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http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/letters/2014/09/13/world-problems-letter/15601295/ Two words that are linked to many world problems 1:28 a.m. MST September 14, 2014 Considering today's world situations, I wish there were two words that did not exist: religion and politicians. — Gerald McCoach, Mesa
Henry Kissinger is not telling the truth about his past. Again. http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/09/18/henry-kissinger-is-not-telling-the-truth-about-his-past-again/?hpid=z11 Henry Kissinger is not telling the truth about his past. Again. By Karen Coates and Jerry Redfern September 18 at 6:00 AM About the authors Kissinger’s new book, World Order, has just been published. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) Henry Kissinger is back. With this new book, World Order, he attempts to explain the chaotic state of the world through the lens of history. But in the interviews he is giving to promote his book, he rewrites history and obfuscates facts—about U.S. war policy and his own bloody legacy—to make himself look good. He has done this before. Here are some of Kissinger’s biggest distortions. (1) On NPR’s Weekend Edition, Kissinger told host Scott Simon that the ISIS problem could be fixed by thwarting the group’s goals with “superior air power.” Sound familiar? That was the plan President Nixon undertook—in Southeast Asia more than 40 years ago—with the help of Kissinger, his then-national security adviser. The policy not only failed, it left tens of thousands of civilians dead. And that’s a conservative estimate. Nevertheless, he asserted: “I bet if one did an honest account, there were fewer civilian casualties in Cambodia than there have been from American drone attacks.” It’s a clever argument but disingenuous on two counts. One, the drone strikes are nearly impossible to tally, because the U.S. government won’t release the information. But on Cambodia, Kissinger already has numbers. He writes in his own 2003 book, Ending the Vietnam War, that he was in “no position to make an accurate estimate” of civilian casualties in Cambodia. So he requested one from the Historical Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense. The answer, noted in his own book: “an estimate of 50,000 based on the tonnage of bombs delivered over a period of four and a half years.” Furthermore, Cambodia wasn’t the only country that U.S. forces bombed without the public’s knowledge during the Vietnam War. American forces also conducted more than 580,000 bombing missions in Laos over nine years. They failed in their two missions—to stop the Ho Chi Minh Trail and to keep the Communists from power—but they left a tragic trail of casualties. As we reported in our book Eternal Harvest: The Legacy of American Bombs in Laos, that nation has, to the best extent possible, created an “honest account” of its casualties from the U.S. bombings: more than 50,000 people killed and injured by accidents with unexploded ordnance, more than 20,000 of them since the end of war. This is the most accurate account we have of Kissinger’s “superior air power.” Meanwhile, deaths from drone strikes remain nearly impossible to tally accurately because the U.S. government won’t release the information. Still, several organizations track specific elements of the ongoing drone wars across the Middle East and Central Asia. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism tracks drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, estimating up to nearly 600 total strikes since 2002, with as many as 1089 civilian casualties. While these may not be hard numbers, they are orders of magnitude less than the numbers we do have from Cambodia and Laos. (2) In the same interview, Kissinger contended that “Drones are far more deadly because they are much more accurate.” False. Ordnance dropped by American airstrikes in Southeast Asia continue to be deadly—40 years later—precisely because those strikes were inaccurate, indiscriminate, overwhelming, and had a high failure rate. Hundreds of unguided bombs were dropped at a time from B-52s at 30,000 feet. At the end of the bombings, an estimated 80 million unexploded bombs remained in the ground just in Laos. There is nothing more deadly—or terrifying—than a weapon that kills decades after it fell. (This is not to condone President Obama’s drone program or to trivialize the civilian deaths caused by American drone strikes. Every casualty is a tragedy, but proportionality matters, and no civilian killed by an American bomb should remain a state secret.) (3) Kissinger continued his campaign against facts on “The Takeaway.” In Cambodia, he said, “We bombed these areas that were largely uninhabited…. The bombing that people are talking about, that they’re criticizing the White House, was a 10-mile strip in which very few people were killed—if any.” False. U.S. bombs landed on populated areas of Cambodia, too. As Kissinger himself reports in an endnote in his 2003 book, “The worst error occurred at Neak Luong, when more than a hundred civilians were killed” by a B-52 strike on the banks of the Mekong River on Aug. 6, 1973. Furthermore, an overlay of U.S. bombing coordinates onto historical maps of Cambodia clearly shows that U.S. planes targeted populated areas, again and again and again, as reported by Taylor Owen and Ben Kiernan in an October 2006 article in The Walrus. (4) On the same show, Kissinger said: “And really, for 50 years after, an interview that would spend this much time on this is outrageous.” Kissinger asks Americans to assume their leaders are doing what’s best for the country and for peace, saying, “National debate would be helped if we assumed that serious people were trying to achieve serious objectives.” He advises us not to question 50-year-old history. Particularly his own. But his own past is evidence of how wrong he is, and why we must always scrutinize our political leaders’ actions. If we listen to him carefully, we can hear that Kissinger is in fact serving the American public once again—although not in the way he thinks. He shows us precisely why his advice is tainted and his views unreliable. They are, in fact, outrageous.
Only 36 percent of Americans can name the three branches of government If that is true, I guess government isn't as important as our government masters tell us it is. If that's true screw the "civics refresher course" this article talks about. Instead lets get rid of the branches of government these folks don't know or care about!!!! http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/09/18/only-36-percent-of-americans-can-name-the-three-branches-of-government/?tid=hpModule_ba0d4c2a-86a2-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394&hpid=z9 Only 36 percent of Americans can name the three branches of government By Reid Wilson September 18 at 12:18 PM A lot of your fellow Americans don’t know much about this document. (Photo: Archives.gov) Wednesday marked national Constitution Day, the 227th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. But only 36 percent of Americans can actually name the three branches of government the Constitution created. That’s according to a new survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and it shows a huge percentage of Americans might need to take a civics refresher course. Only 38 percent of Americans knew the Republican Party controls the U.S. House of Representatives, while 17 percent think Democrats are still in charge. The number of people who knew Republicans were in charge has dropped 17 percent since the last time Annenberg asked, back in 2011, right after Republicans reclaimed control. An identical number, 38 percent, knows Democrats run the Senate, while 20 percent believe Republicans control the upper chamber. Only 27 percent knew it takes a two-thirds majority of the House and Senate to override a presidential veto. Annenberg released the survey in partnership with the Civics Renewal Network, a group of 25 nonpartisan organizations including the Library of Congress, the Newseum and the National Archives that offers free civics education resources. Other groups, like the Civics Education Initiative, are pushing to include more civics education in high schools by requiring students to pass the same citizenship test that immigrants do when they come to the U.S. That group will introduce legislation in seven states that would require passage of the citizenship test before graduating. They cited Annenberg’s 2011 survey, which found just 15 percent of Americans could correctly identify the chief justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, while 27 percent knew Randy Jackson was a judge on American Idol. Only 13 percent knew the Constitution was signed in 1787.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel seems to hate the 1st Amendment. Sure Donald Trump may be the worlds biggest stuck up *ss hole, but he still deserves his First Amendment rights. Something that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel would love to flush down the toilet. A government tyrant like Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel shouldn't be able to flush the 1st Amendment down the toilet with words like "awful" and "in poor taste." Sure anything our government masters dislike is "awful" and "in poor taste" and that's why the Founders created the First Amendment - to prevent them from silencing our free speach that is "awful" and "in poor taste". http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/29943937-452/sneed-trump-has-no-beef-with-rahm-glad-his-sign-will-be-one-of-a-kind.html#.VBsHUkdDSSo Sneed: Trump has no beef with Rahm, glad his sign will be one-of-a-kind September 17, 2014 10:58PM Updated: September 18, 2014 2:22AM Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants a crackdown on Trump-like signs — and nobody is happier than the Donald himself. “Hey, it works out in my favor. I’m happy about it,” Trump told Sneed via phone Wednesday. “The mayor’s new sign ordinance will ensure nobody else will have a sign like mine,” chirped the real estate mogul. “Isn’t that what everybody would want?” Trump, of course, is referring to the large TRUMP insignia attached to his riverfront skyscraper, which was erected on the footprint of the old Chicago Sun-Times building. Last June, Emanuel was reported to have called the Trump sign “awful” and “in poor taste.” It also caused a major flap when Trump attributed much of the sign controversy to Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin, who gave the sign a mega negative review. “You know, Kamin, he’s such a loser, gave my building a great review,” Trump said. “Now I regret that he gave my building a great review — because he obviously is a guy with such bad taste.” Emanuel’s new ordinance, which is expected to be introduced to the City Council next month, would ensure that huge new signs will not spoil Chicago’s downtown Riverwalk area, which he wants to make a riverfront showplace. “Look. My sign is wonderful,” Trump said. “It’s iconic. It’s Chicago’s Hollywood sign. We did a poll and 64 percent of the people love it. Everybody stops to snap pictures of it.” Does Trump think the sign imbroglio has gotten personal? “No,” Trump said. “I have the greatest respect for Mayor Emanuel. He runs a world-class city. A great city. The only thing that’s hard is reading about gun and crime stuff coming out of Chicago. That’s tough to read.” “But my Chicago building is great architecture. One of the great buildings in the world. I love it. “And . . . I love my sign, which will now be the only one of its kind in Chicago!” Sneed exclusive . . . Sneed has learned that iconic feminist Gloria Steinem is coming to Illinois next Friday to stump for Gov. Pat Quinn. “Steinem is not only going to hit the campaign trail for Quinn, but she will keynote a major fundraiser for him,” a Quinn source said. ◆ The rationale: “The governor has been a strong champion for women, from leading initiatives to strengthen pay equity to signing laws to prevent domestic violence,” a Steinem source said. Steinem, the wonder woman of the nation’s feminist movement, has been active in social justice for over four decades; co-created Ms. Magazine, wrote four best-selling books, and was married to the late father of actor Christian Bale. Rahm’s world . . . It’s a murky case of high-wire malarkey. Sneed is told that tightrope daredevil Nik Wallenda, who refuses to use a safety net, is still working out the legal kinks to conduct his Chicago skyscraper shuffle Nov. 2. ◆ To wit: Not only does state law prohibit an aerial act without a net more than 20 feet off the ground — but Sneed learned Wednesday that Wallenda does not have a permit yet to navigate from the Marina City west tower across the Chicago River to the Leo Burnett skyscraper, and then between both Marina City towers. Mary May, spokeswoman for the city Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, now tells Sneed: “The City is aware of the State law and we are currently in contact with the State. Permission to utilize the buildings was just recently finalized . . . This includes assisting the Wallenda Team and the Discovery Network in obtaining the necessary special event and film permits — but no permits have yet been issued by the City. “The City and other agencies will continue to work closely with the organizers concerning any and all safety related concerns, including the Aerial Exhibitors Safety Act.” Is this like putting the horse before the cart? Sneedlings . . . Thursday’s birthdays: Jada Pinkett Smith, 43; Jason Sudeikis, 39, and Ryne Sandberg, 55. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/17/donald-trump-chicago-rahm-emanuel-sign-ordinance/15783695/ Rahm Emanuel pushes Trump-inspired ordinance in Chicago Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY 4 p.m. EDT September 17, 2014 CHICAGO--Mayor Rahm Emanuel might not be able to do anything about the massive sign Donald Trump built earlier this summer on his gleaming skyscraper on the Chicago River. But the mayor announced on Wednesday he is taking action to make sure that no other builder in the future tries to match "The Donald" when it comes to signage in one of the most architecturally-significant areas of the Windy City. "As we move to transform the Chicago River into Chicago's next great waterfront, we want to ensure that the riverfront is protected from signage that negatively impacts the visual environment" Emanuel said in a statement, in which he made no direct reference to the Trump controversy that spurred the rule change. "This ordinance will allow visitors and residents of Chicago to continue enjoying our world-renowned architecture along the river." Emanuel and the real estate mogul/reality show host got into a war of words in June after Trump affixed a nearly 2,900-square-foot "TRUMP" sign on his 96-story Trump Hotel & International Tower. At the time, Emanuel huffed in a statement from his office that the sign was "architecturally tasteless" and vowed to take action to make sure it wasn't repeated. Trump fired back that the sign was loved by people, and that the mayor—whose administration had ultimately approved it—should have more important things to worry about. Under the new rules proposed by Emanuel, no sign in the Chicago River corridor could be larger than 550 square feet and signs on shorter buildings—those between 150 and 199 feet--would be limited to 250 square feet. The ordinance also prohibits rooftop signs, some neon signs, flashing signs and banners. The proposal, if approved by Chicago's city council, would not affect Trump's sign. The controversy over Trump's sign erupted after Chicago Tribune architecture critic, Blair Kamin, wrote that the giant stainless steel letters on Trump's skyscraper "loom over a venerable cluster of 1920s skyscrapers" and could spoil the view for the ongoing expansion of Chicago's Riverwalk, a huge Emanuel project. The often combative Trump called Kamin, a Pulitzer winner, "a lightweight." He also reminded Chicagoans that the site of his tower used to be the home of the unsightly headquarters of the Chicago Sun-Times. The Sun-Times had the "biggest, ugliest sign in Chicago," Trump wrote on Twitter at the time. "Mine is magnificent and popular," Trump added.
Local cops don't need tanks!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2014/09/17/davis-california-1033-program/15804985/ Give back the tanks, keep police lines unblurred Editorial board, The Republic | azcentral.com 5:58 p.m. MST September 17, 2014 Our View: A California city council chooses not to follow Ferguson, Mo., by rejecting military surplus. It's a good example for Arizona. Arizonans don't like to look west for examples of smart governance. But we can't help but admire the elected leaders of Davis, Calif., who told their police chief to return an impressive piece of military surplus to the federal government. MORE: MCSO missing 9 weapons from fed program Police Chief Landy Black waited two years to get the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle, according to The New York Times. But when it arrived, the City Council chafed. The vehicle looked much too similar to the one police in Ferguson, Mo., turned on their residents. "This thing has a turret," the mayor, Dan Wolk, told The Times. "Our community is the kind of community that is not going to take well to having this kind of vehicle." Residents filled council members' inboxes with e-mails of protest. The council listened, with all but one member voting to instruct the police chief to return the vehicle. More elected leaders should show such courage. Free stuff from the feds often sounds good, until you consider the costs, both financial and to a city's image. One reason Ferguson became such a big story was the militarization of the police. Riding in on armored carriers and hoisting machine guns, they looked more like an occupying force than servants of the people. That does not sit well in a free country. And thus the backlash against what is known as the 1033 program. President Barack Obama called for a review. Congressional committees plan hearings and there is talk of bills to limit the program. This can only accelerate when elected leaders in cities such as Davis say enough is enough. Or when law-enforcement agencies such as the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office find they don't miss the military surplus. Sheriff Joe Arpaio's department was presented with that opportunity after the federal government ordered him to return surplus accumulated over the years. Not all can be accounted for, a violation of the rules. (Nearly 200 other agencies have been suspended for the same reason.) This means the department will return a tank, a Hummer, various rifles, night-vision goggles and helicopters. Arpaio says it's mostly old stuff his deputies hardly use, so it's no loss. After several military grade weapons went missing, MCSO has been terminated from the federal 1033 program. But you know he's going to miss that tank. It's not that he ever needed it for a law-enforcement purpose, but a tank sure makes a great talker at parades and festivals. You want a symbol of strength and bravado? Get a tank. That's anther problem with the 1033 program. It is as much about public relations as it is about law enforcement. Having taken on the symbols, local law-enforcement agencies adopt military strategies, tactics and methods. Our nation has long had separate roles for the military and the police. The military has fighter jets, aircraft carriers and tanks to keep us safe from foreign enemies. It looks outward. Police look inward. They are here to serve and protect, to mingle among us. We want them to be the friendly cop on the beat, not a warrior to be feared. The nation is safer and freedom is more secure when the military and police roles are not blurred. The Davis City Council drew that line by rejecting an armored vehicle. More elected officials should follow suit.
Arizona bombs civics, but we can change that Lawmaker: Require Arizona students to pass citizenship test I suspect these two articles are mostly about the government wishing to brain wash the kiddies and teaching them that the government is their master and that they better obey the government, along with paying their taxes. Of course the kiddies will be also taught that they have "Constitutional Rights", constitutional rights that are broken every day by the police and flushed done the toilet by the same elected official who routinely pass unconstitutional laws. F*ck this citizenship and civics classes for us serfs. We need all elected officials and government bureaucrats to pass a "constitution test" before they are allowed to hold office or work for the government. Of course don't count on that anytime soon. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/southwest-valley/2014/09/17/lawmaker-require-arizona-students-pass-citizenship-test/15798933/ Lawmaker: Require Arizona students to pass citizenship test Jackee Coe, The Republic | azcentral.com 9:09 p.m. MST September 17, 2014 All high-school students in Arizona would be required to pass the same 100-question civics test required for U.S. citizenship to graduate under a proposal from a state lawmaker. State Rep. Steve Montenegro, R-Litchfield Park, announced the plan Wednesday that he said would ensure that all Arizona high-school graduates have a basic understanding of civics. Montenegro is working with other state legislators and officials from the Civics Education Initiative, part of the Civics Proficiency Institute, to craft legislation for the requirement. "Every single student in Arizona and across the United States of America should have basic knowledge and understanding of American government. Civics is just common sense. So, this Civics Education Initiative ... is a common-sense approach at achieving that goal," Montenegrosaid at a press conference with supporters of the proposal,including Rep. John Allen, R-Scottsdale, and Jay Lawrence, representative-elect for District 23. Any legislation can't be formally introduced until the Legislature reconvenes in January. Lucian Spataro, president and CEO of the Joe Foss Institute, another civics organization affiliated with the initiative, cited a study from the Pew Research Center that found that only about a third of Americans can name the three branches of government. Other studies, he said, found that less than a quarter of high-school students in Arizona and Oklahoma passed the U.S. Citizenship Civics Test. The initiative is intended to bring a renewed focus on civics in education, said Sam Stone, national campaign manager for the Civics Education Initiative. "This a first step to increasing civics education in schools, renewing the importance and focus on civics," he said. Backers said there shouldn't be additional costs associated with the requirement because it would use the existing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services test, which already is available for free online. The legislation also would allow schools to determine how to administer the test. Students could take the test at any time in high school and as many times as necessary to pass. Teachers already teach the history and government content covered in the test, Spataro said, so the legislation would not add to teachers' burden or take time away from teaching other subjects. Spataro said education has shifted away from civics with the growing emphasis on math and science, a change he called a "very troubling problem." "Civics, social studies and history are being boxed out of the classroom to some extent, and what we have is a very narrow curriculum right now focused on science, technology, engineering and math —which is really important stuff but not so important that you don't need to learn how to run the country or learn how the country operates," he said. Montenegro said he immigrated to the U.S. when he was 5, and though he was too young at 12 years old to take the test when his family was going through the naturalization process, he helped his parents study. The test is "not rocket science," he said, and covers basic questions of government — things that he said are crucial for people to know. "If we as a people don't know where our fundamental rights come from, where that authority comes from, it's easier to be led astray, led away, misled," he said. "What we want is to help people engage in society." Legislators announced a plan to require high-school students to pass a 100-question civics test to graduate Backers of the proposal say studies have found that less than a quarter of Arizona high-school students pass the federal civics test The plan would allow students to take the test as many times as necessary to pass
http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2014/09/17/civics-education-initiative/15742067/ Arizona bombs civics, but we can change that Dennis DeConcini and Jon Kyl, AZ We See It 7:13 a.m. MST September 17, 2014 Former senators: Too many of us don't know basic facts about government. And it shows in voter turnout. But a basic test could change that. voters Can you name the three branches of the United States government? According to studies by Annenberg Public Policy Center, only about a third of Americans (38 percent) can name the three branches of government – the executive, legislative and judicial – much less say what each does. What is the supreme law of the land? Only 32 percent could correctly answer the U.S. Constitution, according to the Xavier Center for the Study of the American Dream. Hitting a little closer to home, a mere 32 percent in the study knew the number of senators in the U.S. Senate, and only 29 percent knew the length of a U.S. senator's term of office. This lack of knowledge about basic American civics is deeply troubling. We see its ramifications through declining voter participation – especially among younger voters. According to the last census, only about 65 percent of adult Arizona citizens are registered to vote, and of those only 22 percent voted in Arizona's recent primary election. That means less than 15 percent of adult Arizona citizens chose to vote in our last statewide election, significantly less than just four years ago. The success of our republic depends on an informed and engaged citizenry. As Thomas Jefferson admonished, "Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government." But when so few of our fellow Americans know how our government works, and even fewer choose to vote, is the American experiment of "We the People" at risk? Perhaps most disturbing are studies in Arizona and Oklahoma showing less than 5 percent of high-school students are capable of passing the U.S. Citizenship Civics Test, the same test of basic American history and civics that 91 percent of immigrants applying for U.S. citizenship pass. Think of it: People from all over the world legally immigrating to the United States, many speaking different languages, are passing this basic American history and civics test – in English – while too few of our own students can. For the sake of our next generation, we can and must do better. That's why we are pleased to join former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to be among the co-chairs of the Arizona effort to pass state legislation known as the Civics Education Initiative. The Civics Education Initiative is simple. It will require as a condition for graduation that Arizona high-school students take and pass a test of 100 basic U.S. history and civics facts from the United States Citizenship Civics Test, the same test all new immigrants are required to pass before becoming U.S. citizens. The proposed state legislation would allow students to take the test any time during their high-school careers and as many times as necessary to pass. By using this existing and well-established test and its study materials that are already available for free online, this legislation has next to no implementation costs. In addition to our efforts here in Arizona, civic and business leaders in six other states are launching campaigns to pass the Civics Education Initiative in their states. This non-partisan effort is affiliated with the Joe Foss Institute, based right here in Scottsdale. The goal is to pass the Civics Education Initiative legislation in all 50 states by Sept. 17, 2017, the 230th anniversary of our United States Constitution. We can't think of a better way to celebrate the anniversary of our Constitution than to ensure that every future high-school graduate knows its significance. The Civics Education Initiative is a quantifiable first step to ensure all students are taught basic civics about how our government works, and who we are as a nation -- things every high-school graduate should know to be ready for active, engaged citizenship. Please join us in helping ensure that we pass the Civics Education Initiative in Arizona; contact your legislator today and urge them to support this critical state legislation. Dennis DeConcini and Jon Kyl are former U.S. senators from Arizona.
Error costs some Phoenix property owners extra $5.2 million Will you get a refund when the government over charges you on your taxes??? Come on don't make me laugh!!! The only thing our government masters are going to say on this is "Sue me sucker if you want a refund on those taxes" This is what the article says on that: "those taxpayers won't get a refund for the mistake." "But if the property owners wanted to recoup their losses, they would find that filing a lawsuit would cost more than the refund is worth," http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/09/18/error-costs-phoenix-property-owners-extra-million/15814765/ Error costs some Phoenix property owners extra $5.2 million A calculation error cost property owners in Phoenix's core an extra $5.2 million in taxes over the past few years Caitlin McGlade, The Republic | azcentral.com 8:41 a.m. MST September 18, 2014 About 21,800 properties between Thomas and Buckeye roads and 23rd Avenue and 16th Street overpaid over the last few years to compensate for reduced state funding for the Phoenix Elementary School District An accounting error has cost property owners in Phoenix's core an extra $5.2 million in taxes over the past few years, according to the Phoenix Elementary School District. About 21,800 properties between Thomas and Buckeye roads and 23rd Avenue and 16th Street overpaid to compensate for reduced state funding for the school district. And although a consultant caught the error, those taxpayers won't get a refund for the mistake. They will, however, likely see their property taxes drop slightly moving forward. Don Keuth, president of Phoenix Community Alliance, said his group was one of the associations to raise concerns with the city about rising property taxes, which triggered the consultant study that found the error. But if the property owners wanted to recoup their losses, they would find that filing a lawsuit would cost more than the refund is worth, he said. "They're just going to say, 'Oh damn,' " he said. "That was a couple of trips to Starbucks." Divided evenly, the average overpayment would add up to about $238.50 per property over the past several tax cycles. Education typically accounts for half to three-quarters of any property-tax bill. Tax-rate changes have been common in the past few years, as school districts have raised levies to offset cuts in valuations and state spending on education. State funding per pupil in Arizona trails the national average by about $2,000 to $3,000, according to a 2014 Arizona auditor general report. In addition to low funding levels, the state passed a law in 2009 that changed the way districts' tax base is calculated. Starting in fiscal 2011, the state included properties that have tax-abatement agreements — meaning they don't have to pay property taxes for a certain time period — in district tax-base calculations, according to district officials. Those deals are called Government Property Lease Excise Tax agreements. The change meant that it looked like the school district could collect more in property-tax revenue — at least on paper. And because of that change, Arizona reduced its funding to the district. That meant other properties had to pay more to make up the difference, said Myriam Roa, the district superintendent. Eric Johnson, a Phoenix economic-development project manager, said the Arizona law was unclear, and staff did not pay as close attention as it should have when the law governing how the state calculates property-tax bases changed. And, Johnson added, they weren't even aware of the change at the time. But he said the city and the Maricopa County Assessor's Office immediately cleaned up the books when a consultant found the problem. The state agreed to increase the district's funding by $2.3 million this fiscal year to adjust for the reduction. Other ramifications Roa said the 2009 law still disproportionately affects the district's tax base. That's because her district, along with Wilson Elementary School District, is located in areas with many properties with these tax-abatement development deals. The districts' taxing jurisdictions also are relatively small compared with other, larger districts. Cities offer these deals to encourage development. In Phoenix, city officials allow property owners to temporarily hand ownership to the city, then lease the space. The business doesn't have to pay property taxes (because cities are exempt from the tax) for about eight years after they complete construction, Johnson said. But critics say these agreements increase taxes for other properties, particularly when the state includes their values to determine how much local revenue school districts collect. Johnson said the city can't do anything to mitigate the district impact of existing agreements but staff will consider the impact when entertaining future deals. The city has not determined a policy to guide future decisions, he said. Roa said she hopes to rally colleagues to push lawmakers to repeal the state-law change. Roa said the shift increased the rate that the district charges its tax base by 32 cents per $100 of assessed value. The rate listed on the Maricopa County Assessor's website is $3.95 per $100 of assessed value, not including bonds or overrides. "It's basically shifting the burden to the local taxpayer," Roa said. Republic reporter Ronald Hansen contributed to this article.
Here is an update on the article about the ASU police getting 70 fully automatic M-16 machine guns. The initial article didn't mention that M-16's are fully automatic machine guns. I suspect that most of the arrests the ASU police make are for the victimless crime of underage drinking and the victimless crime of smoking marijuana. Do the ASU police really need 70 fully automatic machine guns to arrest students for these victimless crimes???? http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2014/09/17/asu-community-college-police-got-military-surplus/15812247/ ASU, community-college police got military surplus Emilie Eaton, Cronkite News service 8:55 p.m. MST September 17, 2014 Police departments at Arizona State University and community colleges in Tucson and Yuma have acquired 79 fully automatic M-16 assault rifles and nine older M-14 rifles under a Department of Defense program that distributes surplus weapons to local agencies throughout the country. A review of state-level data on the Department of Defense Excess Property Program showed 70 M-16s going to ASU and nine M-16s going to Arizona Western College in Yuma. Pima Community College received nine M-14s that a school official said are used by an honor guard. While campus police at ASU and Arizona Western College said the military rifles enhance public safety and protect officers, a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona said the weapons speak to an alarming militarization of police forces around the country. "The problem is that it leads to overly aggressive policing," said Alessandra Soler, the group's executive director. "We have situations like we saw in Ferguson, Missouri, where you have a protest that for the most part was really peaceful. They had some concerns in the beginning, but ultimately it was a protest. And they had snipers and tanks." The ASU Police Department acquired the M-16s a year and a half ago when the Arizona Department of Public Safety wanted to get rid of weapons it acquired under the so-called 1033 program, said Sgt. Daniel Macias, a spokesman for the department. ASU requested 70 specifically to equip each officer, he added. Macias said the weapons remain in the department's armory and haven't been distributed to officers. The department requires officers to complete 40 hours of training to carry the M-16s, and officers haven't had enough time to complete the training yet, he said. He said M-16s will allow the department to be prepared for worst-case scenarios. "We definitely look for ways to equip our officers the best way to be able to actively take care of a situation that comes up," Macias said. "When you think worse-case scenarios, you think active shooters on school grounds." At Arizona Western College, Police Chief John Edmundson said M-16s ensure school safety, adding that safety concerns were heightened by the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. Arizona Western College also houses a child development learning lab and a remote Northern Arizona University campus. Because of the many facilities housed there, Edmundson said he wants to make sure he can protect everyone. Edmundson said he makes sure his officers complete a variety of training to be prepared for such situations. When school isn't in session during the summer, officers do movement drills in the child-development lab so they know the layout of the building, he said. Under the 1033 program, Arizona Western College also acquired a flatbed truck and Humvee, which Edmundson said his department uses to haul large equipment and materials. Last month, the police department volunteered to help the local crisis center lug donated equipment in the trucks, he said. The M-14s acquired by Pima Community College are used only by a police honor guard that participates in community events, said Michelle Nieuwenhuis, the department's commander. On the rare occasions that officers fire them, they use blanks, she said.
ASU cops get 70 fully automatic M-16 machine guns Hmmm ... So while ASU President Michael M. Crow has made it illegal for a woman to carry a handgun in her purse on the ASU campuses to protect herself from robbery or rape. But ASU President Michael M. Crow has allowed the ASU Police Department to acquire 70 fully automatic M-16 machine guns. If you ask me it sounds like ASU President Michael M. Crow is more concerned with protecting the ASU police from the students, then protecting the people that visit the ASU campus from criminals. Under Arizona law, government colleges are allowed to flush the 2nd Amendment down the toilet and ban weapons from their campuses. Last time I checked all of the Arizona universities have banned weapons from their campuses along with all the the Maricopa County Community Colleges. Note the article doesn't say the M-16 guns are fully automatic, but I assumed it. I kind of doubt that the military would do the equivalent of a lobotomy on an M-16 machine gun and convert it to a non-automatic weapon!!!! http://eastvalleytribune.com/local/tempe/article_c3a88bbc-3dc8-11e4-8c5d-773d57ecca36.html Arizona universities take part in controversial military weapons program Posted: Tuesday, September 16, 2014 11:00 am Katie Connor, ABC15.com Arizona universities are taking advantage of the federal government’s 1033 program which gives away military equipment and weapons for free. Arizona State University Police received 70 M-16 rifles from the program. The firearms originally came from the Department of Public Safety, who were going to turn the weapons back in, according to ASU Sergeant Daniel Macias. Arizona’s 1033 Director Matt Van Camp says ASU has acquired more weapons than any other Arizona university. The University of Arizona acquired bag or barracks under the federal program. Sergeant Macias says the ASU officers aren’t carrying the rifles yet. In fact, officers will go through extensive training before taking the firearms out into the field. Sergeant Macias says the rifles are an important tool in the day of active shooters. The Pentagon loaned the weapons to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in the early 90s, through the free 1033 program. In 2012, the Pentagon found out Maricopa County Sheriff's Office couldn’t account for nine firearms it borrowed from the program and immediately suspended MCSO from the program. Last week, Detective Van Camps says MCSO was terminated from the program and sent a letter requiring all of the equipment back within 120 days. The 1033 program has come under intense scrutiny since the Ferguson, Missouri shooting. When riots broke out in the streets, local officers responded in armored vehicles, automatic rifles and even some camouflage.
Want to really screw up the market for legalize marijuana - just let government regulate and micromanage it like they do with liquor!!!! http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/545/article/p2p-81390770/ New rules: Naperville bars can't offer large discounts on beer Melissa Jenco, Tribune reporter 6:16 am, September 17, 2014 Naperville bars can no longer offer major discounts on beer and their security guards will get extra training under rules councilmen approved tonight. However, officials said they need more time to discuss more controversial regulations like limiting maximum beer sizes and prohibiting both shots and bar entry an hour before closing. The City Council has been discussing bar rules since last month in the wake of an alleged drunk-driving crash that killed two men and a video of a downtown street fight that went viral. They also cite a 2012 incident in which an elementary school teacher was stabbed to death in a downtown bar after stepping in the middle of a fight. Councilmen have received no public pushback for the rules they approved that prohibit reducing the price of drinks by more than 50 percent and a mandate that bouncers receive additional training. However, bar owners and managers have taken issue with proposals to limit maximum beer sizes to 20 ounces instead of 24 ounces and barring patrons from entering a bar an hour before closing. Representatives of establishments like Wise Boxer Pour House and World of Beers told councilmen they sell craft beer that comes in bottles larger than 20 ounces, but customers who order such drinks are sipping them and limiting how many they order. Dan Gustafson, general manager of Chicago Marriott Naperville, also took issue with the time limit on entering bars since hotel guests sometimes check in late and aren’t going farther than upstairs to their rooms. Following an hour and a half discussion, the majority of councilmen agreed there could be unintended consequences to some of the proposed regulations and voted to table them until Oct. 7. In the meantime, Councilman Grant Wehrli asked city staff to look at the possibility of making different rules for craft beer and said consideration should be given to establishments where people may have good reason to enter at a late hour. “I do think that we can come up with a solution to this,” Wehrli said. “I just don’t think we’re there yet.”
It ain't about marijuana legalization!!!! Sadly MPP's project isn't about marijuana legalization and seems to be all about creating a government monopoly of growing and selling marijuana for medical marijuana dispensaries. Yea, that's like dispensaries run by folks in Andrew Myers Arizona Dispensary Association. Yea, Andrew Myers is the same guy who wrote Arizona's Prop 203 or Arizona's Medical Marijuana Act which looks like a government welfare program for medical marijuana dispensaries. F*ck MPP, they can take their phoney baloney effort to legalize marijuana and shove it. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/09/17/marijuana-legalization-group-launches-consume-responsibly-campaign/?hpid=z3 Marijuana legalization group launches ‘Consume Responsibly’ campaign By Niraj Chokshi September 17 at 9:56 AM These handouts advocating for the responsible use of marijuana will be available at some marijuana retail locations in Colorado. It’s too late for Maureen Dowd, but marijuana advocates hope they can prevent others from suffering through a too-harsh high. The Marijuana Policy Project, which played a significant role in helping to pass legalization in Colorado, is launching a $75,000 public education campaign to counter what communications director Mason Tvert describes in a statement as decades of “exaggeration, fear mongering, and condescension.” The campaign will launch at noon in Denver, Colo., in front of a billboard aimed at tourists that reads “Don’t let a candy bar ruin your vacation.” This outdoor ad will be featured on at least one billboard in Denver, Colo. Ensuring the safe use of edible marijuana products has proven troublesome since marijuana sales began in Colorado in January. Public smoking is banned and most hotels don’t allow smoking on their premises, so many pot tourists turn to edibles. But because many people have more experience smoking marijuana than consuming it in edible form, and because the high is slower to take hold with edibles, it can prove hard for users to self-regulate, as was the case for New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. “I was panting and paranoid, sure that when the room-service waiter knocked and I didn’t answer, he’d call the police and have me arrested for being unable to handle my candy,” she wrote in a June column that was ridiculed by legal pot advocates at the time. The campaign will feature print ads, online ads and literature to be distributed at retail locations urging responsible consumption and directing people to ConsumeResponsibly.org. It will present information about products, laws and the effects of marijuana. The group plans to spend at least $75,000 by the end of the year and hopes to continue raising funds to support the campaign. Publications that target adult marijuana consumers, such as the Hemp Connoisseur in Colorado, will also run the ads. “Like most Americans, Ms. Dowd has probably seen countless silly anti-marijuana ads on TV, but she has never seen one that highlights the need to ‘start low and go slow’ when choosing to consume marijuana edibles,” Tvert said in the statement. The campaign will begin in Colorado and eventually expand to Washington. Niraj Chokshi reports for GovBeat, The Post's state and local policy blog.
Ebola virus??? - Send in the Marines!!!!! When you have the worlds largest military force, the solution to any problem is to send in the Marines???? "Calling the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a threat to world security, President Barack Obama on Tuesday broadly expanded the U.S. response by ordering thousands of troops to the region" F*ck the Ebola virus, the American military is a threat to world security!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/16/obama-ebola-outbreak-a-threat-to-global-security/15731693/ Obama: Ebola outbreak a threat to global security Associated Press 2:28 p.m. MST September 16, 2014 ATLANTA — Calling the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a threat to world security, President Barack Obama on Tuesday broadly expanded the U.S. response by ordering thousands of troops to the region along with an aggressive effort to train health care workers and build treatment centers. He called on other countries to quickly supply more helpers, supplies and money. "If the outbreak is not stopped now, we could be looking at hundreds of thousands of people affected, with profound economic, political and security implications for all of us," Obama declared after briefings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obama acted under pressure from regional leaders and international aid organizations who pleaded for a heightened U.S. role in confronting the deadly virus, especially in the hardest-hit countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. At least 2,400 people have died, with Liberia bearing the brunt. The president described people dying in the streets and health care systems near collapse from this latest outbreak. "In West Africa, Ebola is now an epidemic," Obama said. "It's spiraling out of control, it is getting worse." At the same time, he offered assurances that the chances of an outbreak in the U.S. are "extremely low." The stepped-up U.S. response includes sending 3,000 troops to the region, including medics and corpsmen for treatment and training, engineers to help build treatment facilities and logistics specialists to assist in patient transportation. Troops would not provide direct care to Ebola patients, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. A substantial number will be stationed at an intermediate base in Senegal, with others at locations in Liberia, he said. Obama also announced that Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams, head of U.S. Army Africa, will head a military command center based in Liberia. The announcement came the same day the World Health Organization warned that the number of West African Ebola cases could begin doubling every three weeks and that the crisis could end up costing nearly $1 billion to contain. Joanne Liu, president of Doctors Without Borders, said the global response was falling short. "The window of opportunity to contain this outbreak is closing," Liu told a meeting Tuesday at the United Nations in Geneva. Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO, welcomed Obama's announcement, calling the U.S. offer "precisely the kind of transformational change we need to get a grip on the outbreak and begin to turn it around." Nearly 5,000 people have become ill from Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal since it was first recognized in March. WHO says it anticipates the figure could rise to more than 20,000. Obama described task ahead as "daunting" but said what gives him hope is that "the world knows how to fight this disease." With the addition of military personnel, administration officials said that the new U.S. initiatives aim to: —Train as many as 500 health care workers a week. —Erect 17 heath care facilities in Liberia of 100 beds each. —Set up a joint command headquartered in Monrovia, Liberia, to coordinate U.S. and international relief efforts. —Provide home health care kits to hundreds of thousands, including 50,000 that the U.S. Agency for International Development will deliver to Liberia this week. —Carry out a home- and community-based campaign to train local populations on handling exposed patients. Meanwhile, a Senate panel held a hearing on the outbreak in Washington. Expected to testify were Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Kent Brantly, an American physician who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia but recovered after treatment with an experimental drug. Obama met with Brantly at the White House on Tuesday before departing for Atlanta. At the hearing, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, declared, "This outbreak has spread in ways that are potentially catastrophic for the world." Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said urgent action was needed. "We must take the dangerous, deadly threat of the Ebola epidemic as seriously as we take ISIS," he said, referring to the extremist group in Syria and Iraq. Separately, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said, "Frankly, I'm a bit surprised the administration hasn't acted more quickly to address what is a serious threat, not just to Africa but to others across the world." He predicted action "in the coming weeks" by the executive and legislative branches of government "to look at how do we best contain this very horrible disease." Obama administration officials said money for the stepped-up effort to combat the disease would come from $500 million in overseas contingency operations, such as the war in Afghanistan, that the Pentagon already has asked Congress to redirect to carry out humanitarian efforts in Iraq and in West Africa. Officials said it would take about two weeks to get U.S. forces on the ground. Ebola is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of sick patients, making doctors and nurses especially vulnerable to contracting the virus, which has no vaccine or approved treatment. Obama's trip came a day after the United States also demanded a stepped-up international response to the outbreak. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, called Monday for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, warning that the potential risk of the virus could "set the countries of West Africa back a generation."
Flagstaff continues to run homeless people out of town???? Flagstaff tries to make an end run around the 1st Amendment and use "vouchers" to run the homeless folks out of town. Another reason the Founders gave us the 2nd Amendment!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2014/09/16/flagstaff-vouchers-for-panhandlers/15739113/ Flagstaff introduces vouchers for panhandlers Felicia Fonseca/Associated Press 6:21 p.m. MST September 16, 2014 FLAGSTAFF — Richard Russler claims a corner along a Flagstaff street, hoping the steady stream of motorists will net him $40 a day for a hotel room and maybe some food. He turned to panhandling after his vehicle was totaled during a trip from Kansas to California, and he became stranded in Flagstaff, Russler said. He's been threatened with assault, heard stories of panhandlers raking in money for drugs and alcohol, and talked with police about his own motives. "I've got legitimate needs, and the officers know it," he said. Ever since a federal judge in Arizona ruled that a law criminalizing panhandling in public places is unconstitutional, Flagstaff police say the mountain city has been saturated with people turning to begging as their main source of income. Authorities are hoping a new program announced this week will help people with genuine needs and push out panhandlers who rely on charity to pay for substance-abuse problems. The program known as "Better Bucks" is modeled after others across the country and encourages people to give panhandlers vouchers for local goods and services and discourages them from handing out cash, police said. A book of five $1 vouchers, which sells for $6, isn't valid for alcohol or tobacco purchases. "At least we know what the money is being spent on," Vicki Burton, director of the Shadows Foundation, said Tuesday. "Your hope is that it falls into the hands of somebody who needs it." The book of vouchers also includes a list of social services and a bus pass. A handful of local businesses, including a grocery store and convenience marts, have signed on as participants so far. Only one book can be used per transaction and no change is given. Flagstaff police previously could arrest people on "loiter to beg" charges. But the American Civil Liberties Union argued in a lawsuit that Flagstaff's effort to rid the street of beggars was unconstitutional and criminalizes peaceful panhandling in public places. U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake ruled last year that the anti-begging provision violated free speech rights. Flagstaff later adopted an ordinance that targets panhandlers' conduct, rather than their speech. Panhandlers are allowed to politely ask passers-by for donations on public property, but they cannot trespass on private property or solicit money within certain distances of bus stops and banks or within city buses, for example. Flagstaff police Sgt. Margaret Bentzen said the voucher program allows the community to collaborate on ways to address panhandling and social services rather than it being solely a police effort. Russler suggested that a permit system for panhandlers would better deter scammers. He said he's doubtful that the vouchers will result in a decrease of panhandlers in Flagstaff. "They won't go to other cities," he said. "They think this is a gold mine up here because it's a college town."
When do you have to give the police ID??? Only when you are doing something that requires a license, such as driving, hunting or fishing!!! This article didn't mention the Supreme Court case Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada, 542 U.S. 177 (2004). That case applies in Californian and Arizona and defines when you must tell the police your name. And according to the case you DON'T have to give the police and ID card, but merely verbally state your name. And you are only required to do that when 1) the police have "reasonable suspicion" to detain or arrest you and 2) Your state has a law on the books which requires you to identify yourself. In that case you must verbally tell the police your name. But you are not required to give the police and ID card. http://touch.latimes.com/#section/1780/article/p2p-81377300/ Daniele Watts, LAPD encounter raises question: When must you show ID? By Kurtis Lee September 16, 2014, 9:42 a.m. In the aftermath of the uproar over "Django Unchained" actress Daniele Watts' detainment by Los Angeles police officers, questions have been raised about what rights an individual has when approached by law enforcement. After police arrived on the scene of a call about alleged indecent exposure in Studio City, Watts refused to give police her ID and was detained along with her boyfriend, celebrity chef Brian James Lucas. She was handcuffed and released shortly afterward. The officer has defended his actions. Peter Bibring, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, spoke with the L.A. Times about when individuals must provide identification to police. Here's a rundown of the law and the ACLU's recommendations for people who are asked for their ID. Do you have to show an ID whenever an official asks for one? No. In California, police cannot arrest someone merely for refusing to provide ID. Police can always ask for identification, just like they can ask if you'll step over and answer a few questions, or if they can search your bag or come into your house. But just because they can ask doesn't mean you have to allow them to see your ID. If you don't want to provide identification, you can politely say you do not want to do so and ask if you are free to go. When can police ask for identification? If you are driving and are stopped by police, you must provide a drivers license. And although California law generally requires that officers release people who are cited for misdemeanors, rather than taking them to jail, it makes an exception if the person cannot provide satisfactory identification. If officers are actually trying to write you a misdemeanor citation, you may have to provide identification or face arrest for the misdemeanor offense. If you are a suspect in a crime, do you have to show your identification? No. If police reasonably suspect you of a crime, they can detain you to investigate that crime. Some states have what are called "Stop and Identify" statutes that require someone suspected of criminal activity to provide identification to police, making refusal a crime. California has no such statute, so if you refuse to provide an ID while police are detaining you, they can't arrest you just for refusing. When might showing your ID be a good idea anyway? If you really haven't done anything wrong, knowing your identity could help police resolve their investigation in your favor, and refusing to provide identification could prolong it. For example, suppose a neighbor reports a burglary at your house and police arrive at the moment you happen to be carrying a computer out of the house. They would have a reason to detain you to investigate the burglary call, but you might be able to clear up the situation by showing your ID to prove you live there. In that case, refusing to show ID could make their investigation take longer even though it's not illegal to refuse. Providing identification can also just help an interaction with police go more smoothly. Police may want to check for warrants so they can be sure you aren't a dangerous, wanted criminal. They may be less nervous if they feel they know who they're dealing with. Follow @kurtisalee and email kurtis.lee@latimes.com
Globe man arrested for sodomy in Tempe Don't these pigs have any REAL criminals to hunt down???? If you ask me sodomy is a victimless religious crime. Not a real crime that we should spend waste our tax dollars sending people to prison for. And for that matter about 15 years ago the legislator repealed the Arizona laws making sodomy illegal. Sodomy is oral sex, anal sex, and sex with animals. But after a Mesa fireman was discovered to be humping his neighbors goat some of the religious nut jobs in the Arizona legislator made the part of sodomy that makes it illegal to have sex with animals a crime in Arizona again. Sure Terry Wayne Haupt is a pervert, but we shouldn't be wasting our tax dollars warehousing him in prison. http://eastvalleytribune.com/local/tempe/article_84a40986-39f0-11e4-84fa-673efd3acd1e.html Arizona man arrested in Tempe after posting ad on Craigslist looking to have sex with female dog Posted: Thursday, September 11, 2014 1:45 pm Josh Frigerio, ABC15.com A 52-year-old man has been arrested for meeting at a Tempe hotel with the intent of having sex with a dog, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Joe Arpario said Terry Wayne Haupt, of Globe, Ariz., posted a "graphic" ad on Craigslist looking for a female dog to have sex with. MCSO deputies set up an undercover operation at a Tempe hotel on Wednesday involving one of its black labs. Haupt was arrested on charges of bestiality. Haupt, who recently moved to Arizona from California, admitted to authorities that he did post the ad and was looking to engage in various sex acts with the dog, according to an MCSO press release. Arpaio said he has written to Craiglist three times trying to get this type of listing blocked from the site, but has yet to hear back from the company's president.
Is it a bribe if you give your Senator $10,000 to get your son a free $500,000 education at West Point??? Or is that just good government and considered a $10,000 campaign contribution, not a bribe??? http://www.usatoday.com/longform/news/politics/2014/09/15/service-academies-congress-nomination-army-navy/15452669/ Pride and patronage How members of Congress use a little-known power to shape the military and help their constituents Gregory Korte and Fredreka Schouten , USA TODAY Introduction A little-known power WASHINGTON — Each year, members of Congress exercise a little-known power to help constituents obtain a nomination to one of the country's four elite service academies, which prepare future officers for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Merchant Marine. In doing so, they are helping the nominees obtain a highly sought college education worth nearly $500,000 while shaping the leadership of the military. Those nominations are often secret, sometimes political and always prestigious. In some cases, a USA TODAY examination shows, they go to children of friends, political supporters and donors to the lawmakers' campaigns. At a time when the public ranks Congress' performance at all-time lows, lawmakers have retained this 171-year-old perk described by historian Lance Betros as "a prized currency of patronage, a means of pandering to political favorites." Defenders of the system say it ensures geographic diversity, tests the mettle of applicants and gives each academy what amounts to a satellite recruiting office in every congressional district in the country. But the system also has its dangers. It is not always a meritocracy. The nominations are open to political influence. There are no consistent standards for nominations. The requirement that each congressional district be represented means that better candidates in more competitive districts sometimes lose out. "In the House, it's 435 fiefdoms and there's no centralized policy on how you do it," said R. Blake Chisam, a former lawyer for the House ethics panel. "Their method of collecting the candidates, the method of vetting the candidates and the method of selecting the candidates is up to the members." Congress and the academies: A history of patronage USA TODAY requested nomination lists from every member of Congress, compared them against campaign finance data, and interviewed dozens of parents, congressional staffers and academy admissions officers. The newspaper found a seldom-examined system with no oversight and little transparency — one that can be impenetrable to even those who have navigated it: • The nominations are made largely in secret. The service academies refused Freedom of Information Act requests for the names of nominees. The Navy said the names would "shed no light" on how it performs its function. Fewer than half of members released all or part of their nomination lists to USA TODAY. • There are no universal standards or ethical guidelines governing nominations, and each congressional office has its own process and criteria for awarding them. Districts can vary widely in the number of students seeking a nomination, while each member is allowed the same number of nominations. The result: Where a candidate lives can have as much effect on a future military career as grades, test scores or extracurricular activities. • Some nominations go to children of well-connected families, friends and campaign contributors. All told, representatives and senators have accepted more than $171,000 in campaign contributions from the families of students they've nominated to military service academies over the past two years, according to an analysis of nominations and campaign finance data. Members and staffers interviewed by USA TODAY insist that politics and personal connections play no role in the decisions. • Though the nomination system ensures geographic diversity, it does a poor job of providing for racial diversity. According to 2012 West Point data, only a quarter of black cadets get in with a congressional nomination. The rest get in through special admissions programs for athletes, enlisted soldiers or sons and daughters of active-duty military. ‘In the House, it’s 435 fiefdoms and there’s no centralized policy on how you do it.’ R. Blake Chisam, former lawyer for the House ethics panel Admission to the service academies carries with it a financial benefit. Every student gets the equivalent of a full scholarship, including room and board.The U.S. Air Force Academy pegged the taxpayer cost of graduating each cadet in the Class of 2014 at more than $487,000. (Tuition, room and board accounted for more than $188,000 of that amount. The rest covered the wide range of expenses that the government pays to keep the academy running, from faculty salaries to building maintenance.) Cadets and midshipmen also make a little more than $1,000 a month, out of which some fees are deducted. Those nominated are typically exemplary young men and, increasingly, women. They include high school valedictorians, national merit scholars, Eagle Scouts and captains of football teams. A nomination alone doesn't guarantee admission. Candidates must also meet rigorous academic standards and pass medical and physical fitness tests. If they pass all those hurdles, admitted students are on a fast track to join the military's elite after graduating. Four of the seven members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are academy graduates. Graduates of the academies are commissioned as junior officers, with salaries starting at $35,000. They must commit to at least five years of military service. But before they can do that, a high school student who seeks to take the academy route to a military career must first stop at the local congressional district office. Chapter 1 'This certainly can't hurt' Here's how the system works. At any given time, each member of Congress and the vice president can have up to five nominees in each military academy — the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.; the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.; the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., also requires congressional nominations, but uses a slightly different system. Unlike the military academies, it is run by the Department of Transportation. Most years, each representative or senator will have at least one slot at the academy to fill. For each slot, members can submit up to 10 names. Members can designate a "principal" nomination, who must be admitted as long as he or she meets the minimum qualifications. They can also rank their choices or send a list of 10 "competitive" nominations. Most won't get in. Other than that, there are no criteria that members are required to use to judge the candidates. Members can make the choice themselves, delegate it to staff or set up a volunteer panel to make recommendations. Most offices interview candidates, but some rely only on written applications. In some states, all members of the delegation work together to make sure as many candidates get nominated as possible. In other states, some candidates can get three nominations while others get none. There are no ethics guidelines for whom a member can or cannot nominate, other than a broad ban against using their elected positions for personal gain. Members hold informational sessions in the spring, and high school seniors apply for nominations in the fall. Those nominations are due to the academies by Jan. 31 each year. Preparation for those nominations often comes a year or two earlier. That's when some families who have rarely if ever given to campaigns make their first contributions to a member of Congress considering their son or daughter's nomination. In dozens of interviews, parents of nominees often said their contributions had little or nothing to do with the nomination. "Well, that was certainly in the back of our minds, although that wasn't the driving force," said Edwin "Dice" Wyllie, a real-estate agent in Lynn Haven, Fla., whose son was nominated to the U.S. Air Force Academy by Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Fla. "Absolutely, this certainly can't hurt, but it wasn't the driving force behind the contribution at all." Wyllie donated $250 to Southerland less than a year before the nomination. It was his first donation to a federal campaign, although he said he has given to local Republicans in the past. He said no one connected with the congressman asked for the donation. Wyllie said he contributed because Southerland shares his values. Only seven of Southerland's nominations were publicly available. Families of three of those nominees made contributions to his campaign. In all, he made 31 nominations for this year's incoming class of cadets and midshipmen. His office declined to reveal a full list, citing privacy concerns. Southerland's aides say that no politics is involved and that Southerland is "completely removed from the process." Potential nominees are vetted by a panel including local community leaders and educators. The congressman also does not designate a "principal" nominee nor otherwise rank his choices because that system "is open to perceptions of favoritism," said Craig Deatherage, the staffer who oversees nominations. Southerland spokesman Matt McCollough said the process is carried out "with utmost integrity, and these dedicated young people deserve nothing less." Chapter 2 Friends and family "Whenever taxpayer funds are involved, there should be some disclosure, particularly when it's an elected official making the decision," said Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation, which seeks greater government transparency. "In a weird way, this is a small earmark that you can give to the son or daughter of a constituent. "We just don't know if members are using this as a means of patronage to reward supporters or if they are using their ability to recommend people responsibly," Allison says. Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Ohio, is one of the most transparent members of Congress in identifying his nominees, releasing not only the names, hometowns and high schools of his nominees, but also their parents' names. Of his 48 nominations over the past two years, four families have contributed $11,950 to Renacci. McCarthy "I will easily admit that we are Republicans," said Barbara Wuellner. Her son was nominated by Renacci in 2012 — and then renominated in 2013, after he didn't get in the first time. "We are friends with Jim Renacci and his family," said Wuellner. She said she never discussed her son's nomination with Renacci, but that "he knew that my son was applying there." "I don't know if politics plays a part in it," she said. Megan Taylor, the press secretary for Renacci, said it does not. "We don't even know who contributes," she said. Renacci usually has more nominations to give than students who apply, Taylor said. Over those two years, 42 students have applied for nominations. Only three were rejected as nominees, all because of "glaring red flags," she said. One didn't follow through with paperwork, another had a history of violence, and a third "said something offensive about Vietnam veterans in an interview." USA TODAY found at least 89 families contributed to 65 members of Congress in the months or years before securing a nomination. But that number is likely higher because fewer than half of members released their lists of nominees — many of which were only partial lists — and contributions smaller than $200 need not be disclosed. Some members return campaign contributions from parents of children seeking nominations. ‘We just don't know if members are using this as a means of patronage to reward supporters or if they are using their ability to recommend people responsibly.’ Bill Allison of the Sunlight Foundation Lindsay Molnar was the finance director for Rep. Betty Sutton's 2012 re-election campaign against Renacci after the lawmakers of opposite parties were pitted against each other in a newly redrawn district. When Molnar received a $500 online contribution from someone whose name she didn't know, she asked Sutton, who found it was the father of a high school student who had sought a nomination. "She asked me to return the contribution, and I did. I called the dad and told him we were refunding it," said Molnar. The father was mortified that he might have hurt his son's chances, but he received a nomination anyway. Vu Tran, an Air Force Academy alumnus and tech executive who runs a Colorado firm that helps families navigate the academy process, said he finds the process for screening students rigorous and fair. But some parents, he said, are tempted to turn to campaign contributions to give their son or daughter a competitive advantage. "I have parents who say, 'Would it help if I contributed to my congressman or my senator?'" Tran said. Tran said he discourages that. "My answer to them: 'Do you really want to buy your son's way into it? What kind of lesson is that going to teach your child?'" Chapter 3 'We appoint. They nominate' Even if a nomination decision were based on politics, the nomination doesn't guarantee an appointment, admissions directors said. "What we don't do is lower our standards just because of who they nominate," said Col. Carolyn Benyshek, director of admissions at the Air Force Academy. But members who want to give a specific candidate an edge in the admissions process do have a powerful tool: the principal nomination, nicknamed "the golden ticket." Most members nominate a slate of up to 10 "competitive" nominees, allowing the academies to pick the highest-scoring candidate. But by ranking their nominees — selecting a principal and nine alternates — a member has greater influence over which nominees get the appointment. As long as the principal nominee meets the minimum qualifications, the academy must select that nominee — even if others on the list have better scores. ‘What we don't do is lower our standards just because of who they nominate.’ Col. Carolyn Benyshek, director of admissions at the Air Force Academy Depending on the year and the academy, about as many as a third of Congress members use the principal nomination system. Some academy officials wish they wouldn't. "We at the service academies would like to see competitive slates. That gives us the ability to take a look and do a rank order by order of merit to appoint kids," Benyshek said. "But it's their process, and how they choose to do it is up to them. "We appoint. They nominate," she said. Admissions officials say they don't oversee the nomination process and trust that members take the responsibility seriously. "Do I think there's politics involved in this? Sure. If congressional members are politicians, then yes," Benyshek said. "But the reality is, a lot of them try to make it apolitical by having nominating processes that take the politics out of play." One such process is the nomination advisory panel, a group of volunteers from the district that often includes academy graduates and retired officers. Nolan White, a consultant and former banker from Indiana, said that system made it more impartial when his son was nominated to the U.S. Naval Academy by Rep. Todd Young, R-Ind. White had given $5,000 to Young's campaign over a five-year period. "I never wanted to get a phone call from someone saying, 'Hey, your son got a nomination because you were a donor,'" White said. "I followed politics long enough and there's always that question: 'Did money buy the influence to get something?' So, I intentionally stayed out of the process for my son." Young, himself a graduate of the Naval Academy, set up the process when he was first elected to get the involvement of other academy graduates and leaders in his district. "When we use these boards, politics has nothing to do with it. They are looking for ideal candidates," said Young spokesman Trevor Foughty. Members of Congress cherish the prerogative because it's a way they can deliver good news to constituents. "It was one of the joys of serving in Congress," said Larry LaRocco, who represented parts of Idaho in the House of Representatives for two terms in the early 1990s. "There are the joys of passing an amendment or having bills passed and signed into law. But this happens every year. … It's just so cool." Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., often calls school principals' offices to have them pull nominated students out of class so he can deliver the news. The tradition started decades ago, when Coble realized that Sen. Jesse Helms was beating him to the punch in his congratulations — thus getting the lion's share of the credit. "It used to drive us nuts," said Ed McDonald, Coble's chief of staff. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., talks about his bill that would give representatives power to nominate candidates for the U.S Coast Guard Academy. Some lawmakers want to expand the role of nominations. A bill by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., for instance, would require congressional nominations for appointment to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. The Coast Guard, part of the Homeland Security Department since 2003, has never been part of the Defense Department. Thompson said congressional involvement is needed to guarantee greater geographical diversity at the Coast Guard. Six states — including North Dakota and Wyoming — had no appointments to the academy's Class of 2016, according to data the agency provided to Thompson. He's the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. The Coast Guard has diplomatically resisted calls for more congressional involvement. When he was nominated to be commandant of the Coast Guard in 2010, Admiral Robert Papp Jr. testified that the admissions process had brought "good candidates into our academy for many, many years with the absence of congressional appointments." Chapter 4 Diversity challenges But while congressional nominations help ensure geographic diversity, they're less effective in providing for other kinds of diversity. For decades, many Southern lawmakers refused to nominate black candidates. Some congressmen who represent minority districts say they have difficulty making nominations. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens, did not receive any applicants for the four service academies last year, said press secretary Stephanie Báez. Last year, 108 congressional districts were labeled as "underrepresented" at the Air Force Academy, Benyshek said. Academy officials have started an outreach campaign in several cities, including Atlanta, Memphis and St. Louis, to work with congressional aides and local civic leaders on student recruitment. Lewis According to a report by the Military Academy Board of Visitors in 2012, 58% of admissions to West Point came through a congressional or vice presidential nomination. But only 27% of African-American candidates were admitted on a congressional nomination. For academies to meet their diversity targets, they've had to work outside of the congressional system. Most African-American candidates get in through an "alternative admission," one of about 200 appointments made by the superintendent after congressional and service-related spots are filled. Those appointments also help to recruit athletes who may not have gotten a congressional nomination. Outside the congressional process, the academies have carve-outs for other classes of applicants. The children of career military personnel, deceased or disabled veterans, the missing in action and Medal of Honor recipients can all receive a presidential nomination. And the secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force can nominate a certain number of active and reserved enlisted men and women and Reserve Officer Training Corps participants. Still, for most students, the only way into the academy is through Congress. "Yes, it's intensely political, and yes, it's definitely another reason why, in my view, no one in Congress is ever going to reform the system," said Bruce Fleming, an English professor at the Naval Academy who has been one of the most vocal critics of its admissions policies. "It's a political plum. They're never going to give that power up." Follow @gregorykorte and @fschouten on Twitter. Also contributing: database editors Christopher Schnaars and John Kelly, Kendall Breitman and Gannett Washington reporters Nicole Gaudiano, Paul Barton, Deborah Berry, James R. Carroll, Raju Chebuim, Christopher Doering, Erin Kelly, Malia Rulon, Deirdre Shesgreen, Donovan Slack, Todd Spangler, Mary Troyan and Brian Tumulty.
Sadly many cops think having a gun and a badge means they can have sex with any woman they want. And sadly the criminals injustice system routinely lets them get away with it. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/15/oklahoma-trooper-jailed-on-sex-assault-complaints/15691017/ Trooper jailed on sex-assault complaints Associated Press 3:38 p.m. MST September 15, 2014 OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Highway Patrol arrested a state trooper Monday on complaints of kidnapping, rape and other crimes after three women alleged the officer sexually assaulted them while he was on duty. Trooper Eric Roberts, 42, was arrested at his home in Sapulpa and taken to the Creek County jail. He was released Monday afternoon after posting $66,000 bail. An internal investigation into Roberts began after a woman called the patrol on July 23 and reported that Roberts raped her after pulling over her vehicle, said Col. Rick Adams, chief of the Highway Patrol. "This is obviously not a pleasant discussion for us to have, but we think it's very important ... that the public has confidence in us knowing that we police our own," Adams said. "This particular matter sickens us as an agency." Roberts has been suspended since July 24, when he was forced to turn over his gun and badge, and the patrol has started proceedings to fire him, Adams said. Roberts' attorney, Gary James, said his client is innocent. "With regard to the allegations that led to his arrest today, I will tell you they are untrue," James said. "He committed no crimes." Roberts' arrest comes just weeks after an Oklahoma City police officer was accused of sexually assaulting at least eight women while on duty. In that case, Daniel Holtzclaw has pleaded not guilty to 16 felony counts, including rape and sexual battery. In Roberts' case, after interviewing the first victim, Adams said troopers seized Roberts' patrol vehicle and other evidence from the location where the woman said Roberts raped her and submitted it for DNA testing. In a federal lawsuit filed by the alleged victim, the woman claims Roberts made her get into his patrol car and began asking her sexually explicit questions. She claims Roberts then drove her to a secluded location and raped her. After the lawsuit was filed, a second woman came forward and made similar allegations, claiming Roberts pulled her over, drove her to a remote area and sexually assaulted her, according to an amended complaint filed in federal court. Adams said the patrol's investigation led to a third victim. Adams said in all three cases, Roberts turned off the patrol vehicle's dashboard camera and a microphone worn on his uniform. An attorney for the two women said in a statement they hope more women who may have been victimized will come forward. "We are glad to see that he was finally arrested," said attorney Kevin Adams. "Our clients wept when they were told the news. It took a lot of courage for both of these women to stand up to a law enforcement officer." The Associated Press generally does not name victims of sexual assault. Formal charges had not been filed against Roberts by late Monday afternoon. The Creek County district attorney was in court Monday and could not immediately respond to requests for comment. An attorney who represents Roberts in his official capacity as a state trooper, Assistant Attorney General Devan Pederson, filed a motion last week to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that claims against Roberts in his official capacity are barred by sovereign immunity. The motion does not address the merits of the women's claims.
If you look at recent press releases put out by the ASU Police and the Tempe Police along with the DUI patrols and arrests which also have been in the newspapers it looks like the ASU Police and the Tempe Police are more interested in shaking down ASU students for revenue via the $2,000 fine a DUI bust will bring them, rather than stopping rapists and other REAL criminals on the campus that hurt people. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2014/09/13/asu-sex-assault-heightened-alert/15604295/ ASU police on heightened alert after violent sexual assault on campus Police now posting crime alerts on campus. D.S. Woodfill, The Republic | azcentral.com 8:23 a.m. MST September 14, 2014 Police at Arizona State University have stepped up patrols and officer visibility in an area of the Tempe campus where a student was knocked out and sexually abused earlier this week. Investigators don't know who struck and groped the female student, who told police she doesn't remember other details of the attack Tuesday night at the Adelphi II Commons near Apache Boulevard and Rural Road. The Adelphi II Commons is a student housing complex. The victim, who is 18 or 19, told police the man tore away her shirt, groped her and struck her in the head, knocking her unconscious, said Sgt. Daniel Macias, an ASU police spokesman. When she regained consciousness inside the student-housing complex, she called 911. It's not clear whether the assailant used a weapon, Macias said. Police are considering the attack a case of assault and sex abuse pending laboratory test results to determine whether the victim had been raped. Authorities say it doesn't appear that the victim and the suspect knew each other. Tempe police responded to the incident initially because it was not known whether the crime had occurred within the Adelphi complex, which is ASU police jurisdiction, or outside the complex. Macias said ASU police has since assumed the investigation. Tempe police officials did not returned calls for comment Saturday.. The woman who was attacked was treated at a hospital and released. She has since begun attending classes again at Arizona State University, Macias said. According to Tempe police records, there have been six sexual assaults so far this year compared to nine in the same period last year. The agency has reported seven sex crimes overall in 2014, compared to 13 during the same period in 2013. It's not clear how Tempe compares to other university in terms of reported sex crimes, Macias said. "What I can tell you is that we think one is too many," the police spokesman said. "We'd definitely like to see zero. That's ultimately our goal." ASU has been under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education over the way it has handled sexual assault and harassment. The investigation, which includes 65 other colleges, began in January 2012, but federal officials have declined to discuss at length about it. Last month, ASU President Michael Crow announced the formation of a task force composed of administrators, staff and students to examine how the university responds to sexual violence. University officials did not return phone calls Saturday.
If the Scottsdale cops stopped arresting people for victimless drug war crimes they would have lots of room in their evidence lockers for evidence from REAL crimes that hurt people. Crimes like robbery and rape, not victimless crimes like smoking pot or selling pot. According to Reason Magazine two thirds or 66 percent of the people in American prisons are there for committing victimless drug war crimes like smoking or selling marijuana. Don't like a statistic from an anti-government Libertarian magazine like Reason. Then according to the US Bureau of Prison statistics 51 percent of the people in Federal prisons are there for victimless drug war crimes. Again according to the US Bureau of Prison statistics, 80 percent of those people are in prison for simple possession of an illegal drug. For the record I am not sure what percent of the storage space is used for storing evidence "victimless drug war crimes", but as I said before more then 50 percent of the people in American prisons are there for victimless drug war crimes. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/scottsdale/2014/09/15/scottsdale-police-evidence-backlog/15652501/ Scottsdale police evidence backlog could prove costly Megan Cassidy, The Republic | azcentral.com 11:38 a.m. MST September 15, 2014 The Scottsdale Police Department's evidence storage unit has accrued more than 54,000 additional items in the past three years, an expansion that could force the city to pay for a larger storage facility if changes aren't made to process items more quickly, according to a city audit. Officials say that delayed officer reviews of the items, a lack of manpower and new protocols have slowed the process of destroying or returning property and evidence. A growing backlog could necessitate a new multimillion-dollar facility to capture the overflow in the next several years. The May audit found that each year from 2011 through 2013, the net inventory increased by thousands — about 22,000 in 2011, 17,000 in 2012 and 15,000 in 2013. As of May, the facility contained 181,000 items, but nearly 82,000 of these items had received court dispositions by February, meaning they were legally eligible to be destroyed, returned or sold. But officer authorization is also required for a release, and this was only obtained on 7,700 items, with another 2,500 items put on hold, the audit found. According to the audit, dispositions made in the past two years have, on average, taken twice as long as the Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies' six-month standard. Auditors estimate at this pace, a new facility would have to be built nine years from now to hold the evidence. City Auditor Sharron Walker said the team did not assess the cost of a new facility, but Walker said it would surely be in the "millions of dollars." Evidence Control Manager Kay Smith agrees with this assessment. "Right now, I'm currently releasing and destroying 55 percent of what I take in," she said. "If I'm keeping up that process of bringing in this many and only releasing 55 percent, it's basic math that I would run out of room to store it." Smith said a new half-time position to help pick up the pace has been approved, but auditors say the heavier burden is on police officers to authorize item dispositions in a timelier manner. "The big picture is a matter of prioritizing this into an officer's workload," Smith said. "It is not just the city trying to avoid a financial expense; it's getting property back to the rightful owners." Often, even locating the correct officer for a disposition is time-consuming, the audit notes. The Property and Evidence Unit receives a weekly report on case dispositions, but the report did not include the responsible officer, and about 36 percent of the evidence items did not have an officer listed. Scottsdale officials say they are open to implementing different ways to help simplify the process. Officer names have now been added to the weekly disposition report. Sgt. Mark Clark said police staff has asked supervisors to allocate time so officers can review their evidence lists and sign off on items that can be released. But some prolonged procedures can't be avoided. A new, meticulous system of tracking everything from quarter candy machines and skateboards to guns, drugs and DNA is a necessity. After a critical 2004 audit, Scottsdale Police moved into a new facility in 2009 and began bar-coding the property in its possession and consolidating items, Walker said. The department additionally now participates in a national ballistics program that determines whether firearms have been used in another crime, and city code dictates how the department can get rid of certain types of items. "It will tell you that anything under $25, I am able to, what I term, 'smash and trash,' as long as it doesn't have an owner that I'm trying to seek out," Smith said. Walker said the auditors found only a few record-keeping inaccuracies during the process and commended the department for its security efforts. "Overall, they have pretty good controls in place," she said. Clark said the bottom line is that Scottsdale police are handling more evidence every year. "We are always looking for ways to make the process more streamlined, but the built-in checks and balances that slow the process down cannot be changed," Clark said.
Note Russell Pearce is also a former police officer or cop. I wonder how he treated the woman and Mexicans he stopped when he was a cop. Based solely on the comments he makes in the media, I suspect that he treated them like sh*t. Russell Pearce also seems to be a big time hypocrite. He is a Tea Party type always rallying against taxes and government welfare. But recently Russell Pearce accepted a job with Maricopa County where he is to encourage people to accept government welfare. I think he is being paid around $80,000 a year for that job. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2014/09/15/russell-pearce-reckless-cowboy/15695289/ Russell Pearce, the reckless cowboy Citizens for a Better Arizona protest at the county treasurer's office calling for the ouster of Russell Pearce. Editorial board, The Republic | azcentral.com 7:26 a.m. MST September 16, 2014 Our View: Operation Wetback should have been Russell Pearce's last rodeo. But he lived on to give us Operation Sterilization. Russell Pearce fashions himself a cowboy. And not just any cowboy. The cowboy of all cowboys, John Wayne. When he served in the Legislature, Pearce graced his office walls with not one, but two portraits of "The Duke." And in his new guise as right-wing radio host, he describes himself as the "John Wayne of the airways, the Chuck Norris of the talk-radio circuit." You get it. Tough guy. Recently, tough guy told his listeners if he ran Medicaid, he'd throw his lasso around the reproductive tubes of women on welfare just to make dang sure they don't pop out any welfare babies. Lady, you live off the system, we tie your tubes. It was classic cowboy justice, plainly spoken, roughly dealt. But one problem. The Republican Pearce had handed his opponents a gun — to shoot all Republican candidates. Russell Pearce's career: On Saturday, DJ Quinlan, Arizona Democratic Party executive director, pointed Pearce's bombast at the Republican candidate for governor. "How can we expect Doug Ducey to lead this state if he can't even stand up to the most extreme elements of his party?" Republican candidates saw where this was leading. The war on women. The flight of female voters. Soon top Republicans were falling over each other to denounce Pearce: "Russell Pearce's ignorant, hateful comments are insulting to women everywhere," wrote Martha McSally, candidate for Congress in District 2. "The obnoxious comments made by Russell Pearce were both disgusting and offensive. Let it be known, he is NOT the voice of my GOP. #Resign!" tweeted Michele Reagan, GOP candidate for Secretary of State. And then there was Ducey. "I couldn't disagree more with Russell Pearce's deplorable comments," he tweeted. What's deplorable is that Arizona Republicans allowed the fringe right long ago to seize their party, drive out mainstream voices, demean respected GOP members of Congress and build a welcoming hearth for Pearce. Eight years ago, Republicans might have stopped him when he proposed a deranged idea to bring back the Eisenhower-era program "Operation Wetback" to deport all undocumented migrants. Immigration activist Roberto Reveles noted at the time that the GOP was mute. "All we hear is silence from leaders of the Republican Party. All we can conclude is that they abide by the same type of bigotry." Republicans bit their tongues. Pearce went on to craft SB 1070 and to become Senate president. Voters recalled him, but he later returned to serve as first vice chair of the state Republican Party. Operation Wetback should have been Russell Pearce's last rodeo. He lived on to bring us Operation Sterilization. Does anyone doubt he'll be back? http://www.azcentral.com/story/laurieroberts/2014/09/16/russell-pearce-comments-medicare-sterilization/15690711/ Is anybody really surprised by Russell Pearce's rant? Laurie Roberts, columnist | azcentral.com 7:41 a.m. MST September 16, 2014 Leading lights in the Arizona Republican Party have pronounced themselves shocked by the comments of one of the GOP's rock stars. Russell Pearce's recent comments, we are told, are "disgusting and offensive." They are "cruel", "revolting" and "unrepresentative of the Republican Party." They are "ignorant, hateful comments …. insulting to women everywhere. " They are, frankly, not all that surprising. Pearce has been spewing poison for years. In 2006, then-Rep. Pearce was extolling the virtues of "Operation Wetback," a 1950s program that encouraged mass roundups and deportations of Mexican immigrants here illegally. That same year, he e-mailed his Tea Party pals an article from a White-supremacist group that attacked the media for presenting a "single view of the world, a world in which every voice proclaims the equality of the races, the inerrant nature of the Jewish 'Holocaust' tale, the wickedness of attempting to halt the flood of non-White aliens pouring across our borders." Pearce later apologized, saying he hadn't read the article before sending it out. Since then, he's forwarded along missives that include wildly inaccurate claims about the impact of illegal immigration and compared the migration across the border to "importing leper colonies." In 2007, Pearce appeared at a rally with local neo-Nazi/border vigilante J.T. Ready to rail against illegal immigration. Pearce would later say that he had no idea that Ready was a neo-Nazi, never mind that it was in all the papers. (In 2012, Ready went on a rampage, killing his girlfriend and three others before killing himself.) Despite Pearce's ravings, he persuaded the Republican-dominated Legislature to pass Senate Bill 1070, rose to become Senate president and was heralded in some GOP quarters as an American patriot. In recent years, Pearce has been recalled and rebuffed by voters yet lauded by Republican Party officials, who in 2012 elected him to be the state party's first vice chair. And most recently, he was hired to a top job working for Maricopa County Treasurer's Office. Now the pride of the GOP has weighed in on women, saying on his weekly radio show that they should be forced to use contraceptives or be sterilized if they dare to apply for government aid. "You put me in charge of Medicaid, the first thing I'd do is get women Norplant, birth-control implants, or tubal ligations." No word on whether he'd castrate the males. Pearce's comments, first reported last week by the New Times' Stephen Lemons, were largely ignored until Saturday when the state Democratic Party noted the "silence" in Republican ranks. "How can we expect Doug Ducey to lead this state if he can't even stand up to the most extreme elements of his party?" D.J. Quinlan, executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party said in a prepared release. Commence the stampede. You'd think Russell Pearce had the Ebola virus, Republicans were running away from the guy so fast. Ducey, the Republican nominee for governor, deemed Pearce's comments "deplorable." Attorney general candidate Mark Brnovich called them "unrepresentative of the Republican Party I know" and called for Pearce to resign. (He resigned on Sunday evening.) Congressional candidate Martha McSally said Pearce's "ignorant, hateful comments are insulting to women everywhere" while congressional candidate Andy Tobin said his comments are "deplorable, offensive and could not be further from my values or those of Arizona and America." Secretary of state candidate Michele Reagan said, "the obnoxious comments made by Russell Pearce were both disgusting and offensive. Let it be known, he is NOT the voice of my GOP." Since Sunday anyway.
Sadly hateful folks like Russell Pearce and Cathi Herrod flock to government. They know that if they can get involved in government they can use it to force their hate on the rest of us. And of course terrorized people they hate using the force of government. While this article doesn't mention Cathi Herrod, she is probably the most powerful woman in Arizona despite the fact that she isn't an elected offical. Cathi Herrod runs CAP or the Center for Arizona Policy which is extremely successful in getting the government to pass laws which mix religion and government and are turning Arizona into a Christian theocracy. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/09/16/russell-pearce-welfare-remarks-cost-republican-job/15703701/ Pearce's welfare remarks cost him GOP job Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, The Republic | azcentral.com 9:46 p.m. MST September 15, 2014 GOP candidates swiftly distanced themselves over the weekend from an Arizona Republican Party official's statement that women on public assistance should be forced to go on birth control. The remarks by Russell Pearce, a former state senator and first vice chairman of the state party, were quickly condemned by Republican candidates for Congress, governor, attorney general and secretary of state. Political analysts said Republicans' rapid response signaled concern that opponents could use the issue to score points with voters in the weeks before the general election and fear Democrats here could claim the party is waging a "war on women" as they have elsewhere. Pearce made the remarks Sept. 6 on his radio program: "You put me in charge of Medicaid, the first thing I'd do is get a woman Norplant, birth-control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we'll test recipients for drugs and alcohol and nicotine. If you want to (reproduce) or use drugs or alcohol, then get a job," he said. In a statement issued by the Republican Party late Sunday, Pearce said he would step down as the party's vice chairman because he did not want his remarks to overshadow GOP candidates' campaigns. Pearce added that the controversial comments were "written by someone else" and that he had "failed to attribute them to the author." He blamed the media for using his remarks to "hurt our Republican candidates." Pearce, best known for his role in passing the state's hard-line immigration law Senate Bill 1070, served as Arizona Senate president before he was removed in a recall election in 2011. He remains an influential figure among conservative Republicans. GOP political consultant Stan Barnes said Republicans moved quickly to address the controversy because Pearce's remarks could lead some to believe Republicans are "anti-women." "No candidate, no party wants to be associated with extremism politics a few weeks before general elections day," Barnes said. "It's one thing to be controversial on immigration or on the proper role of government, or any other item that Russell Pearce has been controversial on. But it feels scary to the average voter to hear discussions of support for sterilization in exchange for government services." Before Democrats could impose the an anti-women narrative on GOP candidates, Barnes said, "These candidates had to act and get in front of it." David Berman, a senior research fellow at Arizona State University's Morrison Institute for Public Policy, said Pearce's comments could have been used to further a perception that Republicans are waging a "war on women." "That's an image that seems to be dogging them around the country," Berman said. "The party is having problems with women on abortion and other issues, and Pearce probably reinforced what perhaps many women think about Republican policies towards women." Republican candidates Doug Ducey, Mark Brnovich, Michele Reagan, Andy Tobin, Martha McSally and others repudiated Pearce's remarks, which were first reported by Phoenix New Times columnist Stephen Lemons. The Republican Party announced Pearce's resignation around 11 p.m. Sunday — hours after the GOP candidates expressed their displeasure. "Comments that demean the plight of the poor, including women in the dual role of mother and economic provider, are not conservative; they're cruel," attorney general candidate Brnovich said in a statement. "And I reject them." Reagan, who is running for secretary of state, called for Pearce to resign via Twitter: "The obnoxious comments made by Russell Pearce were both disgusting and offensive. Let it be known, he is NOT the voice of my GOP. #Resign!" Citizens for a Better Arizona protest at the county treasurer's office calling for the ouster of Russell Pearce. A day earlier, Arizona Democratic Party Executive Director DJ Quinlan had highlighted Pearce's comments in a news release, saying the "silence" of GOP leaders "indicates that they have made a cynical calculation that Russell Pearce and his brand of politics appeals to the most extreme elements of their electoral base." Democrats did seize on Pearce's remarks to raise money, and Maricopa County supervisor candidate Steve Gallardo demanded that Pearce resign or be fired from his position at the county. Maricopa County Treasurer Charles Hoskins told The Republic in July that Pearce accepted his offer to work on the "elderly assistance program," which helps keep people in their homes. Pearce's job description, released Monday, also calls for him to work with "government relations and state legislatures." Pearce began his job with the treasurer on Aug. 4, a county spokeswoman said. He is paid $41 an hour. Pearce's remarks appear to trace back to a letter published in the Nov. 18, 2010, opinion section of the Waco Tribune-Herald. That letter was submitted by Alfred W. Evans of Gatesville, Texas. The letter read, in part: "Put me in charge of food stamps. I'd get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho's, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job. "Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I'd do is to get women Norplant birth-control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we'll test recipients for drugs, alcohol and nicotine and document all tattoos and piercings. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, smoke or get tats and piercings, then get a job." Pearce issued his resignation to party Chairman Robert Graham. Pearce wrote "that hosting a radio show and the nature of the debates that we have had and will continue to have are incompatible with what our Party needs from its leadership team." Graham declined to comment. Democratic attorney general candidate Felecia Rotellini said Pearce's comments were shocking. "This fits in with the position of their party — to be anti-women and anti-choice, and to have positions that don't empower women," Rotellini said. "And I think that is why so many people aren't looking at party politics anymore." She applauded those who called for Pearce's resignation. ON THE BEAT Yvonne Wingett Sanchez covers the Governor's Office and state politics and leads The Republic's coverage of the race for Arizona governor. How to reach her yvonne.wingett@arizonarepublic.com Phone: 602-444-4712 Twitter: @yvonnewingett
Ray Krone was framed by the Phoenix Police for murder and spent 10 years on death row before DNA testing proved he was framed. The Phoenix Police framed Ray Krone by getting dentist John Piakis to testify that the bite marks of Ray Krone's teeth matched the bite marks on the victim, Kim Ancona. There are several numbers on how much the Phoenix Police paid John Piakis to help them frame Ray Krone. I think the numbers are between $40,000 and $60,000. Looks like Ray Krone wasn't the only person framed by crooked cops who got crooked dentists to help them frame people for murder!!!! http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/us/mississippi-death-row-appeal-highlights-shortcomings-of-bite-mark-identifications.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSum&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 Mississippi Death Row Case Faults Bite-Mark Forensics By ERIK ECKHOLMSEPT. 15, 2014 Dr. Lowell J. Levine, a dental expert from New York University, testified before the Leon County Circuit Court in Ted Bundy's pretrial hearing in in Florida in 1979. Credit Associated Press In one of the country’s first nationally televised criminal trials, of the smirking serial murderer Ted Bundy in Florida in 1979, jurors and viewers alike were transfixed as dental experts showed how Mr. Bundy’s crooked teeth resembled a bite on a 20-year-old victim. Mr. Bundy was found guilty and the obscure field of “forensic dentistry” won a place in the public imagination. Since then, expert testimony matching body wounds with the dentition of the accused has played a role in hundreds of murder and rape cases, sometimes helping to put defendants on death row. But over this same period, mounting evidence has shown that matching body wounds to a suspect’s dentition is prone to bias and unreliable. A disputed bite-mark identification is at the center of an appeal that was filed Monday with the Mississippi Supreme Court. Eddie Lee Howard Jr., 61, has been on death row for two decades for the murder and rape of an 84-year-old woman, convicted largely because of what many experts call a far-fetched match of his teeth to purported bite wounds, discerned only after the woman’s body had been buried and exhumed. The identification was made by Dr. Michael West, a Mississippi dentist who was sought out by prosecutors across the country in the 1980s and 1990s but whose freewheeling methods “put a huge black eye on bite-mark evidence,” in the words of Dr. Richard Souviron, a Florida-based dental expert who helped identify Mr. Bundy in 1979, in an interview last week. Since 2000, at least 17 people convicted of murder or rape based on “expert” bite matches have been exonerated and freed, usually because DNA tests showed they had been wrongfully accused, according to research by The Innocence Project in New York. Dr. West was the expert witness in two of those cases. In six additional cases, one involving Dr. West and one involving Dr. Souviron, indictments and arrests linked to bite-mark identifications were dropped after new evidence showed that the matches were wrong. Still, without glaring new proof of innocence, courts have been reluctant to reopen cases based on even the most dubious of dental claims, leaving scores more defendants with questionable convictions to languish in prison or on death row, said Chris Fabricant, the Innocence Project’s director of strategic litigation. One of them is Mr. Howard. His appeal cites the scientific consensus that bite-mark identifications are unreliable, and questions the methods used by Dr. West. The appeal to reverse his conviction, prepared by the Mississippi Innocence Project at the University of Mississippi, also cites newly completed DNA testing that found no traces of Mr. Howard on the murder weapon, the body or elsewhere at the crime scene. Georgia Kemp, a reclusive 84-year-old in Columbus, Miss., had been stabbed to death and was partially dressed when police found her body among smoldering fires in her rundown house in 1992. The medical examiner found bruises “consistent with” rape but no hair or semen to prove it. In the absence of fingerprints or witnesses, it was understandable when the police turned to Mr. Howard as a person of interest: Only four months earlier, he had gone to Columbus after spending most of the two previous decades in prison for attempted rapes. But soon enough, an arguably shoddy process of justice began. Mr. Howard had a history of mental illness and he made a series of seemingly incriminating, if contradictory and irrational, statements that made him the prime suspect. Though no confession was recorded or written down, he reportedly told one police officer that “the case is solved” and that “I had a temper and that’s why this happened,” even as he said that six others were involved and he failed to recognize Ms. Kemp’s house. Three days after Ms. Kemp was buried, the medical examiner had her exhumed so that Dr. West could look for bite marks using a fluorescent light method he had developed. He said he found three bites and — without showing any photographs or other evidence — testified at trial that Mr. Howard was the biter “to a reasonable medical certainty.” Adding to the circumstantial evidence, Mr. Howard’s girlfriend said he had bitten her during sex and that he smelled like smoke the day after the murder. Mr. Howard, who steadfastly maintained his innocence after those initial ramblings, defended himself, disastrously, at his trial in 1992, resulting in a speedy guilty verdict and sentence of death. He was retried in 2000 after the Mississippi Supreme Court said he had been incompetent to represent himself. But his new court-ordered lawyers hardly did better, failing to call any witnesses at his new trial, not even a forensic expert to counter the prosecutor’s assertion that Dr. West was “a pioneer, a visionary” who had made a positive identification “just like a fingerprint.” The death sentence was reimposed and the Supreme Court has refused so far to reopen his conviction. In a 2006 ruling, the court said: “Just because Dr. West has been wrong a lot, does not mean, without something more, that he was wrong here.” The court did agree in 2010 to order DNA testing of the knife and other crime scene objects, with new results described as exculpatory in Mr. Howard’s newest appeal. Dr. West retired as an expert witness several years ago to a dental practice in Hattiesburg, after, according to his résumé, investigating more than 5,200 deaths and more than 300 bite marks over 29 years. In a deposition in 2012, Dr. West indicated a striking shift in thinking, saying he no longer believed that bite marks were as unique as fingerprints, that bite-mark analysis was open to error and that with the availability of DNA testing it should not be used in court. In a telephone interview, Dr. West sought to play down his role in convicting Mr. Howard, saying, “I didn’t put him on death row, the state of Mississippi did.” But of his testimony in the case, Dr. West said, “The evidence I collected, the analysis I performed, I still stand on that opinion unless new evidence is given to me.” Photo A mold showing Mr. Howard's teeth that Dr. West used to make the connection to the crime. Credit Counsel for Eddie Lee Howard Dr. West added that humans made mistakes and that he opposed the death penalty. “If you’ve got them locked up it’s not possible for them to kill a 3-year-old or an 84-year-old,” he said. “If you kill them, you can’t undo a mistake.” The lack of a scientific basis for bite-mark identification was stressed by the National Academy of Sciences in a 2009 report on forensics. The academy said that such analysis could not reliably identify one individual, among all others, as the source of a bite. Bite marks on the skin change over time and are easily distorted, the academy said, while there is a huge potential for bias when an expert is asked to match a bite wound with the teeth of a known suspect. Dr. Peter W. Loomis, a consultant in dental forensics in Albuquerque and president of the discipline’s professional body, the American Board of Forensic Odontology, did not dispute the academy’s conclusions but said that bite-mark analysis still had a useful role in court. The board has begun scientific studies, he said, to establish whether and when it can produce reliable identifications. A narrowing of the pool of likely suspects might be possible, for example, when the bite marks are clear and obvious, when the number of potential biters is known and limited, and if suspects have contrasting dental patterns. To combat bias, he said, current guidelines call for “double blind” procedures in which the same expert does not both study the wound and take dental impressions from the suspect, and the suspect’s dental model is mixed among several others before any comparison is made. Even so, he said, “actually naming an individual biter to a reasonable degree of certainty should be very limited.”
This is a PERFECT example of why the Founders gave us the Second Amendment!!!!! City land worth $55 million sold in hushed up deal for $30 million!!!! http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/residents-say-they-didnt-have-enough-voice-in-fairfax-citys-30-million-land-deal/2014/09/14/4fea103e-3868-11e4-bdfb-de4104544a37_story.html?tid=hpModule_13097a0c-868e-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394&hpid=z12 Residents say they didn’t have enough voice in Fairfax City’s $30 million land deal By Tom Jackman September 14 at 9:22 PM The bucolic 815 acres in eastern Loudoun County seemed like a property seller’s dream: sitting four miles from the proposed terminus of Metro’s Silver Line, the swath of land included the pastoral Beaverdam Reservoir lake and had recently been valued by the county tax assessor at $55 million. But last year the property’s owner, Fairfax City, decided to unload the land and stop operating its own water utility on it. In January, officials sold the property to Loudoun Water in the largest real estate deal in city history. The price? $30 million — far below its newly assessed value. Now the sale, which city officials say was fair, is being scrutinized by a new city council member and Fairfax City residents, who are upset that officials didn’t put the land on the open market, didn’t have it independently appraised and didn’t allow more public discussion before the city made such a large deal. The notice of a public hearing on the land sale was vaguely worded, buried in a long paragraph of hearings in the city’s newsletter and in an advertisement in the Washington Times, and not one city resident attended the hearing to discuss the deal. And the city did not announce the deal once it was signed. “Most people have no idea that we sold this property,” resident Havilah Vangroll said, “and when they discover that we have, there is a great amount of concern about when and for how much. This was the city’s largest single asset, and it seems to have been quietly and secretively sold off, without any public knowledge, by our elected officials.” There are hiking trails on the land around Beaverdam Reservoir, but Fairfax City officials say that a lack of infrastructure made the property unattractive to developers. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) City officials said they obtained a number of informal valuations for the land and that they were thrilled to get $30 million for it. They said that the dam at Beaverdam Reservoir needs costly repairs, that another portion of the land near Goose Creek needs untold environmental remediation, and that the lack of infrastructure — streets, sewers, electricity — or high-density zoning in the wooded parcels makes the property unattractive to developers. The land, divided into two sections — one at Beaverdam and the other near Goose Creek — is due south of Leesburg and stretches north of Route 50 and east of Route 15 in Ashburn. “We told the community about it. We put a public notice in the newspaper, we held a public hearing, we did as much as we could” and met all legal requirements, Fairfax City Manager Robert Sisson said. Said Mayor Scott Silverthorne: “I remain confident that this was a good deal for the taxpayers and also for the Fairfax and Loudoun water authorities.” But the deal remained largely unknown to Fairfax City’s 22,000 residents until attorney Nancy Fry Loftus uncovered it during her run for city council this past spring. By the time she had documented the details of the sale, the election was near. She raised the issue at a candidates forum a week before the vote, drew a roar of applause from the stunned residents and went on to win a seat on the council. The land deal was the second component of a process that began in 2013, when the Fairfax City Council decided, under pressure from a lawsuit with Fairfax County over water rates, to get out of the water business. After extensive public outreach, with mailings and meetings and hearings, the council voted in April 2013 to shut down its water utility after 50 years and join Fairfax Water. To join Fairfax Water, the city had to pay a $20 million “buy-in fee,” which presumably would come out of the proceeds from selling the Loudoun land. At the 2013 council vote, Loftus and others discussed the need to get full value for the Loudoun acreage, with Silverthorne and council members agreeing. In 2014, Loftus said, she decided to run for city council. One reason: to help the city decide what to do with its prime real estate in Ashburn. Local photographer Anthony Beverley uses his smartphone and digital camera to take pictures of the Beaverdam Reservoir. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post) But after she filed her candidacy, Loftus learned from a family friend that Fairfax City had already sold the land. She was shocked. She filed a Freedom of Information Act request and obtained the sale documents and the notices announcing the impending sale to the public. “An ordinance approving an asset purchase agreement with the Loudoun County Sanitation Authority,” read an ad in the Washington Times. Identical wording was featured on the city council agenda and as the third item in a long paragraph of hearings in the city’s newsletter. But Loftus and city residents argue that there was no mention of Beaverdam, Goose Creek or $30 million. Although the hearing on the vote to end Fairfax City’s water utility was packed with residents, not a single resident spoke at the December hearing, and the council approved the $30 million sale unanimously. “I am certainly no expert on the value of land in Loudoun County,” Loftus said. “But I have to think the Loudoun County tax assessment office does have some idea, and they’ve assigned a value of almost double” what was paid. Richard Thoesen, the recently retired head of the city’s water utility, said 400 of the acres are in a flood plain, and silt dredged from Goose Creek was still on that property. The dam at Beaverdam needed tens of millions of dollars in repairs. And there was no infrastructure. City officials had an assessment done in 2011 by an engineer who estimated that a maximum of 104 residential lots could be placed around the Beaverdam lake and Goose Creek because of density restrictions. He put the value of the 815 acres at $11 million. A private developer, unsolicited, had made an offer in 2011 of $21 million. Fairfax Water offered $25 million for the property, Thoesen said. The city had its own assessor, Tom Reed Jr., do a valuation and he came up with a number of $26 million. Then, Loudoun Water offered $30 million. With all those “data points,” Sisson said, the city felt it had a good sense of what the property was worth and didn’t see a need for an appraisal. The officials believed that Loudoun County’s $55 million assessment didn’t take into account the environmental remediation costs. Loudoun Water General Manager Fred Jennings said his experts assessed the land at about $45 million, but needing $15 million in work. Although the land around Beaverdam is zoned for residential use, the 106-acre parcel where the Goose Creek water treatment plant is located is zoned for commercial use along Belmont Ridge Road. Even after Loudoun’s reassessment, the county valued the land alone at $26.6 million and the plant at $6.3 million. Jennings said Loudoun is building a water treatment plant and will use Beaverdam as a backup reservoir but will not need the Goose Creek plant. The city then decided against putting the land on the open market, even though there is heavy residential development just to its east and Belmont Ridge Road is scheduled to be widened. David Hodgkins, the city’s finance director, said if the bids came in lower than Loudoun Water’s $30 million offer, the water utility might as well withdraw or lower its offer. “It’s hard for me to think of anyone,” Loftus said, “let alone a public entity, selling such a large asset without having it appraised first.” And she said about public bidding: “Without putting it on the market, it’s impossible to tell what willing buyers might have been willing to pay.” But Sisson said: “We had a fair transaction with Loudoun Water. I’m proud of the deal; I don’t want it kept in the dark.” Tom Jackman is a native of Northern Virginia and has been covering the region for The Post since 1998.
Proposed Texas textbooks are inaccurate, biased and politicizedNo separation of Church and State in government public school text books???? A great book on this subject is "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong"James W. Loewen is a college history professor and explains the politically correct lies his students were taught in the government public schools, something he has to UNLEARN them about when they start college. Proposed Texas textbooks are inaccurate, biased and politicized, new report finds By Valerie Strauss September 12 Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) (The Associated Press) When it comes to controversies about curriculum, textbook content and academic standards, Texas is the state that keeps on giving. Back in 2010, we had an uproar over proposed changes to social studies standards by religious conservatives on the State Board of Education, which included a bid to calling the United States’ hideous slave trade history as the “Atlantic triangular trade.” There were other doozies, too, such as one proposal to remove Thomas Jefferson from the Enlightenment curriculum and replace him with John Calvin. Some were changed but the board’s approved standards were roundly criticized as distorted history. There’s a new fuss about proposed social studies textbooks for Texas public schools that are based on what are called the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. Scholarly reviews of 43 proposed history, geography and government textbooks for Grades 6-12 — undertaken by the Education Fund of the Texas Freedom Network, a watchdog and activist group that monitors far-right issues and organizations — found extensive problems in American Government textbooks, U.S. and World History textbooks, Religion in World History textbooks, and Religion in World Geography textbooks. The state board will vote on which books to approve in November. Ideas promoted in various proposed textbooks include the notion that Moses and Solomon inspired American democracy, that in the era of segregation only “sometimes” were schools for black children “lower in quality” and that Jews view Jesus Christ as an important prophet. Here are the broad findings of 10 scholars, who wrote four separate reports, taken from an executive summary, followed by the names of the scholars and a list of publishers who submitted textbooks. The findings: A number of government and world history textbooks exaggerate Judeo-Christian influence on the nation’s founding and Western political tradition. Two government textbooks include misleading information that undermines the Constitutional concept of the separation of church and state. Several world history and world geography textbooks include biased statements that inappropriately portray Islam and Muslims negatively. All of the world geography textbooks inaccurately downplay the role that conquest played in the spread of Christianity. Several world geography and history textbooks suffer from an incomplete – and often inaccurate – account of religions other than Christianity. Coverage of key Christian concepts and historical events are lacking in a few textbooks, often due to the assumption that all students are Christians and already familiar with Christian events and doctrine. A few government and U.S. history textbooks suffer from an uncritical celebration of the free enterprise system, both by ignoring legitimate problems that exist in capitalism and failing to include coverage of government’s role in the U.S. economic system. One government textbook flirts with contemporary Tea Party ideology, particularly regarding the inclusion of anti-taxation and anti-regulation arguments. One world history textbook includes outdated – and possibly offensive – anthropological categories and racial terminology in describing African civilization. A number of U.S. history textbooks evidence a general lack of attention to Native American peoples and culture and occasionally include biased or misleading information. One government textbook … includes a biased – verging on offensive – treatment of affirmative action. Most U.S. history textbooks do a poor job of covering the history of LGBT citizens in discussions of efforts to achieve civil rights in this country. Elements of the Texas curriculum standards give undue legitimacy to neo-Confederate arguments about “states’ rights” and the legacy of slavery in the South. While most publishers avoid problems with these issues, passages in a few U.S. history and government textbooks give a nod to these misleading arguments.In July, the Texas Freedom Network released a review of the various panels of people who had been selected by the Texas Board of Education to review the proposed textbooks. It said in part: Out of more than 140 individuals appointed to the panels, only three are current faculty members at Texas colleges and universities. TFN has identified more than a dozen other Texas academics — including the chair of the History Department at Southern Methodist University as well as faculty at the University of Texas at Austin — who applied to serve but did not get appointments to the panels. But the TFN analysis found that political activists and individuals without social studies degrees or teaching experience got places on the panels. One reviewer, Mark Keough, a Republican nominee for the Texas House District 15 seat, got an appointment to a U.S. History panel after being nominated by SBOE chair Barbara Cargill. Keough, a pastor with degrees in theology, has no teaching experience listed on his application form. Keough recently retired from a career in car sales to run a ministry in Cargill’s hometown of The Woodlands and to run for office. In an interview conducted prior to this year’s primary elections, Keough told the Montgomery County Tea Party that he does not “believe that there is a separation of church and state in the Constitution.”The 10 scholars who conducted the reviews are: Dr. Edward Countryman, University Distinguished Professor in the William B. Clements Department of History at SMU Dr. David R. Brockman, adjunct instructor in Religious Studies, Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, at SMU as well as at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth Dr. Emile Lester, associate professor in the Department of Political Science and International Affairs at the University of Mary Washington Seven doctoral students in the Department of History at UT-Austin Here are some specific examples from the executive summary: A number of government and world history textbooks exaggerate Judeo-Christian influence on the nation’s founding and Western political tradition. McGraw-Hill School Education – United States Government Text mentions Moses and claims that the “biblical idea of a covenant, an ancient Jewish term meaning a special kind of agreement between the people and God, influenced the formation of colonial governments and contributed to our constitutional structure.” What’s Wrong? The American Founders did believe in a social contract, but their version of that contract was derived primarily from modern British political thought, and John Locke’s thought in particular. Since Locke’s version of the social contract was in many ways a repudiation of the biblical covenant view referenced in this passage, this passage provides the student with almost the opposite of the historical truth. — Perfection Learning – Basic Principles of American Government Text has a table entitled “Where did the Founders get their ideas?” The introductory section to the table states: “When the Framers set out to write the Constitution, they drew upon the wisdom of philosophers, historians and economists. Here are a few of the people whose words influenced the content of that remarkable document.” Moses is listed first on this list, followed by John Locke, Charles de Montesquieu, and William Blackstone. The “concept” Moses is alleged to have contributed is that “A nation needs a written code of behavior.” The description of Moses includes the following sentences: “During their years of wandering in the desert of the Sinai, Moses handed down God’s Ten Commandments to the Hebrews. These commandments now form the bedrock on which the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian codes of behavior are based. The full account of Moses’ life can be found in the Bible’s book of Exodus.” What’s Wrong? Unlike the contributions of the three other figures mentioned in the table, the contribution of Moses is highly nebulous and contestable. The passage neglects to mention which types of codified behaviors influenced the Framers, and thus makes it difficult to evaluate this claim. The Framers, for instance, were not influenced by the first four Commandments, which deal with matters of religious belief and practice. In fact, notable framers such as James Madison led the battle against government punishment for unorthodox religious belief. Further, stating that “Moses handed down God’s Ten Commandments” is very close to endorsing a religious claim. Stating, for instance, that “Jews and Christians believe that Moses handed down God’s Ten Commandments” would have been more acceptable. Without this qualification, the text seems to endorse the truth of these biblical claims. — Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – United States Government: Principles in Practice Text has a section on “Judeo-Christian Influences” that reads: “The Framers’ political thinking was influenced by a Judeo-Christian religious heritage, which includes traditions common to both Judaism and Christianity. These religions see the law and individual rights as being of divine origin. Moreover, the Framers benefited from the Protestant Reformation, a sixteenth-century Christian reform movement whose leaders developed ideas about individual responsibility, the freedom to worship as one chooses, and self-government.” What’s Wrong? This passage gives no example of a law or set of laws in the Bible that influenced the Founders and no example of a Founder or a founding document that was influenced by the “Judeo-Christian” concept of law. The text’s claim that the Reformation was a source of the Founders’ views on individual responsibility omits several important pieces of information. Major figures in the Protestant Reformation such as Martin Luther and John Calvin may have supported freedom of worship for their own views, but they often did not support freedom of worship for many competing religious views. Similarly, the views of major Reformation figures, including Luther and Calvin, about self-government were far more limited than, and had little in common with, the views of the American Founders about self-government. Finally, the paragraph could leave students with a misleading impression about the Founders’ religious views. The passage’s claim that Judaism and Christianity stresses that individual rights is of “divine origin” and that these views influenced all of the Founders suggests that all of the Founders believed that this biblical God was the source of natural rights. Many Founders did, of course, believe in the biblical God. Other Founders, though, were influenced by deism, and their conception of God departed in significant ways from the biblical God. — Pearson Education – Magruder’s American Government Text includes a “Biography of Moses,” which states: “Moses was a lawgiver and a great leader. Like the founders of the United States, he helped establish a legal system to govern his people. The Ten Commandments have been a guide and basis for many legal and moral systems throughout the world.” The annotation to the biography states: “Moses helped establish a legal system, including the Ten Commandments, to govern his people. Similarly, the founders of the United States wrote the Constitution and established a system of laws to govern Americans. They were also part of a tradition that was familiar with the Ten Commandments as a guide for moral behavior.” What’s Wrong? The passage gives an exaggerated impression to students about the influence of and relationship between Moses and the Founders. The legal system that Moses founded had theocratic elements, which made it very different from the republican system of law the Founders established. Similarly, the text neglects to mention that the Founders were reacting against several of the crucial elements of the moral, legal, and political tradition associated with Moses and the Ten Commandments. — Pearson Education – Magruder’s American Government The text states: “The roots of democratic government in today’s world – including government in the United States – lie deep in human history. They reach back most particularly to ancient Greece and Rome, and include elements related to Judeo-Christian philosophy, dating back thousands of years to Old Testament texts and Biblical figures such as Moses and Solomon.” What’s Wrong? The forms of government mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) are theocracy and monarchy. Prominent figures in the Hebrew Bible are occasionally critical of monarchy including the prophet Samuel and Gideon, or of the behavior of particular kings as in the case of the prophet Nathan’s criticism of King David. The Israelites also sometimes placed limits on their kings’ sovereignty (see, for instance, 1 Kings 12). Still, those critical of monarchy or monarchs did not advocate democracy as an alternative, and the limited monarchy occasionally practiced in ancient Israel seems to bear little resemblance to American democracy. Even if it is accurate that government in the Hebrew Bible had democratic features, the text never tells us how these democratic features directly influenced the Founders. It is similarly difficult to make sense of the text’s claim that Moses or Solomon governed in a democratic way. — Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – World History The text states: “Because one of Jesus’s basic principles was the equality of all people in the eyes of God, equality before the law became a central belief within the Judeo-Christian tradition.” What’s Wrong? There are two problems with this claim. The first concerns the presentation: the authors’ wording suggests that belief in equality of all people before God originated with Jesus. In fact, it arguably dates back to Jewish teachings such as the belief that all people have a single progenitor (Gen. 1-2), and the assertion in Leviticus that there is one law for citizen and stranger alike (Lev. 24:22). Second, the “Because…” language suggests that there is a straightforward chain of causation between, on the one hand, the Jewish and Christian belief in equality before God’s law and, on the other, the belief in equality before human law. If there is such causation, it is by no means straightforward. While the ancient Israelite teaching of equality of all people before God’s law may well have influenced our legal tradition, such influence remains tenuous and far from clear, and this text does not offer the necessary clarification or explanation. — Two government textbooks include misleading information that undermines the Constitutional concept of the separation of church and state. McGraw-Hill School Education – United States Government The text states: “Thomas Jefferson once referred to the establishment clause as a ‘wall of separation between church and state.’ That phrase is not used in the Constitution, however.’” What’s Wrong? The statement is factually correct, but it could give students the inaccurate impression that Jefferson’s view was personal and lacked significant connection to the First Amendment. The text neglects to mention, for instance, the significant support for the separationist position shared by both Jefferson and James Madison, the Founder with the greatest influence on the drafting of the First Amendment’s religion clauses. The text also neglects to mention reference to Jefferson’s “wall” metaphor in important Supreme Court establishment clause cases, such as Justice Hugo Black’s decision in Everson v. Board of Education, the first Supreme Court case to apply the establishment clause to the states and local government. — Perfection Learning – Basic Principles of American Government This product does not mention Thomas Jefferson’s use of the phrase “wall of separation between church and state” at all. The text also includes an unbalanced discussion of the background to the Supreme Court’s seminal ruling against school prayer in Engel v. Vitale. The discussion has four paragraphs that are devoted primarily to examining the logic of the rulings of lower, state courts in favor of school prayer. These paragraphs mention that a state court decision notes that “neither the Constitution nor its writers discussed the use of prayer in public schools” and that the judges in these cases “noted that the prayer did not fall into the same category as Bible readings or religious instruction in public schools.” What’s Wrong? The four-paragraph discussion of lower courts’ logic in favor of school prayer is followed by only a single paragraph about the Supreme Court’s majority opinion striking down school prayer, which contains little discussion of the logic of that opinion. — Several world history and world geography textbooks include biased statements that inappropriately portray Islam and Muslims negatively. Social Studies School Service – Active Classroom: World History The text states: “Much of the violence you read or hear about in the Middle East is related to a jihad.” What’s Wrong? This broad charge effectively blames Islam for a very complex cycle of violence and counter-violence, a cycle driven by a host of factors (e.g., natural resources, population pressures) besides radical Islam. — WorldView Software – World History B: Mid-1800s to the Present The text states: “The spread of international terrorism is an outgrowth of Islamic fundamentalism which opposes Western political and cultural influences and Western ideology.” Also, at various points in this product, parts of the Middle East and North Africa are referred to as being “occupied” by “the Muslims” or “in Muslim hands.” The text also adopts the revisionist trope that Islam synthesized, stored, and annotated Classical Greek and Roman learning but did not do much to add to it. What’s Wrong? The statement about international terrorism is inaccurate and misleading. Not all international terrorism is an outgrowth of Islamic fundamentalism; for example, ETA in Spain and the Irish Republican Army are unrelated to Islamic fundamentalism. Further, the use of loaded terms like “occupied” makes little sense when discussing the Middle Ages, when the population of those regions were by and large Muslim themselves. While there is a lengthy section on Islamic scholarship in this product, in nearly every instance the “original” scientist whose work inspired the scientist described is identified, which serves to minimize the contribution of Islamic scholarship. — Cengage Learning – World Cultures and Geography In a section on the spread of Islam, the text states: “In the centuries after Muhammad’s death, Muslims spread their religion by conquest. Islamic rulers took control of Southwest Asia, Central Asia, North Africa, and parts of India and Spain.” What’s Wrong? This is a half-truth. While in this period Islam did spread in part by conquest, it was also taken to many regions (for instance, Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia) by traders and missionaries, not by conquest. — McGraw-Hill School Education – World Geography An image of Muslim women wearing chadors is accompanied by two discussion questions. The first asks how wearing the chador affects women’s interactions in public. The suggested answer is: “The chador limits women’s interactions in public as it makes them indistinguishable from one another and inhibits any kind of contact.” The second question asks what the chador reveals about the status of women in Muslim society. The suggested answer: “The chador reveals that even in countries that claim there is equality for women, religious law still hinders women’s rights.” What’s Wrong? Both suggested answers are incorrect. Unlike the full-body burqa, the chador leaves the face uncovered, and thus does not inhibit facial “contact,” such as eye contact, facial expressions, or touching/kissing the face. Second, the chador is not required by Muslim law; it is a matter of local custom. Furthermore, some Muslim women in the West wear the chador entirely voluntarily, for religious reasons; thus one cannot infer that the chador per se hinders women’s rights. This passage offers a highly misleading picture of the status of women in Islam. — All of the world geography textbooks inaccurately downplay the role that conquest played in the spread of Christianity. Discovery Education — Social Studies Techbook World Geography and Cultures The text states: “When Europeans arrived, they brought Christianity with them and spread it among the indigenous people. Over time, Christianity became the main religion in Latin America.” Pearson Education – Contemporary World Cultures The text states: “Priests came to Mexico to convert Native Americans to the Roman Catholic religion. The Church became an important part of life in the new colony. Churches were built in the centers of towns and cities, and church officials became leaders in the colony.” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – World Geography The text states: “The Spanish brought their language and Catholic religion, both of which dominate modern Mexico.” Various All but two of the world geography textbooks fail to mention the Spaniards’ forced conversions of the indigenous peoples to Christianity (e.g., the Spanish Requerimiento of 1513) and their often-systematic destruction of indigenous religious institutions. The two exceptions (Cengage Learning, Inc. – World Cultures and Geography and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – World Geography) delay this grim news until a chapter on South America, and even there do not give it the prominence it deserves. What’s Wrong? The Christianization of the indigenous peoples of the Americas was most decidedly not benign. These descriptions provide a distorted picture of the spread of Christianity. An accurate account must include information about the forced conversion of native peoples and the often-systematic destruction of indigenous religious institutions and practices. (This error of omission is especially problematic when contrasted with the emphasis on conquest – often violent – to describe the spread of Islam in some textbooks.) In addition, though neither English nor French North American colonizers actually forced Christianity upon Native people, it did become United States policy to actively discourage all expressions of traditional Native cultures, including indigenous religion. This was particularly so in the notorious boarding schools to which Native children were sent after being forcibly separated from their parents. — Several world geography and history textbooks suffer from an incomplete – and often inaccurate – account of religions other than Christianity. Cengage Learning – World Cultures and Geography In one discussion of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths, the authors state: “Selfishness is the cause of suffering.” In another discussion, they describe selfishness as “a cause of suffering.” What’s Wrong? The first statement is incorrect, and the second is misleading. According to the Buddha, the cause of suffering is not selfishness but desire; selfishness is only one form of desire. — Discovery Education – Social Studies Techbook World Geography and Cultures The text states: “Hindus are strict vegetarians.” What’s Wrong? This claim is incorrect and is in fact a stereotype. Many Shaivites are not vegetarian, and some Brahmins eat fish and other meat. Cengage Learning – World Cultures and Geography In an exercise comparing views of Jesus in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the Teacher Edition states: “All three religions see Jesus as an important prophet, but only Christians see him as the messiah, or expected leader and savior.” What’s Wrong? This is factually incorrect with regard to Judaism. Most Jews do not regard Jesus as a prophet. — McGraw-Hill School Education – World Cultures & Geography The lesson on the history of Southwest Asia devotes only six sentences to Judaism’s origins and does not include a discussion of the Diaspora. By contrast, the lesson devotes two pages to Islam and its spread. What’s Wrong? This is not adequate attention to the important events surrounding the history of the Jewish faith tradition and culture. — Various Coverage of primal religions varies widely, in both extent and quality, in all of the world geography textbooks. Only the Discovery Education – World Geography and Cultures text covers primal religions with anything approaching adequacy. — Coverage of key Christian concepts and historical events are lacking in a few textbooks, often due to the assumption that all students are Christians and familiar with Christian events and doctrine. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – World Geography While this textbook includes brief definitions of most religions discussed, and while it describes the difference between the Sunni and Shi’ite branches of Islam, it does not offer similar descriptions for Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodoxy. The authors introduce those terms without defining them in either the text or the glossary. McGraw-Hill School Education – World Geography In the chapter on the U.S., the authors note that most Americans are Protestant Christians, without defining “Protestant.” Similarly, in the chapter on Mexico, the authors note that most people in Mexico self-identify as Catholics—again, without defining what “Catholic” means. By contrast, the authors are careful to define the major divisions of both Buddhism and Islam in the World Religions Handbook. McGraw-Hill School Education – World Cultures & Geography Whereas the lesson on Southwest Asia states: “The teachings of Jesus led to the rise of Christianity,” it does not explain what those teachings were or how Christianity spread. In contrast, the authors devote a full page to the teachings of Muhammad, Muslim practices (the Five Pillars), and the spread of Islam. What’s Wrong? Given the increasing number of Texas students who come from outside the Christian tradition, textbooks should not assume that readers are familiar with what Christianity is and how it spread. — A few government and U.S. history textbooks suffer from an uncritical celebration of the free enterprise system, both by ignoring legitimate problems created by capitalism and failing to include coverage of government’s role in U.S. economic system. Pearson Education – Magruder’s American Government The text’s treatment of the free enterprise system is almost uniformly celebratory. A few examples: “The atmosphere of a free market, as well as a free society that encourages the exchange of ideas, can and often does lead to innovation and scientific and technological discoveries. All these conditions promote growth in the economy and often improve the quality of everyday life.” “The proper role of government in economic affairs should be restricted to functions intended to promote and protect the free play of competition and the operation of the laws of supply and demand. True laissez-faire capitalism has never in fact operated in this country, yet it has a profound effect on the structure of the nation’s economic system, which can be described as laissez-faire capitalism with limited government involvement.” What’s Wrong? Mentioning the advantages of the free enterprise system is entirely appropriate. However, the text’s treatment of the free enterprise system is unbalanced and asymmetrical because the text provides little mention of the possible limits and disadvantages of a free enterprise and laissez-faire system. Students are given little awareness that critics of a laissez-faire system, both in the U.S. today and the past, have argued that an unfettered market can and has occasionally led to economic insecurity and inequality, unfair pay and unsafe labor conditions for many employees. — Pearson Education – United States History: 1877 to the Present The first lesson on the Gilded Age opens with the header: “Free Enterprise Improves Life.” It explains Mark Twain’s reasons for coining the term “the Gilded Age,” and then continues to minimize his critique in glowing terms: “Most Americans were not as cynical. The dizzying array of things to do and buy convinced the growing middle class that modern America was in a true golden age.”[…] The application of scientific discoveries and technological innovations by the free enterprise system improved the standard of living in the United States. Driven by entrepreneurs, American businesses were able to create products and services that made daily life easier and more fun for many people. Mass produced materials and products lowered the prices of many goods, enabling ordinary Americans to purchase items that previously had been out of reach.” What’s Wrong? As stated above, mentioning the advantages of the free enterprise system is entirely appropriate. However, this textbook’s unrelenting praise of free enterprise as the progenitor of any and all American successes is problematic for a number of reasons. First, nineteenth-century free-market capitalism went hand in hand with governmental suppression of Native ownership over vast swaths of fertile land, leading to that land’s transformation (first) into public property and (second) into private property protected by law. Without governmental action, that transformation would not have happened. Second, nobody during the age of early industrialization disputed the importance of active governmental support for “internal improvements” that were beyond private means. And finally, any comprehensive discussion of the history of free-market capitalism in this country should note that the great driving commodity of the pre-Civil War economy was cotton, produced by slave labor on an enormous scale. — McGraw-Hill School Education – United States History to 1877 The text states: “The capitalist economic system of the United States helped spur industrial growth. In capitalism, individuals and businesses own property and decide how to use it. The people—not the government—control capital, which includes the buildings, land, machines, money, and other items used to create wealth.” What’s Wrong? This passage ignores a very important dimension of American economic development after the Revolution: the argument, developed by Alexander Hamilton, that government power is needed to foster development in an active way, including projects that are beyond private capital’s reach. The declarative statement that “people – not the government – control capital” seems to dismiss even the possibility of this more complicated relationship between individuals, the government and capital. In addition, the debate over public regulation of both individual and corporate enterprise remains an active subject of contention in American economic and legal life to the present day. Students should have a context for understanding that debate. — One government textbook (Pearson Education, Inc.) flirts with contemporary Tea Party rhetoric, particularly regarding the inclusion of anti-taxation and anti-regulation ideology. Pearson Education – Magruder’s American Government The first paragraph of the textbook’s section devoted to taxes states: “In the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., taxes are ‘what we pay for civilized society.’ Society does not appear to be much more civilized today than it was when Justice Holmes made that observation in 1927. However, ‘what we pay’ has certainly gone up.” What’s Wrong? The text neglects to mention that defenders of increased taxation for an expanded safety net would respond that programs adopted since 1927 such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act have produced such ‘civilized’ benefits as a drastic reduction of poverty and economic insecurity among the elderly, children, and the population at large, and improved and more equal access to health care. — Pearson Education – Magruder’s American Government The text also includes an ideologically slanted cartoon. What’s Wrong? The text gives students the impression that Americans are very heavily taxed without placing this information in historical or cross-national context. For instance, the text could have mentioned that according to the Congressional Budget Office in 2011, federal taxes as a percentage of the GDP were at their lowest rate since 1950. The text might also have mentioned that the United States has the lowest corporate tax burden of any member nation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The use of this cartoon is also unbalanced because the text provides no counterbalancing illustration suggesting that excessively low taxes might lead to economic insecurity and poverty, or critical of the lack of an adequate safety net for low-income Americans. One world history textbook (by Worldview Software, Inc.) includes outdated – and possibly offensive – anthropological categories and racial terminology in describing African civilization. — WorldView Software – World History A: Early Civilizations to the Mid-1800s The text states: “South of the Sahara Desert most of the people before the Age of Explorations were black Africans of the Negro race.” Elsewhere, the text states: “The first known inhabitants of Africa north of the Sahara in prehistory were Caucasoid Hamitic people of uncertain origin.” What’s Wrong? First, the term “Negro” is archaic and fraught with ulterior meaning. It should categorically not be used in a modern textbook. Further, the first passage is unforgivably misleading because it suggests that all black native Africans belong to a single “racial” group. This is typological thinking, which disappeared largely from texts after the 1940s. It harkens back to the racialization theory that all people could be classified as one of three “races”: Caucasoid, Mongoloid, or Negroid. Better to say: “…were natives of African origin.” Similarly, in the second passage, it is more accurate to simply omit reference to “Caucasoid.” — A number of U.S. history textbooks evidence a general lack of attention to Native American peoples and culture and occasionally include biased or misleading information. WorldView Software – Basic American History I: Pre-Columbian Years to Reconstruction The text states: “The early 1600s were an uncertain time for the colony of Virginia. It was a land of starvation and high death rates, one in which the Native Americans regularly launched merciless attacks against the colonists.” What’s Wrong? While early Virginians did indeed endure attacks from Native Americans, this passage provides no context for understanding the complicated relationship between the two groups. For instance, the Native Americans offered food in the time of starvation that followed the initial settlement. They tried to establish diplomatic relations on their own terms. Nonetheless, the English made their intentions plain by constructing a triangular fort, from which they could fire in all directions. They set out to just take whatever they wanted including food supplies, followed by land. From the start, they used violence, including such instances as kidnapping the Queen of one group known as the Pamunkeys, killing her children during the voyage back to Jamestown by throwing them into the water and shooting them. These events, plus the simple fact that the English were invaders, provide an essential context for the “massacre” of 1622. — Social Studies School Service – Active Classroom: U.S. History (Grade 8) The materials include a video from Ambrose Videos entitled “1876 – The Battle of Little Bighorn.” The video claims: “for over 200 years, the Plains Indians were a major force in North America.” It goes on to say “but a new Native American culture arose around the horse and buffalo and a formidable warrior class grew up with it.” What’s Wrong? The interpretive position of this video is dangerously skewed. The claim of “200 years” trivializes the millennia of Native American heritage and frames their existence from a Euro-centric point of view. And by emphasizing that the horse/buffalo/warrior culture “was a way of life that successfully controlled the Great Plains up until the middle of the 19th century,” the video misleads the student into believing that the Plains Indians appeared with the Europeans and then suddenly became dangerous warriors who controlled land that was up for grabs. — Pearson Education – Magruder’s American Government The text also makes the unsubstantiated prediction that “[i]t seems clear that the days of affirmative action programs are drawing to a close.” What’s Wrong? The text makes an inaccurate and unbalanced attempt to convince students that affirmative action programs are outdated on the basis of lopsided factual information. The text rests its claim in part on a Supreme Court case striking down an affirmative action policy (Ricci v. DeStefano) that was decided by a 5-4 margin. This means, of course, that the replacement of just a single Supreme Court justice could lead to very different outcomes in future cases regarding affirmative action. That the federal government and state governments continue to maintain and even expand various types of affirmative action programs is ignored. The text also neglects to mention that defenders of affirmative action would argue that widespread discrimination against women and minorities today as well as the legacy of historical injustices justify the continued use of affirmative action programs in appropriate circumstances. – Most U.S. history textbooks do a poor job of covering the history of LGBT citizens in discussions of efforts to achieve civil rights in this country. Among the textbook packages for high school U.S. History since 1877, Discovery Education and Social Studies School Service offer a variety of sources that provide substantial coverage of the movement for civil and equal rights for LGBT people since the 1960s. Most of the remaining publishers offer glaringly inadequate coverage of this important contemporary civil rights issue, and bias and errors sometimes creep into those very limited discussions. WorldView Software: American History II: Post-Civil War America to the Present The text states: “Harvey Milk was the first openly gay elected official in the United States.” What’s Wrong? Milk was certainly among the first openly gay elected officials, but he was preceded by other openly gay or lesbian officeholders, including Kathy Kozachenko, who won election to the Ann Arbor city council in 1974, and Elaine Noble, who took her seat in the Massachusetts Legislature in 1974. — Elements of the Texas curriculum standards give undue legitimacy to neo-Confederate arguments about “states’ rights” and the legacy of slavery in the South. While most publishers avoid problems with these issues, passages in a few U.S. history and government textbooks give a nod to these misleading arguments. McGraw-Hill School Education – United States Government The text’s case study of Brown v. Board of Education includes the following passage: “Under segregation, all-white and all-African American schools sometimes had similar buildings, buses, and teachers. Sometimes, however, the buildings, buses, and teachers for the all-black schools were lower in quality. Often, African American children had to travel far to get to their school.” What’s Wrong? The unfortunate wording of this case study severely understates the tremendous and widespread disadvantages of African-American schools compared to white schools, as well as the limitations placed on educational opportunities for blacks in general during the Jim Crow period. — McGraw-Hill School Education – United States History to 1877 The text states: “Southerners used states’ rights to justify secession. Each state, they argued, had voluntarily chosen to enter the Union. They defined the Constitution as a contract among the independent states. They believed the national government had broken the contract by refusing to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act and by denying Southern states equal rights in the territories. As a result, Southerners argued, the states had a right to leave the Union.” Pearson Education – U.S. History: Colonization – Reconstruction In a section titled “Causes Leading to War,” the text states: “Now a new issue emerged: whether southern states were allowed to secede under the Constitution. Most southerners believed that they had every right to secede. After all, the Declaration of Independence said that ‘it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish’ a government that denies the rights of its citizens. Lincoln, they believed, would deny white southerners the right to own African Americans as slaves. For many southerners, secession was an issue of states’ rights and sovereignty, or independent control of an area. Many in the southern states believed that states had the sovereign right to secede. According to this view, states had the authority to make decisions without interference from the federal government, and the Constitution created a Union made up of states that could decide to leave the Union at any point. Those states also had the sovereign right to join together to form a new government, such as the Confederacy.” Discovery Education – United States History (Prehistory-Reconstruction) Materials include a two-minute video that argues that the states’ rights concept originated in the tariff disputes of 1828-1832. The video goes on to present the nullification controversy as strictly a matter of states’ rights and interests, and gives a sympathetic account of John C. Calhoun’s developing political position on the matter without any mention that he culminated that development in 1837 when he announced that slavery was a “positive good” for all involved, including slaves. The video closes with a song from the period endorsing the southern position. What’s wrong? First, a clarification: all three of these publishers provide thorough and accurate coverage of slavery in their products. There is no attempt to hide the issue in the run up to the Civil War. However, the requirement in the curriculum standards that compels coverage of “sectionalism, states’ rights, and slavery” (in that order) as causes of the war leads publishers to these sort of misleading – and even inaccurate – passages. They are inaccurate for a simple reason: the concept of “states’ rights” in an abstract sense as a defense of secession did not appear until after the conclusion of the Civil War. Contemporaneous documents and statements by southerners make it plain that slavery was the underlying reason for their action. In their secession ordinances, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas all stated their understanding that slavery had been placed in danger by Lincoln’s election and made that their major theme. Moreover, high officials, such as Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Vice President Alexander H. Stephens, made plain the absolute centrality of protecting slavery as the reason for secession. That point is important for two reasons. One is that both Davis and Stephens revised their positions after the war was over to argue that slavery had not been the issue at all, maintaining instead that it had been about abstract constitutionalism. The other is that these passages, which appear designed to fit the TEKS requirement of considering “states’ rights” as a separate issue, does dovetail with current neo-Confederate ideology, which is deeply false to the historical record. The publishers who submitted textbooks: Full reviews of textbook packages for eighth-grade U.S. History to 1877 from seven publishers: Discover EducationFull reviews of textbook packages for high school U.S. History since 1877 from seven publishers: EdmentumFull reviews of textbook packages for high school World History submitted by six publishers: Houghton Mifflin HarcourtReviews of selected topics from textbook packages for seventh-grade Texas History submitted by four publishers: Houghton Mifflin HarcourtReviews of selected topics from textbook packages for high school U.S. Government from seven publishers: EdmentumReviews of how 18 textbook packages for Grade 6 World Cultures/Geography, high school World Geography and high school World History examined issues related to religion. The World History publishers are listed above. Seven publishers submitted textbook packages for Grade 6 World Cultures/Geography: Cengage LearningFive publishers submitted textbook packages for High school World Geography: Edmentum
Senate has a secret book of rules When it comes to government transparency our elected official are a bunch of liars and hypocrites. A lot of people love to call our elected officials stupid moron who can't chew gum and walk at the same time. That is rubbish!!! Most of our elected officials are very smart criminals who are masters at robbing people people they pretend to serve and giving the stolen loot to themselves and the special interest groups that helped get them into power. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/09/14/senate-handbook-secret-rules/15500339/ Senate has a secret book of rules Donovan Slack and Paul Singer, USA TODAY 2:23 p.m. EDT September 14, 2014 WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate has for years lived by a secret book of rules that governs everything from how many sheets of paper and potted plants each Senate office is allotted to when Senators can use taxpayer money to charter planes or boats. The document has never been available to the public — until now. USA TODAY has obtained and is making available on our website a copy of the 380-page U.S. Senate Handbook, which describes itself as "a compilation of the policies and regulations governing office administration, equipment and services, security and financial management." U.S. Senate Handbook: Table of Contents (PDF) - http://usatelections.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/tableofcontents.pdf Part I: Administration (PDF) - http://usatelections.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/tableofcontents.pdf Part I: Appendices (PDF) - http://usatelections.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/parti-appendices.pdf Part II: Equipment and Services (PDF) - http://usatelections.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/partii-equipmentandservices.pdf Part IV: Financial Management (PDF) - http://usatelections.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/partiv-financialmanagement.pdf Part IV: Appendices (PDF) - http://usatelections.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/partiv-appendices.pdf The handbook reads something like an employee manual, explaining how new senators and staff members can get ID cards and how many parking passes each senator will be issued. But it also contains detailed rules on how each senator can spend their official, multi-million-dollar, taxpayer-funded budget on things like meals and travel. Yet, because it has not been released, it's been impossible for the public to know whether a senator has violated the rules — for example by charging taxpayers for an improper charter flight. The handbook is referenced in rules published by the Senate Ethics Committee, Congressional Research Service reports and history books. But the Rules Committee, which produces the handbook, does not release it. The Library of Congress does not even have a copy. Asked for a copy by USA TODAY, the committee provided a book called the "Senate Manual," which includes rules for legislating, a few historical documents and some Senate trivia like "Electoral Votes, President and Vice President, 1789-2013." When pressed, Rules Committee spokesman Phillip Rumsey said the handbook is not public. "In the past, the Senate handbook has not been made publicly available because it contains sensitive security information regarding Senate operations," he said. "The handbook is currently undergoing significant revisions and updates, and when the new version is completed, the Senate Rules committee will consider making the handbook available to the public." The U.S. House of Representatives, on the other hand, has published its handbook online for years. In light of the Senate's security concerns, USA TODAY is not publishing the 10-page section of the handbook governing Senate security, which includes information about law enforcement operations and explains how to respond to a bomb threat. The handbook lays out detailed rules for spending the approximately $3 million-$4 million each senator is allocated annually in taxpayer funds to operate their offices. The total for each senator is based on population of his or her state and the distance from Washington. The Senate pays the actual bills from those accounts when senators submit expense reports, accompanied by receipts or other supporting documentation. Travel expenses are generally limited to those "essential to the transaction of official business." Senators are allowed to charter planes or boats if it would be "advantageous to the Senate." USA TODAY has reported that senators took nearly $1 million worth of charter flights last year at taxpayer expense. The U.S. Senate Handbook The U.S. Senate Handbook(Photo: None) Prohibited expenses include "personal services," gifts, flowers and awards or certificates and entertainment, "such as alcohol or movies." And senators cannot hire family members with official funds. The handbook also offers some remarkable insights into the byzantine customs of the Senate. For example, office space is assigned by seniority, and if two senators took office on the same day, the one who is a former member of House will get preference over the one who is a former governor. The architect of the Capitol can provide a compact refrigerator for a senator's office and a piano for events. And "each Senator receives annual paper allowances for blank paper, letterhead paper and envelopes" based on population with a formula of "one and one-third sheets of blank paper per adult constituent." Thus the Illinois senators each receive 11,605,333 sheets of blank paper; the West Virginia senators receive only 1,874,667. Congressional watchdogs say it's imperative that the Senate handbook be made public. "If it's describing Senate rules of procedure, and it's not public information and even describes and offers guidance to senators as to how they're supposed to use official resources and it's not public, that is outrageous," said Craig Holman, chief legislative affairs representative for nonpartisan watchdog Public Citizen. "I mean that's the type of guidance that the public should be able to see as well as senators and Senate staff so we can all monitor compliance with the rules." Two years ago, the ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked the Senate Rules Committee to release the handbook. "Good government groups, journalists and the public-at-large should have access to the Handbook so they can evaluate senators' conduct in light of its guidance," CREW argued in a March 2012 letter to the committee. "Without access to the Handbook, no one even knows the standards to which senators and Senate employees and officers are held." The Rules Committee never responded to CREW's request.
Phoenix funds housing vouchers to homeless A simpler and more cost effective way to help the homeless would be to: A) Let them sleep in parks and other public places. Their taxes helped pay for these places and they should be allowed to use them. B) Stop paying the police to stop, harass, and terrorize homeless people. Just because you are homeless doesn't make you a criminal. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/09/04/phoenix-housing-vouchers-homeless/15073583/ Phoenix funds housing vouchers to homeless Sophia Kunthara, The Republic | azcentral.com 8:35 p.m. MST September 14, 2014 Phoenix will continue to offer housing vouchers to the chronically homeless as part of its effort to combat the issue. The goal: Offer stable housing and support services to get individuals off the streets and help them transition into long-term housing. This is the second year Phoenix's Housing and Human Services Department will grant Southwest Behavioral Health Services 15 housing vouchers. The non-profit will distribute the vouchers through the organization's Long-term Integrated Guidance for Homeless Transition program. Phoenix has fought homelessness for years and has implemented programs, including those that assist veterans and young adults. Out of about 720 homeless individuals in Phoenix in 2014, the city classifies about 246 as "chronic" homeless, according to Libby Bissa, director of the city's Family Advocacy Center. Individuals who have been homeless for at least one year, or have had four periods of homelessness within the past three years and have a disabling condition, qualify as chronically homeless, said Ken Curry, who oversees the non-profit's program. Michele Banks, who works at the city's Housing Department, said U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reimburses the city for the vouchers, which can range from about $760 to more than $2,000. Phoenix contracts with the non-profit and allocates $150,000 per fiscal year for rapid rehousing services and $14,000 per year for street outreach services, Bissa said. The Long-term Integrated Guidance for Homeless Transition program provides basic resources, such as food, clothing and medical attention, but also offers life-skills classes and job training, according to a news release. "Each voucher represents an opportunity for a person to obtain a new start in life," Curry said. "We help them get off the streets, get assistance that they need, and work with a case worker who meets with them regularly to ensure they are staying true to the program's goals and requirements." Curry said the vouchers operate like Section 8 vouchers, in which the city pays the client's rent and provides food boxes and hygiene items.
Prison time for addicted officer wrong way to go I agree with Jay Gabbert 100 percent in that we shouldn't be putting people in prison who commit victimless drug war crimes. Hell, we shouldn't even be arresting them. Drug addiction and drug dependency is a MEDICAL problem, not a criminal problem. However on the other hand Officer William B. McCartney is a very evil person for stealing property from evidence rooms and should be punished for that. Of course if drugs were legal Officer William B. McCartney would not have had the opportunity to commit steal this stuff. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/letters/2014/09/14/prison-time-letter/15650883/ Prison time for addicted officer wrong way to go 8:07 p.m. MST September 14, 2014 I was sickened to read that former Phoenix police Officer William B. McCartney was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison for stealing narcotic pills that were entrusted to him. It's about time the judges and prosecutors in this state take themselves off autopilot and put an end to the excessive sentences for non-violent and drug-related offenders. As a taxpayer, I am growing weary of paying to house people who simply have no reason to be sitting in prison for years, especially while employees of the public-education system can barely make ends meet due to budget constraints. All parties involved conceded that McCartney got addicted to the pills due to a hand injury. So that's how we address addiction? By locking the addict up like a common criminal? In this state, sadly, the answer is all too often yes. The only people McCartney hurt by his actions were himself and his family. Shame on the justice system for failing once again. — Jay Gabbert, Phoenix
Pearce resigns as first vice chair of Arizona GOP Remember these two things; 1) Russell Pearce is a former cop. 2) Russell Pearce the Tea Party, Republic Party nut job who HATES government welfare now has a high paying government job with I believe Maricopa County helping people collect, you guessed it, government welfare!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/2014/09/14/pearce-contraception-remarks-denounced/15645837/ Pearce resigns as first vice chair of Arizona GOP The former senator resigned as vice chair of the Republican Party Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, The Republic | azcentral.com 8:17 a.m. MST September 15, 2014 Former Sen. Russell Pearce, who has recently served as the Arizona Republican Party's first vice chair, resigned his post late Sunday in the wake of criticism from powerful GOP candidates about contraception. The Republican Party announced his resignation around 11 p.m. Sunday -- hours after candidates expressed their displeasure with his remarks and a day after the Arizona Democratic Party Executive Director DJ Quinlan noted Pearce's comments in a news release and pressed powerful GOP Republicans to denounce them. ROBERTS: Russell Pearce implodes (again) Quinlan's statement, issued Saturday, highlighted remarks Pearce made on his talk-radio program on KKNT 960 AM. According to the statement, Pearce talked about changes he would make to the state's public assistance programs and was quoted in the Democratic Party's news release as saying: "You put me in charge of Medicaid, the first thing I'd do is get Norplant, birth-control implants, or tubal ligations…Then we'll test recipients for drugs and alcohol, and if you want to [reproduce] or use drugs or alcohol, then get a job." In his statement, Pearce wrote that during a recent radio show there "was a discussion about the abuses to our welfare system" and he "shared comments written by someone else and failed to attribute them to the author." "This was a mistake," Pearce stated. "This mistake has been taken by the media and the left and used to hurt our Republican candidates." He wrote he does not want Democrats and reporters "to try and take a misstatement from my show and use it to attack our candidates." He issued his resignation to party Chairman Robert Graham, he wrote, because he recognizes "that hosting a radio show and the nature of the debates that we have had and will continue to have are incompatible with what our Party needs from its leadership team." Pearce did not return a call from The Arizona Republic seeking comment on his remarks. Prior to Pearce's resignation, Graham did not respond to a request for comment about the former vice chair's remarks. Arizona's Republican nominees for governor, secretary of state, attorney general, as well as Congressional candidates, repudiated Pearce's remarks earlier Sunday. The denunciations came after Quinlan, in his Saturday news release, wrote the "silence" of GOP leaders and candidates on Pearce's remarks "indicates that they have made a cynical calculation that Russell Pearce and his brand of politics appeals to the most extreme elements of their electoral base." Quinlan asked, "How can we expect (Republican gubernatorial nominee) Doug Ducey to lead this state if he can't even stand up to the most extreme elements of his party?" A comment posted to Ducey's Twitter account Sunday evening read, "I couldn't disagree more with Russell Pearce's deplorable comments. They have no place in our discourse." Hours earlier, GOP attorney general nominee Mark Brnovich issued a stronger statement, saying Pearce's remarks "are unrepresentative of the Republican Party I know." "The notion that government would force sterilization upon anyone is counter to everything I believe about individual liberty and contrary to the founding principles of a free nation," Brnovich's statement said. "Comments that demean the plight of the poor, including women in the dual role of mother and economic provider, are not conservative; they're cruel. And I reject them." Several other Republican candidates also criticized Pearce's comments by late Sunday evening, including Congressional candidate Martha McSally and Michele Reagan. "Russell Pearce's ignorant, hateful comments are insulting to women everywhere," McSally posted on her Twitter account. "He needs to resign or be removed from office immediately." Reagan called for Pearce to resign on her Twitter post: "The obnoxious comments made by Russell Pearce were both disgusting and offensive. Let it be known, he is NOT the voice of my GOP. #Resign!" Pearce, best known for his role in passing the state's hard-line immigration law Senate Bill 1070, served as Arizona Senate president before he was recalled in 2011. The radio station's website says he hosts The Russell Pearce Show from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturdays.The show offers "a mix of commentary, opinion, and the busiest caller lines anywhere in Arizona," the website says, adding "Senator Russell Pearce offers listeners and callers alike a no holds barred take on federal, state, and local politics without reservation. He's the John Wayne of the airwaves, the Chuck Norris of the talk radio circuit."
Russell Pearce implodes (again) For the record nut job Russell Pearce is a former police officer. http://www.azcentral.com/story/laurieroberts/2014/09/15/russell-pearce-sterilization/15662899/ Russell Pearce implodes (again) Laurie Roberts, columnist | azcentral.com 8:49 a.m. MST September 15, 2014 Once again, the loudest mouth in the Arizona Republican Party has been heard from. A few years ago, then-Senate President Russell Pearce was seeking the return of "Operation Wetback," a 1950s federal program to round up and deport Mexican immigrants here illegally. Since then, Pearce has been recalled by his constituents, rebuffed by voters and lauded by Republican Party workers, who elected him to be the party's first vice president. And most recently, hired to a top job working for the county. Now the hero of the GOP has weighed in on women, saying on his weekly radio show that there should be forced sterilization if they dare to apply for government help. "You put me in charge of Medicaid, the first thing I'd do is get (female recipients) Norplant, birth-control implants, or tubal ligations. Then, we'll test recipients for drugs and alcohol, and if you want to (reproduce) or use drugs or alcohol, then get a job." Pearce's comments, first reported last week by the New Times' Stephen Lemons, sparked a call for his resignation as candidate after candidate ran from the guy like he had a bad odor. Pearce complied on Sunday evening, saying it was a "misstatement" and labeling the whole shebang the fault of ... say it with me now ... the media and Democrats. "This was a mistake," Perace wrote in his resignation letter. "This mistake has been taken by the media and the left and used to hurt our Republican candidates." Yeah, it was all a media conspiracy, Russell. The devil (media) made you say it. But don't cry for Pearce, Arizona. He's paid $76,000 in government pensions and on top of that recently scored an $85,000-a-year government job. The triple dipper — who, by the way, loves to talk about the evils of big government — is now working for Maricopa County Treasurer Hos Hoskins. Among his duties, he's overseeing the Elderly Assistance Fund, a program that helps poor seniors who are having a hard time paying their property taxes. If he'd force poor women to be sterilized, I shudder to think about what sort of "help" he'd offer poor homeowners.
2 Arizona counties tally more ballots than voters "Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the vote decide everything." - Joseph Stalin http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/2014/09/13/arizona-counties-tally-ballots-voters/15591999/ 2 Arizona counties tally more ballots than voters Associated Press 9:02 p.m. MST September 14, 2014 Voter turnout during last month's primary races was a little too good in some counties, Arizona elections officials said Friday. Some precincts in northern Arizona tallied more ballots cast than there are registered voters, the Arizona Capitol Times reported. According to officials, errors made by poll workers and elections officials in Apache and Navajo counties led to the miscalculations. Initial reports from some precincts showed a turnout of anywhere from 200 to 400 percent. In Apache County, the Puerco West precinct reportedly had 100 votes cast, but only 23 voters are registered there. The voter turnout added up to 434 percent. Similarly, the Fort Defiance precinct cited 1,046 ballots cast though only 357 voters reside there. As a result, turnout was shown to be 293 percent. Apache County Elections Director Angela Romero said a worker erroneously entered data, missing a digit, for Fort Defiance. The worker recorded 357 voters in the precinct when there are actually 2,357 voters. The inflated data for Puerco West was likely the result of one polling place serving that precinct and Puerco East. Romero said numerous Puerco East voters were counted as being Puerco West voters. "The ballots are exactly the same, and have the same content, but instead of giving the correct ballot to the voters, they gave the wrong one, which makes it look like we have way too many people voting here — there aren't even that many registered voters here," Romero said. She hopes to consolidate the two precincts in the future. Two precincts sharing a polling place was also likely the cause for the overblown turnout in Navajo County. Navajo County Elections Director Johnathan Roes said poll workers failed to follow their training when dealing with voters from North Heber-Overgaard and South Heber-Overgaard. "They just opened up the pack of ballots and started handing them out to everybody who was (registered)," Roes said. "I would say the majority of those voters were actually registered in the South Heber-Overgaard precinct, but because of the poll worker error, it looks like there were a whole lot more votes cast in the North Heber-Overgaard precinct than there were even registered voters there." Assistant Secretary of State Jim Drake said it appears the errors didn't cause any significant problems. "They're all the same races — nobody voted in a race that they weren't entitled to, but we're probably going to look at consolidating them in the general election," Drake said. Both counties are in the state's 1st Congressional District, which was hotly contested in the GOP primary. Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin narrowly edged out Gary Kiehne, who conceded the race last week. Chris Baker, a political consultant who worked with Kiehne, said he didn't think the extremely high figures indicated any suspicious activity.
Border killings: 46 people killed, no agents disciplined I have posted other articles on this. I think this is the first time I have posted this article from the Arizona Republic on this. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/investigations/2014/09/14/border-deaths-agents-transparency-secrecy/15616933/ Border killings: 46 people killed, no agents disciplined Bob Ortega, The Republic | azcentral.com 8:42 a.m. MST September 14, 2014 Six months after promising greater transparency and accountability when its agents use deadly force, Customs and Border Protection continues to struggle to deliver on both counts. Since 2004, Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers have killed at least 46 people, including at least 15 Americans, while on duty. On Friday, CBP's acting internal affairs chief, Mark Alan Morgan, in response to a question from The Arizona Republic, told reporters he was unaware of any agent or officer having been disciplined or terminated in any of those deaths. A CBP spokesman said the agency couldn't immediately confirm or deny Morgan's statement. But, James Wong, who retired in 2011 as CBP's assistant deputy commissioner for internal affairs, separately confirmed to The Republic that none of the 20 agents or officers who killed people while on duty from 2008 through 2011 was disciplined internally or terminated. Those cases include unarmed teens who were shot in the back by agents as they fled, agents shooting through the border fence into Mexico, and two in which unarmed men died after agents severely beat them, repeatedly pepper-sprayed them, or shocked them multiple times with stun guns. In December, The Republic reported that no agents or officers had been held accountable by the Department of Justice or by civil or criminal courts in use-of-force deaths since 2005, even in highly questionable cases. The Republic investigation found that the lack of transparency made any internal discipline a black hole. Earlier this year, CBP released a highly critical study of its use-of-force practices by the Police Executive Research Forum. CBP fought for 15 months to keep the report secret, releasing it only after it was leaked to the media. That study examined 67 use-of-force incidents and concludedthat too many deadly use-of-force cases weren't justifiable to a reasonable, objective observer, and that investigations often weren't thorough or careful. CBP's Morgan said Friday that an agency task force had completed an initial review of the 67 cases. He said it identified 14 as needing further investigation. Just one of those cases resulted in a death. But other questions about the investigation process remain. Internal CBP and Homeland Security documents obtained by The Republic under Freedom of Information Act requests reveal cases in which Office of Inspector General supervisors overruled their own staff and shut down proposed investigations into shooting deaths. In at least one deadly-force case, supervisors dismissed an internal complaint that an officer had used excessive force. Changes promised Over the past two years, the use of deadly force by Border Patrol agents and CBP officers has drawn increased public and congressional scrutiny. Earlier this year — after CBP's previously secret use-of-force policies were leaked —DHS released the policies. Under pressure, CBP also announced policy changes to reduce deadly-force incidents. Agents were to avoid putting themselves in situations where they have no alternative to deadly force. And they were to fire at rock throwers only when they couldn't take cover and the rocks posed an immediate threat of death or serious injury, among other changes. Since last spring, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske have repeatedly promised greater transparency and accountability when agents or officers use deadly force. Morgan's task-force review is part of that process. To date, however, CBP has not taken steps that are routine at most state and local police forces, such as identifying the agents involved or releasingthe outcomes of specific internal investigations. Nor has it released the number of complaints filed, or any details of any cases investigated by internal affairs or the DHS inspector general. And when agents are sued by victims' families, CBP and the Department of Justice continue fighting to have the agents' names kept secret. "It just boggles my mind that DHS would hide this information," said Wong, the retired CBP assistant deputy commissioner for internal affairs. "We're not talking about terrorist activities or national security; we're talking about things the American public should be aware of, should have access to. For them to say we can't tell you how many people have been investigated for excessive use of force, well, I don't understand the rationale." Friday, Morgan reiterated a CBP policy of keeping agents' names secret, saying there can be major threats to agents or their families. CBP didn't respond to questions submitted separately about why, if agents who are identified are at risk, it cooperates with the National Geographic television program "Border Wars," which routinely reveals agents' names, faces and where they work. CBP also did not respond to requests for any examples of agents who were targeted after their names were made public. No such incidents in use-of-force deaths have been reported. Investigator reassigned Last month, CBP's former head of internal affairs,James Tomsheck, told the Washington Post that seven fatalities since 2010 were "highly suspect" and that CBP officials had distorted the facts in cases to justify the shootings. In June, when Tomsheck was reassigned to other duties, Kerlikowske said he was looking for a fresh perspective for that office.But CBP officials, speaking off the record, told national media reporters that Tomsheck hadn't been aggressive enough in pursuing investigations against agents involved in deadly shootings. Tomsheck, however, told the Post that higher-ups within CBP and DHS had blocked investigations and were using him as a scapegoat. His former deputy, Wong, supported Tomsheck's claims in an interview with The Republic. CBP's official policy is that it "does not disclose names of federal agents or officers who are the subject of investigations to the general public due to their unique position as federal law-enforcement officers who often confront the most dangerous elements of society and may be targeted by those elements as a result of association with the allegation." Agents' names have become public in 16 of the use-of-force deaths since 2005. Some were made public by court orders in civil suits, others by state and local police investigating the incidents. "It's a knee-jerk reaction," to keep federal agents' names secret, said Kel McClanahan, executive director of National Security Counselors, an Arlington, Va., law firm specializing in national security, freedom of information and privacy issues. McClanahan noted that Homeland Security and the FBI routinely seek to keep all agents' names from the public — even the names of officers who handle information requests. Similarly, CBP and the Border Patrol routinely ask reporters not to identify their spokesmen by name. "You can't take the position that whenever they get in trouble, or whenever there's an incident, that they should not reveal anything about it and the public should just trust they're doing the right thing. Because the public won't," said Hyde Post, president of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, which advocates for open government. Equally important, without transparency, there's little accountability, Post said. "Rules lose a lot of their effective punch. If you never know what, if anything, is done to investigate a shooting, or to address any deficiencies in procedures involved in that shooting, then you have a kind of renegade agency," he said. Investigations thwarted In at least two deaths, one in 2010 and one in 2012, investigators for Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General wanted to open investigations but were overruled by their superiors, according to documents recently obtained by The Republic after 22 months of Freedom of Information Act requests and appeals. In May 2010, an unarmed Anastacio Hernandez Rojas, 42, died after he was beaten and shocked five times with a stun gun by a group of CBP officers and Border Patrol agents at the San Ysidro port of entry, south of San Diego. An OIG supervisor in San Diego rejected the request by an OIG inspector to open an investigation. The case exploded publicly in 2012, when PBS aired two cellphone videos showing Hernandez Rojas lying face down on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back as agents kicked and shocked him. Hernandez Rojas died after being transported to a nearby hospital. A civil lawsuit against the agents involved is pending in federal court in San Diego. In March 2012, Alexander Arthur Martin, 24, burned to death after a Border Patrol agent fired a stun gun at him and his car exploded. Martin had been driving the wrong way on Highway 80 in Pine Valley, Calif. An OIG supervisor in San Diego twice rejected requests by an inspector to open an investigation. OIG officials also confirmed to The Republic that they did not open an investigation into the death of Roberto Perez Perez, who was hospitalized after being beaten by CBP officers at the San Ysidro port of entry in July 2010. Perez Perez, 63, died the following January from an infection stemming from his injuries. An internal CBP complaint submitted to the OIG stated that "a Customs and Border Protection officer used excessive force on Roberto Perez Perez," and noted that "due to a premature transfer from Sharp Hospital" to a federal detention facility, "a lack of medical treatment ... may have contributed to Mr. Perez Perez's death." The Hernandez-Rojas case sparked congressional demands in 2012 that CBP address the use of deadly force by agents and officers. In response, Johnson and Kerlikowske said earlier this year that 67 use-of-force cases had been re-examined. Some of those cases are now under investigation by the Department of Justice's civil-rights division, though neither Justice nor CBP would say how many. Last month, attorneys for the civil-rights division visited the spot in Nogales, Sonora, where teenager Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez was shot 10 times through the border fence and killed by a Border Patrol agent in October 2012. The visit, first reported by Nogales International, appears to be one of at least five investigations being conducted by the civil-rights division. CBP's Morgan said Friday that 11 deadly-force cases are under investigation by Justice or by local or state authorities. Policy cited In declining information requests by The Republic, DHS' inspector general cited open investigations by "other entities" into the death of Elena Rodriguez and the four other victims in cross-border shootings involving alleged rock-throwing: Sergio Adrian Hernandez Guereca, 15, in Juarez, in June 2010; Ramses Barron Torres, 17, in Nogales, in January 2011; Juan Pablo Perez Santillan, 30, in Matamoros, in July 2012; and Guillermo Arevalo Pedraza, 36, in Nuevo Laredo, in September 2012. "Other entities" may be a reference to the Department of Justice, which is the only federal entity outside of DHS that would typically investigate such cases. DOJ previously had closed investigations into the Barron Torres and Hernandez Guereca cases without bringing any charges against the still-unidentified agents who shot them. Even as investigations by Justice's civil-rights division remain pending, CBP and Justice continue working together to keep secret the names of Border Patrol agents sued by family members of people they killed. At least four times in the past three years, judges have rejected federal efforts to keep agents' identities secret — most recently, in the shooting death of Elena Rodriguez. The Border Patrol said the agent who killed the 16-year-old was firing at rock throwers. Witnesses said Jose Antonio was walking down the street when other youths fled past him as the shooting began. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a civil complaint in June on behalf of Jose Antonio's mother, naming "John Doe" agents. CBP disclosed the name of the agent to the ACLU on condition that it file its amended complaint under court seal. But, Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Raner Collins ordered CBP to justify keeping the name under seal. "It is properly very difficult to seal courtroom documents," ACLU attorney Lee Rowland said. "There may be rare cases where the government can show a fact-based, particular threat to an officer's safety; but CBP doesn't have a sweeping right to withhold officers' names based on vague ... claims. ... That's all the more true when officers have been involved in killing another human being." For his part, retired CBP official Wongsaid cases in which people fleeing were shot in the back remain the most troubling to him. "Border Patrol agents would say, 'They were throwing rocks.' I'd say, 'Why didn't you back up?' They'd say, 'You've never been an agent; you don't know what being rocked is like.' ... I'm not naive enough to say it's never justified; there are cases where it would be.... But the physical requirement of running in one direction and throwing hard enough behind you to cause physical injury just ... confused me," he said. "It was disturbing." Bob Ortega is a senior reporter specializing in coverage of the U.S.-Mexican border. In 2013, Ortega and data specialist Rob O'Dell reviewed 12,000 pages of documents from the Department of Homeland Security concerning almost 1,600 use-of-force incidents involving Customs and Border Protection agents and officers. Their investigation resulted in the series "Force at the Border," published last December, and remains ongoing. All of their coverage is available at usborderforce.azcentral.com. Ortega recently received the 2014 Virg Hill Award as the journalist of the year in Arizona. How to reach him bob.ortega@arizonarepublic.com Phone: 602-444-8926 Twitter: @bob_ortega
Man sues after losing 5 toes in Colorado jail In this case the prison is blaming the victim. Kind of like a rapist blaming the women he raped for causing the rape!!! It's all the fault of the woman I raped. If she wasn't so hot I would have never raped her. It's all her fault!!! "Correctional Healthcare Companies claims others outside its control, including Neisler, may have contributed to the injury." http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/13/man-sues-losing-toes-colorado-jail/15589503/ Man sues after losing 5 toes in Colorado jail Associated Pres 1:48 p.m. MST September 13, 2014 CENTENNIAL, Colo. — A man who lost five toes to diabetes while incarcerated at Arapahoe County jail has filed a lawsuit claiming the loss was due to lack of medical care. The lawsuit filed in federal court alleges that Correctional Healthcare Companies failed to properly provide medical treatment to James Neisler. The Denver Post reported Saturday that Neisler suffered a broken blister on his right big toe from ill-fitting boots worn while he worked in the kitchen. He says medical staff ignored a serious injury for a diabetic and waited a month last summer before taking him to a hospital. He was in jail awaiting resolution of misdemeanor domestic violence and drunken driving charges. The domestic-violence charge stemmed from a dispute at the burial of his dog Zoe, an Australian shepherd/malamute. In a response to the lawsuit, Correctional Healthcare Companies claims others outside its control, including Neisler, may have contributed to the injury. Company officials did not return a call seeking comment. Neisler first asked for help on July 20, 2013, according to the lawsuit. He was taken to the hospital on Aug. 22, 2013. "My right big toe is bleeding, oozing and twice the size of my left big toe," he wrote Aug. 12. Two days later, he wrote: "my toe is literally rotting now and smells awful. ... I'm begging to be taken to a hospital or wound care clinic for it to be looked at ... please take me." "I knew it was going south quickly," he said of the experience. "My big toe was like a piece of beef jerky. It was past gangrene, all the way to bone infection." The infection had spread to his bone and doctors eventually removed all toes on his right foot to stem the infection. Neisler, a 47-year-old former financial adviser said he no longer plays hoops with a son who is a basketball player or run long distance like he used to do with his daughter, who runs cross country. "I could write 25 country songs about what happened," said Neisler, of his plight while incarcerated in the same jail that held Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes. "I have to laugh, because otherwise I'd be crying all the time."
Residents complain of sludge at Tempe Town Lake after historic storm Of course if you do this at home Tempe will have it's jackbooted messy yard cops out to your house to write you a ticket quicker then you can blink your eye. More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our religious leaders, government masters and police??? http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2014/09/13/residents-complain-sludge-tempe-town-lake-historic-storm/15572399/ Residents complain of sludge at Tempe Town Lake after historic storm Dianna M. Náñez, The Republic | azcentral.com 6:58 p.m. MST September 13, 2014 A passerby held her nose as she jogged past the sun-baked mix of stagnant sludge and floating trash that has pooled up against Tempe Town Lake's western dam after Monday's massive rain storm. Ellen Churchill walked the lake Friday morning with her husband, Bill. Churchill said she was shocked to see so much garbage floating at the lake five days after the storm. "I thought it looked pretty disgusting," she said. The lake water near the western dam is a dark soupy, oily blend with bubbling algae. Floating in the lake are water bottles, grass, tree branches, garbage bags, a couple of Mylar balloons and several plastic convenience store soda cups and Styrofoam containers. Ducks and birds in the lake did not seem to mind the mess, but residents who enjoy the typically scenic setting hoped the area would be clean again soon. City officials said storm water runoff from Indian Bend Wash has been flowing into Town Lake since Monday's storm. Churchill said she and her husband love the picturesque lake setting. She questioned why Tempe has not sent a clean-up crew to pick up the mess that marred the waters near the city's Tempe Center for the Arts and pedestrian bridge, which see hundreds of daily visitors. "I don't see it going away by itself, so I hope they get somebody out here to clean it up," Churchill said. Aida Waters, of Mesa, walked her dog, Copper, past the city's pedestrian bridge, which straddles the western dam. She worried about the stagnant water quality for lake users. "It was a little oily and filthy. It's just this crud that's floating," she said. "People canoe in there and they're paddleboarding. I don't want to be swimming in the waters." Since the storm, Valley residents have been concerned about stagnant waters becoming breeding grounds for mosquitoes that can carry the West Nile Virus. Tempe is responsible for Town Lake mosquito monitoring, said Johnny Diloné, a spokesman with Maricopa County Environmental Services Department, which monitors West Nile complaints and mosquito breeding at other county sites. He said the county sets mosquito traps in surrounding Town Lake neighborhoods and industrial areas. Diloné said residents can report mosquito breeding concerns to the county or the city. Town Lake dam construction was on hold as water rushed over the dam and flooded the work site. The four rubber bladders that make up the dam can be lowered at various levels to allow lake water to flow west into the dry Salt River bed. The bladders are typically lowered to prevent flooding when there is a mass runoff from upstream lakes. But lake water on Friday was only flowing over one bladder on the northern end of the dam. The garbage and sludge was backed up against the other three rubber bladders. The three bladders had not been lowered to allow water to flow over. On Friday morning, about six dam construction workers were in the Salt River bed west of the lake. Two of them were hooking up a machine to pump water out of the work site and into a channel that would move water west into the dry Salt River bed. Tempe City Manager Andrew Ching said the city contracts with a company that treats the lake to prevent mosquito breeding, tests the water quality and cleans scum in the lake. This weekend the city has a race event that involves swimming in the lake, which requires testing to ensure safe water quality. "We've been doing it (testing) every day and we've been cleaning," he said. "The water is good to go for the event." Tempe used to regularly post the lake's water quality for the public on the city's website. The last posted water-quality reading is from March 2013. Ching said the city has the water-quality reports and will post them next week at the soonest. Ching said Tempe does not typically lower the dam bladders to allow lake scum to flow into the Salt River bed. Rather, he said, scum is regularly cleaned out of the lake, but the pooled sludge seen Friday may be an accumulation over the week after a historic rainfall. Linda Taunt, deputy director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality's water-quality division, said that Arizona saw historic rainfall Monday, causing storm water runoff from upstream to flow into Town Lake. ADEQ is charged with ensuring that water in Arizona lakes is safe. Taunt said water may be flowing into Town Lake from Indian Bend Wash, the Mesa wastewater treatment plant and Arizona Department of Transportation canal runoff. "There's all kinds of fecal bacteria and fertilizers," she said. "This might not be the best time to be paddleboarding, sure you're supposed to stay on the board but even people who aren't novices can end up face-first into the lake." "I would not want to be swimming in it today," she said. "Kayaking and canoeing, that's fine." Taunt said residents who have concerns about water quality may contact the city for copies of the testing reports. If the testing show poor water quality, residents may contact the state water safety agency to report concerns. "We could work with DHS (the state Department of Health Services) to determine if we would not allow full-body contact with the water," she said. The agency typically only tests for some Town Lake swimming events. At the end of each year, the agency requests Tempe's reports for an annual state water quality report.
A Tight Ass Is Now Probable Cause to search you!!! http://www.hightimes.com/read/tight-ass-now-probable-cause A Tight Ass Is Now Probable Cause By Mike Adams · Fri Nov 08, 2013 Well, having a tight ass is now not only officially considered probable cause, but apparently it also gives law enforcement a reason to unleash a series of rather brutal and questionable search tactics in the name of the War on Drugs. What started out as a leisurely day of shopping at a Wal-Mart in Demming, New Mexico took a turn for the worse for David Eckert, who after pulling out of the store parking lot, found himself being pulled over by a Hidalgo County Sheriff’s officer. The officer informed Eckert that the motive behind the traffic stop was due to him not making a complete stop at a stop sign before leaving the parking lot. That is when Eckert was asked to step out of the car, when the officer reportedly noticed the man clenching his butt cheeks, perhaps, he suspected, in an attempt to conceal narcotics up his sphincter. Back up was called -- and while Eckert was being detained by old Johnny Law, a local judge was signing a warrant for an anal cavity search. Officers reportedly transported Eckert to a nearby emergency room, but the doctors there refused to conduct a search of the man’s anus because they claimed it was an “unethical” practice. However, physicians at the Gila Regional Medical Center apparently did not subscribe to the same standards, admitting Eckert into the facility where they proceeded to run a gamut of tests that makes the thought of curious aliens armed with sharp objects sound appealing. After doctors x-rayed Eckert’s stomach, they found no evidence to suggest he had any narcotics stashed where the sun doesn’t shine. Nevertheless, that did not stop several doctors from inspecting his anus with their fingers during two separate examinations. Again, no narcotics were found. So, rather than let Eckert go with some shred of dignity, doctors decided to give him an enema and force him to drop an embarrassing load right in front of police officers and medical staff. After a poo search turned up no signs of narcotics, doctors administered yet another enema. Shockingly, no narcotics were discovered. Still, even though Eckert couldn’t possibly have anything left inside of him, much less an ass-stash of dope, physicians made the call to give the man a third enema just so they could feel confident that they were completely thorough. After, Eckert’s final intestinal flushing, neither doctors nor law enforcement could find any reason to believe that he was smuggling drugs. However, did they let him go? Nope. Instead, doctors x-rayed Eckert’s guts a second time, where they found absolutely nothing that resembled narcotics. So, again, rather than put Eckert through any more of their savage shitdigging tactics, physicians decided to take it up a notch by sedating him and jamming a camera up his poop chute -- administering a dreaded colonoscopy. It is worth mentioning that throughout this entire chain of butt probing events; Eckert never once consented to the Hidalgo County Sherriff’s Office’s and Gila Regional witch doctor’s mad-science sodomy. Eckert has since filed a federal lawsuit against a myriad of defendants, including The City of Demming, New Mexico, several Demming police officers and Hildago County Sheriff’s officers, the Deputy District Attorney, and two doctors from the Gila Regional Medical Center. Eckert’s attorney, Shannon Kennedy says that there are several discrepancies in the way the search warrant was carried out, including medical procedures being administered in a county not listed on the search warrant and the warrant expiring before the anal cavity search was initiated. It should come as no surprise that Eckert is reportedly being billed for the twisted anal inquisition he received in custody at Gila Regional: “Plaintiff still receives medical bills for thousands of dollars for these illegal, invasive and painful medical procedures,” according to the lawsuit. Mike Adams writes for Playboy's The Smoking Jacket, BroBible and Hustler Magazine. Follow him: @adamssoup; facebook.com/mikeadams73. |