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Rules on police shootings??? I don't ever remember a police shooting where the police investigated themselves and didn't find that NO RULES were broken and the officer did nothing wrong. Sure every now and then the investigation says the cop made a minor, trivial mistake and the cop gets a slap on the wrist at most. Of course if you let bank robbers investigate themselves, they would probably find that all the bank robberies were justified. And the bank robbers did nothing wrong. Just like the cops always do when they investigate themselves. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/23/us/ferguson-mo-key-factor-in-police-shootings-reasonable-fear.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSum&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news Key Factor in Police Shootings: ‘Reasonable Fear’ By MICHAEL WINES and FRANCES ROBLESAUG. 22, 2014 Each time police officers draw their weapons, they step out of everyday law enforcement and into a rigidly defined world where written rules, hours of training and Supreme Court decisions dictate not merely when a gun can be fired, but where it is aimed, how many rounds should be squeezed off and when the shooting should stop. [And oddly, when the police investigate themselves they find that the rules are NEVER broken] The Ferguson, Mo., police officer who fatally shot an unarmed African-American teenager two weeks ago, setting off protest and riots, was bound by 12 pages of police department regulations, known as General Order 410.00, that govern officers’ use of force. Whether he followed them will play a central role in deliberations by a St. Louis County grand jury over whether the officer, Darren Wilson, should be charged with a crime in the shooting. [Don't worry, the investigate will conclude that NO RULES were broken. As they always do. You don't have to be a psychic to figure that out] But as sweeping as restrictions on the use of weapons may be, deciding whether an officer acted correctly in firing at a suspect is not cut and dried. [Sadly the out come of the investigations always seem to have cut and dried results - the officer did nothing wrong] A host of outside factors, from the officer’s perception of a threat to the suspect’s behavior and even his size, can emerge as mitigating or damning. The police, the courts and experts say some leeway is necessary in situations where officers under crushing stress must make split-second decisions with life-or-death consequences. A large majority of officers never use their weapons. A handful of officers may be rogue killers, researchers say, but laboratory simulations of armed confrontations show that many more officers — much like ordinary civilians — can make honest mistakes in the pressure cooker of an armed encounter. “It’s a difficult job for coppers out there,” Timothy Maher, a former officer and a professor of criminology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said in an interview. “In the heat of the moment, things are happening so quickly. If they were role-playing, they could say, ‘Time out.’ But in real life, it’s, ‘Wow — in my training, this guy stopped, but here, he didn’t.’ ” [The big difference is when a civilian make the same mistake a cop makes, the civilian is severally punished. The cop rarely gets more then a slap on the wrist, if that much] Some citizens who read witnesses’ accounts of police shootings or view cellphone videos of them see the shootings as brutal and unjustified, which underscores a frequent gap between public perceptions and official views. The rules dictate when an officer may move from mild coercion, such as issuing an order or grabbing a suspect’s arm, to stronger or even deadly action. In general, officers are allowed to respond with greater force after a suspect does so, and the type of response — from a gentle push to a tight grip, a baton strike to a stun gun shock to a bullet — rises as the threat grows. Every step, however, is overshadowed by a single imperative: If an officer believes he or someone else is in imminent danger of grievous injury or death, he is allowed to shoot first, and ask questions later. [Too bad civilians don't get that option. Just joking. NOBODY should EVER shoot first and ask questions later. Something the cops routinely do!!!] The same is true, the courts have ruled, in cases where a suspect believed to have killed or gravely injured someone is fleeing and can only be halted with deadly force. “It’s a very simple analysis, a threat analysis,” said Geoffrey P. Alpert, a University of South Carolina professor and expert on high-risk police activities. “If a police officer has an objectively reasonable fear of an imminent threat to his life or serious bodily harm, he or she is justified in using deadly force. And not just his life, but any life.” “Objectively reasonable” is a standard set by the Supreme Court in 1989 when it said that a police officer’s use of excessive force must be seen in the context of what reasonable officers would do in the same situation, given the danger and stress of police work. Much remains in dispute about Officer Wilson’s fatal shooting of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old whom he stopped as Mr. Brown was walking home about noon on Aug. 9. But the question of whether Officer Wilson’s actions were objectively reasonable will likely be at the crux of that debate. Lawrence Kobilinsky, chairman of the department of science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said if the evidence shows a close-up shooting and a struggle, it will go better for Officer Wilson. [Rubbish, even when the evidence shows the cop broke the rules, the cop almost always is judged to have done nothing wrong] Ferguson police officials have said Mr. Brown and a friend were walking in the street when Officer Wilson stopped them. In an ensuing struggle, they said, Officer Wilson was hit in the face and Mr. Brown tried to take his gun, which discharged. Later, Officer Wilson shot Mr. Brown six times as the two men faced each other. Mr. Brown’s friend, Dorian Johnson, has said that Officer Wilson grabbed Mr. Brown by the throat and said “I’m gonna shoot you” as he tried to drag him into the squad car. He and Mr. Brown fled after the gun discharged, Mr. Johnson said, and Officer Wilson, in pursuit, shot Mr. Brown as he stood with his hands up in surrender. David Klinger, also a former police officer and a professor and criminologist at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, has interviewed in depth about 300 officers who fired weapons in confrontations with suspects. A blow to the head by itself would not justify a shooting, he said, but other factors also could be at work. “Sometimes you make a straight-up mistake,” Mr. Klinger said. “ ‘He punched me, so I shot him.’ Punching and shooting don’t go together unless you’re much bigger than me or you have martial arts training.” “Let the physical evidence tell us what happened,” said Pat Diaz, a former South Florida homicide detective who investigated more than 100 police shootings and now works as a court-certified expert witness. “How badly injured was the police officer? Was he dazed? Was Michael Brown on drugs? Let’s see what’s really going on here.” “He may have been pulling the trigger out of pure adrenaline, because he was in fear,” Mr. Diaz said. “If the cop has no injuries, then it’s clear-cut and hard to say he should have been shot. It’s all going to be told by the physical evidence.” Similarly, said Mr. Kobilinsky of John Jay, “If a felon is fleeing and is known to be unarmed and poses no danger of bodily harm to either a police officer or civilians in the area, then the officer will no doubt have legal issues if he uses deadly force to subdue that person.” [Rubbish. I remember a number of people shot in the back who were fleeing from cops in Arizona and not one of the cops got punished or charged with a crime.] At Washington State University in Spokane, researchers have run hundreds of simulated confrontations with suspects, using 60 filmed situations based on real life and performed by trained actors. Police officers participating in the simulations are wired to monitor body and brain functions. The results show that as the simulations become more complex — adding bystanders, dimming lights, turning up background noise — officers are more likely to make mistakes in judgment, said Bryan Vila, a professor of criminal justice and former police officer who oversees the research. “People have to make a decision before there’s enough time to study everything about the situation and what all the possible consequences could be,” he said. “Even if a cop does everything right in a very fast-paced, low-information situation where the risks are very high, the potential consequences of a mistake are very high.” Michael Wines reported from New York, and Frances Robles from Ferguson, Mo.
St. Louis County Police Department officer boasts of being "a killer." This cop also seems to hate gays and Muslims. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-ferguson-missouri-20140822-story.html Restrained protests in Ferguson; Local cop suspended for boasting about killing For a third consecutive night, restraint prevailed at protests on Friday in Ferguson, Missouri, as the National Guard began withdrawing from the St. Louis suburb racked by turmoil after a white police officer shot dead an unarmed black teenager. Hundreds of protesters marched in the hot summer night near the site of the Aug. 9 slaying of 18-year-old Michael Brown, chanting "Hands up, don't shoot," while police vehicles observed the demonstration, without intervening. After dwindling in numbers, the protesters, marshaled by volunteers from the clergy, made their way to a parking lot across from the police station, where they prayed and chanted while about 20 officers stood in a line outside. Despite a notable easing of tensions in recent days - police made only a handful of arrests on Wednesday and Thursday - authorities braced for a possible flare-up of civil disturbances ahead of Brown's funeral, which is planned for Monday. In the latest embarrassment for local law enforcement, an officer from the St. Louis County Police Department was removed from active duty on Friday after a video surfaced in which he boasted of being "a killer." Officer Dan Page, a 35-year police force veteran who had also served in the U.S. military, was removed from patrol duties and placed in an administrative position pending an internal investigation. In the video, Page is seen addressing a St. Louis chapter of the Oath Keepers, a conservative group of former servicemen, saying, "I'm also a killer. I've killed a lot, and if I need to I'll kill a whole bunch more. If you don't want to get killed, don't show up in front of me." He also made disparaging remarks about Muslims, gays, Supreme Court justices and expressed the view that the United States was on the verge of collapse. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar apologized, saying the comments were "bizarre" and unacceptable. Two days earlier, another St. Louis-area policeman, an officer from the town of St. Ann, was suspended indefinitely for pointing a semi-automatic assault rifle at a peaceful demonstrator, yelling obscenities, and threatening to kill the protester. The incidents have highlighted the racial divide in Ferguson, a largely black town where almost all the police force and local politicians are white. Civil rights activists say Brown's death followed years of police targeting blacks. A grand jury, made up of three blacks and nine whites, met this week to begin hearing evidence in the case. Ferguson memorial Ever since Michael Brown was shot nearly two weeks ago, De'Joneiro Jones has found himself drawn again and again to the makeshift memorial that has grown at the site of the violent encounter. "This has become the epicenter of racial tensions in America," said Jones, 40, an abstract artist who lives in St. Louis. "This was just an explosion that was waiting to happen." Jones took off his sunglasses for a moment to wipe his eyes, then donned them and added: "I just hope maybe this could be the last tragedy of its kind." On the sleepy two-lane street in a working-class apartment complex where he was shot, the memorial to Brown sums up the conflicting feelings stirred by his death: a yearning for reconciliation but also continuing anger. Alongside soft toys, a wooden cross leans against a tree on the side of the road bearing the words "Love your neighbor and you would love yourself." Other signs say "Pray for light" and "Pray for truth." But below those a large white placard reads "Beware killer cops on the loose, watch out children." A line of red roses on the street stretching some 150 feet leads from the memorial to the main road where protesters have gathered nightly. Almost like pilgrims, hundreds of well-wishers now come daily from near and far, following the roses to the spot where Brown died. Edward Scott, 38, visiting for the day from Chicago some 300 miles away, arrived with two friends on Friday. "I feel like we needed to pay our respects and show solidarity," he said. "I don't want people to forget what happened here." Reuters
Mmmm Sriracha hot sauce!!!! OK, my favorite hot sauce is Cholula, but Sriracha sauce comes in second!!!! I always thought Sriracha sauce was made in Thailand and imported to the US by some company in LA. I was surprised to find out it is actually made in LA or technically the San Gabriel Valley. http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-sriracha-town-20140823-story.html Once declared a nuisance, Irwindale Sriracha plant welcomes the public By Frank Shyong contact the reporter After months of media attention, Irwindale Sriracha factory is trying to use spotlight to its advantage More than 1,700 people have toured the Sriracha factory in Irwindale -- more than the city's entire population David Tran once carefully guarded the secrets of Sriracha hot sauce. The famously reclusive chief executive never advertised, granted few interviews, and even designed his own machines, taking up a blowtorch to prevent his competitors from duplicating his methods. But after complaints of a smell coming from the Irwindale factory last year sparked months of sustained media coverage, Tran and his 34-year-old company are trying to get comfortable in the spotlight — and use the attention to their advantage. On Friday, Huy Fong Foods invited the public to the factory for tours and tastings as a way of moving on from the controversy. More than 2,000 people are expected to attend this weekend's events at the factory the city of Irwindale had once declared a public nuisance. A party-like atmosphere prevailed Friday in a parking lot where security guards used to knock on the window of any car that drove up. Cheerful bunches of red, green and white balloons bobbed in the breeze, and Tran greeted each guest at the door, shaking hands and mugging for Instagram photos next to a cardboard cutout of himself in a tuxedo. In his pocket, his iPhone rang constantly. At the registration table, employees checked names on a list as a speaker blasted a playlist of Sriracha-inspired rap songs. Every visitor got a brochure, a gauzy red hairnet, and a ticket entitling the bearer to a T-shirt and 9-ounce bottle of Sriracha hot sauce. Tours ended with tastings of Sriracha caramels, popcorn and ice cream. The new company store, the Rooster Room, was a particularly popular attraction. "They have underwear!" said one woman, rushing inside. Employee Joshua Menviola, right, speaks to two members of the Sriracha factory tour about the process of making the hot sauce. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) It seems the smell controversy has only served to multiply the sauce's popularity — a Google Trends graph measuring the search frequency of the word "Sriracha" looks like a hockey stick on its side. This year, more than 1,700 people attended the plant's daily tours — more than the entire population of the city of Irwindale. Beth Mikah of La Verne invited all of the women in her hiking club. She's already toured the factory once, but she never got to see the peppers in action. She surged ahead of the group when the first truck of peppers pulled up to the back of the plant, watching ardently as a shower of jalapenos tumbled onto the conveyor belt. cComments "Oh my, look at this," Mikah said. "This is what we're here to see. This is amazing!" Melissa Armitage, 35, and Andrew Coates, 39, made the drive from Orange County for the tour. "We came to show everyone that the smell doesn't burn your throat," Coates said. For a company that has launched three culinary festivals, a documentary and several cookbooks, Huy Fong Foods is still a small company of about 80 full-time employees. None of them are public relations specialists or event planners. But Tran recognizes the favorable public opinion could armor the company against future crackdowns. He still fears interference from the city, and he chafes under new state health regulations that require him to hold his sauce for 35 days before shipping. The infamous "NO TEAR GAS MADE HERE" banner, which was Tran's defiant response to a judge's ruling last year, is still flying. But it faces away from the street, tacked to the back of the security guard building. "For 34 years, we have never had any kind of grand opening event. But people asked for this, so we're doing it," Tran said. Tran seems bemused by all of the attention, and mostly lets his fans do whatever they want with his brand. Tour groups kept asking to buy souvenirs, so he opened a store. He appears in the Sriracha rap music videos, offers the cookbooks in his store and allows documentarians into his life. His company doesn't make money on any of this, Tran said — the company doesn't charge for licensing. "Let them make money. I will never make T-shirts," Tran said. "Let everyone make some money off of it," Tran said. The only business he's interested in, Tran said, is hot sauce. frank.shyong@latimes.com Twitter: @frankshyong
Police failed to heed pleas as man died He's just a criminals that's faking it - LAPD OK, now he's a dead guy that wasn't faking it. And we will never know if he was a criminal because he won't get his day in court - Thanks to the sadistic, cold hearted pigs that work for the LAPD. And of course after reading he was arrested in South Central LA I suspect he was a Black guy the racist cops murdered by not getting him medical attention. http://www.latimes.com/local/crime/la-me-lapd-custody-death-20140823-story.html#page=1 Police failed to heed pleas as man died, reports say By Joel Rubin contact the reporter Los Angeles Police Department Police failed to heed pleas as man died, new LAPD reports show Numerous LAPD officers ignored man's claims of difficulty breathing before he died in custody, new reports say From the moment Los Angeles police handcuffed him, Jorge Azucena told officers he needed help. "I can't breathe, I can't breathe," he pleaded. "I have asthma, I have asthma." In the half-hour or so after his arrest late one night last September, Azucena said over and over that he was struggling for breath. Numerous LAPD officers and sergeants heard his pleas for medical attention but ignored them even as his condition visibly worsened. "You can breathe just fine," one sergeant told him. "You can talk, so you can breathe." Azucena could not walk or stand by the time officers brought him to a South Los Angeles police station for booking. So they carried him into a cell, leaving him lying face-down on the floor. He was soon unconscious. When paramedics arrived shortly after, Azucena's heart had stopped. I can't breathe, I can't breathe.... I have asthma, I have asthma. - Jorge Azucena, who died in police custody The chilling account of how Azucena died is told in two reports made public this week. After a Times article last year on the circumstances surrounding Azucena's death, the reports offer new details into the man's desperate and futile attempts to convince officers his lungs were succumbing to what coroner's officials determined was most likely an asthma attack. Nearly a year after Azucena's death, LAPD officials have not yet determined whether any of the officers involved that night should be disciplined for failing to summon help and, in the case of some officers, for lying to investigators. Nine officers and two sergeants are the subjects of ongoing internal investigations, while another sergeant under scrutiny recently retired, said Capt. Paul Snell, who commands the LAPD's Southwest Division, where the death occurred. As is customary, prosecutors from the county district attorney's office are reviewing the case to determine whether the inaction amounts to criminal behavior. "There should not be any question that when somebody in custody is heard to say 'I cannot breathe,' the officers should promptly call for an ambulance," said Robert Saltzman, a member of the Police Commission that oversees the LAPD. Through a spokesman, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck declined to comment. One of the reports was forwarded by Beck to the Police Commission. The other was written by the commission's inspector general, who conducted an independent investigation. Steve Soboroff "I don't think this points to a culture of officers who don't care about people," said Steve Soboroff, the L.A. Police Commission president seen earlier this month. "But it's important that we make sure officers know they can follow their own moral compass." Investigators were able to piece together much of what occurred the night of Azucena's death with recordings made by cameras the department installed several years ago in cars used to patrol South Los Angeles neighborhoods. The department has recently come in for criticism for slow adoption of a plan to outfit vehicles with cameras in the rest of the city. The department's South Bureau is the only one of four that has such equipment. About 11:20 p.m. on Sept. 6, Azucena led police on a brief chase after running a red light, Beck wrote in the department report. The names of officers were redacted in a copy of the report provided to The Times under the public records act. The inspector general's report did not identify the officers by name. According to Beck's report, the pursuit went on for a few miles, until Azucena stopped on the edge of a park and he and his two companions ran off. Azucena was cornered quickly in a nearby apartment complex and gave himself up. Microphones worn by several officers at the scene captured Azucena complying with their commands to lie on the ground and telling them, "I can't breathe." Minutes later, as he was lying handcuffed on the ground, Azucena said again that he was struggling to breathe and told the officers he had asthma. Officers had to help him to his feet and hold him by the arms as he walked to a patrol car. One officer recalled to investigators that Azucena was "walking wobbly" and seemed "fatigued," Beck's report said. Over the next 10 minutes, as various officers and sergeants watched over him, Azucena is heard on the recordings complaining about his trouble breathing at least five times, the reports showed. In one exchange, he told officers he was on drugs and believed he was having a seizure. At another point, he began yelling to onlookers. "Help me, help me, help me," he shouted, according to the inspector general's report. "I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Help me, please." In response, a sergeant ordered officers to place him in the back seat of a patrol car, believing he was trying to incite the crowd watching, the report said. You can breathe just fine. You can talk, so you can breathe. - Unidentified LAPD sergeant The patrol car's camera recorded Azucena as he tried to lie down in the back seat. When an officer ordered him to sit up, Azucena kicked the car door and said, "I can't breathe. Help me, help me. I can't breathe," according to the reports. Several officers and sergeants told investigators afterward they did not see any indications that Azucena was in serious distress. One recalled that Azucena seemed to be trying to catch his breath as he sat in the patrol car waiting to be brought to the station but nonetheless appeared to be fine. The inspector general's report highlights several exchanges in which police dismiss Azucena's complaints and tell him that he is fine because he is talking. Several officers told investigators they noticed that Azucena was sweating but believed the humid weather and his attempt to flee were responsible, the report said. Steve Soboroff, president of the civilian commission that oversees the LAPD, declined to discuss the specifics of the case, but said it was "troubling" that so many officers ignored Azucena. The case, he said, underscored the need to better train officers on department policies that require them to call for an ambulance whenever a suspect complains of breathing problems. "I don't think this points to a culture of officers who don't care about people," Soboroff said. "But it's important that we make sure officers know they can follow their own moral compass and can feel comfortable speaking up in any situation if they have questions about what is going on." Azucena continued to plead with officers during the ride to the station, and one lowered a window for him. When they arrived at the station, Azucena collapsed to his knees as he tried to get out of the patrol car, according to the reports. One officer told him "that he needed to act like a man and walk," according to the inspector general's report. Hoisting him up, the officers brought Azucena inside, with his feet dragging behind him, and laid him on the floor outside the office of a sergeant who was working as the station supervisor. Again, recordings picked up Azucena saying he could not breathe, the reports said. Whenever someone is taken into custody and brought to a station, LAPD rules require that the station's supervisor ask a series of questions before the suspect is placed in a detention cell. One of the questions that must be asked and documented on a form is whether the person is ill or has any medical conditions needing attention. According to the inspector general's report, the supervisor told investigators that he did ask Azucena if he was sick or injured and recorded his answer as "not responsive" on the form. Related story: LAPD chief faces tense crowd over shooting of mentally ill man Related story: LAPD chief faces tense crowd over shooting of mentally ill man Kate Mather The two officers who brought in Azucena carried him into one of the station's holding cells, leaving him face-down on the floor. A short time later, another officer noticed that Azucena appeared to be in distress, the reports said. Shortly after, officers noticed that he appeared not to be breathing. Nearly 40 minutes after Azucena was taken into custody, paramedics arrived and tried to revive him before taking him to a hospital. Doctors there tried for a few more hours before declaring him dead. Although blood tests revealed methamphetamine in Azucena's system, county coroner's officials concluded from an autopsy that asthma probably killed him. They classified the death as an accident. joel.rubin@latimes.com Twitter: @joelrubin
It sounds like Dear Abby has become a spokesperson for the Church Lady. Sorry Dear Abby, just because old farts have the same sexual desires as young farts doesn't make them dirty old men. Rape always has been wrong and should be wrong. But other then that there is nothing wrong with sex. Well make that safe sex. http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby Girl Suspects Her Grandpa Has Become a Dirty Old Man Aug 23, 2014 Dear Abby by Abigail Van Buren DEAR ABBY: I am a 12-year-old girl, and my grandpa is 75. I love him very much, but I have noticed lately that he stares at women's breasts when they are jogging, and he smiles when a gust of wind blows a girl's skirt up. This embarrasses me, and I am embarrassed for him. He must have realized it by now. Is my grandpa a creepy, dirty old man? I hope it's not true. Please answer this in the newspaper because I don't want my family to see it. CARRIE IN CLEVELAND DEAR CARRIE: I'm sorry, but the fact that your grandfather would be so unsubtle as to act this way when you're with him is creepy, and I'm sure it is embarrassing. Tell your parents about it so your mother or father can tell him to tone down his "enthusiasm." And if it doesn't happen, spend less time with Grandpa.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry - Islamic State extremists may have crossed the U.S. Mexico border I suspect this article is 100% BS, but it's a great example of H. L. Mencke quote at work. His quote is: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." It doesn't matter what the alleged threat is, the solution to the problem is always the same - more taxes, more government and of course less freedom. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2014/08/22/were-rick-perrys-islamic-state-border-threat-comments-alarmist/?hpid=z11 Were Rick Perry’s Islamic State border-threat comments alarmist? By Josh Hicks August 22 at 3:15 PM Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Thursday talked about a “very real possibility” that Islamic State extremists may have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, though he added there is “no clear evidence of that.” Were his remarks alarmist? To be clear, Perry’s assessment was not unprompted. He was responding to an audience member’s question about that specific homeland security threat during an event hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation. Nonetheless, the governor’s comments are sure to stoke serious concerns about domestic security in light of the recent atrocities committed by the Islamic State (often known as ISIS or ISIL), not to mention the organization’s stated goal of harming Americans, and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s description of the terrorist outfit as an “apocalyptic” group “beyond anything we have seen before.” Yikes. No one wants any of that creeping through our borders, but there appears to be no sign of that happening yet. Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon’s press secretary, discussed the issue during an appearance Friday on CNN’s “New Day.” “I’ve seen no indication that they are coming across the border with Mexico,” Kirby said. “We have no information that leads us to believe that. That said, we do know they have aspirations to hit western targets and it’s something, as Secretary Hagel said yesterday, that we’ve got to take seriously and we have to try to be ready for it.” Host Kate Bolduan then asked whether the administration has an estimate of how many individuals with U.S. passports sympathize with the group and pose a threat to Americans. “I don’t know that we have a hard and fast number,” Kirby said. “But you bring a really interesting point to light, and that is the growth of foreign fighters inside [Islamic State]. I know the British are now trying to investigate to see who this murderer was who killed Jim Foley [the U.S. journalist beheaded by the group] because of his British accent.” Kirby also noted that the Australian government recently acknowledged that some of its citizens had become radicalized and joined the Islamic State. “It’s a problem in many countries, and we face that problem here in America,” he said. ” It’s just hard to get our hands around it.” Based on what Kirby said, there is plenty of reason for U.S. national-security agencies to show increased vigilance against the threats, but there is no clear reason for Americans to panic at this point. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to questions this afternoon about whether the Obama administration knows of Islamic State elements sneaking through the U.S.-Mexico border.
George F. Will: Is the Criminal Justice Act of 1964 a failure? Prosecutors routinely use draconian prison sentences, high rates of pretrial detention and plea bargaining to flush our right to a jury trial down the toilet!!!! Last time I checked something like 99% of the arrests police make result in the person arrested accepting a plea bargain rather then going to trial. I know two people who say there were innocent of the crimes they were charged with who accepted plea bargains to avoid the draconian prison sentences they would have receive if they went to trial and were convicted. Both of those people were facing multiple charges that if convicted of would have put them in prison for 10 to 40 years. Instead they both accepted plea bargains. One guy, Laro Nicol did 2 years in a Federal prison. The other Kevin Walsh did 6th months in the Arizona State prison. I suspect ASU professor Dr. Ersula Ore who was recently arrested on trumped up felony charges by the ASU police for her initial crime of jay walking also took a plea bargain for the same reasons. If she went to trial and lost she could have received a draconian prison sentence. And the process would have bankrupted her or severely depleted her bank account. It was probably easier for her to bend over a second time and get screwed by the courts instead of fight for justice. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-f-will-is-the-criminal-justice-act-of-1964-a-failure/2014/08/22/20787016-294a-11e4-958c-268a320a60ce_story.html?hpid=z2 George F. Will: Is the Criminal Justice Act of 1964 a failure? By George F. Will Opinion writer August 22 at 8:02 PM What is called “the” 1964 Civil Rights Act is justly celebrated for outlawing racial and other discrimination in employment, “public accommodations” and elsewhere. But that year’s second civil rights act, the Criminal Justice Act, which is 50 years old this month, is, some say, largely a failure because of unanticipated changes in the legal and social context. Is it? In 1961, Clarence Gideon allegedly broke into a Florida pool hall and its vending machines. Gideon, who was indigent, requested a defense attorney, was refused and was convicted. In 1963, a unanimous Supreme Court overturned his conviction, holding that the Constitution’s Sixth Amendment (“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to have the assistance of counsel for his defense”) entitles indigent defendants facing serious criminal charges to a government-provided defense attorney. Congress responded by providing for “representation of defendants . . . who are financially unable to obtain an adequate defense.” Last year, David E. Patton, executive director of Federal Defenders of New York, published “Federal Public Defense in an Age of Inquisition” (Yale Law Journal), saying: “Would an indigent federal defendant prefer to be prosecuted in the system as it existed in 1963 with an ill-equipped, unpaid lawyer (or none at all), or would he prefer today’s system? Although the answer surely depends on many factors, I conclude that in far too many scenarios, the rational defendant would choose 1963.” Which is dismaying, if true. Is it? Patton says that federal criminal law has expanded recklessly and become too punitive. Prosecutors use severity (especially mandatory minimum sentences), high rates of pretrial detention (doubled since 1963) and long detention (the length has quintupled since 1963) to produce excessive plea bargaining. This limits defense lawyers’ abilities to test evidence and challenge allegations before a neutral arbiter — a judge or jury. The adversarial process, the foundation of our criminal justice system, has become an inquisitorial process that fails to produce fair trials. Or even trials. “In 1963, nearly 15 percent of all federal defendants went to trial; in 2010, the figure was 2.7 percent.” All this, exacerbated by funding disparities between prosecutors and publicly provided defense lawyers, is one reason the United States has the world’s highest incarceration rate. “In most cases,” Patton says, myriad factors push defendants toward “folding without a fight.” Well. Where you stand depends on where you sit, and it disparages neither Patton’s arguments nor the earnestness with which he advances them to note that he sits at the defense table. J. Harvie Wilkinson III sits on a bench — the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. His essay “In Defense of American Criminal Justice” (Vanderbilt Law Review) rebuts what he considers an unjust “din of diatribe” against the way U.S. criminal justice makes necessarily flawed but necessary trade-offs in the allocation of scarce resources in support of competing values. The system endeavors to keep the United States both safe and free by doing as much as is reasonable — insisting on perfection being unreasonable — to minimize both convictions of the innocent and exonerations of the guilty. The bedrock safeguard is the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard for conviction, which together with the principle of jury unanimity deters prosecutors from bringing weak cases. Plea bargaining is surrounded by constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and coercive interrogations, which help justify the presumption of validity about judgments made through trials. The Supreme Court has said that plea bargaining, which conserves judicial resources and involves forthright admissions of guilt, is “highly desirable.” And Wilkinson asks: Who would want to force all criminal defendants to go to trial? Wilkinson stoutly defends Patton’s colleagues by rejecting, with evidence from studies, “the ubiquitous ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim.” Several studies indicate that the talents of the defendants’ lawyers, relative to those of the prosecutors, have “little bearing” on cases’ outcomes. And “at least one study suggests that public defenders are just as competent and effective as prosecutors.” As for Congress’s alleged excessive expansion of criminal law, Wilkinson says this is partly “a response to the increasing sophistication of criminal activity,” such as cybercrime. Furthermore, the criminal codes are “democratic products” reflecting “deep-seated popular norms and communal judgments of desert and retribution.” Patton, and too few political leaders such as Sens. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), is leading a reassessment of the criminal justice system 50 years after a landmark advance. Wilkinson warns that flaws demonstrate not that the system is all wrong but rather that Immanuel Kant was right — no straight thing can be made from the crooked timber of humanity. Read more from George F. Will’s archive or follow him on Facebook.
Oklahoma City police officer rapes women during traffic stops??? More of the old "I got a gun and badge and that means I can have sex with any woman I want to have sex with" And maybe some of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our religious leaders, government masters and police??? http://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2014/08/23/police-officer-accused-of-sex-assaults-on-patrol Oklahoma City police officer preyed on, assaulted women while on patrol, authorities say The Associated Press Associated Press Aug. 23, 2014 | 1:36 a.m. By KRISTI EATON, Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma City police officer arrested on charges of serial sexual assault preyed on women in the rundown neighborhoods he was assigned to patrol — picking some up off the street, pulling others over at traffic stops and in one case taking a woman to a nearby school, police documents show. Former star football player Daniel Ken Holtzclaw, 27, raped one woman and either fondled others or forced them to expose themselves, investigators said Friday. He made others perform sex acts on him. Three were assaulted in his car and one was taken to a school in the Spring Lake Division where he worked, according to the affidavit. And police said there could be more victims than the seven already identified. "They're retracing all of his contacts, as many as they can, especially traffic stops," said police spokesman Capt. Dexter Nelson. The investigation began — and Holtzclaw was immediately placed on leave — when police said a woman complained in June that Holtzclaw had sexually assaulted her during a traffic stop on a boulevard about two miles north of the state Capitol. The alleged incident prompted police to check other contacts Holtzclaw had with the public since beginning street patrols about 18 months ago. Officers identified seven victims and eight incidents before accusing Holtzclaw of crimes including rape, sexual battery and indecent exposure. Police Chief Bill Citty published Holtzclaw's photograph with the hope that other women would step forward, he said. District Attorney David Prater said formal charges could be lodged by Aug. 29. Holtzclaw had not previously been disciplined in his three-year tenure with the department. He was being held at the Oklahoma County Jail late Friday in lieu of $5 million bond, according to jail records. No attorney is listed for him and jail staff said they could not provide attorney information. Police reports said the victims were all black women between the ages of 34 and 58, though police said it wasn't clear if Holtzclaw targeted victims because of their race. "All of this victims were black, but that is probably because the area where he worked," Nelson said, referring to the mixed-race neighborhood of mostly black, Hispanic and Vietnamese residents. Holtzclaw joined the force after graduating with a criminal justice degree from Eastern Michigan University. He was also a standout football player. In high school, he was an all-state player in his senior year at Enid, leading the team with 123 tackles. His former high school football coach, Tom Cobble, said the allegations were "absolutely a shock." "It's so totally out of character. It's unbelievable." said Cobble, who retired from coaching at Chickasha, Oklahoma last year. The Eastern Michigan football media guide in 2008 featured him at the top of its roster page — touting his weightlifting abilities and his starting in every game since his arrival on campus in 2005. He tried out for the Detroit Lions after he was not taken in the NFL draft, but he was cut from the team. Nelson said Holtzclaw's colleagues were upset at the allegations against a police officer. "Most of us see it as a black eye to our profession and our department," he said. ___ Associated Press reporter Ken Miller contributed to this report. ___ Follow Kristi Eaton on Twitter at http;//twitter.com/KristiEaton. http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/08/oklahoma_city_police_officer_daniel_holtzclaw_sexual_assault_emu.html Ex-EMU football star turned Oklahoma City cop arrested for alleged rape, sexual assault of 7 women Jeremy Allen | jallen42@mlive.com By Jeremy Allen | jallen42@mlive.com on August 22, 2014 at 5:19 AM, updated August 22, 2014 at 5:57 AM Oklahoma City police officer and former Eastern Michigan University football standout Daniel Ken Holtzclaw was arrested Thursday afternoon after being accused of sexually assaulting at least seven women from February 2014 through June 2014 while serving as an on-duty officer. Daniel K. HoltzclawThis Aug. 21, 2014, photo made available by the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office shows Daniel K. Holtzclaw. The 27-year-old Oklahoma City police officer was arrested Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014 and is being held in lieu of $5 million bond after being accused of committing a series of sexual assaults against at least six women while on duty. Holtzclaw, a 27-year-old Enid, Oklahoma, native who attended EMU from 2005 to 2008 on a football scholarship, is being held in the Oklahoma County Jail on $5 million bond. The arrest warrant -- authorized by a judge shortly before the arrest was made -- alleges that Holtzclaw was wanted for first-degree rape, rape by instrumentation, three counts of forcible oral sodomy, two counts of sexual battery and two counts of indecent exposure. Charges are expected to be filed Friday, Aug. 29, and police said he could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if he's convicted. "We received a complaint and also uncovered a number of other individuals, females, that had experienced the same thing with this officer," Oklahoma City Chief of Police Bill Citty said during a Thursday evening press conference. "All his victims were black females and they range in the ages of 34 to 58. Right now I've identified seven (women), six of whom we've received statements from and one we're still attempting to get statements from. So you have seven total over a period of five or six months." Citty said Holtzclaw had been working with the OCPD for three years, most recently in northeast Oklahoma City, and that all of the incidents occurred during his 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift. while he was on duty. "The types of acts committed were anywhere from just requiring the females expose themselves, to fondling the females, and...actual intercourse," Citty said. "About three of the victims were asked or required to perform oral sodomy on this officer." Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said he expects more women to come forward since all of the allegations only go back a few months and Holtzclaw has been on the force since 2011. "We kind of anticipate there may be more victims out there because this goes back to February," Prater said. "February is the earliest that we have here.... If there's anyone that was victimized by this officer, we certainly want to hear from you." According to a report from The Oklahoman, earlier this year Holtzclaw was one of four officers named in a wrongful-death lawsuit stemming from the May 1, 2013, death of Clifton Armstrong. Oklahoma's medical examiner ruled the death an accident and Prater cleared the officers of any wrong-doing in the matter. As a four-year starter at Eastern Michigan from 2005-2008, Holtzclaw holds the EMU record for most career starts (47) and is second all-time in school history in tackles (437). He earned Freshman All-American honors from the Football Writers of America after his first season in Ypsilanti. http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/22/justice/oklahoma-police-sexual-assault/ Oklahoma City officer accused of sexual assaults during traffic stops By Mayra Cuevas and Holly Yan, CNN updated 1:02 PM EDT, Fri August 22, 2014 (CNN) -- An Oklahoma City police officer is accused of sexually assaulting several women while on the job, his department said. The case started after one woman came forward and accused Officer Daniel Holtzclaw of "sexual impropriety" during a traffic stop, Oklahoma City police Capt. Dexter Nelson told CNN. Holtzclaw, 27, was arrested Thursday and faces nine charges, including three counts of forcible oral sodomy, two counts of indecent exposure, two counts of rape and two counts of sexual battery, according to the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office. After the first woman's complaint, investigators started looking into all of Holtzclaw's traffic stops for other potential victims, CNN affiliate KOKH said. Nelson said authorities found six other victims. He said some of the women "were initially less than cooperative, but investigators were able to gain statements," he said. Officials said all the alleged attacks took place during traffic stops, CNN affiliate KFOR reported. The city's police chief said there may be more. "We kind of anticipate there may be more victims out there because this goes back to February -- February was the earliest that we have here, through June," Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty told reporters. "If there's anyone that was victimized by this officer, we certainly want to hear from them." It was not immediately clear whether Holtzclaw had an attorney. His bond is set at $5 million.
Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski wants to flush the 1st Amendment down the toilet??? In this article I suspect that Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski really wants to protect the members of the Phoenix Police from being video taped by civilian drones. If this law is passed Phoenix Police helicopters and drones will still be allowed to video tape us serfs, while it will be illegal for civilian drones to video tape the police. Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski is just trying to flush the 1st Amendment rights of the people that videotape the police using a convoluted line of BS about protecting our 4th Amendment rights. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2014/08/22/drones-into-mind-michael-nowakowski/14440209/ Why we must protect people from drones Proposal would limit drone usage in Phoenix The Republic | azcentral.com 3:49 p.m. MST August 22, 2014 Into the Mind: Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski explains possible drone regulations in Phoenix. You and Councilman Sal DiCiccio are offering an ordinance on drones. Why now? These private drones are now becoming very affordable. Many camera-equipped models are now available for under $100. As the number of drones continues to grow, so does the threat to personal privacy. Privacy law must keep pace with technological advancements. Have there been problems with drones invading people's privacy? Yes, both my office and Councilman Sal DiCiccio's office have received calls from individuals who believe they have had their privacy invaded by a drone. Do drones have legitimate uses? Certainly there are valid uses. We want to use technology to the fullest, but we also want to protect people's privacy. Most of us have heard that Amazon is exploring the use of drones to deliver packages. Some photographers are using them for aerial shots of weddings or other events or for overhead shots of a home that is being sold. We are trying to balance legitimate uses with privacy protections, and we encourage feedback from the public. Few other cities have regulated drones. Why should Phoenix be among the first? Why not? We want Phoenix to be a leader in protecting privacy. Should owners have to register drones with the city? No. Drone owners should be free to operate their drone in any legitimate way they want, and government should not monitor that. We are just establishing that the one thing they cannot do is fly their camera-equipped drone over someone else's private property and take pictures or video. It is as simple as that. You're trying to stop peeping Toms, but you're also preparing for police use of drones. What are the issues there? The Fourth Amendment protects Americans from unreasonable searches and seizures. The police cannot simply search your backyard without just cause. This ordinance is consistent with that principle. Drones cannot be a means of getting around the Fourth Amendment. You're looking for input. How will this play out? I encourage anyone with input to please call my office (602-262-7492) or Councilman DiCiccio's office (602-262-7491) and provide their suggestions or thoughts. We are looking to take a draft of the ordinance to the Public Safety and Veterans committee in October.
If you ask me the elected officials of Phoenix should spend more time trying to cut waste and fraud. But don't count on it, it's easier for them to raise taxes. Finding ways to cut costs and improve services is a lot of hard work and takes lots of time. Raising taxes on the other hand is easy and can be done in 5 minutes our less with a simple vote. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/08/22/phoenix-epcor-water-company-overcharged/14441643/ Phoenix water company overcharged city $2.7M, audit claims Betty Reid, The Republic | azcentral.com 11:27 a.m. MST August 22, 2014 A city audit claims a north Phoenix private water and wastewater provider overcharged the city $2.7 million over five years and also passed on an unnecessary tax to the city. Officials with EPCOR Water, which sells water to Phoenix to serve Anthem Phoenix West, dispute some of the audit's findings and are working with the city to settle others. Phoenix directly provides water to the majority of its residents. However, in this case, Phoenix buys water from EPCOR, which allows the city to use its pipes to serve residents. Councilwoman Thelda Williams called the Phoenix audit results serious. She said Phoenix needs to double check any cost imposed by EPCOR,which also has caught flak recently from other areas of the Valley for its rates. "I think the city needs to receive reimbursement, and we will monitor the situation closely," Williams said. AZCENTRAL Water rates vary in Phoenix metro area The audit, released in June, examined services delivered from 2008 to 2013 to Anthem Phoenix West, west of the Interstate 17 and Anthem Way. The Phoenix audit said the city bought about 1.9 millions of gallons of water over five years.The city paid EPCOR about $6 million for the water and wastewater services. The audit included several findings: The city auditors believe it overpaid for water lost through leaks and breaks. It's EPCOR's responsibility to fix those leaks, officials said. However, Phoenix should have monitored the water loss, according to the audit. EPCOR taxed Phoenix for water resold to the residents. However, the city is exempt from the tax. EPCOR also raised fees — an increase auditors believe EPCOR failed to justify. This amounts to about $2.7 million. EPCOR officials said they are working with the city to resolve some of the issues. The city has accepted an adjustment of $5,387 for water-loss charges, city officials said. The company is waiting for a refund from the Arizona Department of Revenue, which collected the tax from EPCOR, said Jeff Stuck, EPCOR Water director of operation. City officials said EPCOR agreed to seek the refund and repay $1,214. As for the rate increase, Stuck said the Arizona Corporation Commission approved it, so EPCOR had the right to charge the city. He said Phoenix should work with the commission to address the rate increase. AZCENTRAL Sun City, Sun City West could see increased wastewater rates City officials had not raised water rates for two consecutive years. However, the latest budget called for a new tax, which will cost an average homeowner an extra $1.50 per month. Phoenix would base the tax on meter size, not water usage. EPCOR provides water and sewer services to other parts of the Valley. It has been under fire recently after Sun City West Valley customers complained about its water and wastewater rates. Earlier this year, the Arizona Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities in the state, received complaint letters as well as petitions with thousands of signatures from homeowners requesting a review of rates.
Sunnyslope High School makes students dress up like fairies???? I can imagine how this might humiliate a student who doesn't want to be labeled as gay for one reason or another. Personally I think the government schools should stick to educating the kids. Not making the kids do these silly politically correct things. Of course if I had my way I would replace the government schools with private schools. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/08/22/phoenix-sunnyslope-high-school-first-day-orientation/14436295/ Sunnyslope parent likens orientation to hazing Kyle Mittan and Jackee Coe, The Republic | azcentral.com 10:56 a.m. MST August 22, 2014 Monalee Kamlley said her son was nervous to start classes at Sunnyslope High School in Phoenix. She said she spent all summer reassuring him that his first day would be fine. "The night before, he couldn't even eat he was so nervous, and he couldn't even sleep," Kamlley said. So when she asked her son how it went after school, he hesitated, then finally mentioned that he had to "walk around in wings" for much of the morning. Then she saw the costume: pink glittery "fairy" wings and a black furry mustache. Kamlley said she's upset with the way Sunnyslope treated her son, and she likened the episode to hazing. Her son was embarrassed, she said, and added that the event ruined his first day of high school. School officials said the costumes are part of the orientation program and weren't meant to embarrass the students. Principal Steve Ducey said they've never had other complaints but called the parent feedback "valuable." However, the school has no plans to get rid of the program, he said. Whether the incident could be called hazing is murky, said Sabina Low, an assistant research professor at Arizona State University's T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics. Hazing typically is a form of initiation that is intentionally humiliating but often meant as a bonding experience. "I'm sure they did not set out to make it a humiliating experience for students. So I think calling this hazing is a little bit unclear," Low said. "This one might be a much-watered-down version of that." She questioned the school's practice of using costumes as part of its orientation program, particularly because it seemed to be mandatory for all students. Transitioning into high school already is difficult and uncomfortable for many students, she said, and something like that could make it even more stressful. Sunnyslope The black furry mustache and "fairy" wings worn by a Sunnyslope High School freshman on the first day of school.(Photo: Courtesy of Monalee Kamlley) "If they're putting students in a situation that is intended to be fun but could have inadvertent effects of having students feel more anxious or more insecure, then it's probably not the best plan," Low said. "So schools should be mindful of it. Schools should be focusing on things that will really maximize success during that transition and don't really leave a lot of room for hurt feelings or teasing." Schools across the nation use Link Crew, the orientation program Sunnyslope provides. It's also used at seven other schools in the Glendale Union High School District, said Kim Mesquita, the district's spokeswoman. Members from the Boomerang Project, the organization that created the program, train faculty to welcome students and foster a positive transition to high school. The program's website does not mention the use of costumes or uniforms as part of the process. Ducey said student leaders needed to get creative to make unique costumes for the 20 to 30 teams that go through the program on the first day. Each group has a different costume so the leaders can easily identify them. Ducey said about 575 freshmen are enrolled this year. On Aug. 11, upperclassmen led the teams of students on the first-day tour. Kamlley said her son typically remains reserved and follows rules, so he didn't ask if he could remove the costume. He explained to his mother that other students had asked to take the costumes off, but senior students told them to keep them on. At the end of the tour, the students gathered in the gymnasium for a photo. Kamlley is urging the school not to publish the photos taken in the yearbook. Ducey said the school has used the Link Crew program for years. He said he planned to work with Kamlley and her son to make sure he felt comfortable during his time at Sunnyslope. "We haven't really had negative feedback," he said. "But one voice out of 1,500 kids is a valuable voice." Even though the school has no plans to change its orientation, Kamlley said, she plans to urge future student leaders to be mindful of the methods they use when welcoming new students, especially when choosing the costumes. "It's important they change the way they do this," she said. "I just want to get the seriousness of this out so that other leaders at other schools understand they need to be more picky on how they choose to introduce the freshmen."
The murdering criminal police are not just out of control in St Louis, Missouri or Ferguson, Missouri they are out of control in the whole country. Here in Phoenix protesters parade the body of 4 Michelle Cusseaux who was murdered by the Phoenix Police thru the streets. The Founders knew this would happen AGAIN and that's why they gave us the Second Amendment. I suspect if the Founders were alive today they would consider King George a nice guy compared to the tyrants who are terrorizing America today. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/08/22/mentally-ill-woman-killed-phoenix-police-protest-abrk/14455797/ Slain woman's supporters march casket through downtown Phoenix Yihyun Jeong, The Republic | azcentral.com 8:38 p.m. MST August 22, 2014 The supporters of Michelle Cusseaux, the mentally ill woman killed in an altercation with Phoenix police, marched her casket through downtown Phoenix as part of a protest against the way Phoenix police have handled her case. Cusseaux's family and supporters were marching the casket from Phoenix City Hall to the U.S. Attorney's Office as part of the protest, which arose in part because Phoenix Police Chief Daniel V. Garcia has not appointed an "outside agency" to investigate the shooting. Phoenix Police Sgt. Percy Dupra shot Cusseaux, 50, on August 14 after authorities say she threatened officers with a hammer at her Maryvale apartment as they tried taking her to an inpatient psychiatric facility. Cusseaux, whose family said she struggled with mental illness, died a short time later. Garcia on Wednesday announced that he had asked Maricopa County Attorney's investigators to review the case but Cusseaux's supporters say the agency is not treating her case any differently than other officer-involved shootings.
GM hiring 1000 IT jobs??? http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/chandler/2014/08/22/gm-opens-chandler-tech-center-creates-jobs/14446605/ GM hiring 1,000 after opening of Chandler tech center 1,000 new tech employees will be housed in a brand new facility opening today in Chandler. Parker Leavitt, The Republic | azcentral.com 9:36 p.m. MST August 22, 2014 A mural-size photo of a classic Pontiac Firebird is among many images from the past that adorn the walls of the new General Motors "innovation center" in Chandler, but the coders and engineers who fill its cubicles are more-intently focused on the automaker's future. The Detroit-based company on Friday formally announced the opening of its fourth national IT center, which will employ 1,000 workers in the southeast Valley as the U.S. economy continues a shift toward knowledge-based jobs in science and engineering. GM has hired 500 workers for the facility near Frye Road and Ellis Street in the heart of Chandler's Price Road Employment Corridor, also home to Intel Corp., Microchip Technology Inc. and Orbital Sciences Corp. GM plans to add 500 more employees over the next three years, many of whom will be drawn from nearby Arizona State University and other colleges across the region. About one-quarter of the workers at GM's Arizona Innovation Center were hired as recent college graduates. Working hand-in-hand with other new GM IT centers in Warren, Mich.; Roswell, Ga. and Austin, the developers are busy designing software applications to boost internal productivity and improve customer service at manufacturing plants and dealerships across the globe. The ribbon being cut at the new GM Arizona IT Innovation Center in Chandler. (Photo: Parker Leavitt/The Republic) Recent Duke University graduate Matthew Nehls, for example, was sent to Arizona to work on the internal program "Voice of the Consumer" that compiles data from customer-satisfaction surveys to resolve issues and measure trends. Another new application in the pilot phase, "ShopClickDrive," allows consumers to find incentives, estimate trade-in value and monthly payments and even apply for credit, all online. GM's first Arizona IT employees were hired in March 2013 and worked from a temporary office in Phoenix until the Chandler building was ready in June. State and local governments promised GM millions of dollars in incentives for bringing jobs to metro Phoenix. GM received a $1.3 million grant from the Arizona Competes fund, and was set to receive tax credits worth as much as $14,000 per job created. Landing another high-tech employer is expected to help the Valley's efforts to recruit and develop the coveted, in-demand force of knowledge workers, Greater Phoenix Economic Council President Barry Broome said in an interview with The Republic. Because they are in high demand, technology employees often can call their own shots, Broome said. When considering whether to take a job in an area, they want to know if there are options and broader opportunities within the market. "The whole U.S. economy is moving to knowledge workers," Broome said. "Industries that don't produce knowledge are offshoring and shrinking. In our market, some of the big opportunities are in software development, web design and web development." ASU's presence in the southeast Valley was a big factor in GM's decision to open here, Chief Information Officer Randy Mott told The Republic. The company has hired 44 ASU graduates so far, which, for those interested in the oft-heated cross-state college rivalry, is more than from the University of Arizona, Mott confirmed. GM executives also liked the quality of life their employees will find in the southeast Valley, a crucial element in attracting top talent, Mott said. The automaker previously had outsourced almost all of its IT operations but more recently opted to bring that work in-house. The pivot on IT is one piece of a massive restructuring GM has undergone since filing for bankruptcy and being rescued by the federal government in 2009. Developers at the four national IT centers collaborate on a daily basis, a point driven home by the building's numerous video-conference rooms, each named after an Arizona town. A team of developers on Friday huddled in the "Buckeye" room to coordinate their work with other employees in Austin as the teams discussed the status of projects and any challenges they encountered. About half of the building's walls are designated as "idea walls" where workers can scribble notes on erasable paint. As of Friday, more than 150 job listings, including IT project manager and Java software developer, were posted online at jobs.gm.com. The company declined to disclose salary ranges for the IT employees. Other major job announcements in the Valley recently have included State Farm's regional headquarters under construction in Tempe, where the company in 2013 announced it would move most of its 2,100 Valley employees while hiring 900 more. In partnership with tech giant Apple, sapphire crystal manufacturer GT Advanced Technologies has brought hundreds of jobs to southeast Mesa this year, though the company has declined to comment on exactly how many.
Government - it's not about being a "public servant", it's about shaking down your serfs for money to give to the special interest groups that helped you get elected. In this case that special interest group is the members of the Phoenix Police, and Phoenix Police Union who will get most of the money raised from this new tax.
In most Arizona city governments, the police get about 40% of the budget. I think that is a good ball park figures for the budgets of city governments nation wide.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/2014/08/23/residents-rally-potential-phoenix-trailhead-parking-fees/14478857/
Residents rally against potential Phoenix trailhead parking fees
The Republic ' azcentral.com
Betty Reid, The Republic | azcentral.com 10:37 p.m. MST August 22, 201
Phoenix resident Anita Wallace hikes Piestewa Peak every day — at least when the weather cools down from October to May.
The 50-year-old was upset when she heard Phoenix officials might try to impose a parking fee at three popular mountain-preserve trailheads.
She joined hundreds of others in a campaign to stop the effort before it goes any further. Residents such as Wallace have blasted e-mails to city leaders and gathered together to voice their opposition.
Councilman Sal DiCiccio said that on Thursday alone, his office received about 200 e-mails about the issue — and "all but two were highly opposed," according to his staff.
The Phoenix Parks and Recreation Board will discuss the potential fees at a meeting on Thursday. They're looking at three parking areas — Echo Canyon trailhead on Camelback Mountain, Pima Canyon in South Mountain Park, and Phoenix Mountains Park and Recreation Area's Piestewa Peak Summit Trail.
The idea isn't new: The city considered charging for parking at the parks in 2010, but the City Council tabled the idea.
But now, the parks board wants to bring it back because of the city's budget struggles.
City leaders already have raised fees at recreation centers, hiked parking-meter rates and added a new water-bill tax to shore up the $38 million budget deficit they had faced in the current fiscal year.
Phoenix may start charging a parking fee at trailheads, including Piestewa Peak, where Yosef Stein- metz and son Daniel were hiking Friday. <240><131><240><8,3>
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-22/marijuana-law-mayhem-splits-u-s-in-two-as-travelers-get-busted.html?cmpid=yhoo Marijuana Law Mayhem Splits U.S. as Travelers Get Busted By Andrew Harris 2014-08-22T04:01:01Z Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) –- Colorado's cannabis industry will do over $100 million in business before the end of the year... and it's all going to be in cash. Without access to banks, owners of legal pot dispensaries have to figure out something to do with all that money. MPS International is the first armored truck company to provide security for legal marijuana dispensaries. Video by: Dan Przygoda, Victoria Blackburne-Daniell (Source: Bloomberg) America is two nations when it comes to marijuana: in one it’s legal, in the other it’s not. The result is that people like B.J. Patel are going to jail. The 34-year-old Arizona man may face a decade in prison and deportation following an arrest in 2012. On a trip in a rented U-Haul to move his uncle from California to Ohio, he brought along some marijuana, which is legal for medicinal use in his home state. Headed eastbound on I-44 through Oklahoma, Patel was stopped for failing to signal by Rogers County Deputy Quint Tucker, just outside Tulsa. He was about to get off with a warning when Tucker spotted a medical marijuana card in his open wallet. The Legalization of Marijuana “‘I see you have this card. Where’s the marijuana?’” Patel recalled Tucker asking him. “I very politely and truthfully told him, ‘I’ll show you where it is.’” That’s where things started to go bad for Patel. He now faces trial next month on a felony charge. Possessing pot for recreational use is legal in Washington and Colorado, and allowed for medicinal purposes in 23 states. The other half of the country, which includes Oklahoma, largely prohibits any amount for any purpose. Legal Checkerboard While challenges may land the issue before the U.S. Supreme Court, what exists now is a legal checkerboard where unwitting motorists can change from law-abiding citizens to criminals as fast as they pass a state welcome sign. The difference is especially clear in states like Idaho. Surrounded on three sides by pot-friendly Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Montana, Idaho State Police seized three times as much marijuana this year as in all of 2011. “The manner in which a person acquires the drug is not relevant,” Teresa Baker, an Idaho police spokeswoman, said. “This is important to know for those who may purchase it legally elsewhere, believing that it will be overlooked.” James Siebe, a lawyer in Coeur d’Alene, put it another way: “Come on vacation, leave on probation.” Fourteen percent of Americans smoke pot, said Keith Stroup, legal counsel for NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which he founded in 1970. Marijuana is the third-most popular U.S. recreational drug, trailing only alcohol and tobacco, according to his group. Majority Support A Gallup poll conducted last year found 58 percent of Americans think cannabis should be legal, the first time a clear majority had expressed that sentiment. Legalization was supported by 12 percent in 1969. A handful of states, including Utah, Florida and Alabama, have legalized use of a cannabidiol, a marijuana extract, for treatment of seizures. Neither NORML nor the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project, include those laws in their count of states where pot has been legalized for medicinal use, contending it’s useful only in extremely limited circumstances and difficult to obtain. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said last August that federal prosecutors should pull back from pursuing low-level crimes, leaving that job to the states. The Justice Department said that while pot possession remains a federal crime, the government will defer to state and local authorities as long as legalization proceeds with a “strong and effective” regulatory system. Stroup called that policy shift “an enormous gift” that gives his allies two years to prove pot can be legalized without mayhem. “We’re winning this issue because we have won the majority of non-smokers,” said Stroup, 70, who said he started smoking marijuana in law school 48 years ago. The legalization movement must proceed in a responsible manner, he said, “Otherwise, I can assure you, the political climate can change.” Increasing Tolerance Amid the increasing tolerance for marijuana use in some states, the seeds of legal conflict, and unequal treatment, are being sown by region across the nation. On the Eastern seaboard, Florida voters will be asked in November to decide whether their state should legalize it for medicinal use. If yes, they would join New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and the District of Columbia. But between the Sunshine State and that group is a no-pot land, with possession deemed illegal in Georgia and Virginia and just CBD legal in the Carolinas and Alabama. Among the 25 states where marijuana is legal in some fashion, Washington and Colorado have made small quantities allowable for personal consumption. Twenty-three of those states, including New York last month, approved its use for treatment of chronic health conditions. Fifteen states, including some of those that allow medical marijuana, have reduced the possession of small amounts to a ticketable offense, subject to a fine. Alaska and Oregon voters will consider legalization in November. Referendum In Oklahoma, where B.J. Patel ran into trouble, petitions have been filed seeking a referendum this year on the medicinal use of marijuana. A second initiative seeking broader legalization has also been proposed there. Neither measure will help Patel, who is set for trial Sept. 15 in state court in Claremore. Patel, who was listed when he was stopped in April 2012 as 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing only 110 pounds, said cannabis was recommended by an Arizona doctor to help combat appetite and weight-loss stemming from hernia surgery. Because he was prosecuted for marijuana possession in Arizona in 2004 and 2010, his Oklahoma charge was automatically raised to a felony. Both Arizona cases resulted in probation. “I was just dumbfounded,” Patel said. “I had already done the time for the crime. Now they want to punish me again.” Rolled Cigarettes Patel, a U.K. citizen who said he’s lived legally in the U.S. for 26 years, said he helps his mother run an assisted living facility and pays his taxes. He said he doesn’t understand why Oklahoma considers him a criminal for the misdemeanor amount of pot he had, described in the police report as several “rolled cigarettes” and two bags of the drug. Possession of any amount of pot is punishable by as long as one year in prison for first-time offenders under Oklahoma law. For those caught more than once, sentences run from two to 10 years. Next door in Colorado, possession of an ounce (28 grams) or less isn’t a crime as long as you’re 21 years old, and having two ounces is only a petty offense subject to a $100 fine. To the west, New Mexico allows medicinal use of the drug. Unlicensed possession of an ounce of marijuana can bring 15 days in jail and a $100 fine. Like Oklahoma, Idaho also has more tolerant neighbors, which provides a steady stream of pot-laden travelers crossing into its jurisdiction. Medicinal Use Washington State, which legalized medicinal use of the drug in 1998, made marijuana legal for retail sale last month. Possession of an ounce or less for private consumption is allowed, while smoking it in public is punishable by a $100 fine. If caught with between one and 1.4 ounces, the result could be 90 days in jail. Medicinal users, meanwhile, can have as much as 24 ounces. Things are different in Idaho. There, possession of as much as three ounces is a misdemeanor carrying punishment of as long as a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. From three ounces, it’s a felony, with penalties of as long as five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Nicolas Vieth, a criminal defense attorney in Coeur d’Alene, said Idaho has stretched a net across Interstate 90 to snare drivers from out-of-state. Using license-plate recognition software, Idaho police regularly zero in on cars along the 74-mile east-west route, said Teresa Baker, the police spokeswoman. Plate readers are used for law-enforcement purposes only, she said. Plate Readers “We have found the use of these readers to be helpful in locating and apprehending suspects in all types of crimes including vehicle thefts, drugs, murders,” Baker said. [Translation - we use the plate readers to illegally single out and shake down people from out of state] Idaho seized 131.2 pounds of pot in 2011, 645 pounds in 2012 and 721.5 pounds in 2013, Baker said. For the first six months of this year, more than 377 pounds had been seized, a 6 percent increase over the same period last year. Idaho drug and paraphernalia possession arrests climbed from 14,671 in 2011 to more than 16,600 last year. Drivers of vehicles with out-of-state plates, stopped for minor traffic violations, are often immediately asked about contraband, and not about their infraction, Siebe, the Idaho lawyer, claimed. [Translation confirmed correct!] “Interdiction is more important in their mind than their statutorily defined duty,” he said. Pungent Odor Among those travelers stopped last year was Joshua Mularski of Washington State. He was pulled over in May 2013 because his vehicle registration lapsed two weeks earlier, according to a Post Falls, Idaho, police report. “I noticed he was visibly shaking and nervous,” wrote Post Falls officer Christopher Thompson. The interior of Mularski’s silver 1996 Oldsmobile was littered with spent energy drink cans, clothing and garbage. “I also could smell the strong, pungent odor of marijuana emanating from inside the vehicle,” Thompson stated. After being ordered out of his car and handcuffed, Mularski, 36, told Thompson he had a Washington-issued medical marijuana card and a bag full of pot in his pants pocket. A search of the car revealed four fishing tackle boxes, each with what appeared to be marijuana residue, plus a small scale calibrated in grams, according to the report. Marijuana Grower Waiving his constitutional right to remain silent, Mularski told Thompson he was a marijuana grower who sold it to other licensed users, and that he had no plans to sell pot at the Post Falls bar that was his destination. Mularski “stated bringing the marijuana into Idaho was a mistake,” Thompson said. Cited for possession of a controlled substance and the paraphernalia, each crime a misdemeanor punishable by as long as a year in prison and a $1,000 fine, Mularski later agreed to forfeit a $500 bond and the case was dropped. A marijuana conviction in Kootenai County, which includes Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene, typically means two to 10 days in jail and probation, said Siebe, Mularski’s lawyer. Mularski’s dismissal was a “great” outcome, he said. To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Harris in federal court in Chicago at aharris16@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net David E. Rovella
AZ Supreme Courts uses 4th Amendment for toilet paper??? http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1087&ArticleID=135250 8/22/2014 6:00:00 AM Ruling allows search of visitors' personal items The Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) - The Arizona Supreme Court is adopting a legal guideline that says police with a warrant to search a place may inspect personal items of a person not named in the warrant if the items aren't in that person's possession. The unanimous ruling issued Wednesday upholds the convictions and sentences of a woman arrested while visiting a Kingman residence. Police searching the residence found drugs and drug paraphernalia in Alicia Leah Gilstrap's purse. She was taking a shower when the search began. Her lawyers argued that the evidence was illegally obtained because she wasn't named on the search warrant for the residence. However, the Supreme Court said the search of her purse was legal because she didn't have the purse in her possession when officers found it.
More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our religious leaders, government masters and police??? Or in this case the President! http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/justice-department-fast-and-furious-documents-110199.html DOJ told to turn over Fast and Furious log By LAUREN FRENCH | 8/20/14 4:23 PM EDT Updated: 8/20/14 8:45 PM EDT A U.S. District judge ruled on Wednesday that the Department of Justice must turn over a privilege log of documents withheld by the agency on Operation Fast and Furious. Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that the Justice Department must provide the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee with a list of documents — but not the documents themselves — withheld on the gunrunning operation. The agency has until Oct. 1 to turn over the documents, Jackson said during a status hearing. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the Oversight panel, cheered the ruling. “This administration has been so intent on hiding the contents of these documents that it allowed Attorney General Holder to be held in contempt instead of just turning them over to Congress,” Issa said. “The privilege log will bring us closer to finding out why the Justice Department hid behind false denials in the wake of reckless conduct that contributed to the violent deaths of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and countless Mexican citizens.” Issa has been on a campaign to force the Department of Justice to turn over documents and detail how the operation, where the U.S. government sent guns into Mexico to hopefully sting cartel leaders, launched. Issa brought a lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Holder over his testimony and the House ultimately held Holder in contempt of Congress. In a win for the Obama administration, Jackson did rule that a number of documents, all pertaining to how the DOJ responded to congressional inquiries, were still privileged. “We are pleased the judge recognized that executive privilege includes a deliberative process beyond presidential communications,” said Emily Pierce, a spokeswoman for DOJ. http://freebeacon.com/issues/judge-orders-release-of-fast-and-furious-docs/ Judge Orders Release of ‘Fast and Furious’ Docs BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff August 21, 2014 4:14 pm A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Justice Department to give Congress a list of documents related to Operation Fast and Furious that the Obama administration is withholding under claims of executive privilege. The Washington Post reports: In a court proceeding Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson set an Oct. 1 deadline for producing the list to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The Justice Department says the documents should remain confidential, and President Obama has invoked executive privilege in an effort to protect them from public disclosure. In Operation Fast and Furious, federal agents intentionally allowed roughly 2,000 guns to illegally cross the border into Mexico and end up in the hands of violent drug cartels. The intent was to follow the weapons, but federal agents lost track of them. The guns have since turned up at crime scenes, including the 2010 murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Congressional Republicans subpoenaed thousands of documents from the Obama administration as part of their investigation into the scandal and eventually held U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for failing to turn all of them over. “This administration has been so intent on hiding the contents of these documents that it allowed Attorney General Holder to be held in contempt instead of just turning them over to Congress,” House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said in a statement. “The privilege log will bring us closer to finding out why the Justice Department hid behind false denials in the wake of reckless conduct that contributed to the violent deaths of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and countless Mexican citizens.” http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/judge-fast-furious-documents/2014/08/20/id/589993/ Judge Orders Holder to Cough Up Fast, Furious Documents Wednesday, 20 Aug 2014 11:03 PM A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to provide Congress with a list of documents that are at the center of a long-running battle over a failed law enforcement program called Operation Fast and Furious. In a court proceeding Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson set an Oct. 1 deadline for producing the list to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The Justice Department says the documents should remain confidential and President Barack Obama has invoked executive privilege in an effort to protect them from public disclosure. The House panel says the Justice Department documents might explain why the department took nearly a year to admit that federal agents had engaged in a controversial law enforcement tactic known as gun-walking. The Justice Department has long prohibited the risky practice. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives used it with disastrous results in a federal law enforcement probe in Arizona, Operation Fast and Furious. In the operation, federal agents permitted illicitly purchased weapons to be transported unimpeded in an effort to track them to high-level arms traffickers. Federal agents lost control of some 2,000 weapons and many of them wound up at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S. Two of the guns were found at the scene of the December 2010 slaying of border agent Brian Terry near the Arizona border city of Nogales. After Wednesday's court proceeding, Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce said that "we are pleased the judge recognized that executive privilege includes a deliberative process beyond presidential communications" -- a point the department has been arguing in its dispute with Congress. In court papers, the Justice Department has said that if the courts were to reject a confidentiality claim, Congress could have unfettered access to all information from the executive branch of government aside from presidential communications. Such a development would be in contravention of the constitutional separation of powers and over two centuries of dealings between the legislative and executive branches, the department said. The need for some confidentiality in the executive branch is particularly strong in the current case, which involves a congressional demand for information that would reveal the process by which the executive responds to congressional inquiries, the Obama administration added. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the chairman of the House panel, said that the privilege log "will bring us closer to finding out why the Justice Department hid behind false denials in the wake of reckless conduct that contributed to the violent deaths of border patrol agent Brian Terry and countless Mexican citizens." Congress is trying to get documents that were created after Feb. 4, 2011 -- the day the Justice Department told Sen. Chuck Grassley that ATF "makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico." Grassley is the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. In a follow-up on May 2, 2011, the Justice Department told Grassley that "it remains our understanding that ATF's Operation Fast and Furious did not knowingly permit straw buyers to take guns into Mexico." Three days later, a senior Justice Department official informed the committee that "there's a there there" with respect to the congressional investigation. On Dec. 2, 2011, the Justice Department withdrew the original Feb. 4 letter which denied that gun-walking had taken place. The Obama administration says the privilege claim is designed to protect the Justice Department's internal records related to its response to Congress -- specifically, its work file on how it responded to the congressional inquiry after the drafting of the Feb. 4, 2011 letter. Jackson, the judge in the current case, is an appointee of President Barack Obama.
Returning Islamic State fighters could threaten USA Here is another article that seems like it was written for H. L. Mencken famous quote of: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." The only way Congress can justify giving a few billion, or maybe trillion dollars in pork to the folks that helped them get elected from the military industrial complex is to convince us that we will all be killed by sword swings Arab Muslims if we don't. And of course after they steal the loot from us serfs and give it to the corporations in the military industrial complex, they will be rewarded with bribes, oops, I mean campaign contributions from the folks in the military industrial complex. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/21/islamic-state-jihadis-foley-iraq/14408951/ Returning Islamic State fighters could threaten USA U.S. leaders consider the threat of Islamic State as "well beyond anything" they've seen. They say the threat must be handled both diplomatically and politically. Rick Hampson, USA TODAY 12 p.m. EDT August 22, 2014 After U.S. planes bombed its forces in Iraq, the jihadist juggernaut that calls itself the Islamic State threatened to attack Americans "in any place,'' adding for good measure: "We will drown all of you in blood.'' For now, facing a multi-front war and bombs falling on their fighters' heads, the Islamic State's leaders probably lack the time and opportunity to plot a strike on the U.S. homeland. That could change if thousands of fighters with Western passports return home, terrorism analysts warn. "Right now, they have plenty of other things to worry about and bigger fish to fry,'' says Mia Bloom, an expert on suicide terrorism. But "everybody's worried about what happens when these guys come back'' – especially after the U.S. bombing. The Islamic State, which emerged from the Syrian civil war, has conquered a swath of Iraq and Syria and governs the region under an extreme form of Islamic law. Thursday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called its threat "beyond anything we've seen." Many Americans have been troubled by the Islamic group's military victories, outraged by its atrocities and startled by its ability to recruit fighters from Western nations. The video-recorded beheading this week of journalist James Foley has made some wonder whether the jihad that swept from Syria into Iraq could reach America. An attack could come later from returning fighters, experts say, or sooner from Americans who've never been to the Middle East but are inspired by Islamic State propaganda. But the thrust of the Islamic State's polished online recruiting pitch is to come on over and join the fight, not to stay home and plot terrorism. In videos featuring fighters such as Canadian Andre Poulin, the recruitment message is clear, says John Horgan, a UMass-Lowell expert on terrorist groups: "There's a role here for everybody.'' Religious minorities continue to flee from Islamic State fighters in Iraq, who have given them a clear message: Convert to Islam or die. Video provided by Reuters Newslook Although the Islamic State has eclipsed al-Qaeda on the battlefield and on the Internet, that doesn't necessarily mean it's better at promoting terrorism long-distance, says Michael O'Hanlon, a Brookings Institute foreign policy and security analyst: "It doesn't mean they're better bombmakers than al-Qaeda.'' He said there are limits to what even social media can accomplish. Working long-distance, without the "brainwashing and personal relationship'' usually required, "it's not easy to get people to kill themselves, or to do something that could get them killed.'' Still, the Islamic State has given Americans a case of the jitters. Gen. John Allen, former U.S. commander in Afghanistan, calls the group an "abomination'' and "a clear and present danger to the U.S.'' John McLaughlin, former deputy CIA director, argues that its rivalry with al-Qaeda makes a strike at the U.S. homeland more likely, because "success would contrast sharply with al-Qaeda's inability to pull off another major attack here after 9/11.'' Rick Perry jumped into the fray Thursday. Speaking at a conservative think-tank in Washington, the Texas governor and possible GOP presidential candidate raised the prospect of Islamic State members crossing the U.S. -Mexican border. Perry said there was "a very real" risk its members were already inside the USA, according to Business Insider, which quoted him as saying, "There's the obvious great concern that because of the condition of the border from the standpoint of it not being secure and us not knowing who is penetrating across, that individuals from ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) or other terrorist states could be [crossing the border] — and I think there is a very real possibility that they may have already used that." USATODAY Hagel says U.S. will not relent in pursuit of militants USATODAY Rick Perry calls for more airstikes against Islamic State Sen. Ron Johnson, a freshman Republican from Wisconsin who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, has held town hall meetings this week to warn his constituents that unless the group is eradicated, it will export terrorists to the USA. "They are evil. They are barbarians," he said at one session. "If they're not conducting mass executions, they're burying people alive." You can't negotiate with them, he said. The Islamic State is not a threat to the homeland "at this point," Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told USA TODAY. Unchecked, however, it will threaten Israel and Europe, he said, describing the group's world view as virtually "apocalyptic. … This is not a group that can stop. It has to stay on the offensive." The following advantages have made the Islamic State a jihadist dynamo in "a league well beyond anything al-Qaeda ever was or can now hope to be,'' according to McLaughlin: •Veterans: The Islamic State includes experienced officers from Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime. "Say what you want about Saddam, but his military was top notch,'' Bloom says. "These are not some of the rag-tag Taliban forces in Afghanistan.'' •Westerners: Several thousand fighters may hold passports of Western nations, including 100 to 150 Americans. McLaughlin says that's the largest number of Western fighters to sign on with an Islamic extremist group. There may be more Muslim British subjects fighting for the Islamic State than for Britain's military. The U.K. Ministry of Defense confirmed to USA TODAY that there are about 600 British Muslims in its armed forces at home and abroad; government estimates put the number of Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq at 500 to 800. Khalid Mahmood, a member of Parliament from a district in Birmingham that has a high proportion of Muslims, said those government estimates are too conservative. He told Newsweek that at least 1,500 people have been recruited to fight in Iraq and Syria in the past three years. Joseph Young, an American University expert on political violence, says fewer Americans are involved, partly because it's hard to get to Syria and partly because the USA generally does a better job than its European counterparts of integrating religious minorities. •Money: The Islamic State's military advance has allowed it to loot banks, seize oil wells, extort businesses, sell electricity and collect ransom for hostages. The group demanded $132.5 million for Foley's release, according to The New York Times. "They have enough money that they can afford to waste some of it. They can keep trying something until it works,'' O'Hanlon says. •Territory: Osama bin Laden's rise was abetted by his pre-9/11 safe haven in Afghanistan, but al-Qaeda was the guest of the Taliban government. The Islamic State controls its own territory, which gives it a secure base to plan, train, regroup and recruit. Danielle Pletka, a foreign and defense policy specialist at the American Enterprise Institute, says a place of one's own can make all the difference: "Control of territory allows them to operationalize elsewhere.'' For bin Laden, that meant New York City and Washington. •Propaganda: The extent and sophistication of the Islamic State's use of social media, video and other communication tools is unprecedented in terrorism, possibly because the group has so many tech-savvy Westerners in its ranks. Its message is half Disney, half Game of Thrones. "They say, 'Greetings from the Caliphate! Come to the Caliphate!' '' Bloom says. "They make it sound so inviting.'' That appeals to some recruits; the images posted online of massacres, executions and severed heads apparently appeal to others. Given these resources, the Islamic State's focus on the Middle East might seem reassuring to Americans. But Pletka says that in terrorism, as investing, past performance is no guarantee of future results. "Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula weren't supposed to be interested in transnational terrorism, until they were,'' she says, referring to the group's attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight from the Netherlands to Detroit on Christmas 2009. ''Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb wasn't interested in transnational terrorism, until they were,'' she says, referring to the North African group's declaration of plans to attack Spanish, French and American targets. "There is no reason this is a campaign (the Islamic State) wishes to limit'' to the Middle East, she says. "Maybe today. Tomorrow, no.'' She worries about the prospect of a hundred or more hardened fighters returning home on U.S. passports with no indication of where they've been, besides studying Arabic in Cairo or traveling in Jordan. "If we can't prove someone has been involved in a jihadist operation, how do we exclude them?'' Some worry that civil liberties could be sacrificed in an attempt to keep the jihadists out. Andrew Liepman, former deputy director of the government's National Counterterrorism Center and now a RAND Corp. scholar, urges caution in assessing the terror threat. He says that although the Islamic State is a bigger threat than the pre-9/11 al-Qaeda, the United States is far more effective against terrorism than it was before the terror attacks. "We know what we're looking for. Screening is better. We're postured pretty well to deal with this.'' He warns against overreaction: "After 9/11, we pulled out all the stops against another attack, but in hindsight, it produced some things the country was not comfortable with. We need to find a comfortable place between means and ends. … It need not necessarily involve following Muslims around New York.'' He offers a grim point of reassurance to those who fear waves of returning American jihadists. Westerners who fought during the Iraq War against U.S. forces, he says, "tended to be used as cannon fodder. They didn't come home.'' Contributing: John Bacon, Kim Hjelmgaard and Tom Vanden Brook
I think in this letter, Ray Spitzer is telling our elected officials he would prefer that they just steal his money, and not bother calling him asking for his vote. Personally I would prefer to have "none of the above" on every ballot, and if "none of the above" wins I would leave the office unfilled for the term. In Nevada, they actually have "none of the above" on the ballot. But sadly when "none of the above" wins, the human with the highest vote count gets elected. If you ask me most of the candidates running for government elections are like Hitler, Stalin and Mao running in a race and I would prefer to not have any of them passing laws or stealing my money. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/letters/2014/08/21/bombarding-constituents-isnt-going-to-get-votes/14425135/ Bombarding constituents isn't going to get votes Ray Spitzer 8:21 p.m. MST August 21, 2014 In the past two or three weeks, the number of calls I'm getting on my home phone has been skyrocketing. I received 28 calls on Monday and 27 on Tuesday, all of them political, except one. I want politicians and their endorsers to know I'm keeping a record of the calls, by candidate. The higher the number of calls, the less chance that I'll vote for them. These candidates, and more importantly, their campaign managers, don't seem to understand how irritating and intrusive these calls are, and they don't work. If you don't follow political races, chances are the last name you see is the name that sticks in your head when you vote. In local races, candidates seem to have abandoned actually walking their district and engaging with their neighbors and potential constituents, favoring instead robocalls and the endless number of mailers, all of which I toss in the recycle bin, unread. Candidates who are bombarding us with calls and e-mails are guilty of being a public nuisance. They are not persuading us to vote for them. It says a lot about how little most people seeking public office care about their constituents. — Ray Spitzer, Glendale
Again, while I disagree with our government "public school" system and think it should be replaced with private schools, here are some ways to make it a less f*cked up mess. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2014/08/21/arizona-education-funding/14416229/ How to properly fund education (hint: not more taxes) Jonathan Butcher, AZ I See It 5:01 p.m. MST August 21, 2014 Jonathan Butcher: The Legislature should respond to a judge's ruling in two common-sense ways. According to Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper, money was the limiting factor for schools' ability to serve students during the financial downturn (starting around 2008), and it's time for taxpayers to pay up. Cooper ruled last month that the Legislature did not fund schools properly. On Thursday, she ordered lawmakers to immediately send an additional $317 million to Arizona public schools. The final price tag could total in the billions, depending on whether the ruling stands. Judge Cooper's decision could require more from Arizona taxpayers or force the state to cut programs. As lawmakers consider the ruling, they should simplify and improve the state's outdated school-funding system instead of raising taxes. This would make better use of taxpayer money and shift the focus of education debates away from money and back to student success. Here are two ideas for lawmakers to consider: • First, Arizona should stop paying for ghost students. Arizona schools can apply for additional funding for current-year enrollment growth, but they do not have to adjust for enrollment decreases in the same year. Traditional school payments are generally not updated until the following year, which means schools get funding for students who aren't in their classrooms anymore. As Goldwater Institute research has reported, the state pays about $125 million for empty seats every year. Traditional school payments should be based on the number of students in the classroom, with payments updated accordingly throughout the year. Taxpayers already pay more for schools in the lowest-performing districts than the highest-achieving districts. According to data from the Arizona Auditor General's Office, the average expenditure per child in a "D" district (Arizona has made it nearly impossible to earn an "F") is $11,900. For districts that earned an "A" on their report card, the average taxpayer expense per child is $9,200. • The second step the Legislature should take is to eliminate seat-time requirements. The late Sen. Chester Crandell was a visionary when it came to updating Arizona's school-finance formula in this way. Two years ago, he led the passage of legislation that created a performance-funding pilot program for Arizona schools. Instead of paying schools based on how long students sit behind their desks each year, Crandell's program based up to half of participating schools' funding on how well students are learning. -JonathanButcher.jpg_20110622.jpg Johnathan Butcher(Photo: handout) Simply giving public schools more money will not fix these problems in the state formula, nor will it help families meet the unique needs of their children. Arizona is not alone in needing to adjust obsolete funding laws. Around the country, education is becoming more personalized and flexible as states allow students to use education savings accounts and take classes online, for example. In order to give every student these innovative new options, antiquated policies like delayed enrollment updates and seat-time requirements must be replaced with student-centered alternatives. Jonathan Butcher is education director at the Goldwater Institute.
More of the old "Do as I say, not as I do" from our religious leaders, government masters and police??? While I disagree with our government school system, I certainly think our government leaders should obey law. Something they don't do. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/08/21/arizona-must-boost-education-funding-judge-rules/14391251/ Judge to state: Pay up $317 million to schools But $317 million tab presents huge financial challenge for next governor. Alia Beard Rau and Mary Jo Pitzl, The Republic | azcentral.com 10:05 p.m. MST August 21, 2014 Arizona's next governor and state Legislature may have a financial mess on their hands when they take office in January because those before them didn't adequately fund public education. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper has issued a judgment in the long-standing lawsuit challenging school funding, requiring the state to boost funding to public and charter K-12 schools by $317 million this fiscal year. RELATED: Arizona must pay schools $317 million MONTINI: Judges orders state to pay back kids' stolen lunch money The courts had already determined that Arizona shorted the public-school system during the Great Recession by not fully covering inflation costs required under the voter-approved Proposition 301. Cooper ruled in July that the state would have to pay $1.6 billion over five years to catch schools up to where they should be under the formula. And on Wednesday, she ruled that the first payment is due now. The state unsuccessfully sought to delay the judgment until Cooper had time to also resolve the fight over whether the state owes an additional $1.3 billion for retroactive inflation costs. Oral arguments will be held on that issue in late October. "They need to start giving the schools the money now," said Don Peters, the attorney who represents a coalition of school districts and education-advocacy groups. "There is now a court order in effect that requires the state to comply." The state will appeal and will likely seek a stay asking the court to halt the required payments until the appeal is resolved. But even if a stay isn't granted, the governor and Legislature are likely to push the issue off until January, when the new governor is sworn in and the legislative session begins. Mary Jo Pitzl, Legislative and politics reporter, on the court ruling that Arizona must immediately increase its funding for public schools by about $317 million. A political fight over money would not be popular with officials in the midst of election season. "We should go back and deal with this, and we should set the framework for the next Legislature and the next governor," said House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, who is not seeking re-election. "But I don't have any belief the governor will call a special session on this issue." Brewer spokesman Andrew Wilder did not return calls seeking comment. Peter Gentala, attorney for the House, would not discuss legal strategy beyond confirming it will appeal. The position of Republican legislative leadership is that the court opinion restricts the Legislature from ever being able to decrease the growth rate, even if it boosted it by more than was required in previous years. "It becomes a one-way ratchet," Gentala said. "Neither the legislative drafters nor the voters who approved it foresaw it as a compound-interest provision." Based on continued sluggish growth, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee is projecting a $49million shortfall by the end of the current fiscal year. Adding the $317 million required educational payment pushes that to a $366million shortfall. And that doesn't include the possibility of the additional $1.3 billion in back payments. The plaintiffs are asking for an additional $250million a year over five years for that. To avert such a shortfall, state revenue would have to grow by 9.4 percent, according to the JLBC. Growth has been at 2 percent. No lawmaker — Republican or Democrat — has made any public move to prepare for the looming bill. But Senate President Andy Biggs has said leadership has been having conversations. His efforts to pull back on spending during this year's budget debate and even during the special session on child welfare were outvoted. The most painless short-term option would be to dip into the state's "rainy-day fund," which contains about $455 million. But that would solve the problem only for a year. Campbell said the new governor and Legislature are going to have to work together to find the money, and he said it will likely require boosting revenue. "Governor Brewer and this Legislature have handed out tax break after tax break to these special-interest groups, and they are gutting our revenue stream," he said. "Governor Brewer is leaving office, and we are in no better shape than when she took office. She tried to plug the holes with these temporary fixes, and now, the dam's about to break." The boost in funding still won't catch per-student money up to that in many other states. Without the additional funding, the state has allocated $3,373 in Arizona funding per student. Cooper's judgment would boost it 5 percent, to $3,560. In fiscal 2014, the state allocated $3,327 per student. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a national policy organization, Arizona spending ranks in the bottom 10 nationally. Illinois was last, with $2,136 per student. Minnesota was at the top, with $9,905 per student. Chris Thomas, general counsel for the Arizona School Boards Association, said that this week's court ruling is a victory but that there is still a ways to go. "The light at the end of the tunnel just got a little bit closer," he said. Schools won't boost funding in anticipation of reimbursement by the Legislature, Thomas said. "We have to have appropriated money sitting there," Thomas said. "That appropriation has not been made, so we're telling our districts there's still a lot more to come with this in terms of resolution." He said the school districts are willing to discuss a settlement compromise on the lingering $1.3 billion question. Gentala declined to comment on the status of any such talks. ON THE BEAT Alia Beard Rau covers the Arizona Legislature, the budget and state government, with an emphasis on government accountability and public money. How to reach her alia.rau@arizonarepublic.com Phone: 602-444-4947 Twitter: @aliarau Funding How the ruling will affect school funding Arizona public schools will get an extra $317 million this fiscal year as the state is forced to comply with a 2000 ballot initiative requiring it to fund inflation costs annually. Over five years, that will cost the state $1.6 billion. Because the Legislature chose not to cover those costs during the recession, the state may owe the K-12 system an added $1.3 billion, depending on how the court rules.
Like the police it seems our Generals routinely think they are above the law and do whatever they damn well feel like. And sadly our government masters rarely reign them in. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/21/us-pentagon-violated-law-with-bergdahl-swap/14404381/ Investigators: Pentagon violated law with Bergdahl swap Associated Press 1:45 p.m. MST August 21, 2014 WASHINGTON — The Pentagon broke the law when it swapped Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, a prisoner in Afghanistan for five years, for five Taliban leaders, congressional investigators said Thursday. The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said the U.S. Defense Department failed to notify the relevant congressional committees at least 30 days in advance of the exchange — a clear violation of the law — and used $988,400 of a wartime account to make the transfer. The GAO also said the Pentagon's use of funds that hadn't been expressly appropriated violated the Anti-deficiency Act. "In our view, the meaning of the (law) is clear and unambiguous," the GAO wrote to nine Republican senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and various committees. "Section 8111 prohibits the use of 'funds appropriated or otherwise made available' in the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2014, to transfer any individual detained at Guantanamo Bay to the custody or control of a foreign entity' except in accordance" with the law. The GAO said the relevant committees received phone calls from May 31 — the day of the transfer — to June 1, with written notification coming on June 2. Five senior Taliban were released from detention at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo in exchange for Bergdahl, who had disappeared from his post in Paktika province in eastern Afghanistan on June 30, 2009. The five Taliban are to remain in Qatar for a year. Lawmakers, especially Republicans, were furious with President Barack Obama and members of the administration for failing to notify them about the swap. Some in Congress have said Bergdahl was a deserter and the United States gave up too much for his freedom. Several lawmakers have cited intelligence suggesting the high-level Taliban officials could return to the Afghanistan battlefield. The administration has defended the swap and its decision to keep Congress in the dark, saying concern about Bergdahl's health and safety required speedy action. The Joint Chiefs of Staff has unanimously supported the exchange, insisting that the United States has a sacred commitment to men and women who serve that it will never leave anyone behind on the battlefield. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said the swap in May was "likely our last, best opportunity" to free Bergdahl. Bergdahl is doing administrative duties at Fort Sam Houston in Texas while an investigation into how he was captured by the Taliban is conducted. Last month, a bitterly divided House Armed Services Committee voted to condemn Obama for the swap. The Republican-led panel backed a nonbinding resolution that disapproves of the exchange and faults Obama for failing to notify Congress 30 days in advance of the swap, as required by law. The bipartisan resolution raised national security concerns about the transfer of the five Taliban, who had been held at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for more than a decade, and the "repercussions of negotiating with terrorists." The measure also expresses relief that Bergdahl has returned safely to the United States. The full House is expected to consider the measure in the fall, just a few weeks before the midterm elections.
Personally I think it's wrong to jail people for any victimless crime. In addition to victimless "drug war" crimes that also includes other victimless crimes like prostitution and gambling. In this article it looks like the local cops are using Facebook to entrap people for victimless prostitution related crimes. While I think prostitution should be legal, I certainly think it is wrong for pimps to use slaves for prostitutes. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/08/22/phoenix-pimp-sting-facebook/14426917/ Valley police bust at least dozen in trafficking sting Megan Cassidy, The Republic | azcentral.com 8:05 a.m. MST August 22, 2014 Like headhunters in more scrupulous lines of work, the men were persistent, flattering and frank about their ambitions. And they were eager to meet with potential recruits. Undercover officers, concealed by trade slang and a fresh-faced social media avatar, returned the enthusiasm: Today would be a good day to meet. After a Facebook-aided sting operation, Valley-area law enforcement this week arrested at least a dozen men who police say are would-be or current sex traffickers looking to add to their flock, capping months of investigations into some of the suspects. The operation was the latest in what has been a steady drum of anti sex-trafficking stings conducted by Phoenix-area police agencies in the last several months in an effort to snuff out the practice in Arizona. AZCENTRAL Outreach facility takes aim at sex trafficking Police say they are pleased with the week's results. The two-digit figure isn't as flashy as the sometimes dozens of suspects that have been netted with buyer and seller prostitution arrests, but vice officers say that's representative of the business. "This is a crime of economics," said Chris Bray, a vice-unit sergeant on the squad for 15 years and with Phoenix Police for 35. "They can have control over more people. If you look at market saturation, how many pimps can come and work an area and still make money? And it's all about the money, period." Social media presence Phoenix vice detectives huddled into their iPads in a west Phoenix hotel room on Wednesday afternoon, simultaneously carrying on multiple conversations using social media. The week's efforts were part of a multi-agency collaboration called the Greater Phoenix Area Human Trafficking Task Force, and also included the FBI Phoenix and Scottsdale, Chandler and Glendale police. The prep work is labor intensive. Detectives spend weeks building the legitimacy of their profiles, friending known sex-trade workers and latching onto their networks. Once officers have established a presence, it's not difficult to sniff out who is likely profiting from the sale of others. Many will boast about the money they make from the profession, make disparaging comments about "renegade" girls — those working without a pimp — and post and comment on news clips of prostitution stings. Herbert Jones, known as "Tony Bars" on Facebook, was so engaged on social media that he was still chatting with undercover officers when police came to his door. His last post, moments before his arrest, said: "Im bout 2 go 2 jail, like right now, n imma be gone 4 a minute, TTYL." Jones recently pleaded guilty to pandering, a class 5 felony. Sex traffickers' tactics have evolved to maintain a presence with the young, Phoenix undercover Detective Christi Bill said, adding that social media websites have replaced malls and bus stops as the popular pick-up locations. "There's Snapchat and there's Tagged, there's Myspace and there's Facebook," she said. "...You know, (kids) talk to each other in a million different ways. The pimps are where the kids are, just like any other predator." Vice police attempt to evolve in lockstep. Once a detective has made contact with a potential predator, a suspect will likely begin the vetting process: He'll ask the "girl" if she'd like to leave the life of a prostitute, get her working for his team or ask if she's happy with her "career management," Bray said. "With pimps … what's yours today could be mine tomorrow," he said. "It's a very cutthroat business model." The officers establish a set time and location to meet the suspects, but coaxing a pimp into a meet-and-greet takes patience. Officers will stop short of granting the pimps any credit for intelligence, but they admit the population is not wanting for business acumen or street smarts. Like drug dealers, traffickers are well aware that police may be lurking and will often case the location, switch sites or fail to show at all. In addition to suspicion, sex traffickers are busy with other business, Bray said. Few would trust many people to run their operations while they're gone. So officers wait. One suspect took five hours to show before officers finally took him down near the hotel parking lot. "It's finding the time, and time is money," Bray said. "But it's people that are the product." A victim-centric approach Bray believes prostitution has recently become the subject of a societal awakening similar to that experienced by domestic-violence victims decades ago. Prior to law and cultural changes, responding officers would simply instruct a physically violent couple to stay on opposite ends of the house, he said. Phoenix police and other Valley agencies operate under the notion that prostitutes — minors as well as adults —are very likely victims. The profession is notoriously accompanied by violence, drugs and poverty, and those who find themselves in the life often are unable to see a realistic way out, Bray said. "Most of the adult women who have been doing this a long time have asked me point blank: 'Where were you 20 years ago when I was a child?'" Bray said. "It's difficult to answer that. We're learning." In the past several months, Arizona politicians, advocates and prosecutors have erected task forces and created new anti-sex-trafficking laws based on this same premise: extract the victim, punish the predators. While prostitution arrests still exist, various groups and diversion programs have emerged in hopes to provide the (mostly) women with the resources they need to walk away from the life. Linda Smith, founder and president of anti-sex-trafficking advocacy group Shared Hope International, said Phoenix-area law enforcement agencies are on the cutting edge of addressing the issue. "I would see that as a deterrent for the trafficker," she said. Bray said the pimp investigations often lead police to their girls. "Depending on what else we find, once we start digging into it, we will very likely find other victims," he said. "And that's what it's about, rescuing the victims."
Nogales, Arizona government is paying for radio propaganda???? Yep, that's right, here in Arizona the city of Nogalas is paying radio stations to run propaganda straight from the mouth of the Mayor. And let me repeat that one more time. I said Nogalas, Arizona, not Nogalas, Sonora, Mexico. That's the Nogales in Arizona, not the Nogalas in Mexico. It's kind of interesting because since the city of Nogalas stopped paying the radio station to run their government propaganda disguised as news, the radio station is now bad mouthing the government of Nogalas on the airwaves. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2014/08/22/nogales-city-leaders-clash-radio-commentators/14427657/ Nogales city leaders clash with radio commentators Paul Giblin, The Republic | azcentral.com 10:34 p.m. MST August 21, 2014 Nogales, Ariz., municipal officials are engaged in a dispute about free speech and journalism ethics with commentators at the city's top radio station, claiming the on-air personalities have a financial motive for a perceived smear campaign against them. Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino and a majority of the City Council members last month asked the Federal Communications Commission and the state Attorney General's Office to investigate the matter. The mayor and council claim that news coverage and commentary about city matters on KOFH-FM 99.1 turned negative after the city stopped paying the radio station for news interviews when Garino took office in 2011. Garino said the previous administration paid the station when city officials were interviewed for news segments about matters such as the city's anti-litter initiative. The radio station's general manager, Oscar Felix Sr., told The Arizona Republic that while it's appropriate to charge for news interviews, the station's financial arrangements with the city have no influence on news coverage and commentary. Attorney General's Office investigators looked into the matter, but Special Agent Andrew Rubalcava told Nogales officials in a letter dated July 28 that the state agency would not open a formal investigation because of a lack of substantive evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Garino said he is collecting additional evidence and will ask the council to resubmit the request to the Attorney General's Office within a few weeks. PNI Nogales MAIN ART Nogales, Ariz., Mayor Arturo Garino and the City Council say coverage and commentary about city matters on KOFH-FM 99.1 turned negative after the city stopped paying it for interviews when Garino took office in 2011.(Photo: Nick Oza/The Republic) FCC officials have yet to respond to the city. The notion of a legitimate broadcast outlet charging government officials for news interviews is counter to widely accepted journalism practices, said Art Brooks, president and CEO of the Arizona Broadcasters Association. "Pay per interview? I've never heard of such a thing," he said. "It's just ridiculous." Phoenix-based media consultant David Leibowitz of the firm Leibowitz Solo called the practice outrageous. Radio stations often sell air time for infomercials, but no one mistakes those programs for actual news, said Leibowitz, who previously worked as a talk-show host and commentator for several Phoenix radio and television stations and once was a columnist for The Republic. "To say to somebody, 'Yeah, we want to do a news broadcast and we'd love to have you on, but we're going to charge you $300, $400, $500, $600.' Um, boy. That just blows me away. I mean, if that's not against the law, it should be," he said. The radio station, which calls itself "Máxima 99 Uno," generally plays a bilingual mix of Latin pop music. The dispute centers on the station's weekday three-hour news program, "Noticieros." The show's hosts, Felix and Diego Diez, and political analyst Jose "Mucho" Martinez, discuss and debate a spectrum of national, state and local news, with a special emphasis on Nogales politics. The trio also encourage listeners to call in and offer opinions on current events in either Spanish or English. Frequently, the show's focus turns to the first-term mayor and his handling of employment, road maintenance, trash pickup and other municipal matters in Nogales, a city of 21,000 residents. "The uniqueness of this radio show is that we have an open forum where people can call up, and as long as they follow FCC guidelines and don't curse and don't get too crazy with their comments, they're allowed to vent or give their opinions or ask questions," Martinez said. Often, callers grouse about city government. By requesting state and federal investigations, city officials are trying to infringe upon Máxima's commentators' freedom of speech, Martinez said. The mayor, a native of Nogales, Ariz., and a Vietnam War veteran, said the matter has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Instead, he said, it has to do Máxima executives' financial motivations. The city paid Máxima $24,095 for news interviews, commercials and for entertainment during a city event over a three-year period before Garino took office, according to invoices reviewed by The Republic. Of that, $4,925 was paid specifically for interviews with city officials, notably with former Mayor Octavio Garcia-Von Borstel, who was released from prison in March after serving 2½ years on a felony corruption charge for soliciting and accepting bribes from a towing operator. During a council meeting on July 9, Garino recounted visits he made to the station for on-air interviews shortly after he was elected mayor. "When I was leaving the offices at the radio station the second time, Mr. Felix told me, 'Next time you come to the radio station, Mayor, bring a check.' That's what he told me. 'Bring a check,' " Garino said. There was no question in Garino's mind whether Felix was encouraging him to advertise more or to pay for news interviews. Felix told The Republic that no such conversation took place. "This is untruthful," Felix said. "I never say that because I never talk to him. I never talked to him. And even if I do, this is a business, you know. This is business. I sell advertising. I sell air. Not to give it away, but I never say that. No. Never." The city made the payments under Garcia-Von Borstel without the knowledge or the authorization of the full council, Garino told The Republic. Invoices indicate the city twice paid the radio station for interviewing Garino while he was vice mayor. Garino said he was unaware of the financial transactions at the time. He criticized other payments to Máxima, including $8,070 for commercials about library services and the proper use of recycling containers and $200 for commercials for a car show that was not sponsored by the city, according to the records. Garino said that he regularly discusses city news with the local newspaper, the Nogales International, and other radio stations but that he never pays for those interviews. The city has paid Máxima $795 since Garino took office. The tone of the station's on-air commentary reflects the change, he said. "If you rig and slant the news to discredit somebody just because you're asking for money and trying to get money out of it, to me, that is not right," Garino said. Martinez said Máxima's coverage of municipal affairs is unrelated to how much the city spends with the station and is based strictly on the Garino administration's performance. "What has happened during his four years is that he has been constantly aggravated that people will call in and critique his administration," Martinez said. "And he says that we are the cause of it, that we lead the conversation that way, that we brainwash the people, and that we do it because he doesn't spend advertising money with us." He said Garino and the radio station's personnel got off to a rocky start years ago. Martinez recalled a time when he asked the mayor how he intended to work with other members of the City Council and the city manager to improve employment in the city. "He said, 'Oh, I can't help you guys, because it's a global issue; it's not my issue,' " Martinez recalled. "I looked at him and I said, 'That is the most ignorant answer I have ever heard.' Yeah, I said that. He was just like, 'What?' I'm like, 'Yeah, I really think that answer is horrible.' " Máxima executives did not immediately provide a tape of the interview, which Martinez said occurred in 2011. Garino told The Republic no such conversation took place. Martinez went so far as to lecture the mayor and council on their own turf during a July 9 City Council meeting. Moments before the council voted 5-2 to authorize requests for investigations against the radio station, Martinez told the council members that he was irritated they intended to spend taxpayer money to attack the station's First Amendment rights to free speech. Martinez used dramatic flair to ridicule the mayor's contention that the previous administration received better coverage because it spent more at the station. "Well, we're a business," he told the council. "We sell advertising like restaurants sell food. And if (you) don't understand capitalism like (you) don't understand the First Amendment of the Constitution, then maybe you're in the wrong job." The council members were unimpressed with the civics lesson. Councilman Jose "Joe" Diaz said Máxima's on-air personalities ignore positive news like road improvements, youth baseball tournaments, Chamber of Commerce announcements and the like. Felix, who has served as general manager of Máxima for 14 years, said the station covers plenty of local news at no charge to the city. "But when it's political campaigns, I have to charge everybody," he said. "And, of course, when somebody needs the radio station to let the people know something, I do charge for them." He said he's disappointed that the city has spent less than $800 at the station during Garino's administration. "It's peanuts, you know, because any hot-dog stand, he pays more than that," Felix said. "Any taco stand, any hot-dog stand, he pays more than $800 in three years." Reporter Bob Ortega contributed to this article.
HP Meeting: Film - Robert Greenwald's 'Unmanned: America's Drone Wars' Friday, September 12, 2014 7:00 PM Humanist Community Center 627 W. Rio Salado Parkway (Rio Salado Parkway used to be 8th St) Mesa, AZ Robert Greenwald's 'Unmanned: America's Drone Wars' In Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars, the eighth full-length feature documentary from Brave New Foundation, director Robert Greenwald investigates the impact of U.S. drone strikes at home and abroad through more than 70 separate interviews, including a former American drone operator who shares what he has witnessed in his own words, Pakistani families mourning loved ones and seeking legal redress, investigative journalists pursuing the truth, and top military officials warning against blowback from the loss of innocent life.
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2014/08/joe_arpaios_ex-deputy_chief_brian_sands_dishes_dirt_on_steven_seagal_birthers_and_more_in_e-book_arp.php Joe Arpaio's Ex-Deputy Chief Brian Sands Dishes Dirt on Steven Seagal, Birthers, and More in Arpaio De Facto Lawman By Stephen Lemons Sat., Aug. 16 2014 at 3:20 PM I'm on deadline at the moment, but I would be remiss if I did not alert New Times' readers to an e-book by Sheriff Joe Arpaio's ex-Deputy Chief Brian Sands, titled Arpaio De Facto Lawman. Sands left the MCSO last year after 30 years with the agency, following on the heels of Arpaio's high-profile loss in the ACLU's big racial-profiling case, Melendres v. Arpaio, which led to a federal judge's appointment of a monitor over the MCSO earlier this year. When Sands retired, some law enforcement insiders speculated that Arpaio blamed Sands for the Melendres loss, since Sands organized Arpaio's infamous Hispanic-hunting sweeps. However, in this mini-memoir, published on August 6, Sands claims Arpaio wanted him to stay on. The deputy chief refused to do so, he says, because the sheriff's office was in such a "shambles," and a state of "constant managed chaos and damage control." Um, as opposed to when, exactly? Actually, throughout the book, Sands describes a dysfunctional law enforcement agency where PR flacks make law enforcement decisions, aged action heroes are granted carte blanche, and operations are organized primarily for the head honcho's self-aggrandizement. Arpaio is depicted both as a narcissist obsessed with publicity to the exclusion of all else (surprise, surprise), and an artifact of another era in law enforcement, one unconcerned about such niceties as "probable cause," which Sands claims he's had to explain to the sheriff more than once. Sands describes Arpaio as an "aficionado of procuring controversy," someone who could "develop anything into a press release." Sands writes, "Everything with Arpaio has to have something to do with him directly or he is completely apathetic." Hey, that's a shocker. Sands says Joe's self-centered attitude infects his subordinates, who cater to his whims. And he maintains that it helps explain why Arpaio's civilian mouthpiece Lisa Allen is allowed sway over the organization, despite what Sands regards as her ignorance of law enforcement. According to Sands, Allen repeatedly injects herself into MCSO operations, giving commands, and one time supposedly demanding that clowns and ice cream be provided during the evacuation of a neighborhood. Interestingly, Sands claims that Arpaio repeatedly resisted a suggestion that he acquire a pet dog, though Arpaio's built himself up as a defender of animals, having himself photographed with puppies and kittens, and making the arrests of animal abusers a high priority. "Arpaio once told me that the aggressive animal abuse image he developed was a political goldmine, as it brought a number of Democrats into his base," Sands writes. "That certainly became apparent as I would hear people say they were against Arpaio, but because he defended animals, he was great." Similarly, Sands says that "early on" Arpaio confided that "the posse was important to him simply for votes," and that it led to an increase in his political base. Whenever Arpaio needed to put on a "dog and pony show," the volunteer posse was there, though requiring non-volunteer supervision, paid for with tax dollars. The most high-profile member of Arpaio's posse is cheesy, bloated action star Steven Seagal, whom Sands has openly criticized since leaving office. Sands doubles-down on his dislike for Seagal in the memoir, claiming the wannabe cop initially asked Arpaio for a deputy's commission, but balked at taking the necessary steps to become certified by Arizona's Police Officers Standards and Training Board. Rather, Seagal is inducted into the posse, and, according to Sands, is soon a major pain in the rear to deputies who have to field his high-maintenance demands. Still, Arpaio always allows Seagal to get his way. Sands says that he visited Seagal while the actor was in Vancouver, Canada on a film shoot, and claims Seagal's assistants would respond to one-word commands, like "glasses," when Seagal wanted his eyeglasses brought to him, or "boots" to change his footwear. The former deputy chief saves his most withering contempt for Arpaio's current Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan, whom he labels a "weak leader," among other choice words. Sheridan replaced former Chief Deputy David Hendershott, who was fired by Arpaio in 2011 in the aftermath of allegations made by deputy chief Frank Munnell, and an investigation into MCSO corruption, overseen (ironically) by Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu. Sands insists that he didn't want the job of chief deputy, but he also relates telling Arpaio that he could not work for Sheridan under any circumstances. There are more serious accusations in the book, including charges that the MCSO's narcotics division allowed marijuana and cocaine to "walk" during undercover operations. That's a new one on me, and requires more examination. Unless it's something I've missed. Additionally, Sands' dishes on subjects such as Arpaio's being envious of Sheriff Babeu, skulduggery surrounding the Munnell affair, Arpaio's obsession with investigating threats against himself, the MCSO's "birther" probe, and the alleged racism of certain MCSO personnel. At the book's end, Sands promises a sequel. He claims he wanted to sever all ties with the MCSO, but he was called to "testify" by the U.S. Department of Justice, and writes that, "I suspect I will be called more in the future." I haven't been able to reach Sands to ask him about his claims, or, more importantly, why for so many years he so slavishly served a sheriff that he apparently has such low regard for. Got a tip for The Bastard? Send it to: Stephen Lemons. Follow Valley Fever on Twitter at @ValleyFeverPHX. Follow Stephen Lemons on Twitter at @StephenLemons.
Ex-Governor Points the Finger at His Wife in a Virginia Trial Wow!!! If you need help in slinging the BS call a high ranking elected official. They are masters in the art of slinging BS!!!! http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/21/us/politics/mcdonnells-trial-turns-from-state-of-finances-to-state-of-mind.html?hpw&rref=politics&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well Ex-Governor Points the Finger at His Wife in a Virginia Trial By JONATHAN WEISMANAUG. 20, 2014 RICHMOND, Va. — Beginning the political sales job of his life, Bob McDonnell, the former Virginia governor and once rising Republican star, was called Wednesday afternoon to the witness stand, where he began to lay out the unusual defense that he could not have conspired corruptly with his wife because they were too estranged to manage it. Mr. McDonnell’s appearance, three days into his legal defense, came faster than expected and sent currents through a crowded courtroom, but he was as smooth as ever. He and his wife, Maureen, face charges of public corruption stemming from $177,000 in loans and gifts showered on their family by Jonnie R. Williams Sr., a nutritional supplements executive. Almost immediately, a politician who always campaigned as a devoted family man and conservative Roman Catholic turned the spotlight on his embattled wife. On the day after his Nov. 3, 2009, election as governor, he said, his elation was not matched by hers. He recalled her yelling at him as his phone rang, with President Obama on the line with congratulations. “She clearly exhibited stress about her pending role as first lady,” he testified, saying he tried to calm her down before taking the president’s call. Defense lawyers have portrayed the couple as incapable of conspiring with Mr. Williams, who gave the couple and a family business $120,000 in low-interest loans, paid for much of their daughter’s wedding, took Ms. McDonnell on lavish spending sprees, bought a Rolex for the governor, footed the bill for golf outings and made his Ferrari available to them. The defense painted Ms. McDonnell as a vitamin-obsessed “nutbag” smitten with Mr. Williams, and Mr. McDonnell, once considered a contender for the G.O.P. presidential nomination, as at once a naïve Boy Scout and an accomplished governor too busy to notice Mr. Williams’s entreaties. The initial shot the former governor took at his wife was a teaser, devised by the defense lawyer Henry Asbill at the very beginning of his client’s testimony. Mr. Asbill then turned to Mr. McDonnell’s career and his interactions with Mr. Williams. Even in those early biographical sections, client and lawyer mustered a few veiled shots at Ms. McDonnell. The former governor spoke at length of the difficult times the family faced when he quit his business job and went to law school. He rejoined active duty in the Army Reserve, helped distribute newspapers in Virginia Beach and sold toys with his wife, who pitched in by waiting tables. After he graduated, Ms. McDonnell “was a little surprised, maybe disappointed, when she looked at the salary” her husband would be making as a local prosecutor, which was lower than his paycheck four years before. Mr. Asbill closed Wednesday’s proceedings by telling Judge James R. Spencer of Federal District Court that on Thursday morning he would be turning to the McDonnells’ marriage. Mr. McDonnell, in what could be several days of testimony, will have a fine line to tread as he tries to distance himself from both Mr. Williams and his longtime wife while still currying the sympathies of the jury. In a charcoal suit and vibrant blue tie, he was still the image of a politician, his gray hair coifed, a wry smile on his face. Potentially facing years in prison, he testified that he had given Mr. Williams “the bare, basic, routine access to government and nothing more.” Mr. McDonnell’s main task on Wednesday appeared to be showing that for all his largess, Mr. Williams received no quo for his quid. The Richmond-based insurer Genworth Financial won a $7 million tax savings from the McDonnell administration. A local brewery here got a bill-signing ceremony. The governor pulled out all the stops to help an Israeli firm partner with Pepsi-Cola to make Sabra hummus in Virginia. A DuPont battery facility in Chesterfield County got a visit from the governor. In contrast, Mr. McDonnell said, Mr. Williams’s Star Scientific company got no grants, no earmarks in the Virginia budget, no economic development assistance, no governor’s visit — just one event in the governor’s mansion, one of “300 or so” where 25,000 people were invited. “I — my administration — did very little but provide routine access to government,” he testified. But the fireworks still lie with the marriage, which has looked picture-perfect in public but is being portrayed as icy, roiled by a mercurial wife who loathed her role as first lady. A management consultant hired in 2011 to calm the first lady’s ready-to-revolt staff testified Wednesday that he had discussed reducing her time at the governor’s mansion, limiting her public speaking and getting her therapy, possibly for depression. But the consultant, James M. Burke, director of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Performance Management Group, also said he had heard nothing of a “crush” Ms. McDonnell had on Mr. Williams. Indeed, only in this soap-operatic trial would evidence of affection between the McDonnells be seen as a victory for the prosecution. Prosecutors on Wednesday tried to undermine the defense’s contention that the McDonnells’ marriage had become a sham, highlighting an email exchange between Ms. McDonnell and Mr. Burke in January 2012 as they hashed endlessly over getting her through a coming public event. “I wouldn’t be doing any of this if it weren’t for that man of mine J,” Ms. McDonnell wrote. He responded: “Ah love. It is a wonderful thing.” Mr. Burke testified that he was brought in to calm “an undue amount of chaos” in the first lady’s suite. He spoke of shouting matches over telephones while trying to stop Ms. McDonnell’s entire staff from quitting, a private appeal to the governor to get his wife into therapy, and hours coaching Ms. McDonnell through speaking engagements and public appearances. Before Mr. Burke, the defense testimony of John Kosowsky, a forensic accountant, faced stringent cross-examination. Mr. Kosowsky testified that the McDonnells and their real estate venture were in strong financial positions and were not in desperate need of $120,000 in low-interest loans from Mr. Williams. But under questioning from the assistant United States attorney, Ryan Faulconer, Mr. Kosowsky acknowledged that one chart showing minimal credit card debt at the time of the first loan, in 2011, was wrong. The McDonnells were holding more than $31,000 in credit card debt that May, when Mr. Williams lent Ms. McDonnell $50,000 — more than twice the debt load on Mr. Kosowsky’s chart. The McDonnells quickly exchanged high-interest credit card debt for Mr. Williams’s lending terms: 2 percent interest to be paid after three years, with no monthly payments necessary. And the couple’s available cash balance in 2011 would have looked far more dire than Mr. Kosowsky’s charts if he had accounted for $30,000 in Star Scientific stock given by Mr. Williams to the couple and the $15,000 Mr. Williams paid for catering at the wedding of one of the McDonnell daughters. Judge Spencer added that he could not see how unaccessed credit on credit cards could be considered additional assets: If the couple had run up more debt on the card, it would be considered a liability, not an asset.
D.E.A. Increases Restrictions on Prescription Painkillers Like Vicodin I guess this means the cops at the DEA would rather have 100 people writhing in pain if it keeps one junky getting his fix and feeling good. I say f*ck the sadistic b*stards at the DEA. Hey, only in Amerika do you have to take the prescription your doctor writes and get it approved by the police. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/22/health/vicodin-prescription-drug-abuse-hydrocodone.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumSmallMediaHigh&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 D.E.A. Increases Restrictions on Prescription Painkillers Like Vicodin By SABRINA TAVERNISE AUG. 21, 2014 WASHINGTON — The federal government tightened the prescribing for the most common form of painkiller in the country on Thursday, the final step in a policy shift that has been years in the making. The stricter rule for hydrocodone, the most widely prescribed painkiller in the United States and which includes drugs like Vicodin, is one of the most far-reaching efforts to stop the growing epidemic of prescription drug abuse, which takes the lives of more than 20,000 Americans every year according to federal data. The rule places hydrocodone in a tougher, more restrictive category, and the changes it requires are sweeping. Doctors will no longer be able to call in prescriptions by telephone, and patients will not be allowed to get refills on the same prescription, but will have to return to a health care professional to get a new one. The drug will have to be kept in special vaults in pharmacies. The Drug Enforcement Administration published the rule on Thursday; it will take effect in 45 days. “This is substantial,” said Dr. Nathaniel Katz, assistant professor of anesthesia at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. “It’s a sign of a shift toward more cautious opioid prescribing.” He added: “This will be an inconvenience to some, but policy is a machete not a scalpel and you have to figure out where to use it. I think people will be more helped than harmed.” Abuse of painkillers now claims the lives of more Americans than heroin and cocaine combined, and the number of Americans who die from prescription drug overdoses has more than tripled since the late 1990s. Prescription drugs account for the majority of all drug overdose deaths in the United States. In all, drug-induced deaths have outstripped those from traffic accidents. Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, whose state is among those hardest hit by the epidemic of pain pill abuse, applauded the change. He called the shift “a tremendous step forward in fighting the prescription drug abuse epidemic,” one that he said would “undoubtedly help prevent these drugs from getting into the wrong hands and devastating families and communities.” Still, the change is sure to draw strong criticism from some pain management experts, who argue that the rule creates unfair obstacles for patients in chronic pain, making it harder, for example, on those who cannot easily make a trip to the doctor. Other experts point out that the change will not necessarily lead to less abuse. For example, oxycodone, another highly abused painkiller and the main ingredient in OxyContin, has been in the more restrictive category since it first came on the market. Oxycodone and methadone account for far more overdose deaths than hydrocodone. Dr. John Mendelson, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and an addiction specialist, said he expected the change would lead to an increase in prescriptions of other drugs such as oxycodone, and a rise in the use of heroin, which has been increasing as towns and cities crack down on prescription drug abuse. He said he believed the small decrease in addiction to prescription drugs the changes could bring would probably be offset by an increase in heroin use.
http://touch.latimes.com/#section/601/article/p2p-81139477/ Ex-L.A. sheriff's deputy arrested in Internet child porn case By Robert J. Lopez August 20, 2014, 8:25 p.m. A former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was arrested on suspicion of distributing child pornography, authorities said Wednesday night. Lorne Reed, 32, was taken into custody after authorities with a multiagency task force served a search warrant Wednesday at his Santa Fe Springs home, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Reed's two children were home at the time and were turned over to the county's Department of Children and Family Services. LAPD officials said an investigation was launched in April after Reed was suspected of using the Internet to share child pornography. The task force includes local police officers and federal agents who investigate allegations against people who use the Internet to contact children or share child porn. Reed resigned from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in February 2013, an agency spokeswoman said. She had no additional details regarding the resignation. Reed was being held in lieu of $20,000 at the LAPD's Metropolitan Jail Division. Follow @LAJourno for breaking news Ex-L.A. sheriff's deputy arrested in Internet child porn case
Should bike riders stop for stop signs? But don't count on the logic and reason used in the following article to cause any of the laws to be repealed that require bicyclists to stop at stop signs. Cops love these useless laws because they give them a lame excuse to stop people and search then for guns and drugs along with running their name thru the computer looking for outstanding arrest warrants. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/wp/2014/08/21/should-bike-riders-stop-for-stop-signs/?tid=hpModule_9d3add6c-8a79-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e&hpid=z11 Should bike riders stop for stop signs? By Ashley Halsey III August 21 at 12:10 PM There’s nothing like the mention of a bicycle to draw hundreds of reader comments, and a fairly common one faults cyclists for “blowing through stop signs.” Not long ago somebody wrote, “Do they have to stop at stop signs or is that just drivers?” The answer is: in an around Washington the laws say they do have to stop. Today’s question is, should they? Turns out, that’s debatable. And it’s not a new debate. For 32 years, bicyclists in Idaho have been allowed by law to slow down at stop signs, check for cars and pedestrians, and they continue pedaling if the coast is clear. Treating a stop sign as though it were a yield sign now is known as an “Idaho stop.” They are illegal in D.C., Maryland and Virginia, but cyclists are seen rolling through stop signs with the same frequency as drivers rolling through right-turns-on-red, when they’re supposed to come to a complete halt. Joseph Stromberg, a blogger for Vox, explained the Idaho stop earlier this year. “While it’s obviously reckless for them to blow through an intersection when they don’t have the right of way, research and common sense say that slowly rolling through a stop sign on a bike shouldn’t be illegal in the first place,” he wrote. Stromberg pointed to research by a physics professor who determined that a bicyclist who rolls through a stop sign at 5 miles an hour uses 25 percent less energy in regaining full speed. Stromberg continues: “For drivers, the idea of cyclists rolling through an intersection without fully stopping might sound dangerous — but because of their slower speed and wider field of vision (compared to cars), cyclists are generally able to assess whether there’s oncoming traffic and make the right decision. Even law-abiding urban bikers already do this all the time: because of the worry that cars might not see a bike, cyclists habitually scan for oncoming traffic even at intersections where they don’t have a stop sign so they can brake at the last second just in case. “The Idaho stop, if legalized and widely adopted, would also make bikes more predictable. Currently, when a bike and a car both pull up to a four-way stop, an awkward dance often ensues. Even when cars get there first, drivers often try to give bikers the right-of-way, perhaps because they think the cyclist is going to ride through anyway. If the cyclist logically waits, both parties end up sitting there, urging the other to go on. In the opposite (and rarer) scenario, both people assume the other will wait, leading to a totally unnecessary accident. “An Idaho stop would put an end to this madness: the first vehicle to come to the intersection always has the right of way, giving bikers a rule they’d actually follow, making them more predictable for drivers.” Stromberg said that since 1982, bike accident injuries have declined in Idaho. And when Boise was compared to two similar-sized cities in California, it had vastly fewer bike accidents. Washington isn’t Boise, a city of 205,000 people, but it has plenty of stop signs, plenty of drivers and plenty of cyclists.
The "War on Drugs" effects violin makers and cake decorators??? Well OK, the "War on Booze" in this case. The governments insane, unconstitutional "war on drugs" had the same effect on people who used hemp to make rope, canvas and other industrial products. http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/what-do-college-partyers-violin-makers-and-cake-decorators-have-in-common/2014/08/20/405ffb60-231e-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html?hpid=z4 What do college partyers, violin makers and cake decorators have in common? The sale of Everclear, and all 190-proof liquor, is now banned in Maryland. (Scott Bauer/AP) By Jessica Contrera August 20 at 5:13 PM College partyers of Maryland, your lives will never the same. This school year, no longer can you and your roomies pile into the car, head to the liquor store and stock up on your favorite cheap, clear booze. Gone are the days of ignoring the “contents may ignite or explode” label and pouring freely into a jug of Hawaiian Punch. The jungle juice recipe you worked so hard to perfect is a waste. Because the sale of Everclear, and all 190-proof liquor, is now banned. And who, in the state of Maryland, is most upset? The people who make violins. While the ban’s intended audience, binge-drinking college kids, has an endless variety of alcoholic substances to consume, violin makers in Maryland depend on 190-proof grain alcohol to create varnishes used in making and restoring their instruments. It works like this: When a violin is chipped or broken, a new piece of wood often is used in the repair. When attached, the wood looks out of place because it has not been varnished. To make the violin look untouched, the new varnish must exactly match what already is on the violin. The violin maker must dissolve a coloring substance called resin to paint onto the wood. The craftsman dissolves the resin in Everclear because, with its high alcohol content, it dries resins quickly, so the already tedious process can be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time. It looks good, too. “There’s really nothing else that works,” said Silver Spring violin maker Howard Needham, who is hoarding the Everclear he has left. The sale of the substance is also banned in the District, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, meaning the next closest place Needham can purchase Everclear is in Delaware. The Maryland law, which took effect June 30, does not make it illegal to own Everclear, just to sell it. So if Needham and his fellow violin makers can find it, they’ll be able to keep up work as usual. The same quest is being taken up by another group experiencing collateral damage from the grain-alcohol ban: Cake bakers. Bakeries dissolve edible colored powder in Everclear, making a paste that can be painted onto fondant, the sculptable icing often seen on elaborate cakes. “I swear, we don’t drink it!” said Bethesda bakery owner Leslie Poyourow, who noted that she has made cakes for Vice President Biden, J-Lo and even Pope Benedict XVI during his 2008 visit to Washington. Poyourow said it is possible to substitute vodka or lemon extract for grain alcohol, but those substances smell worse and don’t work as well. Randi Brecher, owner of Creative Cakes in Silver Spring, said that after 15 years of using 190-proof grain alcohol on cakes costing up to $2,000, she’s switching to 151-proof, which works almost as well. Violin makers don’t have that liquor luxury: 151-proof has more water in the alcohol, defeating the purpose of using it for fast drying. Some makers use denatured alcohol, but that’s essentially poison poured into alcohol, said Baltimore violin maker Laurence Anderson. Anderson previously lived in Minnesota, where grain alcohol is also banned. He would have his family bring it to him from Indiana. Now, he’s hoping his son can bring it to him from Illinois. “I can understand why they want to outlaw it,” Anderson said. “I just wish they made an exception for people in the arts.” In Virginia, where any alcohol higher than 101 proof is illegal to sell, an exception for non-beverage uses such as for medicine or machinery cleaning, was written into the law. In Maryland, no mention of an exception or special permit was included in the ban. A spokesman for the Maryland comptroller’s office said an existing alcohol permit system made available to laboratories and hospitals could be used to obtain Everclear in this situation, but violin makers didn’t seem to be aware of the exemption. “This is the second blow to our industry,” said David Truscott of the Potter Violin Co. in Bethesda. The first blow, Truscott said, came in February, when the federal government banned imports of antique elephant ivory, a product commonly found in small quantities at the tip of violin bows. Truscott’s company can no longer purchase bows in Europe, where the ivory tips are legal, and bring them to the United States to sell. This trouble for violin makers and cake decorators is, of course, not the intention of the Maryland law. All the lawmakers wanted was to keep Everclear out of college party punch. “What we know is that if we make it more difficult for people to drink heavily, they will drink less,” said David Jernigan, director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Johns Hopkins University. The law was a product of Jernigan’s work with the Maryland Collaborative, a group of universities aiming to reduce college drinking. Jernigan said grain alcohol is the most dangerous to drinkers because it is tasteless and odorless. That was the reason that Dick’s Last Resort, a restaurant chain with a location in Baltimore, used Everclear in its “trash can punch.” The drink was a concoction of grain alcohol, 151-proof rum, black raspberry liqueur and a fruit beverage mix. Now that the bar can’t use Everclear, the punch is less alcoholic, but, according to the bar, it tastes the same. A commercial establishment such as Dick’s has legal limits on the strength of its drinks. Rowdy fraternity parties have no such restrictions. Every shot of grain alcohol poured is almost 21 / 2 times as strong as a regular shot of vodka. And that’s what the partyers will have to make do with now. Unless, of course, they plan a road trip to Delaware — perhaps hitching a ride with a violin maker.
George F. Will hits the nail on the head relating much of the police militarization to the "War on Drugs" "Much of this is justified by the United States’ longest losing “war,” the one on drugs" http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-f-will-from-cupcakes-to-the-police-fed-up-with-government/2014/08/20/8f5997e4-27c9-11e4-958c-268a320a60ce_story.html?hpid=z2 From cupcakes to the police, fed up with government By George F. Will Opinion writer August 20 at 7:51 PM In physics, a unified field theory is an attempt to explain with a single hypothesis the behavior of several fields. Its political corollary is the Cupcake Postulate, which explains everything , from Missouri to Iraq, concerning Americans’ comprehensive withdrawal of confidence from government at all levels and all areas of activity. Washington’s response to the menace of school bake sales illustrates progressivism’s ratchet: The federal government subsidizes school lunches, so it must control the lunches’ contents, which validates regulation of what it calls “competitive foods,” such as vending machine snacks. Hence the need to close the bake sale loophole, through which sugary cupcakes might sneak: Foods sold at fundraising bake sales must, with some exceptions, conform to federal standards. What has this to do with police, from Ferguson, Mo., to your home town, toting marksman rifles, fighting knives, grenade launchers and other combat gear? Swollen government has a shriveled brain: By printing and borrowing money, government avoids thinking about its proper scope and actual competence. So it smears mine-resistant armored vehicles and other military marvels across 435 congressional districts because it can . And instead of making immigration policy serve the nation’s values and workforce needs, government, egged on by conservatives, aspires to emulate East Germany along the Rio Grande, spending scores of billions to militarize a border bristling with hardware bought with previous scores of billions. Much of this is justified by the United States’ longest losing “war,” the one on drugs. Is it, however, necessary for NASA to have its own SWAT team? A cupcake-policing government will find unending excuses for flexing its muscles as it minutely monitors our behavior in order to improve it, as Debra Harrell, 46, a South Carolina single mother, knows. She was jailed for “unlawful neglect” of her 9-year-old daughter when she left her, with a cellphone, to play in a park while she worked at a nearby McDonald’s. Resistance to taxation, although normal and healthy, is today also related to the belief that government is thoroughly sunk in self-dealing, indiscriminate meddling and the lunatic spending that lards police forces with devices designed for conquering Fallujah. People know that no normal person can know one-tenth of 1 percent of what the government is doing. In Federalist Paper 84, Alexander Hamilton assured readers that, although the proposed Constitution would increase the power of a distant federal government, this government would be inhibited by scrutiny: “The citizens who inhabit the country at and near the seat of government will, in all questions that affect the general liberty and prosperity, have the same interest with those who are at a distance, and . . . they will stand ready to sound the alarm when necessary.” Not now, when five of the nation’s richest 10 counties, ranked by median household income, are Washington suburbs, parasitic off the federal government. The people who write the regulations of school lunches must live somewhere. Darin Simak, a first-grader in New Kensington, Pa., who accidentally brought a toy gun to school in his backpack, turned it in to his teacher. School administrators then suspended him because the school has a “zero-tolerance policy.” What children frequently learn at schools is that schools often are run by biological adults incapable of commonsensical judgments. “We can’t allow toxic things to be in our schools,” said a spokesman for the Texas school district that confiscated the suntan lotion of a 10-year-old who then became sunburned on a school trip. Students, the spokesman explained, “could ingest it. It’s really a dangerous situation.” Not as dangerous as entrusting children to schools run by mindless martinets. Contempt for government cannot be hermetically sealed; it seeps into everything . Which is why cupcake regulations have foreign policy consequences. Americans, inundated with evidence that government is becoming dumber and more presumptuous, think it cannot be trusted to decipher foreign problems and apply force intelligently. The collapse of confidence in government is not primarily because many conspicuous leaders are conspicuously dimwitted, although when Joe Biden refers to “the nation of Africa,” or Harry Reid disparages the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision as rendered by “five white men” (who included Clarence Thomas), Americans understand that their increasingly ludicrous government lacks adult supervision. What they might not understand is that Reids and Bidens come with government so bereft of restraint and so disoriented by delusions of grandeur that it gives fighting knives to police and grief to purveyors of noncompliant cupcakes. Read more from George F. Will’s archive or follow him on Facebook.
Wouldn't it be easier to just hire honest, law abiding cops???? Instead of assuming every cop is a sadistic criminal who needs a running camera to prevent him from beating up civilians. And of course fire any crooked cops that got hired??? Of course that something the police unions would never agree to. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/letters/2014/08/19/equip-every-police-vehicle-with-a-camera/14318185/ Equip every police vehicle with a camera Chris Lee 6:36 p.m. MST August 19, 2014 Why not a camera in every police vehicle? Wouldn't that alleviate the human element of law enforcement some? How much could it cost in this day and age to equip each cruiser with a 360-degree digital camera? Lights go on, camera goes on. — Chris Lee, Phoenix
Remember is a loved one is threatening suicide or behaving weirdly never, never, never all the cops. There is a good chance the cops will murder your loved one before he or she gets a chance to commit suicide. Michelle Cusseaux in Phoenix and Mario Madrigal in Mesa are perfect examples of that. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/letters/2014/08/20/police-armed-to-the-teeth-cant-handle-one-woman/14374653/ Police armed to the teeth can't handle one woman? Joyce Millard Hoie 8:55 p.m. MST August 20, 2014 Thank you for your editorial on the death of Michelle Cusseaux ("Woman's death shows need to help mentally ill," Opinions, Tuesday). While our police departments are being equipped with military-grade weaponry, apparently they receive no training in how to disarm a 50-year-old, mentally-ill woman brandishing a hammer. —Joyce Millard Hoie, Phoenix
Setting record straight about the Sheriff's Office Sure Sheriff Joe and his minions are jerks. But they sure are good at slinging the BS to justify their crimes. If this was 1933 and we lived in Nazi Germany Sheriff Joe goons would probably be boasting that they were protectors of the Jews. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/letters/2014/08/20/setting-record-straight-about-the-sheriffs-office/14374689/ Setting record straight about the Sheriff's Office Paul Chagolla 8:57 p.m. MST August 20, 2014 As a leader responsible for community outreach within the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, I'm defending Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his dedicated employees. For these public servants and for the community they embrace, I'm setting the record straight regarding a letter that appeared Sunday in these pages ("Republic article glossed over MCSO's bad record," Opinions, Sunday). Arizona ACLU Director Alessandra Soler's complains that The Arizona Republic, in reporting on our enhanced and effective outreach efforts among Latinos, "whitewashes" — talk about a racial swipe. Shameful. Nobody gains from race baiting. Ironically, this newspaper shares responsibility for Ms. Soler's words. It alone chose to print them. Her comments are hollow because our agency is responsive, inclusive and improving every day. New technologies acquired recently are helping us to move forward. However, we have always encouraged residents to share how we perform, good or poor. Sheriff Arpaio has long established outreach policies for the office, and we, his employees, have always had the freedom to address our community members from not only from our heads but from our hearts, too. It is our right. Furthermore, the Latino community is vibrantly represented within our office. Twenty-four percent of Sheriff's Office employees are Latino. Moreover, three of our highest-ranking enforcement officials are Latino deputy sheriffs. We are all native Arizonans of Mexican-American descent. It seems Ms. Soler is separating us and wanting to deprive us of our voices. We have turned our cheeks and are moving forward, determined not let Ms. Soler succeed. —Paul Chagolla, Phoenix The writer is a deputy chief in the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
Maybe it's time to privatize Arizona's state parks. Let private citizens who love parks pay to maintain and care for these Arizona parks. And of course only let the folks who pay to maintain and care for these parks use them. That sounds fair. If you love using parks, you pay for them. If you never use parks you don't have to pay for them. Hell, we should do the same for city parks. Only let the people who pay for them use them. That would keep the rift raft out. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2014/08/20/arizona-state-parks-funding/14361523/ You can be an Arizona State Parks superhero Editorial board, The Republic | azcentral.com 3:58 p.m. MST August 20, 2014 Our View: The Legislature has starved state parks. Here's how you can nourish them back to health. Arizona's state parks need a champion. The Legislature won't help, so a group of Arizonans is donning the superhero's cape. A coalition of environmental groups led by the Arizona Heritage Alliance and the Arizona Parks and Recreation Association is launching an initiative for 2016 called the Arizona Natural Resources Protection Act. It would restore badly needed funding that the parks lost. Parks workers and volunteers have done their best to put up a good front for visitors. But they can't continue to hide the need for waterlines, septic systems, building stabilization and wastewater treatment. The parks have at least $80 million in capital needs, Parks Director Bryan Martyn says. That includes more than $15 million in upgrades to meet Environmental Protection Agency requirements. In addition, there are requests for more than $200 million in capital projects, according to Gov. Jan Brewer's office. Yet Arizona State Parks' operating budget for this fiscal year is $23 million, or $20 million less than the Arizona State University's Morrison Institute for Public Policy said was needed in 2009 to operate and maintain the parks. Since 2009, there has been no general-fund money going to the parks. Zero. Parks don't even get to use all the money they raise from gate fees. They have to ask permission from tight-fisted lawmakers. The recession is over, but recession-era pain is the new reality for parks. The skimpy funding is contrary to the expressed will of the people. Best of Arizona state parks: In 1990, voters overwhelmingly approved the Heritage Fund, which directed $10 million a year in Lottery money to State Parks. In 2010, lawmakers took the money. Bills to restore the Heritage funds have died, year after year — even as the needs of the parks mounted. The initiative would do what the Legislature has failed to do. Let's face it, $10 million doesn't amount to that much in a $9.2 billion state budget. But it would increase the state parks operating budget by nearly one-third. In a state where the population is clustered in urban centers, parks represent outdoor-recreation opportunities for city residents and economic opportunity for rural residents. Every year, state parks pump more than $300 million into rural economies, Martyn says. It is counterproductive to deny parks the funding to maintain and enhance these irreplaceable resources. It is also shortsighted not to acquire more parks for future generations. In addition to restoring the Heritage Fund and protecting it from future legislative raids, the initiative creates a fund for parks and open space through a voluntary donation of $12 per non-commercial vehicle at registration time. The parks needed a champion, and the state's elected officials weren't interested. Now, Arizona voters will have a chance to play superhero to the historical sites, recreation areas and jaw-dropping natural wonders Arizona's state parks protect.
Which is worse an American drone launching an airstrike on an apartment that kills 10 Islamic woman and children, or an Islamic freedom fighter killing an American journalist in retaliation? While it isn't right for an Islamic freedom fighter to kill innocent civilians, the American governments unprovoked invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq which murdered 100,000 of thousands of innocent civilians are just as wrong. Or maybe 100,000 times more wrong. My view of Senator John McCain is that he is military nut job, who's solution to any problem is an American military raid or bombing. http://www.azcentral.com/story/azdc/2014/08/19/mccain-journalist-james-wright-foley-beheading-obama/14315881/ McCain: Beheading video shows "unbelievable cruelty" Dan Nowicki, The Republic | azcentral.com 6:56 p.m. MST August 19, 2014 Sen. John McCain on Tuesday continued his criticism of President Barack Obama's record on Iraq and Syria following the release of a startling video that appeared to show a militant from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria beheading captured U.S. journalist James Wright Foley. "It's just horrible. This is the most vicious terrorist organization that we've ever encountered," McCain, R-Ariz., told The Arizona Republic. "This president has ignored the threat for a long period of time, and now we're paying the price." While Obama has authorized some military action against ISIS, including airstrikes, it is insufficient and inevitably the United States will have to escalate, McCain said. ISIS has now grown into the world's largest and richest terror organization that boasts "a huge inventory of American equipment that they captured from the Iraqis," he said. "The more he (Obama) delays and the more he acts incrementally, the more ISIS adjusts and the more difficult they will become," McCain said. "And one of the decisions that he has to make is to attack ISIS in Syria because they are moving the captured equipment there and they are fighting there and their enclaves are there. They have erased the border between Iraq and Syria. They are now an enclave larger than Indiana." ISIS has earned a reputation for brutality in Iraq. According to the video, Foley, a photographer kidnapped in 2012, was killed in retaliation for the U.S. airstrikes against ISIS. "It brings home even more graphically the unbelievable cruelty of this enemy," McCain said of the ISIS murder video, which was titled "A Message to America." "Hopefully, it gives us more of a wake-up call." McCain, who serves on the Senate's armed services, homeland security and foreign relations committees, is on ISIS' radar. Last month, the ISIS propaganda magazine Dabiq dubbed the senator "the enemy" and a "crusader." Nowicki is The Republic's national political writer. Follow him on Twitter at @dannowicki.
Ex- Texas sheriff gets 30 days for oppression I think the drug busts mentions near the end of this article were when cops were framing Black men for having cocaine. The cocaine later turned up to be dry wall, sheet rock or gypsum which the cops were crushing into a powder and planting on the Black men they framed. In most modern homes and apartments, dry wall or sheet rock is the stuff your walls are made of. It's gypsum wrapped in paper. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/19/sheriff-prison-oppression/14298289/ Ex- Texas sheriff gets 30 days for oppression Associated Press 12:40 p.m. MST August 19, 2014 CANYON, Texas — A former West Texas sheriff accused of making improper advances to a female county worker must serve 30 days in jail for misdemeanor official oppression. Ex-Swisher County Sheriff Emmett Benavidez of Tulia pleaded guilty Monday in Canyon, about 25 miles south of Amarillo. Benavidez, 65, will be allowed to serve the Randall County jail term on weekends, starting Friday, as part of the plea agreement. Prosecutors say Benavidez in 2011 sexually harassed a former Swisher County worker while he was on official business in neighboring Randall County. He resigned amid the investigation. Randall County District Attorney James Farren said Tuesday that the woman videotaped the incident with her phone. He said it happened during daylight hours in a vehicle and that his office was able to verify the offense took place in Randall County by identifying landmarks that appeared in the video's background. "We had a lot of evidence for the event that occurred in Randall County," Farren said. "That's pretty stout." Benavidez also was sentenced to a year of probation, fined $500 and must complete 30 hours of community service. He's also required to attend a course on making rational decisions. In February, the worker and another former Swisher County female employee reached a settlement with Benavidez over sexual harassment. The civil suit alleged that Benavidez fondled himself in front of them and that a Swisher County judge retaliated against them for reporting the incidents. The suit was later amended to include alleged retaliation by Benavidez's successor. Benavidez, his successor and the judge denied the allegations. The $300,000 settlement dismissed all claims against the successor and judge, the women's attorney, Rob Hogan, told the Amarillo Globe-News at the time. Tulia, about 75 miles north of Lubbock, was the site of scores of arrests during drug busts in 1999 that gained international attention. The undercover drug agent who built cases against the 46 people who mostly were black was discredited and sentenced to probation for 10 years after a jury found he falsely testified in a hearing. In 2003, Gov. Rick Perry pardoned 35 of 38 who went to trial or accepted plea agreements.
Lazy cops don't want to work???? Well, I would rather have these lazy pigs being paid to sit at home and goof off rather then seing them arrest people for the victimless crime of smoking marijuana. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/peoria/2014/08/20/peoria-police-insurance/14338371/ Peoria officers air workers' comp grievances Matthew Casey, The Republic | azcentral.com 9:27 a.m. MST August 20, 2014 Two Peoria police officers say a city-contracted insurance company unjustly denied their workers' compensation claims after they were injured while on duty and that department administrators pressured one man to return to full duty before he healed completely. Officers Adam Miller and Tomoki Scheideman spoke out against Pinnacle Risk Management Services at an Aug. 7 press conference The men, who suffered injuries in separate incidents, said they are still unable to return to full duty and would like to open a dialogue with the city and the insurance company. Peoria is self-insured, city spokesman Bo Larsen said. It uses Pinnacle Risk Management Services, a third-party administrator, to manage claims. The city did not play a role in the decisions made regarding Miller and Scheideman, he said, and six out of 101 workers' compensation claims made by city employees were denied between July 1, 2013, and June 30, 2014. "The police union helped select that organization," he said. "We work with that company very closely, but it is their decision on (workers' compensation claims). Then we work with the employee to get back to work as soon as possible when they're healthy." Pinnacle Risk Management Services did not respond to a request for comment. Both officers have filed appeals with the Industrial Commission of Arizona, Michael Faith, president of Peoria Police Officers Association, said. Their hearings are scheduled for October and resolution isn't expected until 2015, Faith said. "Eight months without a paycheck or having to have sick time donated to them is a huge mental stress," Faith said. "I think we need to have a positive resolution here for all parties involved. That's all we want." Miller, who has worked more than eight years at the department, said the department has pressured him to return to active duty. He said Chief Roy Minter recently refused to allow him to continue on light duty despite his not having healed from a spinal injury and burns he suffered in a November squad-car accident with a driver who had a suspended license and failed to yield. "In my opinion, Police Chief Minter has made these decisions in order to manipulate me to return to full duty before I am medically ready, or to quit my job," Miller said. Miller said Pinnacle Risk Management Services stopped workers' compensation benefits after he sought an outside opinion when a doctor chosen by the insurance company said he believed Miller embellished his injuries and a psychological evaluation said his personality inclined him to downplay them. The conflicting opinions spurred Miller to seek an opinion from a third-party medical professional who concluded Miller is a liability and not fit for full duty, he said. In a statement issued after the press conference, Minter said, "Public safety is and always has been our No. 1 priority in the city of Peoria. Any assertion that officers are being forced to return to duty when they are not 100 percent is not true." Scheideman, who has worked nine years at the department, said he broke a vertebra while on duty in April, but Pinnacle Risk Management Services denied his workers' compensation claim because of a pre-existing condition. In 2009, doctors diagnosed Scheideman with celiac sprue disease, an intestinal disorder resulting from gluten consumption. He discontinued a gluten-free diet in 2013 due to a lack of symptoms. Scheideman said he thought he might have been experiencing a celiac episode in April when he drove himself to a fire station — one of the last things he remembers before waking up in the hospital — but he's found no evidence celiac sprue disease causes people to faint or black out. Scheideman said firefighters told him they found him in a hallway "with the right side of my head pressed against the wall vertically and my body horizontal on the floor." He said he has spent the last three months in a neck-brace and is now on light duty. Claims by Peoria workers Workers' compensation claims denied and the total number made for July 1, 2013-June 30, 2014: Police Department — 2 out of 35 (about 6 percent) denied. Fire Department — 1 out of 23 (about 4 percent) denied. Public Works-Utilities — 1 out of 19 (about 5 percent) denied. Community Services — 2 out of 18 (11 percent) denied All other departments — 0 of 6 claims denied. Source: city of Peoria
When ever a cop murders somebody with a gun it's always assumed that the cop was in the right and he legally murdered the person in self defense. Sadly when a civilian uses a gun in self defense the cops and prosecutors almost always assume the person is guilty of murder or some other crime and that the person is guilty till proven innocent. Sadly our government masters don't like people who exercise their 2nd Amendment rights by owning our using guns. The Founders didn't give us the 2nd Amendment so we could go rabbit hunting and target shooting. The Founders gave us the 2nd Amendment so we could defend ourselves against government tyrants. And that's probably why our government masters dislike people who own or use guns. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/08/21/brothers-finally-cleared-case-dogged-misconduct/14375609/ Brothers finally cleared in case dogged by misconduct Michael Kiefer, The Republic | azcentral.com 9:56 p.m. MST August 20, 2014 Jonathon Mena Cobian and his half-brother John Mitchell Mena stood down a carful of gang members in 2007. The brothers opened fire after they say the gangsters attacked them, and by the time they stopped shooting, three gang members were dead and three were wounded. Over the next seven years, the brothers claimed self-defense, and their attorneys tussled with prosecutors over 911 calls made by Cobian during two encounters with the gang. Four times, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office tried to charge the brothers with first-degree murder, and four times judges said no. One judge found the prosecutor had committed misconduct. On Aug. 12, a Superior Court jury acquitted Cobian, 27, and Mena, 25, of several murder and aggravated-assault counts and deadlocked on the rest. 911 calls sway jurors in brothers' Phoenix murder trial County Attorney Bill Montgomery said last week that he was unsure whether to retry the brothers on the deadlocked verdicts, which included two charges of second-degree murder. On Wednesday, those counts were dismissed without prejudice because "the state cannot proceed to trial at this time, based on the availability of evidence," according to the motion to dismiss. "Without prejudice" means that prosecutors can refile charges later. The brothers were understandably elated. "I've waited for this for the last seven years," Cobian said. Mena agreed, calling them "seven excruciating years." John Canby, the lead defense attorney for Cobian, said, "I'm glad the County Attorney's Office made the right decision and finally ended the ordeal for these guys." There was no comment from the prosecutor's office. A former prosecutor on the case was found to have committed prosecutorial misconduct for ignoring judges' orders to inform three different grand juries that 911 tapes made at the time of the attacks were potentially exculpatory and that the defense attorneys wanted them to listen to them. Those calls ultimately saved the brothers from conviction. In June 2007, Cobian was at his mother's house in west Phoenix when a group of gang members came looking for Mena, who was not there. Cobian tussled with the group outside the house, and they threatened to return. Cobian's youngest brother called 911 and passed the phone to Cobian, who reported the incident. A Phoenix police officer informed Cobian that he would be within his rights to arm himself. Cobian went to pick up Mena — and his own weapons — and returned to his mother's house just as the gang members returned. During the ensuing confrontation, Cobian and Mena both fired on the gangsters, who they claimed were attacking them. No weapons were found on the victims. Agustin Hernandez, 17, Miguel Rodriguez, 20, and Alejandro Hernandez, 18, died in the fusillade. Three others were wounded, two escaped harm. Cobian called 911 again and pleaded with the operator to send an ambulance for the victims and police to protect them from the gang members. Four months later, in October 2007, Cobian and Mena were charged with first-degree murder. But the grand-jury indictments were thrown out because the prosecutor had not played the 911 tapes. The County Attorney's Office went back to the grand jury a second time in September 2008, according to court records, and again ignored the defense request to play the 911 tapes. Again the indictments were thrown out, this time by another judge. The prosecutor then refiled the case under a different cause number, ostensibly to get it before a different judge, but the court would not allow it to go forward. It went to the grand jury in March 2009, and the prosecutor, Eric Basta, argued he had no duty to tell the grand jury the calls were exculpatory or that the defense wanted them played. Superior Court Judge George Foster threw out the indictments and wrote, "The court finds such an argument to be disingenuous. The 911 tapes contain evidence that is clearly exculpatory and the prosecutor should have informed the grand jury of the exculpatory evidence and the defendant's request that the grand jury hear the tapes." Foster found Basta to have committed prosecutorial misconduct. But instead of taking the case back to a grand jury, prosecutors took it before another judge to see if he would find probable cause for first-degree murder. He did not, and the case went forward as second-degree murder. Then it mired again because prosecutors balked at turning over the prior police and court records of the victims. The Arizona Court of Appeals ordered that they must. The case finally went to trial in late April before Judge Scott McCoy, with new prosecutors, Hillary Weinberg and Keli Luther. The 911 calls figured prominently in the case. On Aug. 12, the jury came back with split verdicts. Cobian was found not guilty of one murder count and four counts of aggravated assault. The jury deadlocked on two murder charges and a weapons charge. Mena was found not guilty of one count of aggravated assault; the jury deadlocked on a second aggravated-assault charge and a weapons charge. On Wednesday, the prosecutors moved to dismiss the deadlocked charges. McCoy signed the order. The brothers went home.
This article seems to say Nazi thug and disbarred attorney and former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas doesn't like Spanish stuff. But it doesn't get into the details. All I can say is "Chingate Andrew Thomas" http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/08/20/andrew-thomas-spanish-univision-forum-damaging-nation/14366901/ Thomas: Spanish-language forum 'damaging to our nation' Mark Olalde, The Republic | azcentral.com 8:46 p.m. MST August 20, 2014 Editor's Note: The story has been updated with new information on Ducey's absence from the event. A depleted gubernatorial panel took the floor in Wednesday night's gubernatorial forum sponsored by Univision Arizona and the LIBRE Initiative. Republican front-runner Doug Ducey claimed yet another scheduling conflict. Border-security champion Andrew Thomas declined his invitation, taking issue with the debate's focus on Latino issues. Frank Riggs also was not in attendance as he had a campaign event in Snowflake. Both his campaign and event sponsors confirmed a mix-up in communication led to his absence. Thomas took to Twitter to call the debate "balkanizing," and he posted to Facebook the text of an e-mail he sent to Stephen Viramontes, LIBRE's Arizona field director. LIBRE is a non-profit, which has a mission of bringing conservative ideas to Hispanic-American communities. "I am declining to participate in your debate," Thomas wrote. "I believe it is wrong and damaging to our nation to conduct a forum that expressly caters to one racial or ethnic group only. This is particularly true when the debate is to be broadcast to the voters by a media outlet that speaks only Spanish, as Arizona is an Official English state." The debate was translated into Spanish and broadcast by Univision. Event sponsors said it was the first of its kind in Arizona. The invitation-only event opened with a meet-and-greet with Latino business, religious and community leaders. Thomas supporters on Facebook praised his position on the event. Some argued anyone who doesn't speak English should leave the country, several called the sponsor organizations "racist" and many praised Thomas for refusing to speak to only one group of Arizonas without simultaneously addressing the entire state. One supporter wrote to Thomas: "Love you decisiin. [sic]" Thomas, the former Maricopa County attorney who was disbarred for unethical behavior, continues to defend himself against allegations of racism. Those allegations heightened when he unveiled a border security plan, which mapped out the "Patton Line" fencing up to 200 miles of southern Arizona out of the U.S. Viramontes said he was disappointed Thomas chose not to participate. "Latinos make up one-third of the state, of which two-thirds speak Spanish. With such a large and important constituency, it's disappointing that any candidate for statewide office would not want to share their vision to a captive audience," he said. Viramontes said earlier Wednesday that Ducey had tentatively agreed to the debate weeks ago but backed out Monday, citing a prior engagement. Ducey's campaign said they never committed to attend the event. Viramontes called the Republic late Wednesday to say he had confused Ducey, Riggs and Thomas, and that Ducey had never promised to participate. Ducey has come under fire from opponents for missing a number of candidate forums in recent weeks, several of them on short notice. He also missed Tuesday's League of Arizona Cities and Towns debate, which was held in downtown Phoenix and attended by all five other GOP candidates and Democrat Fred DuVal. Ducey's campaign said the last two weeks in the primary had been scheduled for "weeks, if not months," and Ducey was in Tucson on Wednesday night. |
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