000 worth if they had been allowed to mature fully -- before noon Tuesday.
Equipped with camouflage clothes, machetes, GPS devices and police radios, state troopers marched into a cornfield between Scottsburg and Henryville, guided by a Civil Air Patrol pilot flying overhead who gave them precise directions.
"A lot of people think we use infrared scopes, but we don't. Marijuana has a distinct green color," said Trooper Mike Bennett, coordinator of the state police Marijuana Eradication Team.
State police cut down about 100 plants later Tuesday at rural sites in Harrison and Clark counties. They plan to burn the plants.
No arrests were made because police didn't catch anyone cultivating the plants.
"The vast majority of the property owners have no idea that it's growing on their land," Bennett said.
But Goodin, spokesman for the Sellersburg post, said the eradication effort is worthwhile.
"Even though we didn't make an arrest, we ruined someone's day or year," Goodin said, adding he hopes it discourages other growers.
Kentucky State Police Lt. Brent Roper said his agency started cutting outdoor marijuana plants last month.
Though he said the drought hasn't affected the number of crops they've seized this year, "it does help when the corn starts browning."
Kentucky State Police destroyed more than 120,000 plants through the end of July this year, compared with about 91,000 in the same period last year.
The Hoosier state and Kentucky continue to be among the top states for outdoor pot seizures, according to federal statistics.
That data show Indiana destroyed the third most outdoor marijuana plots of any state last year (989), trailing only California (1,326) and Ohio (1,079).
Kentucky was sixth in the number of plots (711) but third in the number of outdoor plants seized and destroyed (382,701), according to statistics from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
I don't have a problem with folks in the private sector paying themselves very well.
We are not forced to do business with folks in the private sector.
Of course when government bureaucrats decide to pay themselves
very well we are forced to pay them, because after all we can't pick
and choose what government services we want.
Bay Area public officials break bank with unused sick time
By Thomas Peele, Daniel Willis and John Woolfolk
Posted: 08/21/2012 11:12:23 PM PDT
By taking advantage of one of public employment's most lucrative and little-known perks, more than 370 Bay Area government workers who retired last year took home final paychecks that topped $50,000 apiece, and often considerably higher.
Six of them received payments of more than $200,000, including a city finance director who walked away with more than $354,000.
How'd they do it? By amassing hundreds -- and in a few instances, thousands -- of unused hours of vacation, sick, comp and personal time over the years, and then cashing it in on their way out the door at what is almost always the highest pay rate of their careers. [As opposed to the pay rate at the time they earned the vacation, sick or comp pay]
From Silicon Valley to the Wine Country, top administrators, police officers, firefighters, government lawyers, engineers, clerks, nurses and others received more than $50,000 each, combining last year for more than $30 million, most of it for unused sick days. That is enough money to add about 190 police officers to Bay Area streets for a year or about 375 teachers to local classrooms.
"These amounts are staggering," said Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, a watchdog group. "It's like you just won on 'The Price Is Right.'"
The payouts are revealed in a new Bay Area News Group analysis of an unparalleled collection of government compensation data compiled by this newspaper.
Two hundred ninety-six local agencies have responded to the newspaper's request for
2011 compensation figures, which are now posted on Bay Area News Group websites. The analysis of retirees' final paychecks is a snapshot from about 54 percent of 541 agencies in the region, because dozens have yet to respond. Of the 296 agencies that released data, 48 of them paid at least one person more than $50,000.
That money represents only a fraction of what governments shelled out for unused time last year. Payroll data also shows hundreds of Bay Area public employees received smaller payouts totaling millions of dollars more for time off they didn't use.
Those payments are an expensive reminder of an enduring legacy of benefits negotiated in rosier economic times that are now plaguing local governments across the country. And while public employees are quick to argue they earned every penny by giving up vacation and not calling in sick, allowing workers to bank so much unused time off is a practice seldom seen outside government.
Firefighters top list
Firefighters averaged the highest payouts in the newspaper's survey, about $93,000 each. Government administrators averaged about $87,000 and police about $86,000. Workers with other job titles averaged $71,000 in payouts.
While school employees can retire with banked time off, they tend to take home much smaller lump sums.
In San Jose alone, 126 workers cashed out more than $50,000 each -- to the tune of $11.8 million. And that wasn't even the city's total bill for unused time off last year. Combined with others who received buyouts of less than $50,000, San Jose paid out $21.2 million in 2011 -- enough to pay the average salary and benefits of 120 city police officers for a year. Ironically, 2011 was the first year in the city's history that it was forced to lay off cops, 66 in all.
The East Bay's biggest city, Oakland, paid out $50,000 or more to 12 retirees last year.
Even a single six-figure final check for a retiree can put a severe dent in the finances of a smaller government. Take the struggling Solano County city of Fairfield, which uses volunteers to help keep City Hall operating only four days a week. As its veteran finance director, Robert Leland, neared retirement last year with more than two years of banked time off, the city had to budget for his final check. The damage: $354,000.
Like officials at many governments, current Fairfield Finance Director David White said he didn't have records to show from which years his predecessor saved that time or what his pay rate was when he banked it.
"The time was accrued throughout his tenure with the city. The rate of pay was his final rate of pay," White wrote in an email when asked for year-by-year details.
Paying more for past
And therein lies the great benefit to employees of saving time off: Governments pick up the tab based on a retiree's final rate of pay, not what he was paid when the time was accrued.
"It's a huge issue," said Mountain View Mayor Mike Kasperzak, who heads the League of California Cities. "(Governments) have to put money aside" for payouts. "People earn (time off) at $10 an hour and cash it in at $25. You make money on your time."
Hayward police Lt. Mark Mosier's final paycheck tells that story: He received $143,000 from 47 weeks of unused vacation and sick time when he retired in 2011. It was time he'd saved over a 26-year career that began when he was paid $12.50 an hour, city records show. All 47 weeks were paid at Mosier's top hourly rate at retirement of $75.15, more than six times higher than his starting pay. Mosier did not respond to repeated phone calls.
At most agencies, the one-time payments don't affect employees' pensions or their overall retirement package. Yet the ability to accrue thousands of hours of time and turn it into, in effect, a bonus at retirement is unique to government work, said Mark Johnson, an Arlington, Texas-based benefits consultant.
"Building up banked vacation at a limitless rate is just not seen in the private sector," he said. "It dates back 30 or 40 years, historically, when municipal employee pay was much lower than the private sector, but the benefits were better."
But as government pay became more lucrative in large states, vacation and sick time policies were slow to change.
Even as local agencies now scurry to limit accruals for new hires, payouts to veteran employees have reached "crisis level in a lot of states, especially California and Illinois," Johnson said.
The local data shows most money appears to be for unused sick time. Mountain View, for instance, paid eight people a total of $397,482 for sick time and $169,692 for unused vacation. Richmond paid $275,359 in sick time to five workers and $196,018 for other time.
San Jose's dilemma
Leaders in San Jose have wrestled for years with how to curb payouts. The city caps vacation accumulation at 320 hours but has what deputy city manager Alex Gurza called a "very generous" sick leave policy that allows most employees who have worked at least 15 years to bank as many as 30 weeks -- 1,200 hours -- of unused time.
Police and firefighters get more: unlimited sick time buyouts after 20 years of employment at their final pay rate.
The City Council last year voted to impose limits on four unions in 2012, but a former librarian sued, calling her $28,080 of banked sick pay a guaranteed retirement benefit. The suit remains unresolved.
Many of San Jose's top policymakers sit atop substantial leave nest eggs themselves. Police Chief Chris Moore expects to get close to $200,000 for unused time and has said he'd retire and claim it rather than lose the windfall if the city tries to modify its policy.
"I have a significant amount tied up in that," Moore said. "It's not something I would just walk away from."
Smaller governments are dealing with similar issues, the newspaper's analysis shows.
In Fairfield, no policies were in place to limit how much time Leland could bank or force him to use it.
"He worked a lot of hours," City Manager Sean Quinn said. "(Leland) was a one-man operation."
His payout, plus those to two other 2011 retirees who received more than $203,000 combined, forced Fairfield to negotiate union agreements that limit employees to 350 additional vacation hours on top of what they currently have on the books, Quinn said.
But even with caps, governments can still owe retiring employees six-figure payouts.
When Kevin Duggan retired as Mountain View city manager in 2011, he received $135,000 for unused vacation, sick time and personal leave, the newspaper found. Each had been capped.
Duggan had more than 1,800 hours of banked sick time, but was paid for only 528 of those hours, at 55 percent of his final pay, according to the city. His vacation payout was similarly limited.
Governments must balance the need to compensate employees fairly with efforts to limit costs, Duggan said. Caps on vacation accruals might be fair, he said, but public servants should be allowed to save up enough time to take an occasional extended vacation.
Paying for unused time off at intervals throughout a career -- say, every five or 10 years -- is another option some governments are considering. Not only does that avoid massive payouts when an employee leaves, it means they are paid at a rate closer to their salary when the time was accrued, Duggan said.
Six-figure final paychecks are only part of the problem as governments across California face mounting retirement expenses and scramble to reform runaway pension costs. Few foresaw the dilemma when most of today's government retirees were new on the job.
"The reforms don't have to be draconian to reform this issue," said Vosburgh of the taxpayer group. "We want to be fair to the public employees. But cashing out at the highest rate of pay? We just can't afford it."
Contact Thomas Peele at tpeele@bayareanewsgroup com. Follow him at
Twitter.com/thomas_peele. Follow the collection and posting of government pay costs at
Twitter.com/publicsalaries.
Drought makes it easier for police to spot pot plants
Typical pig, they get their jollies by f*cking over people - "Even though we didn't make an arrest, we ruined someone's day or year," Sgt. Jerry Goodin
Government bureaucrats pay themselves very well.
Compared to the private sector government bureaucrats pay themselves very well.
Giving In to the Surveillance State
Source
Op-Ed Contributor
Giving In to the Surveillance State
By SHANE HARRIS
Published: August 22, 2012
IN March 2002, John M. Poindexter, a former national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan, sat down with Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the National Security Agency. Mr. Poindexter sketched out a new Pentagon program called Total Information Awareness, that proposed to scan the world’s electronic information — including phone calls, e-mails and financial and travel records — looking for transactions associated with terrorist plots. The N.S.A., the government’s chief eavesdropper, routinely collected and analyzed such signals, so Mr. Poindexter thought the agency was an obvious place to test his ideas.
He never had much of a chance. When T.I.A.’s existence became public, it was denounced as the height of post-9/11 excess and ridiculed for its creepy name. Mr. Poindexter’s notorious role in the Iran-contra affair became a central focus of the debate. He resigned from government, and T.I.A. was dismantled in 2003.
But what Mr. Poindexter didn’t know was that the N.S.A. was already pursuing its own version of the program, and on a scale that he had only imagined. A decade later, the legacy of T.I.A. is quietly thriving at the N.S.A. It is more pervasive than most people think, and it operates with little accountability or restraint.
The foundations of this surveillance apparatus were laid soon after 9/11, when President George W. Bush authorized the N.S.A. to monitor the communications records of Americans who analysts suspected had a “nexus to terrorism.” Acting on dubious legal authority, and without warrants, the N.S.A. began intercepting huge amounts of information.
But the N.S.A. came up with more dead ends than viable leads and put a premium on collecting information rather than making sense of it. The N.S.A. created what one senior Bush administration official later described as a “mirror” of AT&T’s databases, which allowed ready access to the personal communications moving over much of the country’s telecom infrastructure. The N.S.A. fed its bounty into software that created a dizzying social-network diagram of interconnected points and lines. The agency’s software geeks called it “the BAG,” which stood for “big ass graph.”
Today, this global surveillance system continues to grow. It now collects so much digital detritus — e-mails, calls, text messages, cellphone location data and a catalog of computer viruses — that the N.S.A. is building a 1-million-square-foot facility in the Utah desert to store and process it.
What’s missing, however, is a reliable way of keeping track of who sees what, and who watches whom. After T.I.A. was officially shut down in 2003, the N.S.A. adopted many of Mr. Poindexter’s ideas except for two: an application that would “anonymize” data, so that information could be linked to a person only through a court order; and a set of audit logs, which would keep track of whether innocent Americans’ communications were getting caught in a digital net.
The N.S.A. sorely needs such restrictions now. Under current law, it isn’t allowed to monitor the communications of an American citizen or permanent resident without a court order. But it can collect data if one party to a communication is believed to be outside the United States. Recently, the office of the director of national intelligence admitted that on at least one occasion, the procedures that shield citizens’ and legal residents’ private information from spying eyes had been deemed “unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment” by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees such monitoring.
Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has questioned whether “backdoor” monitoring of citizens’ communications is occurring. Intelligence officials told Mr. Wyden that they couldn’t determine how many people inside the United States had their communications collected because checking the N.S.A.’s databases to find out would itself violate the privacy of those people. In other words, the protection of privacy rights is being invoked to cover up possible continuing violations of those same rights.
Why have we not seen the same level of public outrage as in 2003? Many Americans seem willing to give up their digital privacy if it means the government has a better chance of catching terrorists. Consider the revealing intelligence that millions of us give to Facebook — willingly. These days, we are more likely to be outraged by airport screening, and its public inconvenience and indignity, than by unseen monitoring.
Members of Congress rarely object because they don’t want to be seen as obstructing legal surveillance. But whether this surveillance is legal, and verifiably so, is an open question, and depends upon a complex law that even most lawmakers don’t understand. One can’t easily mount an opposition to a confusing statute that governs a secretive process.
The law governing the N.S.A. can accommodate greater oversight, and if the agency thinks otherwise, it should be open to amending the law. Had the agency’s leaders actually listened to everything Mr. Poindexter had to say, they might not find themselves telling the American people: “We’re not spying on you. Trust us.”
Shane Harris, a senior writer at Washingtonian, is the author of “The Watchers: The Rise of America’s Surveillance State.”
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The two Republican prosecutors are continuing so-far-unsuccessful efforts against the medical marijuana program being established after being authorized by Arizona voters two years ago.
Horne and Montgomery made separate but coordinated requests Thursday for a ruling on the legality of Arizona law as part of a case pending in Maricopa County Superior Court.
That case involves a Sun City medical marijuana dispensary applicant who sued when county officials wouldn't provide zoning clearances needed under the medical marijuana law.
The prosecutors ask a judge to dismiss the applicants' lawsuit on grounds that Arizona's law is illegal.
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In legal papers filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, Attorney General Tom Horne argued that voters are legally powerless to authorize anyone to sell marijuana as long as it remains illegal under federal law.
The real goal is to get a ruling declaring the state and federal laws in conflict. Horne said that will then allow him to direct the state Department of Health Services to halt the current process of licensing up to 126 dispensaries to sell the drugs.
Horne is not seeking to invalidate the approximately 30,000 cards which the health department has issued to people who have a doctor's recommendation to use the drug. He said there is a technical legal difference to how Arizona law is worded that he believes allows state officials to provide the cards as identification.
But Horne said that, as far as he is concerned, there is "no legal way'' for those people to get their drugs. Not only does he believe that dispensaries are illegal, he contends the state is powerless to allow marijuana users to grow their own drugs.
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery filed similar paperwork in the same case.
Montgomery, however, takes an even narrower view of the law: He believes the state-issued cards to medical marijuana users also are preempted by the federal Controlled Substances Act.
U.S. officials seize 1 ton of marijuana, arrest 7 off Catalina
Source
U.S. officials seize 1 ton of marijuana, arrest 7 off Catalina
August 23, 2012 | 9:35 pm
U.S. border authorities seized more than one ton of marijuana and arrested seven people in connection with the high seas interception of two boats earlier this week near Santa Catalina Island, federal authorities said Thursday.
Authorities said the coordinated scheme was part of a new smuggling trend as Mexican criminal groups seek to transfer large marijuana loads onto recreational boats that more easily blend in with boating traffic as they sail into Southern California ports and marinas.
In Tuesday morning’s attempt, agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection intercepted a panga boat loaded with more than one ton of marijuana shortly after seizing a nearby sailboat that authorities suspected was going to be used to get the drugs on shore.
Three U.S. citizens were arrested on the sailboat: Jeremy Alan Brislin, 40, of Huntington Beach; Terrance Joseph Hirchag, 46, of San Clemente; and Andrew Matthew Empson, 49, of Long Beach. Agents also discovered a loaded shotgun, a .40-caliber pistol and night vision equipment.
The four people arrested on the panga were Mexican citizens.
As a CBP Blackhawk helicopter closed in, those aboard the panga boat were allegedly seen throwing the bales of marijuana overboard. The 130 packages of marijuana seized are worth an estimated $1 million, authorities said.
“We are beginning to see this as a more common tactic: smugglers attempting to move contraband from open hull panga boats to recreational vessels,” Keley Hill, director of Marine Operations for CBP in San Diego, said in a statement.
“The smugglers think that when the recreational vessel moves in to shore, it will blend in with legitimate boating traffic off of the Southern California coastline and make it much more difficult for us to detect illegal activity,” Hill said.
Lancaster to launch aerial radar surveillance over neighborhoods
SourceLancaster to launch aerial radar surveillance over neighborhoods
August 24, 2012 | 8:59 am
The city of Lancaster plans to launch a new aerial surveillance system to monitor neighborhoods for crime.
The technology, called the Law Enforcement Aerial Platform System, will be attached to a piloted single-engine Cessna.
It's basically a radar system that will give deputies a bird's-eye view of what's happening on the ground.
The tool is similar to drones that are used by the military to survey war zones, with the difference that those are remote-controlled rather than attached to a plane.
Authorities say the technology will prove invaluable for the city because it's so large and spread out, and deputies can't be everywhere at once.
It could also help during natural disasters like fires or earthquakes by providing an aerial view of the situation.
Opponents have expressed concerns about government snooping, but city leaders insist that the surveillance will only be used to fight crime.
The Sheriff's Department plans to deploy LEAPS for 10 hours a day, at a coast of about $300 an hour. That adds up to about $90,000 per month and more than $1 million per year -- a hefty price tag in the cash-strapped city.
But city officials say that it's worth the investment to combat a recent spike in crime.
Armored American vehicle attacked in Mexico
Why are U.S. Embassy vehicles "armored" despite the fact that "attacks on diplomatic personnel are extremely rare in Mexico"I suspect it is because the American government realizes that because of the American government's foreign policy American government employees are hated worldwide.
2 U.S. government employees reportedly shot in Mexico
Aug. 24, 2012 10:44 AM
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY -- Two U.S. government employees were shot and wounded in an attack on their vehicle south of Mexico City on Friday, a law enforcement official said.
The two were riding in an armored U.S. Embassy vehicle when they came under fire on a highway leading to the city of Cuernavaca.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said both were hospitalized, one with a wound to the leg and the other hit in the stomach and hand.
The official said the wounded were not agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency or FBI. [Why are DEA and FBI agents in Mexico???? Duh! Because they are helping Felipe Calderon with his "drug war", which we started]
The U.S. Embassy had no immediate comment.
A Mexican army official said the sport utility vehicle with diplomatic plates was found after a report about a shootout on the highway. The army official was not authorized to be quoted by name. He said a Mexican navy captain was also in the vehicle, but was not injured.
The Toyota SUV was riddled with bullets, most concentrated around the passenger-side window, indicating possible involvement by experienced gunmen. [I guess our American government masters don't pay much attention to the advice they give us which is to buy American!]
Attacks on diplomatic personnel are extremely rare in Mexico.
In 2011, one U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed and one wounded in a drug gang shooting in northern Mexico.
All 9 Empire State shooting victims hit by police
SourceAll 9 Empire State shooting victims hit by police
by Tom Hays - Aug. 25, 2012 09:43 AM
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- New York authorities confirm that all nine bystanders caught in the crossfire of a shooting outside the city's iconic Empire State Building were wounded by two police officers who had never fired their weapons on duty.
Officer Craig Matthews fired seven times and Officer Robert Sinishtaj fired nine times at Jeffrey Johnson on a busy Friday morning after Johnson shot a former co-worker to death and then pointed his pistol at them.
Police had said nine bystanders likely were wounded by stray or ricocheting police bullets, and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly confirmed that Saturday.
He says that based on ballistic tests and other evidence, "it appears that all nine of the victims were struck either by fragments or by bullets fired by police."
Get your 4th Amendment rights back!!!!
Don't like the TSA thugs feeling you up at the airport???
Don't like the TSA thugs feeling you up at the airport??? All it takes is a little cash!!!For a measly $50 to $122.25 fee you can get your 4th Amendment rights back and avoid being felt up by TSA thugs every time you fly.
Of course to get your Fourth Amendment rights back you have to flush your 5th Amendment rights down the toilet and go thru an extensive background check, including an interview.
Please don't think of this as flushing the Constitution down the toilet. It's really a jobs program for overpaid and under worked cops.
TSA opens fast lane through airport security
Prescreening to let some breeze through security
by Emily Gersema - Aug. 24, 2012 11:14 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
The Transportation Security Administration has launched a program at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport that could allow thousands of frequent fliers to accelerate their trip through security.
The Pre-Check program, which begins Tuesday, will give approved "trusted travelers" access to an expedited line at the airport's Terminal 4, which serves US Airways passengers. These travelers can skip some of the usual tasks that slow screenings -- removing shoes, belts and jackets, and separating laptops and plastic bags filled with lip balm and liquids.
And although the TSA will begin the program at only one Sky Harbor checkpoint, officials hope to expand to checkpoints serving other airlines, possibly affecting hundreds of thousands of travelers.
Travel-advocacy groups have pushed for expedited security programs for years. And Sky Harbor will become the 23rd airport in the nation to implement Pre-Check.
However, some fliers question the fairness of such programs: Participants must first qualify as frequent fliers, and they have to pay a fee and undergo background checks.
Some critics have said the government is treating the average traveler as a "second-class citizen" because Pre-Check is available only to frequent fliers.
But TSA officials say it's not about saving travelers' time, it's about using their resources more effectively.
How it works
As Rochelle and Willard Mears, of Sun City West, waited to board a US Airways flight last week, they said they would like to avoid much of the aggravation associated with flying.
Willard Mears has had double knee replacements, so a trip through security can be tedious. "I go through the whole pat down," he said.
To qualify for Pre-Check, the Mears, like other travelers, would have to take several steps.
Either they must accrue enough miles on US Airways to earn frequent-flier membership, or they must obtain special federal background clearance through one of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's three trusted traveler programs: Global Entry, NEXUS and SENTRI.
The programs charge fees -- from $50 to around $122 -- and applicants must pass an extensive background check, including an interview.
Once they've signed up, the frequent fliers' plane tickets will feature a special bar code that allows them to go through the expedited screening lane at their airlines' security checkpoints at participating airports.
Pre-Check participants also can bring their children 12 and younger through the faster screening lane. U.S. military members who carry a Common Access Card -- including those with the reserves and the National Guard -- also are cleared for Pre-Check.
TSA has no estimates on Pre-Check's reduced wait times. However, customs' studies show its trusted-traveler programs have reduced wait times for participants by an average of seven to 20 minutes.
TSA can remove Pre-Check status at any time, and the agency conducts recurrent background checks. If the government labels a passenger a terrorist, the TSA will add that person's name to the "no fly" list, and TSA will deny boarding to the person and he or she could face federal prosecution. If a passenger misbehaves or harasses agents, TSA also can add the person to a watch list, which requires more thorough security screening. Program expansion
TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said the agency is working to broaden the Pre-Check program to other airlines and airports.
So far, the agency has focused on airlines with frequent-flier programs because "we just have more information about those people. And the more information we have, the more confident we are that they don't pose a threat," Melendez said.
TSA so far has access to frequent fliers' information from five airlines: Alaska, American, Delta, United and US Airways. The agency reviews travelers' information and, if they pass the agency's background check, sends them an invitation to "opt in" to Pre-Check. Airlines have had to share passenger information with the federal government since 9/11.
In the case of Sky Harbor, the agency started with Terminal 4, Checkpoint A, which is the main gateway to US Airways flights. Generally, airlines rent a series of gates and a single checkpoint leads to those gates.
Last year, more than 40 million people flew in and out of Sky Harbor, and an estimated 8 million -- 20 percent -- were on US Airways flights, according to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
There is not a timeline yet for the program's full expansion at Sky Harbor. But the program has expanded quickly. The TSA started testing it at Boston Logan International Airport last year. Since then, an estimated 2 million travelers have obtained Pre-Check clearance. Security backlash
For years, the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Travel Association urged the federal government to launch trusted-traveler programs after surveys showed people took trains and buses or drove long distances instead of flying -- just to avoid the hassle of TSA security checks.
Although the industry group applauded Pre-Check's expansion this year, the group's president and CEO, Roger Dow, said the federal government risks further deterring travelers from flying if it doesn't find a way to make its trusted-traveler programs accessible to more people.
"We must ensure Pre-Check is not just an enhancement to elite frequent-flier programs, focus on expanding enrollment in the program to average American travelers and allow greater cross-enrollment for Pre-Check passengers," Dow said in a statement earlier this year.
Melendez said TSA about a year ago decided to expand Pre-Check because it frees agents to focus on more thorough screenings of passengers whom it knows little about or whom it regards as potential security threats, such as those on its extensive Terror Watch List, a large list the agency thoroughly screens before allowing to board.
"This is about becoming more effective with our resources," Melendez said. "If we know more about certain passengers, we don't have to spend as much time on screening them, so we can focus more on passengers we don't know as much about."
The agency has faced criticism over concerns about privacy rights. The consumer protection group Electronic Privacy Information Center has argued, unsuccessfully, that the federal government should limit which government agencies and workers can access trusted-travelers' information, including fingerprints and Social Security numbers.
But for some, applying for federal clearance might be worth the hassle.
During his layover in Phoenix this week, Todd Hughes of Mechanicsville, Md., said he thought the program could be especially useful for parents with young children. When his wife flew with their young daughter, he remembered she would have to carry the child, plus baby gear, a stroller and her own carry-on items, through security.
"Anything that would reduce some of those steps would help," Hughes said.
TSA's Pre-Check program
The expedited-screening program is open to passengers who clear a federal background check and are frequent fliers with five airlines: Alaska, American, Delta, United and US Airways.
The program also is open to passengers who participate in these U.S. Customs and Border Protection trusted-traveler programs: Global Entry, NEXUS and SENTRI.
Global Entry is for all international and domestic travel; NEXUS is for U.S. and Canadian travelers who frequently go through ports on the U.S.-Canadian border; SENTRI is for U.S. citizens and Mexican nationals who frequently pass through ports on the U.S.-Mexico border. (Customs is working on merging the three into a single program.)
All three programs require an application fee. SENTRI costs $122.25. NEXUS is $50 to apply. Global Entry is $100.
Source: http://www.tsa.gov/what_we_do/escreening.shtm.
Lancaster's surveillance flights raise privacy fears
SourceLancaster's daily aerial surveillance flights raise privacy fears
August 25, 2012 | 9:02 am
Lancaster this week embarked on what experts say is a first-of-its-kind aerial surveillance over the city, using a small Cessna plane.
The plane, equipped with sophisticated video equipment, is set fly a loop above the city for up to 10 hours a day, beaming a live video feed of what's going on below to a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department dispatch center.
The camera will inevitably pick up scenes of mundane day-to-day life. Officials said they planned to use the video only to track reports of crimes in progress, traffic collisions and other emergency situations.
About a few hours into its maiden flight Friday, the plane's video feed captured its first incident: a motorcycle rider who had crashed at 20th Street East and Avenue K. Using the video, deputies in the dispatch center were able to help paramedics assess the situation before they got to the scene. Later, the department got word that a group fight was brewing at Eastside High School. The plane moved into position and conducted surveillance above the campus. No fight occurred.
It has become common for law enforcement agencies to use aerial surveillance, including streaming video, during breaking crime situations. Some are even beginning to use drones for police work.
But Lancaster appears to be the first city where a camera will send video continuously to the ground, to be used as an integral part of daily policing.
For years, Lancaster officials have been exploring better ways to patrol the far-flung city. Mayor R. Rex Parris said he talked about various ideas, including drones, with aviation pioneer Dick Rutan and eventually settled on the concept the city is now putting into operation.
The city spent $1.3 million on the initial contract with Aero View, the Lancaster-based company that developed the program and will operate the planes. Beginning in a year, the city will pay about $90,000 a month for the service. Eventually, Parris said he hoped to add a second plane for greater coverage, and Aero View President Steve McCarter said the technology could be expanded to feed the video footage directly to deputies' patrol cars.
"This will allow us within five seconds of a call to get some eyes on location. If some robber is fleeing deputies, we get to learn where, thanks to this technology," Parris said. "In law enforcement, for a long time it has been known that it is a deterrent if a criminal believes there is a strong likelihood of apprehension."
When the plane is in the air, it will record every incident deputies respond to, Sheriff's Capt. Robert Jonsen said.
The plane's pilot, an Aero View employee, does not see the encrypted video feed. A watch deputy in the dispatch center guides the camera, and images can be viewed only with a special access code.
"We are very aware of privacy issues," Jonsen said, adding the videos will be stored for two years. "The protocol requires that the system be only used to monitor criminal activity."
Despite officials' assurances, the American Civil Liberties Union requested detailed records on the program last November, when the city approved the contract. Peter Bibring, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California, said the organization had reviewed sample footage, which allayed some of their fears, but not all.
"As far as we can tell, the system isn't capable of seeing in any greater detail than your average pilot or helicopter pilot," Bibring said.
Had the system been capable of facial recognition, it would have presented more serious apprehension, he said. But Bibring said the ACLU was still concerned about infrared sensors and the potential to monitor and store data on people who are not suspected of a crime.
-- Abby Sewell and Richard Winton
On the other hand the way the tobacco companies try to trick people into becoming addicted to their deadly drug is certainly immoral along with being dishonest.
While the solution to that should NOT be government regulation, people who were tricked by the tobacco companies into becoming addicts probably should have some recourse against the tobacco companies. I would have to think about that for a while to come up with a good Libertarian answer.
U.S. court strikes down graphic warnings on cigarettes
Reuters
By David Ingram and Anna Yukhananov
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday struck down a law that requires tobacco companies to use graphic health warnings, such as of a man exhaling smoke through a hole in his throat.
The 2-1 decision by the court in Washington, D.C., contradicts another appeals court's ruling in a similar case earlier this year, setting up the possibility the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in on the dispute.
The court's majority in the latest ruling found the label requirement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration violated corporate speech rights.
"This case raises novel questions about the scope of the government's authority to force the manufacturer of a product to go beyond making purely factual and accurate commercial disclosures and undermine its own economic interest -- in this case, by making 'every single pack of cigarettes in the country mini billboard' for the government's anti-smoking message," wrote Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
The FDA "has not provided a shred of evidence" showing that the graphic labels would reduce smoking, Brown added.
Five tobacco companies representing most of the major cigarette makers in the United States challenged the FDA rules: Reynolds American Inc, Lorillard Inc; Commonwealth Brands Inc, which is owned by Britain's Imperial Tobacco Group Plc; Liggett Group LLC and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co Inc.
The FDA has argued the images of rotting teeth and diseased lungs are accurate and necessary to warn consumers -- especially teenagers -- about the risks of smoking.
The health agency said on Friday that it does not comment on possible, pending or ongoing litigation. The U.S. Department of Justice, which argued the case for the FDA, said it needs to review the ruling before deciding on next steps.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which has vigorously supported stricter cigarette laws, urged the government to appeal.
"Today's ruling is wrong on the science and law, and it is by no means the final word on the new cigarette warnings," said Matthew Myers, the group's president, in a statement.
YOUTH EPIDEMIC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates some 45 million U.S. adults smoke cigarettes, which are the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. And the World Health Organization predicts smoking could kill 8 million people each year by 2030 if governments do not do more to help people quit.
The U.S. Surgeon General warned in March that youth smoking has reached epidemic proportions, as one in four U.S. high school seniors is a regular cigarette smoker, paving the way to a lifetime of addiction.
Judge Judith Rogers, who wrote the dissenting opinion, said the FDA warnings were factual, and necessary to counter tobacco companies' history of deceptive advertising.
"The government has an interest of paramount importance in effectively conveying information about the health risks of smoking to adolescent would-be smokers and other consumers," she wrote.
Congress passed a law in 2009 that gave the FDA broad powers to regulate the tobacco industry, including imposing the label regulation. The law requires color warning labels big enough to cover the top 50 percent of a cigarette pack's front and back panels, and the top 20 percent of print advertisements.
The FDA released nine new warnings in June 2011 that were meant to go into effect this September, the first change in U.S. cigarette warning labels in 25 years. Cigarette packs already carry text warnings from the U.S. Surgeon General.
The ruling against the FDA means tobacco companies will likely not have to comply with the requirements for now, given divergent court rulings.
The U.S. Appeals Court for the 6th Circuit, based in Cincinnati, upheld the bulk of the FDA's new tobacco regulations in March, including the requirement for warning images on cigarette packs.
The difference in the two cases is that the FDA had not introduced the specific images when the companies filed the 6th Circuit suit. While the Washington suit focused on the images, the appeals court in Cincinnati addressed the larger issue of the FDA's regulatory power.
Most countries in the European Union already carry graphic images to illustrate the health risks of smoking. Earlier this month, Australia took a further step to limit smoking advertising by banning company logos on cigarette packs, and the EU said it was considering a similar ban.
(Reporting by David Ingram and Anna Yukhananov; Editing by John Wallace, Lisa Von Ahn and Tim Dobbyn)
Massive marijuana farm raided at rugged S. Utah site
By bob mims
The Salt Lake Tribune
A multi-agency narcotics strike force descended on a massive marijuana farm in remote Washington County on Friday, and officers expected to work into the weekend to remove thousands of plants, some 12 feet high.
The illicit farm was about four miles west of Interstate 15 in the Virgin River Gorge area, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
The strike force, including DEA officers on the ground as well as DEA-supplied helicopters, Washington County deputies and other law officers, began the raid just after sunrise.
DEA spokeswoman Sue Thomas, who accompanied the task force on the raid, said it took four hours of hiking over searing hot, steep and rugged terrain to reach the site. The strike force found the site abandoned and no arrests were made, but Thomas said agents and deputies were stunned to find a crop roughly estimated between 2,000 to 6,000 plants spread over 10 acres.
"It was a horrible hike getting in here," Thomas said Friday afternoon. "Just horrific terrain and at one point waist-deep water. It was so rugged we were surprised no one broke a leg." [I wonder why this pig is complaining. I bet he is getting paid at least $50 and hour for his role in the government's war against pot smokers.]
Ironically, among the few signs of recent human habitation at the pot grow were a pair of crutches and a discarded leg cast.
"Someone had gone up there on crutches. We have no idea how they did that. Then they cut off their leg cast. Drawn on the cast was a picture of an AK-47 machine gun and the word ‘Michoacán,’ " Thomas said.
The leg cast artwork is associated with La Familia Michoacana, a Mexican drug cartel and organized crime syndicate based in the western Mexican state of Michoacán.
"It looks like [the site] was abandoned about a week and a half ago," Thomas said. "We don’t know why, if they ran out of water or got spooked by planes flying overhead or just what."
Earlier Friday, Washington County Sheriff Cory Pulsipher told the Spectrum newspaper that law enforcement had "known about [the site] for three years, but it has taken this amount of time to find it. We found it by luck with DEA helicopters."
The article didn't mention it but a lot of these stolen cars are taken to Mexico and traded for drugs.
Car theft decreases in metro Phoenix
Police, prosecutors use new resources to boost arrests, strengthen criminal cases
by D.S. Woodfill - Aug. 25, 2012 09:57 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Less than 10 years ago, the Valley led the nation in auto thefts. Last year, metropolitan Phoenix ranked 60th among 366 metro areas in car thefts, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
Local police credit the dramatic decrease to creation by the state Legislature of the Arizona Automobile Theft Authority, which trains a task force of police officers, funds prosecutors who specialize in auto-theft cases and provides bait cars that lure would-be thieves. The goal of the authority is to increase arrests and bolster criminal cases against perpetrators.
Across the Valley last year, 13,132 vehicles, or about 308 cars per 100,000 residents, were stolen. In 2002, 1,089 cars per 100,000 residents were stolen, said Frank Scafidi, spokesman for the national crime bureau.
In addition to the work done by the authority, anti-theft devices such as smart keys and LoJack, which helps authorities track stolen cars, have helped deter criminals.
While the drop is significant, officials say there is still work to be done.
Glendale led the Valley's 10 largest municipalities in auto thefts on a per capita basis in 2011, according to crime data submitted by police departments. Phoenix, the Valley's largest city in terms of population and geography, ranked second, followed by Tempe, Avondale and Mesa. Surprise was ninth, and Gilbert was last on the list at No. 10.
While most of the municipalities reflect the decadelong downward trend in thefts, two cities -- Surprise and Glendale -- saw thefts and attempted thefts increase marginally from 2010 to 2011.
J.D. Hough, a special investigator with the authority, said one common thread among top-ranking cities is they all have major shopping centers with easy freeway access.
Glendale in the northwest Valley has Arrowhead Towne Center with Loop 101 seconds away. Tempe in the East Valley has Arizona Mills mall at the confluence of the U.S. 60 and Interstate 10 freeways, as well as Tempe Marketplace at Loops 202 and 101. Avondale in the southwest Valley has the Gateway Pavilions shopping complex at the intersection of I-10 and Loop 101.
Hough said malls provide thieves with a variety of vehicles, a quick getaway on the freeways and an opportunity to work unnoticed as victims are away from their cars for a while taking in a movie, having dinner or shopping.
"They know that it's going to be several hours before it's reported stolen, so they have less chance of being caught," he said.
Scafidi echoed Hough's comments, saying a mall or sports stadium is the perfect place to steal a car.
"Places where there's a great concentration of vehicles are prime," he said. "It just makes sense you don't have to go traipsing around neighborhoods where you might generate suspicion."
Brian Salata, executive director of the auto-theft authority, said stolen cars, trucks and vans are most likely destined for use in other crimes -- mainly smuggling and for use as getaway vehicles.
Criminals use stolen cars in other crimes because they can't be traced back to them.
"If you're going to rob a bank, you don't take your mom's car," Salata said.
He said traditionally, the No. 1 use for stolen vehicles was smuggling -- specifically ferrying guns and money into Mexico and drugs and people into the United States.
Nowadays, thieves are more likely to send stolen vehicles to so-called chop shops, where the parts will be stripped and sold, or to scrap-metal dealers, where they'll be shredded into metal confetti and shipped overseas to China, which has a lack of raw materials.
Increase in technology
While Glendale has the highest vehicle-theft rate per capita, Brandon Blanco, the Glendale police sergeant overseeing the auto-theft unit, said police work hard to decrease thefts.
That work is paying off, he said.
"Since '05, it's been reduced by over 50 percent," he said. "In '05, we had over 3,000 motor-vehicle thefts. Last year, we had just under, what, 1,500, it looks like. From that perspective, we're doing something right."
That downward trend was interrupted in 2010, when thefts rose about 7 percent from 1,334 in 2010 to 1,430 in 2011.
Blanco said he considered that a small increase and pointed out that the city was on track to see reduced theft cases, with only 597 occurring from January to June of this year.
Glendale police spokeswoman Tracey Breeden said the department has had success in the city's partnership with the state task force, a collaboration of city, county, state and federal law-enforcement agencies. Less than a year ago, the city started reporting thefts more quickly to the task force, which disseminates the information to law-enforcement agencies around the state. That increases the police's chances of catching criminals.
Officials are also purchasing a new bait car this fiscal year, Blanco said. The department doesn't disclose the number of bait cars, nor their makes and models, to keep the information from being used by thieves.
Glendale also plans to buy four fixed license-plate readers, which can be attached to light poles. The cameras scan license plates on passing vehicles and cross-check them with vehicles reported stolen.
The department already has the readers on four of its patrol cars, at a cost of about $20,000 per vehicle.
Comparing numbers
Phoenix had the second-highest rate of theft cases. Police spokesman Sgt. Trent Crump downplayed the significance of that rate, saying it's unfair to compare the city with others in the Valley due to the wildly diverse demographics.
"Demographics of cities plays a large role in the crime rate," he said in an e-mail. "I believe a fair comparison would be to other cities that share the same demographics and share in the title of major metropolitan cities."
Crump said areas with large apartment developments tend to attract large numbers of thefts. He said police have noticed a large increase in thefts between about 9 p.m. and 3:30 a.m.
"People do things under the cover of darkness," he said.
Vehicle theft is trending down in Phoenix and in its neighboring cities, but Crump said the problem is far from solved.
"It was a hotbed here," he said of the Valley's auto thefts. "It was a big deal. It doesn't mean there's still not work to do."
Avondale's efforts
The relatively small city of Avondale's high per capita ranking caught police officials there by surprise.
The city, with a population of only 77,518 people, is fourth-highest on the list of Valley cities.
"Of course it disappoints me," said Avondale Police Chief Kevin Kotsur. "It's not the kind of goal I'm shooting for as the police chief."
Memo Espinoza, a lieutenant overseeing criminal investigations, said one particular area is a constant thorn for the department: the shopping and entertainment district near 99th Avenue and McDowell Road.
"There are four different jurisdictions in that area, and then you have two freeways there, and we believe that's a factor," he said.
The jurisdictions are Avondale, Tolleson, Phoenix and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, which oversees a county island in the area.
"I don't want to sound like we're blaming (other departments) for our problem," he said. "It's kind of more complicated when you have more jurisdictions."
Like other agencies, Espinoza said, the department has employed bait cars in recent years. Police also have enlisted the help from security personnel at shopping centers to help boost vigilance in parking lots. Espinoza said the department has also improved communication with police departments who share the border.
Espinoza said those efforts have paid off. The city had a peak year for auto-theft cases in 2007, when thieves stole or attempted to steal nearly 840 vehicles. By 2009, there were 546 thefts and attempted thefts, and by 2011, there were 232, he said.
Analyzing crime
Gilbert has lower crime in general compared with the rest of the Valley, and the city is frequently touted as one of the safest in the U.S. in national rankings. So it comes as no surprise to Police Chief Tim Dorn that his city has a lower auto-theft rate than other major cities.
Dorn said auto theft is still a crime his department works hard to prevent.
He called it a "focus crime," which the department gives special attention. By analyzing crime data on a regular basis to predict emerging trends, Dorn said he knows where to deploy officers and bait cars to catch thieves.
"It's using past crime trends to try to prevent future crime trends," he said. "Those crime analysts are worth their weight in gold to us."
Kind of like they have flushed the 4th Amendment down the toilet for the drug war?
Of course that would be like making matches illegal to stop the few arsonists that use them to start fires, even if it inconveniences millions of other innocent people who use matches for legal things.
I shouldn't have said that. One of the piggies who reads my emails and webpages might just decide to make matches illegal to stop people from smoking marijuana.
And if these so called police experts say the ads are all "prostitution ads" why aren't they making any arrests???
I suspect that reason is they don't have a sherd of evidence to back their claim the ads are for prostitution!
ASU study: Backpage's ads mostly for prostitution
by JJ Hensley - Aug. 25, 2012 05:17 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
Nearly 80 percent of the ads posted on the adult-services section of the classified website Backpage.com are for prostitutes, according to an Arizona State University research project that studied content posted on the site during a week in May.
The research project drew on the expertise of law-enforcement officers to identify prostitution ads based on certain commonly used words and phrases and to identify minors based on factors including the girls' development. The researchers compared ads for services offered in Phoenix and in Philadelphia between May 12 and May 20, offering the first detailed glimpse at content on the classified site that has spawned critics around the country who accuse the site's parent company, Village Voice Media, of Phoenix, of profiting off prostitution ads and exploiting women and young girls.
An attorney for Village Voice Media, an alternative-weekly conglomerate that includes the Phoenix New Times, questioned how the researchers determined what ads were for prostitution and the ages of girls and women advertised on the site.
The ads in question typically include photos of women in lingerie asking men to meet them at specific locations.
The study looked at more than 2,000 ads posted on the site in Phoenix and Philadelphia, because of their comparable size. The researchers said they found more than 900 advertisements offering sex or prostitution in Phoenix, out of 1,145 postings, and nearly 650 ads offering sex or prostitution, out of 903 ads posted in Philadelphia during the week of the study.
The researchers reported 88 girls to Phoenix police who they believed to be under the age of 18. Phoenix police said they rescued three of the girls though at least one has since been featured on the site.
Law-enforcement officers from around the country routinely monitor the site to gather information about the prostitutes who advertise there, along with their pimps and customers. But Phoenix police have declined to say the site's operators are complicit in illegal activity.
The ASU research reinforced the Phoenix vice squad's belief that the Valley is a hub for prostitution, whether the women and girls are full-time Arizona residents or operating on a circuit rotating among cities in the Southwest.
"It illustrates the scope of the problem here in Phoenix," said Lt. Jim Gallagher, who oversees a unit that attempts to treat prostitutes as trafficking victims while targeting the men and women who control them.
"It confirmed a lot of what we already knew," Gallagher said. "But what we knew, we didn't know enough of."
Dominique Roe-Sepowitz, the ASU professor in the School of Social Work who spearheaded the study, said she wants to expand the research to other cities in the hopes of better understanding the role of Internet advertising in prostitution and human trafficking.
Backpage has come under attack from critics around the country who have taken steps that include staging protests in Phoenix and New York, drafting legislation in Washington state to hold the company criminally liable for promoting commercial sex trafficking and getting attorneys general from 46 states, including Arizona, to sign a letter asking the company to ensure it enforces policies that prevent illegal activity on the site. Last month, a federal judge in Washington approved Backpage's request for an injunction to prevent the legislation from taking effect.
All that attention could be having a double-edged influence on Backpage: An online classified research service found that ads posted on the site decreased by more than 6 percent from June to July, but the number of unique visitors to the site increased 4.3 percent during the same time.
Liz McDougall, an attorney representing Village Voice Media on the issue, has said shutting down the site, as its critics have requested, would only drive the activity to off-shore Web services where U.S. law-enforcement agencies would have little or no authority to force operators to cooperate with investigations.
McDougall said her goal is to make the site a leader in developing adult-services advertising guidelines that can be implemented throughout the industry. The site has 80 people committed to reviewing ads and reporting suspected minors to law enforcement.
The ASU researchers, who received some training from Phoenix police on how to identify minors and what code words and acronyms might signal prostitution ads, said none of the minors they flagged were spotted by Backpage.
McDougall, who questioned the study's methodology, said in an e-mail that anyone with information on how to identify minors or other victims of trafficking or exploitation should not keep that knowledge to themselves.
"If an experienced Phoenix police vice/ lieutenant, or any other law-enforcement agent or person, knows of accurate methods to identify ads for illegal adult activity, including what specific language and acronyms in ads mean and especially how to identify persons under age 18 (minors), I would hope that he or she would share that information with Backpage .com and all other online service providers who monitor their services to help prevent illegal and exploitative activity," McDougall wrote.
Tom Horne and Bill Montgomery Make Their Move to Nix Arizona's Medical Marijuana Law
By Matthew Hendley Thu., Aug. 23 2012 at 1:48 PM
Arizona's supposed reputation for fightin' the feds doesn't seem to apply to the will of the voters -- Attorney General Tom Horne and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery held hands today to ask a court to declare the state's medical-marijuana law illegal.
Horne's position is that the state law is preempted by federal law in several aspects -- mostly in the growing and selling areas -- and Montgomery seemingly hates everything about the law.
"[Montgomery and Horne are] filing separate motions for summary judgment in Superior Court today seeking to resolve conflicting issues raised by the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act (AMMA)," their joint press release says. "Today's filings are the latest response to a lawsuit filed by White Mountain Health Center against Maricopa County and the Arizona Department of Health Services (DHS) and ask the Court to determine whether the AMMA is preempted by federal law prohibiting the possession, distribution and cultivation of marijuana."
They're not so much asking the court to decide whether the law is preempted by federal law as they are asking the court to decide that it is preempted.
According to Horne's previous request to butt in to the matter, he's doing this "for the purpose of seeking a declaration that the relief Plaintiff has sought is preempted by the laws of the United States."
As our colleague Ray Stern has previously reported on the White Mountain Health Center lawsuit:
The county, based on advice from County Attorney Bill Montgomery, decided to "opt out" of the state's medical-marijuana law and refuses to acknowledge White Mountain's request for zoning information. State rules require that a dispensary applicant submit some zoning info, so the company sued.
Last month, Superior Court Judge Michael Gordon issued an order suspending the state's rule on requiring zoning info. That made it seem as though Sun City would get a dispensary even though no zoning criteria exists in the county for dispensaries.
County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox told New Times that Gordon's ruling could result in the five-member Board of Supervisors reviewing their decision to opt out. But County Attorney Bill Montgomery says he believes the White Mountain case could be the "dam" that blocks up the whole pot program. Look for Montgomery to file a motion soon in that case based on Horne's opinion.
And that's exactly what's happening here.
"Since the relevant portions of the AMMA directly conflict with federal law, they are preempted and thus of no legal force or effect," Horne's motion says. "Operating the dispensary would violate public policy, as it would be a federal crime. This Court should so declare and enter a judgment dismissing the Plaintiff's claims as preempted by federal law."
If Montgomery's right about this case being the "dam" that blocks the law, then this case could decide the fate of medical-marijuana dispensaries in Arizona.
Horne's motion can be found
here.
She also pointed out that about 60 to 70 percent of the people in prisons are there for victimless drug war crimes.
Arizona prison contract will go to private firm
Corrections Department will award 1,000-bed deal to 1 of 5 contenders
by Craig Harris - Aug. 26, 2012 11:08 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
The state Department of Corrections plans Friday to award a private prison contract for 1,000 medium-security beds for men, citing a lack of beds for violent offenders and a projected increase in the overall inmate population.
Five out-of-state companies are vying for the contract. The value of the deal has not been disclosed while the state reviews the bids, but it likely will be worth millions of dollars annually. Sites being considered are in Coolidge, Eloy, Florence, San Luis and Winslow.
The contract comes even though the state's overall prison population is expected to remain flat the next two years and increase only slightly thereafter. State records also show it's more costly for taxpayers to have private businesses run prisons.
According to state records, there currently are about 2,000 empty beds in Arizona's prison system, which houses 39,876 male and female inmates. Critics of the prison expansion point to those empty beds as a key reason why the state doesn't need to spend more money on beds.
State Corrections Director Charles Ryan acknowledged the empty beds but said the state has a shortage of permanent medium-security beds -- an 11-bed deficit as of Friday. Most of the empty beds are in minimum-security or women's facilities, and the populations cannot be mixed.
Ryan said the shortage will get worse by 2016, when the total prison population is projected to increase by about 600 more inmates, to 40,477 prisoners. Ryan said the increased projections are based on historical growth trends from the past five fiscal years. He added that the state doesn't foresee a significant decline in sex offenders or violent criminals, who would be housed in medium-security prisons.
"We need the medium (security) beds," Ryan said. "This is an issue of preparing and planning for the future."
The contract calls for up to 2,000 medium-security beds. The first 500 would come online in January 2014. The next 500 would be in place in January 2015. The Legislature has not determined when, or if, the remaining 1,000 beds would be added, but their decision would be based on increases in the medium-security population.
The state also plans to build a 500-bed maximum-security facility in Buckeye that's scheduled to open July 1, 2015. The cost for that facility is projected at $50 million. The Legislature allocated $20 million toward the new facility this budget year, which began July 1.
Corrections records also show that in fiscal 2011 there were 296 fewer prisoners than the previous year, and this past fiscal year that ended June 30, there were 304 fewer inmates for a total of 39,877.
Ryan attributed the overall decline to fewer parole revocations, fewer illegal immigrants being placed in state custody and an overall downturn in crime, but he still contends the additional beds are needed.
He said 735 of the empty beds are in women's facilities, where men can't be housed. There are another 1,127 empty beds at minimum-security prisons for men, but male inmates at medium-security sites can't be transferred there because the sites are not as secure, and there would be safety risks to other inmates, officers and the public. It would be cost-prohibitive, he said, to retrofit a minimum-security facility for more serious offenders.
"You can't mix and match," Ryan said. "You have to keep them separate."
Ryan said the 15,500-plus medium-security inmates are not allowed to work outside a prison's secured perimeter, and they typically are serving sentences that average 9.7 years. Just more than half of them have been sentenced for violent crimes, including assaults, sex offenses and robbery. The rest are serving time for drug offenses, drunken driving, forgery, theft and burglary, according to Corrections records.
Business model criticized
Records show it's more expensive to have private companies operate prisons.
The most recent information available shows the average daily cost per inmate in a state-run medium-custody facility in 2010 was $48.42, while the average daily cost for an inmate in a similar private facility was $53.02. That translates into a 9.5 percent higher cost per inmate for a private prison.
If the new private 1,000-bed facility operates at just 90 percent capacity, the annual cost for taxpayers would be $17.4 million, based on 2010 figures. A state-run facility, under the same scenario, would cost taxpayers $15.9 million annually.
Ryan countered that Arizona saves up-front construction costs by having a private company build the facility. The coming contract also calls for the state to assume ownership of the facility in 20 years.
Rep. Cecil Ash, R-Mesa, disagrees with Ryan's conclusions.
"Private prisons are the wrong business model," Ash said. "They are in the business for profit. The problem is most legislators just don't pay attention to this issue. Inmates don't vote, and the public doesn't see the inmates. They are out of sight, out of mind."
Ash, who is running for a justice of the peace position and will not return to the 2013 Legislature, is one of the few Republicans who have publicly opposed adding private prison beds, saying they waste taxpayers' money. Other outspoken opponents include the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group and watchdog organization.
"For-profit prison corporations are not accountable to Arizona taxpayers," said Caroline Isaacs, American Friends Service Committee program director.
She also contends they are not subject to the same transparency, reporting or oversight requirements as government agencies, and she believes the for-profit prison industry is getting a contract because it has exercised its political muscle in Arizona by hiring a cadre of lobbyists and made campaign contributions to influential legislators.
At least one of the companies, Corrections Corporation of America, employs one of Gov. Jan Brewer's key advisers as a lobbyist, and former Arizona U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini serves on the company's board.
Who's bidding
Arizona got into the private prison business in 1993, with a facility in Marana in southern Arizona.
Today, about 6,500 Arizona inmates or about 16 percent of the inmate population are in private prisons. The state houses roughly 33,000 inmates in 10 complexes across Arizona. The overall Corrections budget is about $1 billion.
Management & Training Corporation and the GEO Group Inc. currently have contracts at five prisons in Phoenix, Florence, Kingman and Marana. Both are bidding for the additional medium-security beds. The other bidders are Corrections Corporation of America, Emerald Correctional Management and LaSalle Corrections. All five are headquartered outside Arizona.
Following steady growth in the inmate population, the Department of Corrections in 2009 sought bids from private prison operators for an additional 5,000 beds in Arizona.
During the bidding process, three inmates escaped July 30, 2010, from Management & Training Corporation's private prison in Kingman. Two of the escapees are accused of murdering an Oklahoma couple who were vacationing in New Mexico.
An Arizona Department of Corrections review of the Kingman facility after the escape found numerous deficiencies with training and equipment, including an alarm system that issued false alarms so frequently that staff members began to ignore them.
The state suspended the bidding process after the escape and revised a bid for 5,000 beds. That bid was canceled and a new request for up to 2,000 beds was issued after the prison population forecast changed. The Legislature most recently authorized funding for 1,000 of the 2,000 beds.
Local debate
While the American Friends Service Committee and ACLU have adamantly opposed the addition of private prison beds, many residents in communities that may house the inmates have been very supportive, Ryan said.
That was the case earlier this month at a public hearing in Florence, known as Arizona's prison capital for its state-operated and private prisons.
Florence's mayor, town officials and the schools superintendent all voiced support for more inmate beds, after they were told by GEO Group that the company's proposal to build a new 1,000-bed prison would create 200 construction jobs, 260 jobs at the facility and a $12 million annual payroll. The company, however, would not say how much the company pays its guards.
"We are proud of our institutions, and proud to have a much-needed service to the state," Florence Mayor Tom Rankin said during the hearing. "It will create more jobs, and more jobs means more people will shop here."
Rankin also took a shot at critics of the proposed prison, saying they didn't live in his community and shouldn't try to derail a jobs creator.
But opponents, including Isaacs, countered that any new prison was a waste of money for all Arizona taxpayers.
A GEO executive had to correct himself during the hearing for saying the company had never had an escape at one of its facilities after an opponent pointed out that an escape had occurred in 2006 at a GEO facility in Florence. Last year, when The Republic was examining the bidders for new private prisons, the newspaper found that at least 27 escapes have been reported from GEO facilities over the previous seven years, including one in Texas that led to a murder.
Pablo Paez, a GEO spokesman, said the Florence escape occurred at a low-security DUI-offender facility shortly after the company took over from a prior operator. He added the other escapes predominantly occurred at low-security facilities, such as halfway houses where offenders are placed in the months nearing their release.
During other questions from opponents, GEO officials at least twice attempted to take control of the meeting from Corrections Director Ryan by telling the critics that their allotted time to speak had ended, when it had not. Ryan allowed the critics to continue.
"It was evident that the representatives from the local community are very supportive of the proposed facility," Paez later said. "Unfortunately, during any public hearing, outside interest groups which are not related to the local community can at times overtake a meeting and bring up issues that are not related to the community's views on the proposed project. This can lead to spontaneous exchanges which unfortunately can take away from the central purpose of these public hearings, which should be for the local community to express its views on the proposed project."
GEO officials did not attempt to cut short comments from supporters of its proposal.
Reach the reporter at craig.harris@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8478.
Letter: Officials should follow Arizona's medical marijuana law
Posted: Sunday, August 26, 2012 12:30 pm
Letter to the editor
U.S. court strikes down graphic warnings on cigarettes
Tobacco is probably the worst drug on the planet and kills millions of people every year. Despite that the government shouldn't be allow to force tobacco vendors to put any warning on their products. So it's nice the court struck down this law.
Massive marijuana farm raided at rugged S. Utah site
Sounds like the "war on drugs" is a jobs program for these DEA thugs.
Legalized drugs to stop car thefts???
Legalize drugs and you will reduce the number of cars that are stolen - "traditionally, the No. 1 use for stolen vehicles was smuggling -- specifically ferrying guns and money into Mexico and drugs and people into the United States"
"War on Drugs" used to flush 4th Amendment???
So are the cops going to say we should flush the First Amendment down the toilet and shutdown the Backpage.com to stop a few people that run prostitution ads???
Tom Horne and Bill Montgomery Make Their Move to Nix Arizona's Medical Marijuana Law
Source
Unneeded 1,000 bed Arizona prison contract will go to private firm
I went to a talk on the for profit prison Sunday Aug 26, 2012 at HSGP and a woman named Dianne Post (602)271-9019 postdlpost@aol.com spoke about this. She said this prison is not needed as the article says. She said the main reason the contract is being awarded is these private prison contractors gave Jan Brewer $60,000 in campaign contributions.
Letter: Officials should follow Arizona's medical marijuana law
Source
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If Attorney General Tom Horne and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery want to enforce the federal marijuana laws, they should resign from their jobs as Arizona elected officials and get hired by the federal government as prosecutors.
Until then they should stop wasting our tax dollars in their personal war against Arizona medical marijuana users.
Yes Arizona’s Prop 203 does conflict with federal law. If they don’t like it they should resign, instead of wasting our tax dollars for their personal witch hunt against medical marijuana users.
Mike Ross
Tempe
Tunnels used in the "War on Drugs"
Here is an interesting article on tunnels that are being created as part of the American "war on drugs".I could tell the cops how to stop these tunnels from being dug, but they won't listen to me.
Hell, any idiot can tell the cops how to stop these tunnels from being dug.
Simply re-legalize drugs and these tunnels will stop being dug the very next day.
The police are mostly trained on how to use physical force & violence
From this article it sounds like cops are trained mostly on how to use physical force & violence along with a little bit on laws.At the Chandler-Gilbert Community College wanna be cops have to take 139 hours of instruction on guns and fighting compared to a 44 hours of instruction on criminal law.
Yuma cops ordered to return marijuana they stole
Source
Yuma deputies ordered to return seized pot
Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX - Sheriff's deputies will have to deliver three-quarters of an ounce of marijuana to a California woman if a Yuma County court commissioner gets her way.
Lisa Bleich said it's not like she's ordering the deputies to become drug suppliers, pointing out that Valerie Okun had a valid medical marijuana card when the drugs were seized from her.
The commissioner said all she is requiring is that the property be returned to its rightful owner.
Bleich acknowledged that marijuana remains illegal under federal law. But she rejected county legal arguments that delivering the drugs to Okun would make the deputies guilty of illegal drug distribution under the federal Controlled Substances Act.
Now the case is before the state Court of Appeals. And what those judges rule about conflicts between Arizona's voter-approved medical marijuana law and the federal Controlled Substance Act could set precedent for a number of other suits based in the same issue.
Court records show Okun was stopped in early 2011 at a Border Patrol checkpoint along Interstate 8.
Attorney Michael Donovan said officers searched her vehicle after a dog alerted on it, and found marijuana and hashish.
Rather than charge her under federal laws, the officers wrote up what amounts to a citation for violating Arizona drug laws, turning the matter over to county officials.
Okun has a medical marijuana card issued in California. And the Arizona law honors valid cards from other states, so as a result, five months later, the case was dismissed.
Okun then filed for return of her property, with a judge ordering its release.
When Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden refused, the judge ordered both sides to submit legal arguments to Bleich.
In what appears to be the first ruling in Arizona of its kind, Bleich rejected arguments by prosecutors that federal laws making possession and distribution of marijuana a crime override Arizona's 2010 voter-approved law.
"Congress did not intend to trample on the rights of the state to make their own laws pertaining to illegal drugs and medical marijuana use," the commissioner wrote earlier this year. "It further implies that state laws pertaining to medical marijuana use can coexist with federal law without conflict."
Bleich found that a police officer would be violating federal drug laws only "if he or she intended to act as a drug peddler rather than a law enforcement official."
And citing a ruling from a California appellate court, she said it "seems exceedingly unlikely" that federal prosecutors would ever arrest a police officer for simply complying with a court order to return a patient's medical marijuana.
But Yuma County Attorney Jon Smith said that "doesn't resolve the fact that people shouldn't be forced to do things that are otherwise illegal under our state and/or federal law."
In arguments to the appeals court, Deputy Yuma County Attorney Edward Feheley, citing federal law, wrote, "The sheriff is prohibited from delivering marijuana to a person he knows has no right to possess marijuana - even for medical purposes."
Feheley also argued the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act has no specific provision requiring or authorizing a court to return confiscated marijuana.
Donovan, arguing for return of the drugs, countered that the voter-approved law spells out that medical marijuana legally possessed "is not subject to seizure or forfeiture."
He warned the judges that if courts do not order the return of the marijuana, police could thwart the whole Arizona Medical Marijuana Act by simply taking the drugs from those who are otherwise entitled to possess them under the state law.'
Well at least when the CIA isn't smuggling cocaine or other drugs to finance the clandestine overthrow of governments our American rulers don't like.
U.S. workers shot in Mexico may be CIA employees
By William Booth and Greg Miller, Published: August 28
TRES MARIAS, MEXICO — Mexican President Felipe Calderon apologized to the United States on Tuesday for an attack last week in which two U.S. government workers were wounded when Mexican federal police fired multiple rounds at their armored U.S. Embassy vehicle.
Speaking at a forum on Mexico’s security situation, Calderon turned to U.S. Ambassador E. Anthony Wayne and promised that the Mexican attorney general would get to the bottom of the case. Calderon also suggested that 12 federal police officers arrested Monday for alleged involvement in the shooting might have ties to criminal organizations.
Calderon’s comments coincided with new indications that the wounded U.S. officials were CIA employees. The agency link was first reported in the Mexican media. U.S. public records suggest that the name reportedly used by one of the shooting victims was a CIA cover identity associated with a post office box in Dunn Loring, Va. The agency declined to comment.
Calderon also did not address those reports Tuesday.
The CIA has expanded its presence in Mexico significantly in recent years as part of a broader U.S. effort to assist the Mexican government’s crackdown on drug cartels. Former senior CIA officials said the agency has shared intelligence with Mexico and helped its elite counter-narcotics teams root out corruption and identify officers with ties to drug lords.
But the former officials said the CIA has been frustrated by delays that can last months before Mexican authorities mount operations based on U.S.-provided intelligence and acknowledged that lingering mistrust makes the agency reluctant to share its most sensitive information even with vetted Mexican units.
Top Mexican officials have long denied or played down links between the CIA and their military.
The two U.S. employees and a Mexican navy captain serving as an interpreter were heading Friday to a navy training camp south of Mexico City when, the U.S. Embassy says, they were ambushed.
One of the wounded men was attached to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, and the other appeared to be in Mexico on temporary assignment, according to U.S. law enforcement officials and diplomats who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is under investigation.
Officials with the FBI, the Pentagon and the Drug Enforcement Administration have said that the men were not employees of their agencies. The State Department also has declined to comment on whether the men were agency employees.
But an examination of public records suggests that the name used by one of the men may be fictitious, with similarities to others created by the CIA to provide cover for its officers overseas.
Shortly after the shooting, major Mexican news organizations identified one of the U.S. officials as Stan D. Boss, a name associated with a post office box at a Dunn Loring mail facility tied to at least one previous CIA cover identity that was publicly exposed. Records indicate that Boss was issued a Social Security number in Texas in 2004. Beyond that, the records are largely blank, with not even a date of birth associated with the name.
That same Dunn Loring post office is linked to dozens of other names that have similarly scant records and to Social Security numbers issued around the same time. Among the previous holders of post office boxes at that location was an individual named Philip P. Quincannon, who apparently does not exist but who was listed as an officer with at least two aviation companies suspected of involvement in CIA rendition flights after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Within hours of the attack Friday, Mexican media were publishing two names that they said belonged to the victims. Mexican media outlets first mentioned a CIA connection to the case Tuesday morning.
The Mexican news media reported, and U.S. law enforcement officials later confirmed, that the Americans came under attack by Mexican federal police officers who were dressed in civilian clothes and driving civilian vehicles.
According to the accounts, the Americans were driving the embassy armored car when they were confronted at a checkpoint by a carload of Mexican federal police officers. The Americans, threatened by what appeared to be civilians brandishing military weapons, quickly fled the scene.
Soon after, a total of four vehicles, all civilian and all containing Mexican federal police personnel, got into a high-speed chase, shooting at the fleeing Americans, according to the accounts.
The Americans sped down a winding, potholed mountain road, past pastures and small farms. An officer in the Mexican army on patrol in the hills said the area was not a hot spot for drug cartels but was beset by small-time thugs who kidnapped victims and stole their phones and credit cards. The victims were often left tied to trees.
The Americans were eventually surrounded and the federal police fired multiple rounds at their vehicle, close enough to see who was inside, according to an account in the newspaper La Jornada.
Some Mexican law enforcement officials have said that the confrontation was caused by confusion — that the federal police were in the area chasing kidnappers who had seized the head of the National Anthropology Museum.
A spokeswoman for the museum said it had no reports indicating that anyone from the institute had been kidnapped.
Miller reported from Washington. Julie Tate in Washington and Gabriela Martinez in Mexico City contributed to this report.
U.S. workers shot in Mexico may be CIA employees
I suspect this means the CIA is involved in the American "War on Drugs" in Mexico.
New Times can sue Sheriff Joe Arpaio for false arrest
Source
News execs can sue Arpaio for arrest, court rules
Aug. 29, 2012 12:10 PM
Associated Press
Two newspaper executives who were arrested by Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office after a series of critical articles can sue the man who calls himself America's toughest sheriff.
The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Wednesday overturned a lower court ruling that Phoenix New Times co-owners Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin could not sue authorities for the 2007 arrest. The men were arrested after revealing that Arpaio's allies in the Maricopa County attorney's office obtained a grand jury subpoena to identify sources for articles about the sheriff. Arpaio and the prosecutors eventually backed off.
The court ruled the executives could sue Arpaio for false arrest and violations of their First and 14th Amendment rights, among other claims.
New Times is an alternative weekly that is part of Village Voice Media.
I am putting all the articles about the New Times lawsuit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio which includes the lawsuits of Michael Lacey & Jim Larkin against Sheriff Joe Arpaio into this URL. Of course all those lawsuits will also include articles about the New Times lawsuit against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office which includes the lawsuits of Michael Lacey & Jim Larkin against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
From what I know hydrogen peroxide is just a disinfectant to put on cuts and a bleach used to make your hair blonde. Highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide is used as a rocket fuel too.
On the other hand it seems like the cops think anybody with hydrogen peroxide is a evil chemist who is making meth.
Tempe police close street; car had leaking jug of hydrogen peroxide
by Chris Cole - Aug. 29, 2012 11:59 AM
The Arizona Republic-12 News Breaking News Team
Tempe police closed Farmer Avenue between 3rd and 5th streets after an officer discovered a jug of hydrogen peroxide in a car during a traffic stop Wednesday.
After arresting the driver on suspicion of a DUI, the officer informed Tempe Fire Department Haz Mat of the leaking jug in the chance it was a mobile methamphetamine lab, authorities said.
After firefighters confirmed the liquid was hydrogen peroxide, they began the cleanup process, authorities said.
Tempe police said they plan to reopen Farmer Avenue once the cleanup process is completed.
Again government is the cause of the problem, not the solution to the problem.
Legalize marijuana and this problem will go away over night.
Pot growers' mess a threat to Peninsula reservoir
By Joshua Melvin
jmelvin@bayareanewsgroup.com
Posted: 09/04/2012 06:04:34 AM PDT
SAN MATEO -- You can't swim or boat in Crystal Springs Reservoir because it's the drinking water source for more than a million people, yet illegal pot farms in the rugged land above the water might be a bigger threat than skinny-dippers.
Last week authorities pulled 7,200 pounds of trash left behind by illicit marijuana growers off the steep hillsides that funnel rain and creek water into the reservoir. Among the car batteries and black plastic irrigation tubes authorities carted out by helicopter were toxic pesticides that have been banned from the United States.
Officials said the trip down the mountain dilutes the chemicals and ends with most of them being absorbed in the soil, but some of them end up the reservoir that provides water to the northern half of San Mateo County and San Francisco. So far authorities haven't turned up any evidence the toxins have harmed the safety of the water, but they are keeping watch over their system with about 100,000 tests per year.
The amount of marijuana growing on the 23,000 acres around the reservoir varies, but in the past five years the San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force has seized 48,529 outdoor plants worth an estimated $170 million, the majority of it on the reservoir watershed. On Aug. 27, police seized 1,579 pot plants, said sheriff's Lt. John Munsey, head of the task force.
Munsey said agents tearing down the gardens found pesticides methyl parathion and carbofuran, which the
Environmental Protection Agency has effectively banned from use in the United States. Both chemicals are considered highly toxic to people and animals. Carbofuran poisoning, in the short term, can mean headache, sweating, nausea, diarrhea, chest pains, blurred vision, anxiety and general muscular weakness, according to the EPA.
The agents also found propane tanks, fertilizer, household garbage like food waste and a handful of other chemicals, including one pesticide called Weevil-Cide.
"Weevil-Cide is a highly hazardous material and should be used only by individuals trained in its proper use," according to a warning from the product's maker.
"It was an enormous amount of garbage. We were all a little bit shocked," said Munsey, who added no one was arrested. "It just seemed like (load) after (load)."
Authorities haven't detected methyl parathion or carbofuran in the Crystal Springs water, said Manoucher Boozarpour, water quality engineering manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
He said the commission tests for pesticides and has a limit of a 0.5 parts per billion of methyl parathion and 1 part per billion of carbofuran. One part per billion is the equivalent of one drop of impurity, like ink, in 500 barrels of water, according to a pesticide information project that includes Cornell University and UC-Davis.
"It does end up in the water, but we haven't been able to detect it," said Boozarpour of the chemicals. "Historically we have never detected anything in the water."
The impact of outdoor marijuana gardens on the Peninsula appears to be relatively manageable when compared with the problem in the northern reaches of the state. Matt St. John, executive director of the North Coast Regional Water Board, said officials have seen areas where growers built their own roads and clear cut land. They are also noticing a bump in nutrients found in the water, which can prompt explosions of algae. The blooms are often harmless,
St. John said officials haven't drawn a direct link to the growing and water pollution. The higher levels of nutrients could be due to erosion spurred by growers who clear land to farm or to the fertilizer they dump on the plants.
"We don't have any specific data on drinking water," he said. "But I think it has the potential to end up in drinking water."
Contact Joshua Melvin at 650-348-4335. Follow him at Twitter.com/melvinreport.
SF seeks mandatory treatment for drunks
Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross, Chronicle Columnists
Updated 10:34 p.m., Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Chronic drunks in San Francisco could soon be sentenced to locked treatment for as long as six months, under a plan that has the green light from Mayor Ed Lee.
"We've done pretty well at getting some of these individuals to a point where they clean up a little bit - but when you leave them alone, they go right back to their old ways," Lee said of the city's current policy of releasing drunks when they sober up.
Under a plan being worked out by the city courts, the cops and the Public Health Department, chronic drunks who repeatedly miss their court dates would be held in contempt - five days for each missed appearance.
Contempt citations are handled by a judge - no trial required - although defendants still have the right to an attorney. Considering that some street drunks have missed 20 or more court dates, rolling the citations into one could result in a hefty piece of time.
And that's the idea - take them off the street and force them into the treatment program they have repeatedly refused.
"If somebody has 20 warrants, you can pretty much guarantee that someone from the health department has offered them some type of help 20 times as well," said Katherine Feinstein, presiding judge of San Francisco's Superior Court.
For those sentenced, the first stop would be San Francisco General Hospital.
"These guys may look tough, but they are medically fragile," said Barbara Garcia, head of the Public Health Department.
After the hospital clears them, the next stop would be a special wing of the city jail for treatment administered by health department workers.
"Thirty days wouldn't hurt," Garcia said. "Once people have been sober that long, they look pretty good and can maybe start to get a handle on their lives."
Garcia said the hope is for a pilot program to be ready to go within 30 days.
Public Defender Jeff Adachi, whose office would represent many of those facing mandatory treatment sentences, questioned whether targeting drunks amounted to "selective enforcement," and whether criminal proceedings were appropriate for people who suffer from what "I think everyone agrees is a disease."
Adachi also wonders whether the jail is equipped to handle a rehab program.
Lee, however, says it's worth a try - the sooner the better.
"This has been a long time coming," the mayor said. "There are 68 people on the streets that have cost us tens of millions of dollars going in and out of the hospitals, courts and jail.
"I know who they are, too," Lee said. "I spent six years at the Department of Public Works cleaning up after them."
SNIP
San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or e-mail matierandross@sfchronicle.com.
Caltrain commuters tolerate Giants fans
Michael Cabanatuan
Updated 8:59 a.m., Wednesday, September 5, 2012
When the Giants play at AT&T Park, fans on the Peninsula flock to Caltrain, turning the typically staid commuter railroad into a rolling version of a tailgate party - minus the grill but with plenty of liquid refreshment, loud pregame enthusiasm and orange-and-black clothing.
Caltrain officials not only welcome the thousands of extra riders but also promote the service as the best way to get to the ballpark, and have added Giants Special trains after games. The number of riders on game days is up about 11 percent over last year. During July, the commuter railroad carried about 7,400 extra riders on game days, meaning about 3,700 fans took the train to and from the park.
"By and large, people love it," said Mark Simon, a Caltrain spokesman. "If you live on the Peninsula and you don't take Caltrain to the game, you're out of your mind."
But some regular Caltrain commuters are not so enthusiastic. They complain that the flood of baseball fans overwhelms the train, making it hard to find a seat, crowding the aisles and destroying the usual tranquillity of their homeward commutes.
Many of their complaints are delivered not by phone, e-mail or in person but via social media outlets - particularly Twitter. Consider some of the following tweets from grumpy commuters during the team's most recent homestand.
"Oh, God. Giants game means Caltrain will be packed with loud people," complained someone using the moniker El Ingeniero.
"Giants game tonight means Caltrain hell for commuters," wrote Melinda Campero.
"Poll: What's worse on Caltrain: Crying babies or Giants game attendees?" tweeted@physh.
"Giants games and Caltrain do not combine well," proclaimed Tim Cederman-Haysom.
Simon said Caltrain officials are aware of the tweets, and acknowledged that "some regular passengers are not always happy with Giants fans." He said Caltrain tries to educate game-goers on proper train etiquette through announcements and an online video that advises them to keep their feet off the seats, pick up their trash and respect other passengers.
No alcohol after 9 p.m.
Caltrain, which allows passengers to drink alcoholic beverages onboard, has also banned drinking on southbound postgame trains (and trains after other special events) after 9 p.m. in an effort to tone down postgame rowdiness from revelers eager to keep the party going.
"That's had a real positive effect," Simon said. "People used to stop at Safeway after the game and buy a 12-pack for the ride home. It has reduced that."
When drunk and disorderly fans are causing trouble or fights break out, Caltrain typically alerts its police force, which meets the train at the next station. Offenders are removed from the train and either arrested or left stranded at the station.
"That tends to leave an impression on people," he said.
On a game-day express from Palo Alto during the recent homestand, fans in Giants gear and regular commuters, many wearing work clothes, filled all but a few seats. The mood was festive and friendly, with many of the fans engaged in loud conversations punctuated by frequent laughter. Lots of fans, and at least a few of the commuters, drank beer, and one group brought along aluminum trays of food for a pregame feast.
Ron Cohen of Palo Alto, riding with his wife, Aileen, and son, Erik, 8, said they usually take Caltrain to the half-dozen games they attend each season and enjoy it far more than driving.
"It gets you ready for the game," Ron Cohen said. "It's a blast. Always friendly, always upbeat."
Best way to travel
Other fans said the convenience of being dropped a block from the ballpark, not having to find parking or sit in traffic and not having to worry about drinking and driving convinced them that the train is the best way to travel on game days.
"It's so convenient," said Michael Davis of Sunnyvale, sipping on a beer. "Why not do it?"
While some regular riders glowered a bit at the Giants fans, most seemed to tolerate the noisier-than-usual commute without complaint. Sarah Chirico, headed home to San Mateo from her job in the Stanford genetics department, said she's not really bothered by the noise but the crowds make it tough for her to be sure she can take her bike on board.
Checking the schedule
"I've been left behind three times," she said. "So now I look to see when there are Giants games and leave my bike at home."
But another Caltrain regular, Gina Kimura, a radiology technician in Palo Alto, said the vibe created by game-bound fans livens up her ride home.
"The cars are packed, really packed," she said. "But it's fun to see people going to the game, fun to see people excited."
Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Twitter: @ctuan. E-mail: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com
L.A. can't randomly seize possessions of homeless, court rules
September 5, 2012 | 11:15 am
Los Angeles and other cities are barred by the U.S. Constitution from randomly seizing and destroying property the homeless temporarily leave unattended on city streets, a federal appeals court decided Wednesday.
Upholding a court order against Los Angeles, a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the personal possessions the homeless leave for a short time on city sidewalks may be taken only if the possessions pose an immediate threat to public safety or health or involve criminal evidence.
Even then, the court said, the city may not summarily destroy the property and must notify the owners where they can pick it up.
The ruling stemmed from a court fight over a Los Angeles city ordinance aimed at cleaning up the city’s skid row. The city last year posted notices on the streets warning homeless people that their possessions had to be removed during street-cleaning days. City workers, accompanied by police, then seized and destroyed property they found unattended.
Homeless individuals sought and obtained a court order to stop the seizures, and the city appealed.
In ruling against Los Angeles, the 9th Circuit said violating a city ordinance does not strip a person of his or her 4th Amendment right against unlawful seizure of property.
“Were it otherwise, the government could seize and destroy any illegally parked car or unlawfully unattended dog,” Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, appointed by former President Bill Clinton, wrote for the majority.
A dissenting judge argued that the homeless had been given adequate warning to remove their possessions and were provided with a warehouse for storing them.
“Common sense and societal expectations suggest that when people leave their personal items unattended in a public place, they understand that they run the risk of their belongings being searched, seized, disturbed, stolen or thrown away,” wrote Judge Consuelo M. Callahan, appointed by former President George W. Bush.
The 1914 Harrison Narcotics Tax Act didn't stop people from using heroin and cocaine.
The 1920 Volstead Act didn't stop people from drinking.
The 1937 Marihuana Tax Act didn't stop people from smoking marijuana.
Did these morons in the Arizona state government really thing that their latest
laws making spice and bath salts illegal would magically stop people from
getting high on spice and bath salts???
Despite new Arizona law, dangerous bath salts flourish
by Jackee Coe - Sept. 5, 2012 11:29 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
In February, Gov. Jan Brewer signed a new bill into law that added seven primary chemicals commonly used in the designer drug known as bath salts to the banned-substances list.
But police say the law has done little to curb the growing number of incidents involving people high on bath salts because drugmakers are constantly tweaking their formulas to stay ahead of bans.
Doctors and police officers acknowledge that the number of bath-salts cases are on the rise as more people smoke, snort or inject the synthetic white-powder drug, which can cause hallucinations, psychosis, paranoia, agitation, combativeness, violent behavior, high body temperature, kidney failure, cardiac arrest and death.
Bath salts, which are believed to have originated in China and India, first hit the streets a few years ago and are sold in smoke shops, in head shops, in convenience stores and online under innocuous names, including "plant food," "Ivory Wave," "glass cleaner" and "Vanilla Sky."
The drug gives users a high that has been compared to those of cocaine, methamphetamine and PCP.
"Anybody on those types of drugs that alters their state that much are difficult to deal with," Mesa police Sgt. Tony Landato said. "They're dangerous. They're out of their mind, essentially."
In June, a Mesa man reportedly high on bath salts was accused of trying to get into an operating room at Banner Desert Medical Center with a fire extinguisher and then spraying hospital security staff with it when they confronted him.
That same month, Tempe police arrested two men within a few days of each other who said they had ingested bath salts. One man crashed his vehicle into the entry/exit gate at an apartment complex near Arizona State University. Witnesses reported seeing the other man walking down the sidewalk throwing himself against walls and then running naked through the neighborhood after stripping off his clothes.
Last year, Chandler police arrested a man on suspicion of burning his 5-year-old son's hand after the child touched his Bible because the man was hallucinating from bath salts and believed his son was possessed by demons.
El Mirage police have investigated multiple armed robberies at smoke shops where robbers have demanded bath salts and spice, the most recent occurring July 21. In May, El Mirage officers shot a man who they say charged at officers with a knife. Detective Kim Walden, a department spokeswoman, said the man had been high on bath salts.
"Bath salts is one of the biggest rising drugs right now," Walden said. "It seems to be a harsher drug, where it makes somebody more violent, more paranoid, hallucinate a lot more. It's just an up-and-coming drug that scares all of us."
State ban called ineffective
Lawmakers say they recognize the problem and are struggling to deal with it.
"This bath-salt issue is certainly not going away, and what we'd like to do is find a way that we can help law enforcement with these changes in these ongoing chemical labs in folks' homes developing these new drugs," said state House Speaker Andy Tobin, R-Paulden.
Lawmakers are exploring options, such as business sanctions and creating a law that covers analogues of banned substances. They also are focusing on educating the public about the dangers the drugs pose to dissuade people from using them.
Narcotic and dangerous drugs are banned in Arizona based on their chemical compositions. Lawmakers must identify chemicals used to make a drug and then outlaw those chemicals in statute. A person suspected of manufacturing or trafficking in illegal drugs can be charged only if a substance contains a banned chemical.
A year after banning another dangerous designer drug, "spice," state lawmakers this year set their sights on bath salts by adding seven ingredients to the state's controlled-substances list.
But each time substances have been banned, manufacturers have tweaked their compounds to use different legal chemicals that create the same effects.
Pinal County Attorney James Walsh, who is the legislative liaison for the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys' Advisory Council, said bath-salts manufacturers had a new formula "within two or three weeks" after the state law was signed, so "the stuff we made illegal, it's still illegal, but it's not the stuff they were selling."
"They're not just sitting around waiting for the Legislature to do something," Walsh said. "They're ready to change this ... every 90 days. And we have that on some pretty good authority."
Legislators said the law has done what it was intended to do: ban the chemicals used to make bath salts at the time of the law's passage. But because of the elusive nature of the components used to make the drugs, it has not given law enforcement the capability to successfully prosecute people who buy, sell, use or possess newer versions of bath salts.
"It is allowing our prosecutors (to pursue) those businesses that continue to try to sell those specific compounds (banned in the new law)," said state Rep. Matt Heinz, D-Tucson, an emergency-room admitting doctor at Tucson Medical Center. "But what it has not done is address the overall problem of designer drugs. ... There are new chemical compounds coming forward every month."
Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, disagreed that the law passed in February has been ineffective and disputed the notion that banning bath salts based on chemical composition leaves loopholes that allow drug manufacturers to continue putting out legal versions of bath salts. Any tweaked version of the drug is actually a new drug, he argues, and those new drugs need to be evaluated separately.
"Bath salts now, as they are defined in the law, are permanently illegal," Farnsworth said. "But if you have somebody that creates a new chemical that is going to be hazardous or dangerous, then the Legislature has to weigh that."
Failed efforts
Lawmakers, meanwhile, have been unable to pass legislation to address the larger issue of the constantly evolving designer drugs.
Sen. Linda Gray, R-Phoenix, sponsored House Bill 2388 in April that would have given the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy power to add chemicals to its controlled-substances list without legislative approval to ban chemicals used in new bath-salts derivations without waiting for lawmakers to return to session and pass a bill banning the new versions.
Gray defended the bill, saying the power delegated to the pharmacy board was limited and would have required board members to consult with a Department of Public Safety forensic scientist, who typically would identify new drugs for legislators and ensure chemicals met certain criteria before they could be banned.
Farnsworth, however, said granting authority to the pharmacy board to ban chemical substances was the same as giving police the ability to make something a crime, a power he said belongs exclusively to the Legislature.
He said the bill violated the separation of powers and was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority.
"What we have to be very careful of is that we don't decide that somehow the ends of trying to prevent people from committing crimes is going to justify the means of destroying the protections we have in the Constitution," he said.
The bill died in the House.
Kim MacEachern, staff attorney with the prosecuting attorneys' council, which helped craft the bill, said the months when the Legislature is not in session allow new derivations of the drug to stay legal longer.
"It's troubling because it allows the material to stay in the marketplace longer, and people just aren't educated (about them)," she said.
Difficulty in tracking cases
Maricopa County tracks cases by statutes, not specific drugs, so officials could not provide the number of bath-salts-related cases it has prosecuted, though they estimated the number was relatively small, probably far fewer than 100 total.
Pinal County had two cases in 2011. One still is awaiting lab results to determine whether the substance was illegal. The other defendant successfully completed the office's diversion program.
Walsh said there hasn't been any change in the number of cases coming through his office since the new state law took effect because "they changed the thing right away, (so) law enforcement really doesn't have an opportunity to pick someone up for it."
"We know that it's out there, we know it's being used," he said. "You don't have the drug defined (in statute) that they're selling, therefore it's not illegal."
Rep. Amanda Reeve, R-Phoenix, said the term "bath salts" is used only to identify the chemical compound and can be any version of drug.
"This is a synthetic, dangerous drug, period," she said. "As they evolve or morph into different things, then we're just going to have to keep going after those compounds."
Reeve said legislators aren't "spinning our wheels" each time they pass a bill targeting designer drugs.
Each new bill is progress and makes it harder for the manufacturers to create and sell drugs that are legal, she said.
"We're constantly being vigilant on this issue, and we're doing what we can to protect our children," Reeve said.
Federal efforts
While state officials feel hamstrung, a new federal law in July banned the sale, production and possession of 31 chemicals used to make synthetic drugs, including two of the most popular ones used in bath salts.
In addition, a 1986 federal law, the Controlled Substance Analogue Enforcement Act, allows federal authorities to keep up with the new versions by banning drugs that mimic illegal drugs regardless of their precise chemical formula.
Most bath-salts packages are marked "not for human consumption," but Ramona Sanchez, a Phoenix Drug Enforcement Administration spokeswoman, said the intent is clear to both sellers and buyers.
"Just because a drug is not under the controlled substance (list) or just because they're not cited in the law doesn't mean that they're safe," she said.
A nationwide DEA raid July 25 included 17 search warrants served in the Valley, seizure of about $3 million in assets, and five arrests of men from Phoenix, Mesa, Cave Creek and Tempe, according to federal court documents. Many of the arrests included cases filed under the analogue act, Sanchez said.
Officials said the federal ban has not made the state's efforts irrelevant because federal authorities enforce the federal laws and local agencies enforce state laws. But federal agencies often partner with local police to develop leads, gather information, carry out search warrants and make arrests, Sanchez said.
Bath salts lead to deaths
While lawmakers and police try to figure out ways to outflank bath-salts manufactures, the drug continues to exact a human toll.
Brandon Doucette went home for his lunch break from his job as a dental assistant on June 2, 2011. He never returned to work.
Police found his body about 1:15 p.m. that afternoon hanging by a homemade noose from the third-story balcony of his Mesa apartment.
Family members found piles of ash, a pipe and empty baggies they later learned had contained bath salts, which, along with his bank-account information, indicated he had been using the synthetic drugs on his lunch break and in the days leading up to his death.
Doucette, 21, had started smoking spice in the summer of 2010. It gave him vivid, long-lasting hallucinations that his mother, Stephanie Flowers, said "scared the crap out of him." In August 2010, he was admitted to the mental-health ward of a hospital, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
His mental condition improved with treatment and as he stayed clean, but it worsened months later when he started using spice again. At some point, he picked up bath salts, as well. The drugs are what ultimately drove him to his death, said his father, Kurtis Doucette.
"I think that him in his right mind would have never taken his own life, that the only way he was going to take his own life was to be on some (hallucinogen)," he said. "There's no way he would've done it without."
As a child, Brandon Doucette had mentioned hearing voices, but it wasn't until he started using spice that his mental illness began to surface.
"It's almost like it brought his mental illness, escalated it several notches, because before he was using spice or bath salts, he didn't struggle deeply with mental illness," said his uncle, Klaine Doucette.
Brandon's mother said the fact that spice and bath salts were legal and easily accessible at a nearby smoke shop was a "huge" factor in why he used the drugs, which "just took over his life."
"That's the thing about Brandon, he was a good kid, he was a responsible child. He didn't want to do anything that was illegal," she said. "I remember him telling me, 'Mom, it's legal. I'm not doing anything illegal.' "
Abdul Kassamali tells a similar story about losing his son, Yasin Kassamali, who started using spice and bath salts.
Yasin Kassamali was a talented soccer player and a good student at Pima Community College, his father said. He got hooked on spice in late 2010 after his father said he was tricked into ingesting the drug at a party. He continued using it because it was more accessible than marijuana and didn't show up in drug screens. He eventually started using bath salts, as well.
Yasin Kassamali was diagnosed with schizophrenia last November, his father said. He was arrested one night in February at the family's Oro Valley home after he punched a hole in his father's bedroom door during a quarrel while he was high on bath salts. His father said the drug had made him "extremely anxious."
His father, hoping the legal system could help him beat his addiction and get a handle on the mental illness, worked out a deal in February with the county prosecutor to suspend his sentence in favor of long-term rehabilitation.
Doctors at several mental-health facilities in Arizona and California struggled to treat his schizophrenia, and the resurfacing of his childhood epilepsy further complicated his treatment, Kassamali said. Staff at a California treatment center found him dead in his room on May 11. The cause is still being investigated, as is his treatment, Kassamali said. He blames, in part, the lawmakers for his son's death for their failure to effectively ban the designer drugs and make them less accessible.
Kurtis Doucette said the people who manufacture and sell the designer drugs need to be held accountable. "As long as it's still legal and it's still out there, it's going to still kill more kids," he said.
Lawmakers not giving up
Lawmakers say they're still trying to find a way to permanently ban bath salts in all the different forms it may take. They have several ideas for how to solve the problem.
Walsh, the Pinal County attorney and liaison with the attorneys' council, said the prosecutors group likely will try to improve the failed pharmacy-board bill, which he said has been successful in other states. The group also will work with legislators to try to get a bill passed similar to the federal government's analogue act that would cover all possible versions of bath salts.
Reeve, the Phoenix representative, said she, too, has been looking at the possibility of some type of analogue act and hopes to introduce a bill to the Legislature in January but still is working to determine the best option.
Heinz, the Tucson doctor and lawmaker, said prevention is just as important as awareness.
"Until we treat addiction like it needs to be treated and start addressing the problem of the demand for drugs," Heinz said, "we are not going to solve the problem."
More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" line from our government masters.
In this article Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer is arrested for possession of illegal drugs. Alameda County is where the city of Oakland is located in the San Francisco Bay area.
She was arrested in Orange County which is part of the Los Angeles metro area and about 400 miles south of San Francisco.
Nadia Lockyer charged: drugs, child abuse
Henry K. Lee
Updated 10:06 p.m., Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Former Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer has been charged with drug violations and child endangerment after being found with methamphetamine at a home in Orange County, authorities said Wednesday.
Lockyer was staying with her 9-year-old son at a relative's home in Orange on Aug. 28 when police received reports that she was in possession of drugs there, said Farrah Emami, spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney's office.
Officers found methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia, including tubular aluminum foil with a burned end, according to the criminal complaint. Lockyer showed "objective signs of being under the influence of a drug," Emami said.
Lockyer was charged with possession of methamphetamine, a felony, and three misdemeanors: being under the influence of methamphetamine, possession of controlled substance paraphernalia and child abuse.
Lockyer pleaded not guilty last Thursday in Orange County Superior Court and was released on her own recognizance, Emami said.
Her attorney, Allan Stokke of Newport Beach, said Wednesday, "Nadia recognizes her error, and she intends to take all appropriate action to regain her health."
Her arrest comes two months after her husband, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.
Nadia Lockyer crashed her car into a light pole and a tree outside the couple's Hayward home after her husband gave her the news. She told The Chronicle that she had thought someone was following her and crashed when she phoned her husband to report her suspicions.
Nadia Lockyer's troubles began in February after she reported that she had been assaulted by an ex-boyfriend at a Newark hotel. She later said she had met the ex-boyfriend while attending treatment programs for chemical and alcohol dependency. She resigned from the Board of Supervisors in April.
Tom Dressler, Bill Lockyer's spokesman, said Wednesday that the couple's son has returned to live with his father.
"He is living with Bill in the Bay Area, and he is safe and sound," Dressler said. "Bill hopes Nadia has a safe recovery."
Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee
After all police departments are into "empire building" and they will use any excuse or reason to increase the size of their budget and the number of employees that work for them.
I wouldn't doubt if in a longer period of time the cops start asking to use drone air strikes to kill suspected criminals and destroy suspected locations used by alleged criminals. They are currently used for this in Iraq, Afghanistan and other third world countries in which the DEA and American military operate in.
Police chiefs urge limits on use of drone aircraft
Want them to be unarmed, suggest warrants for surveillance
by Kevin Johnson - Sept. 6, 2012 11:02 PM
USA Today
The nation's largest consortium of police officials is calling for the limited use of unmanned drones in local law enforcement operations and urging that the controversial aircraft -- now popular weapons on international battlefields -- not be armed.
The first national advisory for the use of unmanned aircraft issued by the International Association of Chiefs of Police comes as federal lawmakers and civil rights advocates have expressed deep concerns about the vehicles' use in domestic law enforcement, especially in aerial surveillance.
Only a handful of police agencies, including the Mesa County, Colo., Sheriff's Department, are currently using unmanned aircraft. But Don Roby, chairman of the IACP's aviation committee, said an increasing number of departments are considering unmanned aircraft for such things as search and rescue operations, traffic accident scene mapping and some surveillance activities.
"It's very important that people understand that we won't be up there with armed predator drones firing away," said Roby, a Baltimore Police Department captain. "Every time you hear someone talking about the use of these vehicles, it's always in the context of a military operation. That's not what we're talking about."
In cases in which a drone is to be used to collect evidence that would likely "intrude upon reasonable expectations of privacy," the IACP's new guidelines recommend that police secure search warrants before launching the vehicle.
On the question of arming drones, however, the IACP issued its most emphatic recommendation: "Equipping the aircraft with weapons of any type is strongly discouraged. Given the current state of the technology, the ability to effectively deploy weapons from a small (unmanned aircraft) is doubtful ... (and) public acceptance of airborne use of force is likewise doubtful and could result in unnecessary community resistance to the program."
ACLU urges privacy laws
The American Civil Liberties Union applauded the police group for "issuing recommendations that are quite strong in some areas."
"At the same time, we don't think these recommendations go far enough to ensure true protection of privacy from drones," the ACLU said, adding that privacy protections needed to be enshrined in law, "not merely promulgated by the police themselves."
Some proposed legislation, including a bill proposed by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is calling for authorities to secure warrants before all uses, except in cases when the aircraft is being used to patrol the borders, when there is a threat of terror attack or in cases when life is threatened.
After all police departments are into "empire building" and they will use any excuse or reason to increase the size of their budget and the number of employees that work for them.
I wouldn't doubt if in a longer period of time the cops start asking to use drone air strikes to kill suspected criminals and destroy suspected locations used by alleged criminals. They are currently used for this in Iraq, Afghanistan and other third world countries in which the DEA and American military operate in.
Police chiefs urge limits on use of drone aircraft
Want them to be unarmed, suggest warrants for surveillance
by Kevin Johnson - Sept. 6, 2012 11:02 PM
USA Today
The nation's largest consortium of police officials is calling for the limited use of unmanned drones in local law enforcement operations and urging that the controversial aircraft -- now popular weapons on international battlefields -- not be armed.
The first national advisory for the use of unmanned aircraft issued by the International Association of Chiefs of Police comes as federal lawmakers and civil rights advocates have expressed deep concerns about the vehicles' use in domestic law enforcement, especially in aerial surveillance.
Only a handful of police agencies, including the Mesa County, Colo., Sheriff's Department, are currently using unmanned aircraft. But Don Roby, chairman of the IACP's aviation committee, said an increasing number of departments are considering unmanned aircraft for such things as search and rescue operations, traffic accident scene mapping and some surveillance activities.
"It's very important that people understand that we won't be up there with armed predator drones firing away," said Roby, a Baltimore Police Department captain. "Every time you hear someone talking about the use of these vehicles, it's always in the context of a military operation. That's not what we're talking about."
In cases in which a drone is to be used to collect evidence that would likely "intrude upon reasonable expectations of privacy," the IACP's new guidelines recommend that police secure search warrants before launching the vehicle.
On the question of arming drones, however, the IACP issued its most emphatic recommendation: "Equipping the aircraft with weapons of any type is strongly discouraged. Given the current state of the technology, the ability to effectively deploy weapons from a small (unmanned aircraft) is doubtful ... (and) public acceptance of airborne use of force is likewise doubtful and could result in unnecessary community resistance to the program."
ACLU urges privacy laws
The American Civil Liberties Union applauded the police group for "issuing recommendations that are quite strong in some areas."
"At the same time, we don't think these recommendations go far enough to ensure true protection of privacy from drones," the ACLU said, adding that privacy protections needed to be enshrined in law, "not merely promulgated by the police themselves."
Some proposed legislation, including a bill proposed by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is calling for authorities to secure warrants before all uses, except in cases when the aircraft is being used to patrol the borders, when there is a threat of terror attack or in cases when life is threatened.
Personally I am voting for the Libertarian guy, Gary Johnson. But if you want to waste your vote and vote for a Republican or Democrat I would waste my vote on the Republican guy this time. Obama, the Democrat has already proven to be a liar about his position on medical marijuana.
On the other hand according to the article
Ryan: Don't interfere with legalized medical pot
Sept. 7, 2012 03:54 PM
Associated Press
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan told a Colorado television station that he thinks the federal government shouldn't interfere with states that have legalized medical marijuana.
Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, told KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs that he personally doesn't approve of medical marijuana laws. But he said that states should have the right to choose whether to legalize the drug for medical purposes.
"It's up to Coloradans to decide," he said in response to a reporter's question. A clip of the interview aired Friday.
Ryan added that the issue would not be "a high priority" in a Romney-Ryan administration.
Ryan taped the interview while campaigning this week in Colorado Springs.
A spokesman for Ryan later said that Ryan agrees with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who has said that marijuana should never be legalized.
Romney told a Colorado reporter earlier this year, "I think marijuana should not be legal in this country. I believe it's a gateway drug to other drug violations."
Ryan's statement contrasted with the administration of President George W. Bush, which sent federal agents to raid dispensaries in California that were legal under that state's voter-approved medical marijuana law.
Initially, the Barack Obama administration signaled that it would not interfere with state-sanctioned marijuana distribution. But Obama's Justice Department has since angered marijuana activists by shutting down dispensaries in California and Colorado.
Colorado is one of 17 states, plus the District of Columbia, that allow medical marijuana.
Marijuana activists lauded Ryan but said they weren't sure a Romney administration would embrace states that condone medical marijuana.
"We'll take this with a grain of salt," said Steve Fox of the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project.
Fox said Republicans and Democrats alike have said they want to respect state marijuana laws while enforcing federal law, which outlaws pot in all circumstances. He called Ryan's comments significant because they indicate a new willingness from to politicians to talk about marijuana policy.
"The positive from our perspective is that he feels this is the right position to take from a political standpoint," Fox said.
The Obama campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While this article is mostly about the LAPD shaking down people in
Downtown Los Angeles, one comment made by LAPD Officer Deon Joseph
seems to confirm my statement that the "drug war" is a jobs program for
cops. That statement is:
Homeless vendors sell beer on the streets — and dodge police
By Sam Allen, Los Angeles Times
September 6, 2012, 7:28 p.m.
At 10 a.m. on a recent weekday downtown, suited workers were riding elevators up skyscrapers on Bunker Hill. Down on the sidewalks, loft-dwellers, coffee cups in hand, walked their dogs.
At the corner of 5th and San Pedro streets, a few steps from the drug and alcohol rehab center, the local soup kitchen and the patch of sidewalk where he bunks most nights, Josh Richard was selling beer to other homeless men.
One by one, his customers approached, handing over $1.50 for cans of Colt 45, Steel Reserve or Heineken that he kept hidden in a blue cooler beneath a shopping cart. Government checks had arrived a few days before. Business on skid row was good — as it has been all year.
It wasn't so long ago that police would have quickly closed down Richard's business and chased him away from this corner.
But recently, the dynamic shifted. A federal court order last year blunted the Los Angeles Police Department's authority to seize objects from the sidewalks, a ruling that was upheld this week on appeal. At the same time, the number of people sleeping on skid row's streets has increased, by 70% since 2010 to about 1,200 total. Crime is up as well.
Some blocks have become clogged with encampments built from shopping carts, baby strollers, wheelchairs, blankets and tarps. As long as the possessions can be moved, advocates argue, the homeless are not obstructing the sidewalk.
Richard is one of several homeless beer vendors who police say take advantage of the cluttered conditions to hide their operations.
Though the LAPD can no longer seize unattended property of the homeless, officers are still trying to crack down on illegal beer selling, and that has created a cat-and-mouse game on skid row.
The burden for that task has fallen on officers such as Deon Joseph. A burly veteran beat cop on skid row, Joseph has made it his mission to take on Richard and the other beer vendors.
The vendors typically work in small crews, Joseph said, using clusters of shopping carts to conceal their operations and lookouts to watch for police. One group has even gone so far as to send people into the LAPD station on 6th Street to ask whether Joseph is on duty.
Officer Joseph is on a first-name basis with some of his beer-selling adversaries: Josh, Rick, Shark. "I know pretty much everybody and what they're doing," he said.
The illegal beer sales only exacerbate the grim atmosphere on skid row, Joseph says. Residents at nearby shelters and single-room occupancy hotels have complained about the stands, saying the operators are drunk and rude to women.
Joseph recently tried to reason with one of the vendors, explaining to him that he was selling beer on a street where addicts were trying to rebuild their lives. But the vendor wasn't interested.
"That seems to be the mantra of all these guys who are out there on 5th and San Pedro: 'We're here, we're going to make money, we've gotta do what we've gotta do,' " Joseph said. "It's simple supply and demand."
When officers make arrests, the vendors are usually back at work after a few days in jail — or replaced by others eager to take over the turf. So Joseph takes a different approach: to be a constant presence, shooing the vendors away and burying them in warnings and citations.
Richard says he's not worried. His hunch is that in the daily chaos and crime of skid row, Joseph and the LAPD will find more pressing tasks.
"Here's the thing about the cops — they try to control it, but they can't be two places at once," Richard said. "They can't catch us all."
::
Richard, 27, first arrived on skid row in 2002 as a drug dealer, fresh out of Washington High School in South Los Angeles. Back then, the area was considered the West Coast's leading drug bazaar, and city officials struggled to deal with both the huge homeless population and the crime.
"There were tents everywhere back then," Richard recalled."You couldn't even walk down the sidewalk."
Richard was arrested for the first time in 2003, after a police horse on Spring Street sniffed the cocaine he was carrying. Over the next seven years, he was convicted of five different offenses, ranging from drug possession to assault and burglary, and spent three years in prison.
When he was released in February, Richard returned to skid row and noticed a beer vendor who seemed to be doing good business. By the end of the month he'd gathered some old friends together and taken over the spot.
On a recent morning, skid row was bustling with activity and the beer business was brisk.
Richard was wearing a white tank top, baggy blue shorts and black slippers, greeting customers just a few feet from where he sleeps most nights. Tattoos covered his neck and biceps; a Newport cigarette dangled from his mouth.
Richard's friend, Mo, watched over the cooler, telling Richard the number of cans and bottles left inside. Most of the men who help with the operation are compensated with free drinks. Richard kept an obsessive eye over the supply.
"Colt 45, it does it every time!" one of the patrons joked as he slipped two cans into a plastic bag.
The LAPD was out in force. One patrol car passed Richard's corner at a slow crawl, the officers staring him down.
Just the day before, Richard's crew of workers was confronted by Joseph, who warned the men they'd be taken to jail if he saw them sitting on the sidewalk. Richard stood up and then, when Joseph drove away, started selling beer again.
By noon, the supply was down to just a few cans. Richard sent a friend across the L.A. River to a liquor store in Boyle Heights.
Soon after, a tall woman stumbled up to the corner, flashed a $20 bill at Mo and asked for drugs.
"Just beer here," Mo responds. "Colt 45."
A brief argument ensued before Richard intervened. "Don't nobody sell no dope right here!" he yelled. "Take yourself around the corner! Go that way!"
Richard says he doesn't deal drugs any more and doesn't tolerate drug users on his corner. He thinks the LAPD will leave him alone if he keeps the operation "respectful."
But Joseph sees beer sales as a link to other types of crime.
"Narcotics and alcohol are a driving force of a lot of our crime — you can't separate the two," Joseph said. "In this 50-block radius … it all goes together. And if you don't deal with it all, you're just spinning your wheels."
::
Since opening the beer operation in February, Richard says he's saved about $2,000. On a lunch break that recent afternoon, he used some of the cash to buy a new boom box from a stall in the Toy District, then stopped for a cheeseburger on 7th Street.
Heading back toward his corner, he turned up San Julian Street, into the heart of skid row's drug trade. Dozens of people lingered on the sidewalk, dazed beneath the afternoon sun. Three LAPD cruisers rolled slowly by.
"Ladies and gentlemen, there is no sitting on the sidewalk," an officer said over a loudspeaker. "If you've got crack pipes, Brillo pads, push rods, anything illegal, get rid of it before you leave right now. And just don't come back."
"That's Joseph," Richard said as he heard the voice. "That's the big fish."
Richard crossed over to the other sidewalk, past the LAPD cars. But before he can turn off San Julian, a voice calls out from behind.
"Hey!" Joseph yells. "Mind if I holler at you real quick?"
Richard walks back slowly, stepping off the curb onto the street. Joseph hovers over him in black sunglasses.
"I'm not warning you guys anymore about sitting over there on 5th Street, all right?" Joseph said. "From now on it's going to be citations, the next time it's arrest. I'm not warning you anymore."
Richard answered politely, giving his full name and birth date.
Moments later, the showdown is over. Richard hurries away, grinning as he walks to his corner.
"I got no time to worry about that," he said. "They gotta catch me first."
::
The next day turned out to be Richard's last at 5th and San Pedro. Joseph issued citations to two members of his crew, and Richard decided to relocate to a new spot a couple blocks away.
To Officer Joseph, it was a sign that his strategy was working — slowly. The technique, coupled with recent city cleanups on skid row, is helping police "take the streets back, bit by bit," he said.
"Josh has had plenty of warnings," Joseph said. "If he's back over on 5th and San Pedro with beers, I'm going to follow through on my word. And everybody out there knows I'm a man of my word."
A few days later, Richard was at his new corner, sitting alone on top of his cooler and cradling the new boom box. Business had plummeted, but he wasn't giving up.
"Police is trippin'," he told a customer who had found him at the new location. "But I still got beer."
sam.allen@latimes.com
Previous
articles
on Medical Marijuana and the evil Drug War.
More
articles
on Medical Marijuana and the evil Drug War.
Got hydrogen peroxide? You must be making meth!!!!
Wow the cops are using the insane drug war as a lame excuse to do all kinds of crazy stuff.
Pot growers' mess a threat to Peninsula reservoir
Of course if marijuana was legal they would not have any of these problems.
San Francisco to jail drunks???
Source
Drunks welcome at San Francisco Giants ball games!!!
While the city of San Francisco wants to
jail drunks,
the folks at Caltrain seem to welcome the drunks that ride the train to the Giants ball games in San Francisco.
L.A. can't randomly seize possessions of homeless, court rules
Source
Despite new Arizona law, dangerous bath salts flourish
One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer busted for drugs.
Former Alameda County Supervisor Nadia Lockyer busted for drugs.
Police chiefs urge limits on use of drone aircraft
I suspect this is just the initial "politically correct" response from the cops. I suspect once the police start using drones, the cops will want to have a drone stationed above every neighborhood so they can spy on us 24/7.
Police chiefs urge limits on use of drone aircraft
I suspect this is just the initial "politically correct" response from the cops. I suspect once the police start using drones, the cops will want to have a drone stationed above every neighborhood so they can spy on us 24/7.
VP Paul Ryan: Don't interfere with legalized medical pot
Is Paul Ryan lying about medical marijuana like President Obama did when he said he wouldn't arrest people in the medical marijuana industry?
"A spokesman for Ryan later said that Ryan agrees with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who has said that marijuana should never be legalized"
Source
"Drug War" is a jobs program for cops???
I routinely say the "drug war" is a jobs program for cops, because
most of the arrests cops make are for victimless "drug war" crimes.
"Narcotics and alcohol are a driving force of a lot of our crime —
you can't separate the two. In this 50-block radius … it all goes together.
And if you don't deal with it all, you're just spinning your wheels."
If the police really wanted to cut crime they would go after real criminals
who steal stuff, hurt people and commit real crimes that harm people.
Not arresting down and out people who are trying to escape from
the pain of their sh*tty lives by smoking a little weed or drinking a little
booze.