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Former Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman has a big lie on his campaign signs which says something like he will balance the budget if elected to the job of Arizona Treasurer. The only problem with that lie is the Arizona Treasurer doesn't balance the budget. That is the job of the Arizona House and Senate. While former Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman doesn't seem to have a problem with telling lies himself he is seeming to have a hussy fit when his opponents lie in their campaigns. Sadly most politic ans are pathological liars and will say anything to get elected. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/08/01/arizona-state-treasurer-campaign-gets-nasty/13449421/ State treasurer campaign gets nasty Alia Beard Rau, The Republic | azcentral.com 9:39 p.m. MST July 31, 2014 The three-way Republican primary race for treasurer is getting nasty as early voting kicks off for the Aug. 26 primary. Former Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman has filed a complaint with the Secretary of State's Office, alleging that opponent and former Arizona Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen illegally used the state seal in a campaign mailer. Hallman has also released an ad and new website attacking activities of Pullen and opponent Jeff DeWit as "risky business." Pullen's mailer, sent out over the past few days, includes a photo of Pullen with Gov. Jan Brewer. The seal is displayed to the right of the photo in the background with words over the top. State statute requires approval from the Secretary of State's Office to use the state seal. Knowingly using the seal without permission is a misdemeanor. The Secretary of State's Office is investigating Hallman's complaint. According to spokeswoman Kim Crawford, no campaign this cycle has requested to use the seal. "Even if we had had a request, it would be highly irregular for one to be approved for campaign purposes," Crawford said. "Usually, permission is only given to a state agency ... or like if a legislator wanted to use it on a business card." Hallman, in a statement, said Pullen's use of the seal was misleading, giving the impression that the mailer is somehow officially sanctioned by the state. "We certainly feel that the Pullen campaign should stop using the state seal immediately and should apologize for what appears to be a violation of state law," Hallman said. Pullen said that he hadn't yet heard about the complaint and that the mailer was created by his campaign consulting company HighGround. Ryan Smith of HighGround said the mailer was intended to communicate Brewer's endorsement of Pullen and nothing else. "Certainly, it wasn't for any nefarious or mal-intentioned purpose other than just to communicate that the governor has endorsed Randy," Smith said. Pullen dismissed other allegations Hallman makes in a new ad and on riskybusinessforaz .com. The website compares Pullen and DeWit to the Tom Cruise character in the movie "Risky Business." It mentions a Federal Elections Commission report that determined the state Republican Party misstated its financial activity while Pullen was chairman. "It's just political noise," Pullen said. "He (Hallman) has nothing good to talk about. He's a lawyer; he doesn't have a financial background." Hallman also questions activities by employees of DeWit's former company, Echotrade. The company was fined $100,000 in 2010 for violating Nasdaq exchange rules. Employees were fined for other violations. Media and court documents also show that individuals associated with Echotrade were convicted as part of an insider-trading ring. DeWit and his attorneys have sent Hallman a letter demanding that he remove or change some of the information or face a lawsuit. "What Hallman seems to like to do is take one thing and twist it into something else," DeWit said. "He says I ran a risky day-trading website, which I did not do." DeWit said the $100,000 fine was based on the actions of one individual among the company's more than 600 traders and the subjective opinion of the exchange. He said that only one of those convicted in the insider-trading ring had actually been working at Echotrade and that all the activities occurred before he came to the firm. The employee was fired as soon as Echotrade found out about the investigation, DeWit said. "In business, not everything goes perfect, but these are learning experiences. That's what I bring with me," DeWit said. "Nothing ever happened twice at Echotrade. I know so much about this business, and I know how to supervise people that conduct trades."
What's a 10 foot tall border fence mean to a dope smuggler?? An 11 foot tall ladder. What's a 20 foot tall border fence mean to a dope smuggler?? A 21 foot tall ladder. OK, you get the picture. Ain't no way to stop drugs at the border. We have been losing the "War on Drugs" since the 1914 Harrison Tax Act and the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act were passed and we ain't going to start winning it any time soon. It's time to re-legalize all drugs. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2014/07/30/smugglers-border-fence-arizona/13371907/ Smugglers cut through border fence in Ariz. Associated Press 12:31 p.m. MST July 30, 2014 TUCSON — The U.S. Border Patrol has another gap in the border fence on its hands. On Saturday, agents discovered a garage-sized hole through a steel fence that divides the United States and Mexico just east of Nogales, Arizona. On Sunday, they found that runoff water from rainstorms during the weekend had also knocked down 60 feet of the rebar-reinforced steel fence just west of the Nogales-Mariposa Port of Entry near Interstate 19 in Nogales. That fence stood between 18 and 26 feet high and extended at least 7 feet underground. The Border Patrol says it is working on repairs for both fences and has agents monitoring the areas. "Smugglers often attempt to cut border fences; dig under them; climb over them; and even throw things over the fence," Border Patrol spokeswoman Nicole Ballistrea said in a written statement. "As the Tucson Sector continues to improve deterrence efforts along the border, smuggling organizations are finding it more difficult to move their illicit goods into the interior of the United States. Fencing infrastructure gives Border Patrol agents the time they need to stop illegal cross-border activity." The storms that caused the fencing to topple began Friday in Sonora, Mexico, and resumed Saturday night until Sunday morning, when debris from the Mexican side of the border traveled through a wash and piled up against the border fence. The fence was built in 2011. It is constantly monitored by agents because smugglers and others who attempt to cross illegally routinely try to breach or knock down parts of it. The Border Patrol says it does not keep track of fence breaches or attempted breaches, but it does have a special unit devoted to finding and destroying underground tunnels used to smuggle drugs. Whether it's cutting through steel fences with special tools or building long and elaborate tunnels, smugglers have no shortage of creative ways to try to bypass the law and sneak drugs into the U.S. In 2012, suspected smugglers who tried to use ramps to drive an SUV over a 14-foot-tall border fence in southeast corner of California became stuck on top of the barrier. Border Patrol agents found the Jeep teetering atop the fence about five miles west of the Colorado River and the Arizona state line. The suspected smugglers fled. The Jeep was empty, but agents said they believe it was filled with contraband before it got stuck. Just last month, agents in Arizona spotted a truck made to look like it belonged to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a federal agency. The decals on the truck turned out to be fake. But the 3,200 pounds (1,451 kilograms) of marijuana in it were real.
Sadly many of the idiots at the Arizona Republic are out of touch with reality on the marijuana issue. I'm over 400 years old and I remember articles in the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette where they actually talked about having the death penalty for drug dealers. The problem is the "War on Drugs", the solution is to re-legalize ALL drugs. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2014/07/31/new-york-times-wrong-lift-federal-pot-restrictions/13421677/ Why the New York Times is wrong on legal pot Editorial board, The Republic | azcentral.com 5:33 p.m. MST July 31, 2014 Our View: There are legitimate arguments for legalizing recreational pot. But what's the feds' hurry? New Yorkers are notoriously pushy. So when the New York Times editorial board jumps on the Legalize Pot Bandwagon, the rest of the provinces are no doubt expected to join in a chorus of "Me, too! Me, too!" A better response is: "What's your hurry?" There are legitimate arguments for legalizing marijuana for recreational use. People are using it anyway, so legalizing it cuts out the criminal element and keeps casual users out of prison. It reduces law enforcement costs and can provide tax revenue for worthy public purposes. RELATED: AZ group ends '14 legal pot effort MORE: Fired UA pot researcher loses appeal But there also are enormous concerns about giving the official government seal of approval to a drug whose poster boys are Cheech and Chong. There's a lot of truth in the old question: Are you stoned or just stupid? And a lot of risk in sending the message to kids that pot is just another "adult" activity they can mimic. Yes, you could make those same arguments about alcohol. The failure of Prohibition was the crux of the Times' editorial argument last weekend in favor of legalizing pot. But again, we ask: What's your hurry? The Times advocates changing the federal law to allow states to decide "whether to permit marijuana use and under what circumstances." But that's already happening. Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia have loosened pot laws. Some allow it for medical uses (as Arizona does). Colorado and Washington legalized it for recreational use. Alaska and Oregon will vote this November on legalizing recreational use. But that's an argument for maintaining the federal status quo, not changing it. States are moving ahead, and it makes sense to see what problems emerge as the experiment plays out. In Colorado, for example, the black market for pot continues, according to the Washington Post. Illicit suppliers have established markets, and they can undercut prices at legal dispensaries. They don't worry about selling to minors. It is unknown whether the black market will thrive or disappear in years to come. But knowing the answer can inform a decision on what to do at the federal level. It's a good reason to wait and see that happens. Another unknown is whether legalizing recreational use of marijuana will lead to more cases of driving while stoned. Colorado set a limit for marijuana based on the presence of active THC in the blood, and it requires a blood test if impaired driving is suspected. The Arizona Supreme Court threw out a standard that used the presence in the blood of an inactive marijuana metabolite to determine whether someone was driving while impaired. Arizona drivers can still be charged if they test positive for active THC, but some argue that even active THC can linger in the blood of heavy users for some time. How will this be resolved? It's one more unknown. There are sure to be plenty of outright surprises as states take on this experiment in legalizing marijuana. If the United States truly is headed toward legalizing recreational use of marijuana, a gradual evolution will be more productive than a big, green light from the feds.
Hey who needs software that works???? It's more important to have software that is written by a politically correct mixture of 25% Blacks, 25% Whites, 25% Latinos and 25% orientals. And of course those racial mixtures better all be 50% male and 50% female. Well at least that's how Jesse Jackson feels. http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/07/28/jesse-jackson-seeks-eeoc-scrutiny-of-tech-industry/13270991/ Jesse Jackson: Tech diversity is next civil rights step USA Today’s Desair Brown speaks with Rev. Jesse Jackson on lack of diversity in the tech industry. Wendy Koch, USA TODAY 9:12 a.m. EDT July 29, 2014 U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson called on the Obama administration Monday to scrutinize the tech industry's lack of diversity. "The government has a role to play" in ensuring that women and minorities are fairly represented in the tech workforce, Jackson told a USA TODAY editorial board meeting. He said the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission needs to examine Silicon Valley's employment contracts. Jackson spoke after meeting with Labor Secretary Tom Perez to press for a review of H-1B visas, which allow U.S. companies to hire foreigners for specialty jobs. He said data show Americans have the skills and should have first access to high-paying tech work. "There's no talent shortage. There's an opportunity shortage," he said, calling Silicon Valley "far worse" than many others such as car makers that have been pressured by unions. He said tech behemoths have largely escaped scrutiny by a public dazzled with their cutting-edge gadgets. No more. Jackson has lobbied nearly two dozen tech companies to disclose hiring data, and about a dozen have done so. The result is sobering: Men make up 62% to 70% of the staffs of Twitter, Google, Facebook, Yahoo and LinkedIn, while whites and Asians comprise 88% to 91%, according to company data released in the past two months. Their dominance is highest in computer programming and other tech jobs that tend to pay the most. "This is the next step in the civil rights movement," Jackson said, noting minorities represent a sizable share of tech consumers but not its workers. He said it's bad business to exclude them. Of Twitter's U.S. employees, only 3% are Hispanic and 5% black, but those groups along with Asian Americans account for 41% of its U.S. users. To fix the problem, tech companies say they're taking steps such as funding outreach programs like Girls Who Code to encourage women in computer science. "Like our peers, we have a lot of work to do," Twitter's Janet Van Huysse wrote in a company blog post last week, acknowledging her company is "part of an industry that is marked by dramatic imbalances in diversity." She said it makes "good business sense" for Twitter employees to reflect the diversity of its users. Pandora and eBay will soon release their hiring data, and Apple has said it will do so but didn't specify when, according to Butch Wing, a national political coordinator at the Rainbow Push Coalition, an advocacy group founded by Jackson. Next month, Jackson's group plans to file a freedom-of-information request with the EEOC to acquire employment data for companies that have not yet disclosed it publicly. Those companies include Amazon, Broadcom, Oracle, Qualcomm and Yelp. Wing said Silicon Valley uses H-1B visas to pay foreigners half what U.S. counterparts earn. "They're being hired as cheap labor," said Norman Matloff, professor of computer science at the University of California-Davis, who has researched the topic. He said there's no shortage of Americans with tech-related skills but rather a widespread abuse of the H-1B visa program, which is run by the Department of Labor. Three of four, or 74%, of students earning a bachelor's degree in science, technology, engineering and math — often called STEM — don't work in STEM jobs, the Census Bureau reported this month. The likelihood of landing a STEM job varies by major but includes half of those who majored in engineering and math. Dean Garfield, president of the Information Technology Industry Council, said the industry prides itself on being a meritocracy. "We can, and will, expand our definitions of merit to recognize the importance and value of diversity to our success," he wrote in a recent USA TODAY op-ed piece. Jackson, 72, discussed tech-sector hiring with the EEOC via phone Monday. The former two-time Democratic presidential candidate said he'll continue pushing the issue and has no plans to retire. "The struggle for emancipation is my life," he said in an interview. "It's my calling."
Senators spent $1 million on charter flights last year Using your tax dollars to get re-elected!!!! A lot of people like to call these elected officials stupid morons who are wasting our tax dollars. First of all they are NOT stupid morons who are wasting our tax dollars. They are VERY SMART CROOKS who are stealing our tax dollars. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/07/31/senators-charter-1million-flights/13379561/ Senators spent $1 million on charter flights last year Donovan Slack and Paul Singer, USA TODAY 7:24 p.m. EDT July 31, 2014 WASHINGTON — Last summer, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., embarked on what his office trumpeted as a four-day, 1,000-mile trip across his state, with press releases noting he "woke up early to hit the road," making stops at a minor league ballpark, a craft brewery and a Roanoke rail yard, among others. But for several hundred of those miles, Warner was not hitting the road — he was flying a chartered plane at a cost to taxpayers of $8,500. Warner was one of two dozen U.S. senators who flew taxpayer-funded charter airplanes to, from or around their home state last year at a total cost of just under $1 million, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Senate spending records compiled by the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation. Senators pay for their official duties from taxpayer-funded accounts set aside for them to cover costs of staff, travel, office supplies and the like. The rules allow them to use these accounts to pay for charter aircraft for official travel when commercial flights "are not such that reasonable schedules may be kept." Senators decide which way to travel, and some eschewed private jets in favor of flying commercial or simply driving. Warner's 1,000-mile trip took him to the far reaches of western Virginia, which is pretty remote territory with no commercial airports. But a month earlier, Virginia's other U.S. senator, Tim Kaine, made a swing to the same corner of the state by car; his travel cost taxpayers $691. Both Warner and Kaine are Democrats representing the state that is closest to the U.S. Capitol. Had fun touring Norfolk Southern in Roanoke today after town hall w/workers #rke #trainsarecool "Sen. Warner is a road warrior, and he insists on a schedule that goes from dawn to dusk," said Kevin Hall, Warner's spokesman. "He spent 75 days on the road in Virginia last year, and that does not include events here in Northern Virginia." Hall said the road trip involved 25 public events across the state. "Using a plane to get from one end of the state to the other freed-up more than 12 hours of driving time, and this allowed us to schedule several additional events and create more opportunities to meet with our Virginia constituents." Many of the senators reporting charter flights hail from large and sparsely populated states. For instance, Republican John Barrasso of Wyoming reported charter flights totaling $83,000 in 2013, including a $3,700 trip to Cowley, Wyo., a town of fewer than 1,000 people on the state's northern border. His colleague Mike Enzi, also a Republican, spent just under $32,000 on charter flights last year. Both offices said the geography of the state required charter travel to reach constituents. But the top two charter fliers in 2013 were Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, both Democrats of New York — a large but more densely populated state with a lot of commercial transportation options. Schumer on several occasions spent more than $5,000 from his office account to charter planes between New York City and Albany, Buffalo and Rochester, even though cheaper commercial flights and trains link the cities. Gillibrand regularly chartered flights from Washington to places in New York with multiple transportation options. Aides to Gillibrand and Schumer said their schedules precluded them from traveling by other means. Schumer spokesman Matt House tried to dispel any notion that the senator was charging taxpayers for high-flying luxuries. "It is not possible to keep this rigorous a schedule by flying on commercial airlines alone, so he also travels on a small, four-seat propeller plane with no bathroom that's not even big enough to stand up in," House said. GTY_158959835 New York Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer.(Photo: Alex Wong, Getty Images) In some cases senators representing the same state split on whether to fly charters. For instance, Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, spent $47,000 on charter flights in 2013, including a $5,500 round trip flight between New Orleans and Lake Charles, La., 200 miles to the west. Landrieu spokesman Matthew Lehner said chartering planes allowed the senator to reach more areas of the state more quickly. "This alleviates the need for multi-day stopovers and maximizes the senator's interaction with her constituents," he said. But Republican David Vitter, the other Louisiana senator, reported no charter flights. His spokesman, Luke Bolar, said the senator always flies commercial and drives rather than flies around Louisiana. In Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican, spent about $18,000 on charter flights around the state. "We will sometimes use a charter when there is not a commercial flight available to get him between official events scheduled in the state," Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said. "As you know, Texas is a rather large state, and we do our best to maximize his time with constituents in different regions," Frazier said. But the Lone Star State's other senator, Republican John Cornyn, used only commercial transportation. In West Virginia, Sen. Joe Manchin recorded no charter flights in 2013, while fellow Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who announced at the beginning of last year that he would not run for re-election, took $91,000 worth of charter flights. Rockefeller's office did not respond to requests for comment on this story. Overall, 14 Republicans, nine Democrats and one independent reported charter flights in 2013, but Democrats spent $638,000 of the $920,000 total spent on charters. Contributing: Valerie Dekimpe
Federal paralegals had no work, so they surfed the Internet Well, the good news is even if these government workers are being paid $80,000 a year to do nothing at least they are not making things worse by arresting people for victimless drug war crimes. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2014/07/31/federal-paralegals-had-no-work-so-they-surfed-the-internet/?hpid=z4 Federal paralegals had no work, so they surfed the Internet By Lisa Rein July 31 at 2:41 PM Dozens of federal employees at an obscure agency that handles appeals of patent applications went years with so little work to do that they collected salaries — and even bonuses — while they surfed the Internet, did laundry, exercised and watched television, an investigation has found. The employees, paralegals making $60,000 to $80,000 a year, were idle with full knowledge of their immediate bosses and multiple layers of managers and judges who “sat on their hands” waiting for work to give them, a year-long probe by the Commerce Department inspector general’s office uncovered. The underworked paralegals did little as a backlog of appeals of patent examinations that many of them were hired to help process doubled from about 12,500 in fiscal 2009 to 25,300 last year. Soon after the appeals board brought on additional legal support staff to address a deluge of challenges to decisions by patent examiners, the Patent and Trademark Office imposed a hiring freeze that halted hires of judges needed to handle the appeals. But they took home more than $4.3 million in pay and about $700,000 in annual performance bonuses of up to $3,500 apiece for “outstanding” work from 2009 through 2013, the report released Tuesday found. The employees also worked from home. The Patent and Trademark Office set an early example for other federal agencies years ago when it encouraged employees to telework. But the inspector general found that for paralegals in the appeals office, working from home was a green light to abuse the privilege by doing laundry, washing dishes, reading books and a host of other personal activities. The bonuses included $120,000 for the paralegals’ supervisors, some of whom didn’t even bother to check in with their staff to make sure they had enough work to do. When it was time to fill out their timesheets, the employees were told by their supervisors to record their hours under a different pay code known as “Other Time,” investigators found. The practice only stopped last year once patent officials learned that Inspector General Todd Zinser’s office was looking into complaints from three paralegals, all anonymous whistleblowers, about the lack of work. When it became clear that an investigation was underway, top managers devised other tasks for the paralegals to do, including assigning them to a project writing an article on the history of the appeals board. But the article was never published, the report found. And most of the other work was “busy work” that the inspector general called “feeble, half-hearted and ineffective.” “I almost don’t blame [the Paralegal Specialists] for watching TV,” one of the chief judges at the appeal board told investigators, “because, I mean, you’re sitting around for 800 hours.” But the judge and multiple managers did nothing to reassign the paralegals or give them other work, in what Zinser called “a complete breakdown of management.” “It’s one thing to have idle workers,” Zinser said in an interview, “but in addition to being idle, they received outstanding performance ratings.” He said the Patent Office “displayed a lack of sensitivity” to fee payers who fund the Alexandria-based agency’s $3 billion annual budget. Patent Office spokesman Todd Elmer said in a statement that the agency is reviewing the report and will issue a response within 60 days. After conducting its own probe and hiring an outside consultant once the inspector general raised concerns, the office has made “structural improvements” to make the paralegal program more efficient, Elmer said. A new management team is in place that is “eliminating underutilization” and revising the way paralegals’ performance is evaluated. “With new and ongoing improvements, combined with this additional input from the [inspector general], the agency is confident that the [appeals board] will be even more strongly situated to achieve tremendous results for its stakeholders,” Elmer wrote. The Patent Trial and Appeal board, with about 300 employees in Northern Virginia and home-based telework offices within 50 miles, reviews appeals of decisions made by patent examiners and decides whether challenges made against existing patents are legitimate. The role of the paralegals, called “paralegal specialists,” is to docket cases, create electronic files, make sure an appeal complies with relevant statutes, and proofread and edit judges’ decisions for grammar and style. On occasion they do legal research for judges. But they rely on judges to give them work, as opposed to generating it themselves. Patent appeals got backlogged as the agency had a surge of new examiners between 2005 and 2011, patent office officials said. As the number of patent decisions grew, so did the appeals. But the appeals board did not begin hiring additional judges to adjudicate the new cases until last year, when fiscal pressures eased, officials said. It is unclear whether the patent office plans to review the generous telework program across the agency, which has been held up as a model for other federal offices. Zinser criticized the appeal board telework program as lacking in proper supervision and accountability. For example, his investigation found that supervisors barely checked in with the paralegals to see if they needed more work. “No need to notify me when work is done,” one supervisor told a paralegal in an e-mail Dec. 18, 2012, in response to a message from a paralegal that she had completed her assigned work at 9:25 a.m. that day. “I think. … It used to get on the supervisors’ nerves, because they knew we didn’t have anything,” the employee told investigators. Some managers were so fearful of angering the union that represents Patent and Trademark Office employees that they didn’t even consider changing the paralegals’ work assignments or even starting the process of layoffs. But the report said the appeals board had options it should have explored with the unions. Some managers did not know, for example, whether changing work schedules and assignments even needed to be negotiated. Managers told investigators that they weren’t surprised that the paralegals were shopping and exercising on government time, even bringing Kindles to the Alexandria headquarters to read when they were required to be there. One manager said he “wouldn’t have been a bit surprised if there were people who were going out to the golf course.”
Remember, police officers always know how to handle guns better then civilians - Honest!!!!! http://touch.latimes.com/#section/604/article/p2p-80962155/ LAPD searching for shotgun that fell off police motorcycle By Ryan Parker July 31, 2014, 7:02 p.m. LAPD is searching for a shotgun that fell off a police motorcycle Thursday. Police have shutdown the immediate area of South Vermont Avenue and West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard as officers search for the shotgun, police said. The gun locking mechanism broke and the gun fell off, police said. As of 7:50 p.m., the gun had not been located, police said. It is unclear if the shotgun was loaded. This story will be updated as more information becomes available. Follow @theryanparker for breaking news
You thought government was going to protect you from things like unsafe bridges??? Don't make me laugh!!!! http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Caltrans-muzzled-Bay-Bridge-critics-report-says-5660867.php Caltrans muzzled Bay Bridge critics, report says Jaxon Van Derbeken Updated 8:02 am, Friday, August 1, 2014 Caltrans sought to silence engineers who voiced concerns about cost overruns or construction defects on the new Bay Bridge eastern span, forcing several of them from the project, according to an investigative report prepared for a state Senate committee. Eight engineers who either worked for Caltrans or had contracts with the state agency had to leave their posts, as did a ninth who worked for the bridge's builder, according to the report released Thursday by the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee. Several engineers criticized the quality of welding work on giant deck sections and tower components that began in 2007 at a factory in Shanghai, while others balked at costly change orders that they saw as benefiting the bridge's lead contractor. Caltrans has said cracks were found in numerous welds in deck sections made by Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., known as ZPMC. But it says they were not a safety concern and that the welds have been repaired. Engineers have said they fear lingering weld flaws could worsen over time, leading to cracks in the road decks. Doug Coe, one of the veteran engineers who has gone public about weld concerns, testified before the state Senate committee earlier this year that critics had their "heads chopped off." Coe was one of the engineers Caltrans and the bridge's project manager, Tony Anziano, forced from the Bay Bridge job after they criticized work being done at ZPMC, a crane maker that had never built a bridge before, the state Senate report said. It said Anziano and the state agency appeared to have a policy of squelching dissent to speed up work on the long-delayed bridge, which at $6.4 billion came in $5 billion over budget. Many cover-up charges "This inquiry has uncovered too much testimony fueling the cover-up charge to ignore," said the report, written by former investigative journalist Roland De Wolk. State Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, the committee's chairman and a candidate for Congress, said he was disappointed but not surprised by the findings. "The final report just corroborates that things need to change at Caltrans," he said. "There is a culture there that doesn't like to be criticized - ever. As a worker told me: Caltrans goes after the troublemakers, not the trouble." In response to the report, Caltrans denied that officials had retaliated against critics and said that at worst, disagreements among people working on the project showed that "better communication" was needed. No war with contractor Anziano told De Wolk that he reassigned Coe to avoid a war with the contractor and that he was not to blame when other engineers left on their own or were reassigned by their bosses. One of the contract engineers who lost his post, Jim Merrill, wrote a detailed memo calling for the welding work to stop in March 2008 after inspectors at the Shanghai worksite found 100 cracks. The work continued, and a $40 million oversight contract that had gone to Merrill's MACTEC firm was not renewed. Merrill testified before DeSaulnier's committee in January. So did Coe, whom Anziano transferred to the Antioch Bridge in September 2009 after Coe expressed concerns about cracks in welds on deck sections. The state Senate committee report identifies seven other engineers who say they were forced from the bridge project, including Nathan Lindell, hired by lead contractor American Bridge/Fluor to both oversee ZPMC's work and build a database of nearly 1 million welds on the span. 'Messed up' Soon after arriving in Shanghai, the report says, Lindell e-mailed a supervisor in January 2007 that the project could "spiral out of control" without stricter controls on welding quality. He said he had "never worked on a project that is this messed up so early in the process." American Bridge/Fluor rejected his request for as many as 30 more inspectors to be sent to China, however, and Lindell said the company soon shunted him to a "software development role" and then let him go in 2009. A veteran engineer brought in by Caltrans for project oversight, Keith Devonport, complained about problems in the deck and tower to Anziano in mid-2009, the Senate report said. In May 2010, Devonport was transferred off the bridge project, the report said. His bosses at the firm, Lim and Nascimento Engineering, told him that Caltrans officials thought he "complained too much," the report quotes him as saying. Another contract engineer, Dave McClary, said he felt "benched" by Lim and Nascimento Engineering after he too complained about weld quality. Quality secondary John Kinsey, an engineer who did quality oversight for both Merrill's firm and the company that replaced it, Alta Vista Solutions, said he believed that staying on schedule "was trumping quality" when it came to the bridge welding. When he urged Caltrans to inspect welds more rigorously, he was reassigned to find apartments for fellow engineers in China, the report said. Two Caltrans managers, Rick Morrow and Gary Purcell, are quoted as saying they were sidelined after they balked at costly change orders for work in China. Another Caltrans manager, Mike Forner, expressed concerns about weld flaws. All three said they felt pressured to leave and eventually did, the report said. 'Best for the project' Anziano is quoted in the report as saying he invited anyone who disagreed with his calls to "go up the chain"' to bridge oversight officials "if they felt his decisions were wrong, but none did," the report said. "On any project, big or small, a group of people are not going to be happy," Anziano was quoted as saying. "My job is not to be popular. ... It's to do what's best for the project." In his response to the report, Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty said that "there could have been better communication amongst the team to ensure that all team members were aware of how decisions were made, and how and why issues were considered, reviewed and resolved. Failure to do that at a high level on a project this big with this many employees could lead to a sense of isolation in some cases, but that is not retaliation." Dougherty noted that the California Highway Patrol is investigating allegations of retaliation against Caltrans critics, and said the agency is cooperating. Jaxon Van Derbeken is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com
I got a badge and gun and that means I can have sex with any woman I want. Sadly that's how may cops feel. And even worse the courts seem to turn a blind eye to this outrageous criminal behavior. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2014/08/01/mesa-officer-indicted-sexual-assault-molestation-charges/13501041/ Mesa officer indicted on sexual assault, molestation charges Sophia Kunthara, The Republic | azcentral.com 9:29 p.m. MST August 1, 2014 A Mesa police officer has been indicted on charges of sexual assault and child molestation for acts that allegedly occurred on the job, authorities said. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office released a statement late Friday saying that Justin Cherry, 34, self-surrendered Friday afternoon and was booked into jail on two counts of sexual assault and one count of molestation of a child. He is being held without bond, according to the statement. Cherry is accused of engaging in sexual contact with two women without their consent and molesting a child under the age of 15 while conducting investigations, the statement said. Mesa police say the accusers allege that Cherry touched them during searches while they were detained. Cherry has been on administrative leave from the Mesa Police Department since the allegations surfaced in August 2013, according to a police statement issued late Friday. Police said detectives investigated the allegations and sent the case to the County Attorney's Office. Prosecutors took the case before a grand jury, which indicted Cherry on Thursday. A warrant was issued for Cherry on Friday, and through his attorney, he agreed to turn himself in at the Mesa Police headquarters. Police said Cherry arrived with his attorney and was taken into custody without incident. "This is a unfortunate event for the community, as well as the police department," the police statement said. "We believe that this is an isolated event and immediately placed Cherry on administrative leave upon the initial complaint. "...There is nothing more important than the trust of the citizens and community we serve. Remaining transparent, we want the community to understand that we do hold ourselves to the highest standard and will not tolerate acts of this nature." County Attorney Bill Montgomery said, "The alleged conduct of this defendant is not representative of the high degree of professionalism and integrity with which the Mesa Police Department carries out its duties." Montgomery added that his office "will not hesitate to prosecute sworn peace officers when sufficient evidence exists to support charges of criminal conduct. Those we entrust with enforcing the law will be equally held to account when they violate it." put this in my NORML file on the tripod site
Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? I am a "truther" by default, meaning I seek the truth, the bottom line if you'd rather phrase it that way. https://www.facebook.com/notes/901570869857736/ The Plan, Vol 1 Ch 1 August 2, 2014 at 4:23am Please do not let my appearance or "past" on paper confuse you or mislead you in any way, I am not who you think I am. I am not the person you see out in the streets, or at a NORML meeting, or a Safer Arizona meeting or some other "pro-pot" meeting wearing Dickies and a cannabis t-shirt waving the "free the weed" flag. I am not that guy. I am a "truther" by default, meaning I seek the truth, the bottom line if you'd rather phrase it that way. I could care less about the fluff or spin of or on the issue or agenda, I don't care, what is the bottom line?! So, here, right now, and for anyone lucky enough to read this in the next day or so while I move accounts from this page to the other page, I am going to share some "truth" for the masses to absorb. By "masses" I am speaking to all of you, from the solo patient who never does anything other than get a card every year and go to dispensaries to the dispensary owner, all of you. Make no mistake, I am not an accident or an unfortunate set of circumstances, I have an agenda, I always have, long before MPP or Andrew Myers was a thought in this State, long before Gordon Hamilton every fathomed the concept of the ADA, I was here, on the ground floor of that agenda, putting in work. Here it is, my agenda, laid out for everyone to see, now, unstoppable by default. My agenda is simple folks, nothing shy about it, those that worked for me in the past or have worked with me on projects know what I am about to say to be true, 110% accurate and complete; I am here to take over this industry, the mj industry, the whole thing, the entire fucking show folks, it will be mine, and I will tell you how and why in the following series of "notes". Call it a free book, call it a manual, call it a mastermind RICO scheme if your an attorney for the State lol, I don't care what you call it, the same phrase applies every time you get to that bottom line I spoke about above and that bottom line is domination. Complete and total industry domination. A one man wrecking crew, industrial assassin, marijuana merc, corporate hitman, call me what you will, I get it done and I am relentless. In this first edition in the series I want to talk about my past, "sketchy" is what I am generally called and I am ok with that, sketchy men and woman have progressed our planet farther than the norm ever have. We don't think outside the box, we re-create the box, with no walls or boundaries, we think infinitely in nature, always searching for that bottom line of truth. Yes, I have been to prison for marijuana. Yes, that is what got me interested in the law and practice thereof. Yes, I have smoked cannabis all my life. Yes, I have a family. Yes, I am married. Yes, I have a daughter outside of my marriage by another woman, I am proud of them both. Yes I have children with my wife, two girls. Yes, I have a son by another woman who I see neither of sadly. No I am not a martyr. I am smart, I did my homework. I did it all before any of the "players" in the industry ever thought about becoming players. Which by the way dispensary owners, have you figured that out yet? You cannot control an industry you did not help create, you have no authority here outside of that which we, the real cannabis industry allow you to have. Never forget how we graciously allow you to exist in our industry. Never forget who really funded this "start-up", who actually controls it, the "black market", the "gray area" you have nightmares about. That is why I am here folks. I had the foresight to realize what was happening with cannabis worldwide in relation to various geopolitical issues happening across the globe. Have you all forgotten the 60's and 70's already?! Hell, that's where they made me at. I came to merc the bullshitters, those who seek to control and then destroy our movement of truth and healing, those who wish to exploit the "medical" marijuana industry for profit, not for patients. Those who seek to endorse corporations as people, rather than people as individuals and individuals as individual patients. I am the wind that blows from the four corners and I arrived on a pale horse, years ago. Every move the industry sought to make, I was prepared for. How and why are the pertinent questions that remain for you I would guess and those answers are coming I assure you. The "why" is stated above actually, domination, complete and total market then industry domination. The how, that will take a little more explaining. Smart people will figure it out or already have. I have infiltrated every single organization that exists in this industry in one way or another. Knowledge is power and I have a majority of it in this industry. Very few things are a surprise to me, nor have they ever been. People are easy, organizations are easy, the State was easy, the industry, very misled, on purpose. I am going to un-screw your brains however between now and tuesday when the next NORML in Arizona State meeting takes place. You won't want to miss that meeting ladies and gentleman. Especially you dispensary owners, you should really show up, hell, I won't even charge you for the info and that info is guaranteed to increase your profit margin. Which by the way, I am a dispensary owner, don't forget that. All this time you have been demonizing me for what I do you have failed to see past your greedy financial blinders and failed to recognized I have the ability to make you far more money than you are currently making because my intent was to always make money as a dispensary owner, foolish little simple minded corporate fools, you have been cutting your own throats by working against me instead of with me. One of the most popular dispensaries with patients was also the first collective and became a household name because of the work that happened PRIOR to them ever becoming a dispensary. Work done by three people; myself, Matt D. and Bryan C., the original AZCS team/crew. Make no mistake folks, the partner I trusted that stabbed me in the back, well that knife didn't cut too deep, I had heard it was coming from a couple I did some consulting for close to new Mexico, so for the most part I was prepared, the timing was a shock though, he did get me there. I figured the shank would come after the permit Damon, not before buddy, reckless to say the least, most have been Todd's advice lol. So why was or should I say why IS AZCS so popular now? Me, my agenda. With minor exceptions AZCS has stayed the course I designed simply because Damon, the backstabbing partner, had no plan, other than mine, my "black binder" was what was in my head, or a piece of it anyway. Nothing was in his head other than to steal the biz from me, the person that made it what it was in the two years prior to his involvement. Even that sexy window in to the grow room from the lobby ;) So, knowing that someday through swift and painful litigation I would regain control of the business, I moved ahead with phase two of my plan. Who better to run a pro-use lounge than a dispensary owner?! Ahhhhhhhhhh, the lens just focused some didn't it folks?! How many people know or should I say knew about the kiosks inside the vapor lounge? How many knew that we were working hand in hand with a state registered dispensary? Patients had a try before you buy system that the AMMA and AZDHS R&R didn't accommodate for, one I created as part of my agenda. From paraphernalia to meds they could try before they buy, and the dispensaries got to enter a market region previously not available to them. So all you dispensary owners reading this, look for my "peace offering" seminar coming up, it will cost WAY LESS that those ADA member dues you are paying and getting nothing for. Me, I will promise you make twice as much money within thirty days of attending. The meeting coincidentally will also be the first RAMMP State meeting, you can meet your consumers, hear what they have to say about you and your performance. Might want to bring a box of tissues. Be ready Arizona. Be ready for more truth about how things really work in this state because this series will expose it all as my agenda progresses. There will be fireworks. There will be broken hearts. There will be dispensaries targeted and closed. There will be reports of collusion. There will be high level state employees and dispensary owners involved. Members of the ADA will potentially be indicted for some of the data I release. I mean seriously, did the dispensary owners really think it would be ok to employee local dealers for their start ups and then fire them once they were up and running with another supply line as if it would be alright?! LMAO! Every move the RDAA and ADA have made has been countered, it's hard to make a move I don't know about when I already know what your agenda is. I hear your phone calls, I read your emails, your waiter at the fancy restaurant tells me every word of your business dinner conversation because I give them free meds, and loyalty, something you seem to never offer them. You cannot move without me knowing about it first, period. Quit looking for the rat in your group ADA, there isn't one, there are 42 ;) Not all dispensary owners support the ADA folks however openly supporting the flip side can cost them so they stay quiet, they feed me instead, the merc, the hired gun. Slowly sniping away at the insurgents of the cannabis industry. Taking the industry back is the first part of the agenda, handing it over to the consumer, that is the second part, that's where we are now ladies and gents. It is our time to stand up and take back what is ours and we will start with NORML, OUR voice, our servants of advocacy for safe access to affordable high grade cannabis. Join ME at the very next NORML meeting and help me take back what is ours Arizona!! I worked for someone as a young man that made a great impression on me, he said something that stuck with me for the rest of my life. I hope it sticks with you and I hope those that need to see it and understand do so... "The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." Ralph Nader I am here for the consumer, always have been Arizona.
Arizona inmate injected 15 times, records show I am against the death penalty because the govenrment has murdered innocent people in the past and will murder innocent people in the future. Of course that's not to say that some of these people are complete total *ssholes who don't deserve to die. It's not the *ssholes I am concerned with, it's the innocent one who have been framed by the police that don't deserve to die. And in this article we find that the private sector almost always do stuff better then the government. As one letter writer said to the Arizona Republic, the state of Arizona should ask Doctor Jack Kevorkian for some advice on how to murder people in the quickest, most humane way possible. Of course Doctor Jack Kevorkian wasn't murdering people for vengeance like the state of Arizona is doing. Doctor Jack Kevorkian was helping people who were in pain and dying, die with dignity. He was only helping people commit suicide, people who were terminally ill and in intense pain. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2014/08/01/arizona-botched-execution-report-injections/13492511/ Arizona inmate injected 15 times, records show Michael Kiefer, The Republic | azcentral.com 9:20 p.m. MST August 1, 2014 It was supposed to take just 50 milligrams each of the drugs midazolam and hydromorphone to kill Arizona death row inmate Joseph Wood. And according to the Arizona Department of Corrections execution protocol, if the inmate is still conscious after three minutes, the director of the department can authorize a second dose. But during his execution July 23, Wood was injected with 15 doses over a two-hour period before he was finally pronounced dead, according to official logs of the execution that were released Friday. READ: Documentation of Wood's execution MONTINI: Investigation or whitewash? RELATED: Reporter describes Arizona execution So, instead of 50 mg of each drug, Wood was injected with 750mg of each drug in injections that were administered in about 3- to 10-minute intervals. Wood's lawyers say that the number of doses is further proof that the execution was botched. The Department of Corrections says the logs show Wood was sedated throughout the nearly two- hour execution and felt no pain. The debate over Wood's execution has played out in the international media and has called into question whether lethal injection will remain a viable form of capital punishment. "The records provided today show that Director (Charles) Ryan, continually conferred with the IV team, and directed additional Midazolam and Hydromorphone to be administered ensuring the inmate remained deeply sedated throughout the process, and did not endure pain," according to an official statement issued by the Department of Corrections. Wood's attorney Dale Baich called the statement "an acknowledgment that the protocol did not work as designed, and it was a failed experiment." According to the Department of Corrections statement, Ryan has initiated an independent review of the execution. "I am committed to a thorough, transparent and comprehensive review process," he said in the news release. "This will be an authoritative review to ensure that fact-based conclusions are reached regarding every aspect of this procedure, including the length of time it took for the execution to be lawfully completed." The release did not say who would conduct the review, but it stated that "the length of the procedure and the amount of drugs administered comply with the department's mandate under state law." Arizona's execution protocol does not specify how long executions should take. Assistant Arizona Attorney General Jeff Zick said Ryan has "a legal duty to carry out an execution, but there's no time limit set out for the execution." Zick said, however, that the review will consider the time question as well as the effectiveness of the protocol. Baich countered that the department was making foregone conclusions that the execution was not botched. "This is why an independent investigation by a non-governmental authority is necessary," Baich said. Wood, 55, was sentenced to death twice for the 1989 murders of his estranged girlfriend, Debra Dietz, and her father, Eugene, in Tucson. Wood's attorneys had filed motions for injunctions because the Department of Corrections would not reveal information about where it obtained its supply of midazolam and hydromorphone or about the executioners' medical qualifications. Friday's news release also revealed that the execution team included a licensed medical doctor, a detail that the Department of Corrections had refused to provide before the execution. But the major question in the motion for stay of execution was the drug midazolam, which has been part of three other executions since last October in which the inmates seemed to gasp for air and take longer to die than with other drugs used in lethal injection. During one execution in Oklahoma in April, the prisoner writhed and agonized before dying of a heart attack. The Arizona Department of Corrections, however, insisted the drug would work effectively and argued all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court that the execution should go forward without turning over the information the lawyers requested. But the execution did not go as planned. Instead of the usual 10minutes or so that it takes for death by lethal injection, Wood took nearly two hours to die, and he gulped for air with a loud snoring sound for an hour and a half of that time. The logs released Friday show that on July 23, the IV lines to deliver the drugs into Wood's body were set in his arms by 1:47 p.m. and that the drugs were first injected at 1:52. At 1:57, the "IV team leader verified the inmate is sedated." The logs released Friday show that the second 50 mg doses of midazolam and hydromorphone were injected at 2:08. The next came at 2:13. Then 2:26. Then 2:34, and the injections continued until they had administered 15 doses. Woods was finally pronounced dead at 3:49. ON THE BEAT Michael Kiefer is a senior reporter who has covered courts and justice for The Arizona Republic since 2003. He has covered the death penalty for 12 years and has witnessed five executions. He has reported extensively on the drug controversies. How to reach him michael.kiefer@arizonarepublic.com Phone: 602-444-8994 Twitter: @michaelbkiefer Execution Execution logs show it took 15 doses of two drugs to kill Arizona death-row inmate Joseph Rudolph Wood. Instead of 50 milligrams of each drug, Wood received 750 mg of each. Wood's lawyers say the number of doses is further proof that the execution was botched.
Who says bribery is illegal. In this article you can bribe the TSA thugs to get them to honor your Constitutional right. As usual our government masters will probably say I garbled that up. You can't bribe TSA thugs to get them give you Constitutional rights which the government has flushed down the toilet!!!! http://www.azcentral.com/story/travel/2014/08/01/will-sky-harbor-get-security-pre-check/13497989/ When will Sky Harbor get security pre-check? Dawn Gilbertson, The Republic | azcentral.com 8 p.m. MST August 1, 2014 W hen he came to Phoenix in January to promote the expedited screening program at airports called TSA PreCheck, Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole said travelers would see an enrollment center at Sky Harbor International Airport by spring. The busy summer travel season is more than half over and the PreCheck center planned for baggage claim in Terminal 4 is still at least a couple of months from opening. This at a time when the TSA is opening airport enrollment centers at a good clip across the country, most recently adding Denver, San Francisco, Orlando, St. Louis, and Palm Beach, Fla. There are two centers at the airports in Los Angeles and Atlanta. TSA and airport officials blame the Phoenix delay on paperwork issues with the nationwide contractor for the centers, MorphoTrust USA. The company wasn't registered with the Arizona Corporation Commission and had to do so before the airport could submit the lease for the center to the City Council in Phoenix, which owns and operates Sky Harbor, for approval. MorphoTrust registered in early June, according to commission records. The airport plans to ask the City Council for lease approval this month, airport spokeswoman Julie Rodriguez said. "It's moving forward," said TSA spokeswoman Lorie Dankers, adding that snags have come up in other cities, too. The Sky Harbor center will open later this year, she said. PreCheck status gives travelers what amounts to a fast-pass through security. Passengers have a dedicated line at the security checkpoint and keep their shoes and jackets and belts on and electronics and liquids in their carry-ons during the security screening. The PreCheck program began in late 2011 and until late last year was open only to invited frequent fliers, including members of government "trusted traveler" programs such as Global Entry. The TSA began selling PreCheck status to approved travelers in December as part of what Pistole called the agency's gradual shift away from a one-size-fits-all security screening to a risk-based system that recognizes that the vast majority of travelers that pass through the checkpoint every day are not terrorists. Other efforts on that front have included allowing children 12 or younger and adults 75 or older to keep their shoes on when going through security. The TSA also is sending an increasing number of travelers of all ages through the PreCheck lanes for free on a flight-by-flight basis. All have been deemed low-risk. Pistole calls the occasional access to PreCheck a "free sample" of the program. Travelers who want access to speedier security on a regular basis have to apply. The cost is $85 per person for five years. Passengers must be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents and are subject to a "security-threat assessment" that includes a background check and fingerprinting. Travelers with convictions for criminal offenses, such as treason, racketeering, terrorism and murder, are ineligible. The TSA details all the disqualifying offenses and other restrictions onlineat tsa.gov/tsa-precheck. Travelers approved for PreCheck have essentially been precleared as low-risk travelers, TSA's Dankers said. Tempe business owner Walt Reams, 66, was sold on PreCheck after he was randomly granted access on a few flights. On one flight from Las Vegas to Phoenix after the giant Consumer Electronics Show, he zipped through security 35 minutes faster than a friend who didn't have PreCheck access. "When you get used to doing that you don't want to do anything else," he said. Reams and his wife, Mary, signed up for PreCheck in mid-July. They went to what the TSA calls a universal enrollment center, in Gilbert. There are nearly 300 such centers across the country, all of which handle other Department of Homeland Security screening programs, as well as employment screening and other services for businesses. The Gilbert location, operated by a contractor called EMSI Med-Ex Paramedical Inc, added PreCheck enrollment services to its lineup in February and has become one of the busiest off-airport PreCheck enrollment centers in the country, according to the TSA. More than 5,000 travelers have enrolled in PreCheck in Gilbert, Dankers said. Nationally, 430,370 passengers have signed up for PreCheck since December. Dankers said travelers who apply for PreCheck usually find out within five to seven days whether they have been approved. Reams, who called the $85 cost reasonable, is most looking forward to being able to keep his cowboy boots on when he goes through security. "I haven't even been wearing them because it's a hassle to take them off." Gilbert location - 5,026 Nationally - 430,370 TSA PreCheck by the numbers 430,370 passengers enrolled since the TSA began taking applications in December. 5,026 travelers enrolled at a Gilbert enrollment center since February. 28 airport enrollment centers across the U.S. 277 off-airport enrollment centers nationwide, including one each in Gilbert, Tucson, Kingman and Flagstaff. How PreCheck works What: An expedited security-screening service available at 119 U.S. airports for travelers on most major airlines. Participants have a dedicated security lane and don't have to take off their shoes, belts or light coats. They also can leave laptops and approved liquids in their carry-on bags. Who is eligible: Until December, only invited frequent fliers of participating airlines and members of a government "trusted traveler" program were eligible. The government is now accepting applications for the program as well as selecting passengers on a flight-by-flight basis. Cost: Travelers who enroll in PreCheck pay $85 for five years. Passengers selected for PreCheck by the TSA on their boarding pass or at the airport do not pay a fee. Details: tsa.gov/tsa-precheck. Where to enroll in Arizona Gilbert: 201 W. Guadalupe Road, Suite 302. Tucson: 3360 S. Palo Verde Road. Flagstaff: Northland Investigations, 3009A N. West St. Kingman: 3100 Gatlin Drive, Suite B. For more details and other locations around the country, go to universalenroll.dhs.gov/locator. On the beat Dawn Gilbertson covers consumer travel for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. How to reach her dawn.gilbertson@arizonarepublic.com Phone: 602-444-8617 Twitter: @dawngilbertson
Tempe expands the "War on Drugs" and adds nicotine to the list of drugs. As an ex-tobacco smoker I hate tobacco. But making tobacco illegal and banning the use of tobacco products in public is NOT the right thing to do. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2014/08/01/tempe-bans-e-cigarette-use-public/13473695/ Tempe bans e-cigarette use in public Dianna M. Náñez, The Republic | azcentral.com 9:43 p.m. MST August 1, 2014 It's a battle playing out across the country: the concern for public health vs. freedom from government regulation. In Arizona, the latest front is in Tempe, where the concern for public health won — at least for now. This week, Tempe became the first Arizona city to ban the use of electronic cigarettes in public areas, joining a growing number of municipalities nationwide in the debate over the nicotine devices. However, critics point out that there's no way to know whether the ordinance is warranted because the federal Food and Drug Administration has yet to decide how or whether to regulate e-cigarettes. Nevertheless, the Tempe City Council voted 5-1 Thursday to approve the ordinance, which mirrors statewide regulation of tobacco cigarettes. When the ordinance becomes effective in 30 days, electronic-cigarette users can no longer use the nicotine-delivery devices in Tempe restaurants, bars and other enclosed public settings. Tempe's ban does not restrict their use at e-cigarette retail locations or on businesses' outdoor patios. The battery-powered devices, commonly referred to as "e-cigarettes" or "vaporizers," release vapor that contains nicotine and other chemicals at lower levels than tobacco cigarettes. Debate over the product centers on lack of conclusive medical research with regard to the health of users and those close to users. Tempe joins Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and other U.S. cities that regulate the devices. "Nationally, people are taking up the e-cigarette debate and how it should be treated," said Rene Guillen, legislative director of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns. Guillen said he is not aware of any other cities in Arizona that have an e-cigarette ordinance. Cities across the country are balancing pressure from the multibillion-dollar e-cigarette industry supported by local retailers against the concerns of health agencies and individuals who fear the devices are a threat to public health and will produce a new generation of smokers. Business owners or patrons who want to stop someone from inhaling vapors in prohibited settings can call the Tempe Police Department, which will enforce the ban. The punishment is the same as for a tobacco violation, a civil penalty of $50 on the first offense and $75 fine for subsequent offenses. The Tempe ban comes as FDA is considering adding e-cigarettes to federally regulated tobacco products, which include rolled cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. The Tempe City Council took up the issue this spring amid growing concern over the effects of electronic cigarettes. Responding to opponents of the ban, who questioned why the council would not wait until the federal public comment period ended before acting on the ordinance, Councilwoman Robin Arredondo-Savage said Tempe is willing to reconsider its stance if new evidence calls for it. In April, under the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the FDA opened a 75-day, public-comment period on provisions that would give the agency authority over cigars, electronic cigarettes, pipe tobacco, nicotine gels and waterpipe or hookah tobacco. Public comment on the proposal was extended and closes next Friday. Lobbyists on both sides of the debate have monitored the process closely, looking for an edge in measures that could lead to changes in markets that have gone largely unregulated. "This proposed rule is the latest step in our efforts to make the next generation tobacco-free," former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in an April news release outlining the proposed regulation. Among the requirements, the makers of the newly regulated products would have to include health warnings and report product ingredients. They could make claims of reduced health risk only if the FDA confirms that scientific evidence supports the claim and marketing the product benefits the public health. The regulation aims to curb marketing to minors by banning sale of e-cigarettes and other newly regulated tobacco products to consumers age 17 and younger. Last year, under pressure to shield children from unknown health risks, the Arizona Legislature banned the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors. Federal provisions would also ban free samples and vending-machine sales in facilities that allow minors. The Valley's e-cigarette industry argued against the Tempe ban, saying people use e-cigarettes as a healthier alternative to tobacco. They say cities have no excuse for banning public use when there is no conclusive scientific evidence that e-cigarettes are harmful. About 75 opponents of the ban, many of them Valley e-cigarette business owners, went to the council meeting. Those who spoke argued that the Tempe City Council should have allowed individuals the leeway to decide whether they want to regulate their private businesses. "If you own a business or a restaurant and you don't like it (e-cigarette use), then ban it," said Matt Berger, who owns Butt Out e-cigarette sites in Tempe and across the Valley. "It shouldn't be up to the right of this council." Opponents of the ban stayed after the council meeting on the steps in front of the chambers, vaping for at least a half-hour. Berger and other critics of the ordinance, standing amid a cloud of vapor, said they fear other Valley cities will follow Tempe's regulation. Matt Morales of the Phoenix-based National Association of Vaping Businesses said Tempe jumped the gun on an issue that is far from being resolved. Tempe sided with studies that have yet to be proved rather than wait until the FDA rules on federal e-cigarette regulation, Morales said. Natalie Higgins, who owns Valor Vapor in Tempe, said critics are turning a blind eye to the thousands of adults who gave up their cigarette habits for an e-cigarette option that they perceive to be healthier. Proponents of the ban warned that e-cigarette companies will do just as tobacco companies did for decades: market to kids, fight regulation and risk Americans' long-term health. E-cigarette retailers have come under fire for producing flavors like bubble gum and fruits that appeal to teens. "The vapors from e-cigarettes contain known toxins," said Nicole Olmstead of the American Heart Association in Arizona. "However, they have not been subjected to thorough independent testing, so we can't be sure exactly what we're inhaling."
I tried to post several news articles and my attempts failed. I thought I did something to piss off the Facebook software. OK, well until I tried to reload the main Facebook page. http://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/2014/08/01/facebook-down-surviving-tips/13469541/ 3 tips for surviving a Facebook crash Howthe 12 News crew handled 20 minutes without Facebook. Louie Villalobos, The Republic | azcentral.com 10:59 a.m. MST August 1, 2014 The good news is that we all made it through the great Facebook crash of 2014. The bad news is that the Internet is an unstable place where websites suddenly crash or go offline, leaving us to stare at blank screens where random posts should be. How many times did you refresh your browser or reload the mobile app? The lucky ones didn't realize that Facebook was down this morning for as long as 45 minutes. The company blamed the down time on technical issues but dispatched engineers to get things running smoothly again. So next time you find yourself without something like Facebook or Twitter, try these tips for survival. >>> Go exchange actual words with somebody This is for me a horrifying thing and requires an amount of energy I am often unwilling to spend. But talking to people around you can help ease the stress of not being able to share and view random dog videos. >>> Read a book We do love to share interesting digital stories through social media in the hopes of getting 'likes' from our peers. I hear that you can get the same amount of satisfaction from reading something called 'books'. I even hear tell that Game of Thrones was based off these mythical devices. Books can provide us the calming force we need while Facebook is being restored. >>> Go outside and see the world My absolute favorite part about Facebook is that it lets me see the world without leaving my house or office cubicle. I can comment and post really interesting stuff without stepping one foot outside. But times are tough during an outage and I have found it personally rewarding to leave the building for a few minutes to see what is happening in the neighborhood. Give it a try.
Let's face it while the Constitution guarantees you the right to a fair trial that right is pretty much as worthless as the paper it's written on. Sadly the only people that have a right to a fair trial are rich people who have access to a whole staff of lawyers. Like OJ Simpson. But the criminal injustice system bankrupted OJ after the trial in LA. And OJ didn't get a fair trial in Nevada. And on top of needing to be rich to get a fair trial the system is corrupt to the core. The police commit perjury so often they have a special slang word for cops who commit perjury, it's called "testilying". And don't count on judges treating you fairly. They are frequently ex-prosecutors who think you are guilty simply because the police arrested you. I suspect the only reason ASU professor Ersula Ore copped a plea and plead guilty was because 1) she would have been bankrupted if she had to hire lawyers to pay for a "fair trial" and 2) because is she had been convicted she would have received a draconian prison sentence compared to the 9 months probation she received. Some people in the media say ASU professor Ersula Ore behaved like an *sshole in the video. That may be true, but that didn't justify what the outrageous criminal behavior of the cop. Last most of the media accounts didn't mention that the street she was arrested on was under construction and blocked off to most traffic. She was arrested on College Avenue in the area of 6th and 7th Streets. That area was under construction for a new ASU building and generally closed off to cars. I find it hard to believe that a person can be arrested for jay walking in an area that is closed off to cars. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/tempe/2014/08/01/asu-professor-sentenced-9-months-probation-abrk/13439073/ ASU professor sentenced to 9 months of probation Catherine Calderon, The Republic | azcentral.com 7:38 p.m. MST August 1, 2014 Arizona State University English professor Ersula Ore, who was arrested for alleged assault after a confrontation with an ASU police officer, has been sentenced to 9 months probation after a hearing on Friday in Maricopa County Superior Court. Ore pleaded guilty to resisting arrest earlier this month and her attorney said at the time that the plea deal did nothing to change their view that the arrest was unlawful. "Personally I'm wondering what about me seemed to be a threat, so much so that it warranted an officer touching me and violating me," Ore said before Superior Court Commissioner Julie Mata. "I am hurt, upset, angry and humiliated. I deal with fears on a regularly hourly basis –they wake me up at night." Ore said she had a moment of weakness questioning the arrest, but felt that she could no longer trust whether those in uniform were there to help or hurt her. Ore was arrested May 20 after she refused to provide her identification to an ASU police officer who stopped her for walking in the middle of the street in Tempe, according to police documents. Ore said she believes she was wrongfully arrested and that her arresting officer used excessive force during the incident, which sparked national news coverage. Ore struggled with ASU Police Officer Stewart Ferrin during the arrest and kicked him in the shin during the process. Ferrin warned Ore that he would "slam" her onto his vehicle if she did not comply, according to footage from the dashcam video. Eyewitnesses expressed concerned while the arrest was made, with one calling 911 to report the officer pulling Ore to the ground aggressively. "I never once saw a single solitary individual get pulled over by a cop for walking across a street ... in a campus location," Ore says in the video. Some of Ore's supporters have said she was racially profiled for jaywalking. Defense attorney Alane Roby stressed repeatedly that Ore did resist arrest by asking Ferrin why she was being apprehended, though should be granted leniency given she has no criminal history and that extended probation time would be an unnecessary drain on state resources. Roby asked Mata specifically for one day of supervised probation. Ore's supporters packed the courtroom and included many ASU faculty and friends. Among those was English Professor Keith Miller, who has known Ore for the last several years and took over the summer school course she was slated to teach prior to the incident. "She's a good professional, she's a good person and she's not a danger to anyone," Miller said in court. Deputy County Attorney Doug Mangum told Mata he believed there had been positive and negative aspects for both parties involved in the incident, however that the state felt 9 to 12 months was a sufficient amount of time to accomplish the goal of probation. "The state fully recognizes she has a lot of support from the community but we are here for the sentencing of a criminal case," he said. "We certainly hope that is not lost." ASU police administrators, in their preliminary review of the incident, said they did not believe Ferrin had racially profiled her or used excessive force. Ferrin was later put on paid administrative leave and the school's police department asked for an outside review of the incident. Ore was visibly upset following the sentencing, with Roby thanking supporters outside the courtroom on her behalf. She said she was disappointed the proposed one day of supervised probation was not granted. "I would have liked to see that but the reality is nine months of probation--as long as someone is successful--can very easily turn into four," Roby said. "We do believe that her constitutional civil rights were violated and we're not going to let that go."
Court to decide if sign-walkers allowed in Scottsdale What part of the First Amendment don't these tyrants understand????? http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/scottsdale/2014/08/01/court-decide-sign-walkers-allowed-scottsdale/13462831/ Court to decide if sign-walkers allowed in Scottsdale Edward Gately, The Republic | azcentral.com 10:58 a.m. MST August 1, 2014 A Maricopa County Superior Court judge could decide this month whether Scottsdale has to abide by a new state law aimed at preventing the city from imposing its strict rules on street-corner sign walkers. A city ordinance restricts sign walkers to private property, preventing them from standing close to traffic on sidewalks. The revised state law requires cities to allow the sign walkers on public property and public rights of way. The larger issue, however, involves how far the state can go in imposing rules on charter cities. The new law took effect last month. In May, Scottsdale City Attorney Bruce Washburn filed a complaint seeking a judgment declaring that the state law constitutionally cannot be applied to the city because of its status as an Arizona city governed by its own charter. Charter status allows the city to set rules for managing its streets and sidewalks, among other things, the city argues. Earlier this month, the Arizona Attorney General's Office and Washburn submitted summary-judgment motions for the court to bring an end to the case. Response briefs from both sides are due Monday, Aug. 25, and after that the judge could render a decision. "I cannot predict how long the judge would take to decide the matter," Washburn said. Jim Torgeson, owner of Mesa-based Sign King of Arizona, which provides sign walkers to businesses, was named an intervenor and joined the state's summary-judgment motion. He has been battling the city over this issue since at least 2007. "I would hope that a little bit of freedom is preserved, a little bit of rights are preserved," he said. "Scottsdale would rather put 100 people out of work than the inconvenience of seeing them on the street. It makes no sense. Panhandlers are legal, but somebody trying to work, make a living and make revenue, can't work?" In his motion, Washburn said the new law "unconstitutionally interferes with Scottsdale's self-governance in three overall areas: the preservation of community aesthetics, the protection of the inhabitants of Scottsdale from the immediate dangers posed by distracted drivers, and the regulation and control of municipal streets and sidewalks." The Arizona Constitution declares the rights of cities to frame their own government charter, which becomes the constitution of the municipality, he said. "Citizens of Scottsdale have complained regarding the unsightly presence of sign walkers, and expressed their desire that sign walkers not be permitted in Scottsdale," Washburn said. "The citizens ... have a psychological and economic interest in maintaining the beauty of their surroundings and enhancing property values. The city's peace and beauty are preserved by the city's regulation of sign walkers." David Weinzweig, senior litigation counsel, filed the motion on behalf of the Attorney General's Office. In it, he said Scottsdale must show beyond a reasonable doubt that the new law is unconstitutional. "Arizona municipalities have no inherent zoning or police powers," he said. "Rather, it is and always has been the Arizona Legislature that 'created and delegated the power to zone' to Arizona's municipalities, including the power to regulate signage." The state Constitution does not "confer unilateral authority on cities to enact a patchwork quilt of regulations," Weinzweig said. Previous state law already required municipalities to allow sign walkers, but let the municipalities establish their own reasonable time, place and manner of restrictions. Many metro Phoenix cities decided to simply follow the state law. Scottsdale, however, restricted sign walkers to private property, prohibiting them from waving signs on sidewalks or at intersections, where passing traffic is more likely to see them.
This is just an older version of a game called "Stun Gun Fun" which cops play with people they arrest. The only odd and unusual thing about this article is the cop got fired. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/31/denton-police-release-video-of-injured-inmate/13415495/ Jailer's 'leg sweep' of suspect gets him fired Associated Press 11:30 a.m. MST July 31, 2014 DENTON, Texas — A North Texas police department has fired a jailer and released video of a public intoxication suspect being slammed face-first to the floor during booking. Denton police Officer Ryan Grelle (GREE'-lee) says Wednesday's release of the 20-minute video is a way to apologize to the public and show what happened. Jailer Darius Porter was fired last Friday when police determined he used excessive force during the July 19 booking of Jason Bishop. Bishop says he suffered a broken nose, two black eyes and a cut on the head. Police say Porter misapplied a technique called a leg sweep that tripped Bishop, whose head struck the concrete floor. Bishop, who was treated at a hospital, told the Denton Record-Chronicle on Wednesday that his head still hurts but he's otherwise healing.
Obama: 'We tortured some folks' Sadly the only difference between Emperor Obama and Emperor Bush is that Obama is a Democrat and Bush is a Republican. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/2014/08/01/obama-news-conference-budget-israel-palestine-russia-ukraine/13470133/ Obama: 'We tortured some folks' David Jackson, USA TODAY 5:17 p.m. MST August 1, 2014 President Obama said Friday that some CIA officials who interrogated suspects after the 9/11 attacks "crossed a line" into torture. "We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks," Obama said while discussing a forthcoming Senate report on enhanced interrogation techniques. "We did some things that were contrary to our values." During a brief news conference, Obama also criticized congressional Republicans for adjourning without agreement on a border bill and indicated he would soon take executive action to address the influx of migrant children from Central America. "While they're out on vacation, I'm going to have to make some tough choices to meet the challenge, with or without Congress," Obama said. Obama also told reporters: • He has "full confidence" in CIA Director John Brennan, despite the admission that his agency improperly accessed Senate computers during a congressional investigation of disputed interrogation techniques. Obama has condemned those techniques as torture before, but his administration has not sought prosecution of possible offenders. The president said Friday that people should remember all the pressure put on national security teams after 9/11, and "it's important for us not to feel too sanctimonious in retrospect about the tough job that those folks had." • There will be an effective federal response to any threat from the Ebola virus, and that precautions are being taken ahead of next week's U.S.-African Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C. • The United States will work to restore a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that ended shortly after it began Friday, but "trying to put that back together is going to be challenging" at best. "There's a lot of anger and there's a lot of despair ... it's a volatile mix," Obama said. "But we have to keep trying." He demanded that Palestinians release an Israeli soldier kidnapped during fighting Friday. • He disputes the notion that the United States is losing influence on world affairs. Obama said that although the U.S. remains the world's most powerful nation, it "still does not control everything around the world." The conduct of world affairs, he said, is "not neat" and "not smooth." Obama defended Secretary of State John Kerry in his Middle East efforts. • A new labor report says the economy has created more than 200,000 jobs for six straight months for the first time since 1997. "The good news is the economy clearly is getting stronger," though things would be even better if Congress acted on more of his proposals, Obama said. The immigration issue gave Obama another chance to mock House Republicans for plans to sue him over executive actions he has taken in implementing the health-care law. Though Republicans want to take him to court over some executive actions, Obama noted that some GOP members also want him to take executive action with regard to dealing with the increase of migrant children from Central America. Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Obama "has been completely AWOL" when it comes to working with Republicans on an immigration compromise plan. "Senate Democrats have left town without acting on his request for a border supplemental," Steel said. "Right now, House Republicans are the only ones still working to address this crisis." After Friday, Congress will be on recess for the rest of August. Obama said he would oppose any attempt to roll back a 2012 order that deferred deportations of young people who have been brought into the country illegally as children. House Republicans "are not even trying to actually solve the problem," Obama said, blasting them for "extreme" proposals that would never pass the Democratic Senate. Last month, Obama proposed a $3.7 billion budget supplement to address problems on the border. The Senate debated a plan a billion dollars cheaper but could not pass it and adjourned shortly before Obama's news conference. The GOP-led House failed to pass a bill Thursday night but continued to debate a less costly plan as Obama spoke. Without the prospect of agreement between the House and Senate, Obama said his administration will have to re-allocate funds to meet growing needs on the border while depriving other programs. "We've run out of money," he said. Re-allocation has to be done to make sure "basic functions" get done, Obama said, "whether it's making sure that these children are properly housed or making sure that we've got enough immigration judges to process their cases."
I urge you all to boot U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema out of office in the next election. U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema tried to slap a 300%, $900 and ounce tax on medical marijuana when she was a member of the Arizona legislator. That tax failed. That tax would have increased the price of a $300 ounce of medical marijuana up to $1,200 an ounce with the state of Arizona stealing $900 for each ounce sold. U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema says she supports decriminalizing marijuana or something like that. But after that 300 percent tax on medical marijuana believing her on that statement is like believing Hitler after he says he made a little tiny mistake murdering all those Jews. U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema is also a gun grabber despite her statements that she supports the Second Amendment. Like most politicians Kyrsten Sinema will say anything to get your vote. Sadly in this article you will see the two twits trying to get U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema job are not much better then Kyrsten Sinema. As with most elections this one boils down to selecting the lessor of the two evils. Kinda like tying to decide if you want Hitler, Mao or Stalin as your next leader. Sure they all suck, but as a voter your job is to pick the lessor of the evils. I guess that's why I am an anarchist. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/2014/07/31/arizona-ninth-district-gop-candidates-accuse-misleading-voters/13448159/ 9th District GOP candidates accuse each other of misleading voters Rebekah L. Sanders, The Republic | azcentral.com 8:50 p.m. MST July 31, 2014 The gloves came off Thursday in a debate between Republican congressional candidates Wendy Rogers and Andrew Walter, as each assailed the other for misleading voters in the Tempe-based 9th District. Rogers accused her opponent of being untrustworthy on his personal finances and the immigration issue. Walter said she had distorted her position on Social Security and stooped to negative character attacks. The GOP candidates are competing in the Aug. 26 primary to challenge freshman Democrat U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema in the fall. The district is one of the few toss-ups in the country, with nearly even numbers of Republican, Democratic and independent voters. Rogers, 60, is a home-inspection-company owner and retired Air Force officer. Walter, 32, is a financial investor and former Arizona State University and professional football quarterback. They debated on the public-television program "Horizon." Sparks flew when the subject of Walter's personal finances came up. He showed a mailer that Rogers' campaign sent out, accusing Walter of breaking the law by failing to file a federal financial disclosure form and list interests in companies and a private plane. Walter countered that he had submitted the required paperwork. The House Ethics website does not show he has. "I think you can learn a lot about somebody by the way they run their campaign," he said to Rogers. "You're running a vicious, personal, negative campaign." Then with a grin, Walter whipped out some of her campaign paperwork. "In the history of Arizona politics, you're going to see for the first time one competitor help out another," he deadpanned. "It has come to the attention of my campaign that you are in violation of federal campaign-finance laws. ... You misspelled your name. So that means every piece of literature or hate mail you send out regarding me or every commercial that you run is against federal law." Rogers said her campaign had submitted corrections to the Federal Election Commission. On the subject of immigration, Rogers said Walter is soft on the issue. "We have a rampant immigrant problem," she said. "You can vote for me, who has served her country honorably. Or my opponent: a man who refuses to admit this is a problem in our country, where we have a border problem and we have to fix it." Rogers was referring to Walter's cluelessness in front of The Arizona Republic's editorial board recently when asked about Rep. Matt Salmon's child-migrant legislation and the comprehensive "Gang of Eight" reform bill proposed last year by Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake. Walter shot back that he supports Salmon's bill, which would change the law to expedite the deportation of unaccompanied minors. But then he refused to take a position on deporting undocumented young people living in the United States known as "dreamers" or on the "Gang of Eight" bill. "I'm not prepared to have that discussion," he said. "My point is very simple — this is an incredibly complex issue." Even as Rogers attacked Walter for waffling on immigration, she seemed unaware of the details of the legislation herself. When asked whether child-migrants should be deported quickly, she agreed. But Rogers seemed not to understand that doing so requires changing a 2008 law passed under President George W. Bush that requires court proceedings to protect trafficking victims. On Thursday, a Republican version of the amendment to speed deportations failed in the House. "We should enforce the rule of law," Rogers said twice. "We have to enforce the rule of law as it stands today," which would mean continuing the long court process instead of quick deportations. Rogers accused Walter for letting his $700,000 home go into foreclosure, despite his career experience in the mortgage industry and history of high paychecks as an NFL quarterback. She said he expressed regret only now that he's in the public eye. "This is personal," she said. "Character matters. We have had too much corruption in Washington, D.C." Walter said he made a mistake and learned from it. Then he turned the tables, saying he agreed that Rogers keeps her promises. "When you say you will eliminate Social Security, I believe that's what you're going to do," Walter said. He was referring to Rogers saying in a 2012 video in front of a conservative political group that she believed Social Security is unconstitutional and "I'd like to see it phased out." If not phased out, she said, it should be privatized. Despite the recording, Rogers flatly denied her words during the debate. "I did not say that," she said. "I said Social Security is not constitutionally guaranteed. ... I did not say that I would phase out Social Security."
Sadly this is true for almost ALL elections. The b*stards who run for government offices are almost always just crooks who want to steal your money and micromanage your life. While they are telling you they are a "public servant" who helps you. How often do your servants tell you what to do, and then empty your wallet to pay for the advice you didn't want. http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/letters/2014/08/01/neither-candidate-for-arizona-ag-will-do/13500529/ Neither candidate for Arizona AG will do J. Hardes 8:38 p.m. MST August 1, 2014 Last week, I watched a horror show on television. No, it was not "Under the Dome," but six Republican gubernatorial candidates debating. This week, I viewed the two GOP primary contenders for Arizona attorney general. I cannot decide if the show was horror or farce. Neither candidate should be elected. — J. Hardes, Phoenix
6 1/2 years in prison for the victimless crime of growing selling marijuana. Don't these government tyrants have any real criminals to hunt down??? http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/view/story/0330050a637441818dec6792fb115773/AZ--Marijuana-Grower-Sentenced Phoenix man sentenced to 6 ½ years in federal prison for growing and distributing marijuana THE ASSOCIATED PRESS First Posted: August 01, 2014 - 4:07 pm Last Updated: August 01, 2014 - 4:10 pm PHOENIX — A Phoenix man has been sentenced to 6 ½ years in federal prison for growing and distributing marijuana. Federal prosecutors say 28-year-old John Cary Dean was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. He pleaded guilty in January to two counts of possession with intent to distribute less than 50 kilograms of marijuana, one count of manufacturing marijuana, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking offenses. Dean was arrested in May 2013 after authorities searched his residence. They reported finding a marijuana grow operation, 32 pounds of marijuana packaged for sale, hydroponic growing supplies, nearly $80,000 in cash and 11 firearms. In February 2013, Arizona authorities say Dean was stopped in Flagstaff with 25 pounds of high-grade marijuana and a loaded handgun en route to Alabama.
Pima County adds nicotine to their "War on Drugs" I am an ex-smoker and I HATE tobacco smoke. But that doesn't mean it's right for the government to declare war on tobacco and nicotine and tobacco. What a person does in their own private life shouldn't be any of the government's damn business. Despite the fact that I think people should be able to smoke tobacco in their private lives, tobacco is probably the deadliest drug on the planet. Every year 6 million people die world wide from the medical side effects of smoking. Alcohol is next and causes 2.5 million deaths a year worldwide. Marijuana causes a whopping 0, that's ZERO deaths a year from the medical side effects of using pot. http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/f1566039878e4d9694ada7e519aa3b92/AZ--Pima-County-Smokers Pima County may refuse to hire any smokers; Higher insurance rates for those on payroll who do THE ASSOCIATED PRESS August 01, 2014 - 5:02 pm EDT TUCSON, Arizona — Pima County may soon refuse to hire anyone who smokes and smokers already on the payroll can expect higher health insurance rates. According to a memo sent by County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, prospective employees would be tested for nicotine as part of the hiring process. About 32 percent of county workers are smokers. Huckelberry told the Arizona Daily Star ( http://bit.ly/1ljZWDF ) that "not hiring smokers is a way to avoid long-term medical costs." He says the expanded rules would promote a healthier workforce and save taxpayers money on county health insurance costs, especially since the county is self-insured. Huckelberry hopes the initiative could go before the supervisors in September or October and if approved, go into effect in January 2015 or the beginning of the new fiscal year in July 2015. http://tucson.com/news/smokers-need-not-apply-county-says/article_3ff8c4c4-45db-53bc-b19b-e07e9900b821.html Smokers need not apply, county says James S. Wood July 31, 2014 8:45 pm • By Jamar Younger 67 Pima County may soon refuse to hire anyone who smokes. And puffers already on the payroll can expect even higher health insurance rates. In a proposed expansion of the county’s already-tough anti-tobacco rules, prospective employees would be tested for nicotine as part of the hiring process, according to a memo sent by County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry. In the memo, Huckelberry referred to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that say smokers cost their employers about $3,400 a year in lost productivity and medical expenses. “Not hiring smokers is a way to avoid long-term medical costs,” Huckelberry said in an interview. Huckelberry said the expanded rules would promote a healthier workforce and save taxpayers money on county health insurance costs, especially since the county is self-insured. About 32 percent of county workers are smokers, according to a risk assessment cited in the memo. Huckelberry hopes the initiative could go before the supervisors in September or October and, if approved, go into effect in January 2015 or the beginning of the new fiscal year in July 2015, he said. The new proposal, which still needs to be reviewed by human resources, county employee unions and other groups, would require job applicants to pass a test before they’re hired. The applicants would have to be tobacco-free for a year before applying for a county job. County officials do not know how this proposal would affect workers use e-cigarettes, which the Attorney General’s Office just opined are exempt from the rules that restrict smoking tobacco products. The test would detect cotinine, a byproduct of nicotine that can be found through urine, blood or saliva testing, according to the memo. Applicants who fail the test could retest 24 hours after the initial screening. Those who fail a second time would not be allowed to apply for a county job for a year. The newly hired employees would be subject to ongoing testing to make sure they don’t start smoking while working for the county. Current workers who don’t smoke would have to undergo cotinine testing beginning next fiscal year in order to receive a discount on their medical insurance. If they refuse, the employees would have to pay a 30 percent surcharge for their health insurance. The surcharge would increase by 10 percent each year until it reaches 50 percent, according to the memo. County officials do not know the exact cost of conducting the test, but it could range from $15 to $50, said county human resources Director Allyn Bulzomi. The county pays $50 million each year for employee health insurance, while employees contribute about $5 million, Huckelberry said. The crackdown on smokers began in 2012, when the county Board of Supervisors passed its Tobacco-Free Environment Policy, which prohibits anyone from smoking on county property. That policy, which was implemented in January 2013, drew the ire of various county departments, with those officials lamenting about where their employees would go for smoke breaks. Some departments also questioned whether the county could effectively enforce the rule. The new proposed policy will likely rankle county employees, but Huckelberry said he’s confident any controversy will be short-lived. The leader of one of the employee unions is already concerned about how the testing process would affect workers. “How many people do they think are lying, and why does county administration think that?” said Maya Castillo, president of the Pima Chapter of Service Employees International Union Arizona. “County employees are trustworthy.” Castillo also wondered if this initiative would lead to other surcharges and rules negatively affecting county employees. “There is a lot of risky behavior employees can participate in. I’m concerned about that opening the door for other surcharges,” she said. “A part of it is leading to other invasive practices by the county, and that’s concerning.” Supervisor Richard Elías shared the same concern regarding potential surcharges for other health conditions. Elías, who supported the 2012 policy, would rather educate smokers and provide support for those who want to quit, he said. “This is a matter of creating punitive action against people who have a bad habit they can fix,” he said. “It’s right on the border of being a discriminatory hiring practice.”
Protest American & Zionist terrorism in Gaza https://www.facebook.com/events/647784375317853/ Protest in solidarity with Gaza Friday, August 8 at 4:30pm Arizona State Capitol 1700 W Washington St Phoenix, Arizona 85007 Join our protest to express your solidarity with the innocent victims of the ongoing Israeli operation in the Gaza strip. Enough is Enough, how money more children and innocent civilians should die or be displaced before the situation gets resolved. in front of Arizona State Capitol 1700 W Washington St Phoenix, AZ 85007 -------- Vamos apoyemos esta protesta no necesitamos ser arabes o mulsumanes lo unico que necesitamos es tener sentimientos ..estos ninos no merecen estar muriendo de esta forma tan cruel :,(
Some recent articles have said Emperor Obama is the worst American President in modern times. I find that hard to believe and will always have a deep hate for President Richard Nixon and his "War on Drugs" and "Vietnam War". I probably hate Richard Nixon as much as I hate that *sshold David Dorn. On the other hand Nixon got caught, something that hasn't happened to either Emperor Obama or David Dorn. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bob-woodward-reviews-the-nixon-defense-by-john-w-dean/2014/07/31/6da6d678-fc83-11e3-932c-0a55b81f48ce_story.html?hpid=z3 Bob Woodward reviews ‘The Nixon Defense,’ by John W. Dean By Bob Woodward July 31 Bob Woodward is an associate editor of The Washington Post, where he has worked for nearly 43 years. He is the author or co-author of 17 books. Four are about Watergate, including “All the President’s Men” and “The Final Days,” both co-authored with Carl Bernstein. Evelyn Duffy contributed to this review. President Richard Nixon’s decision to install a secret recording system — and then to retain the tapes — perhaps ranks as the most consequential self-inflicted political wound of 20th-century America. The criminality, abuse of power, obsession with real and perceived enemies, rage, self-focus, and small-mindedness revealed on those tapes left him abandoned by his own party and forced him to resign 40 years ago. To date, the dissemination of some 250 White House conversations has defined his presidency and its corruption. Now comes John W. Dean, Nixon’s White House counsel and later his chief accuser, to transcribe and analyze at least 600 new conversations in his book “The Nixon Defense.” The title is misleading, because it suggests there is a case for Nixon’s innocence. Dean quickly clears that up when he writes in the preface, “Fortunately for everyone, his defense failed.” The new material reveals further examples of the administration’s contempt for the law. It provides a detailed narrative of precisely what happened inside the Nixon White House beginning three days after the June 17, 1972, burglary when five men were arrested in the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate, and continuing until the taping system was shut down after aide Alexander Butterfield revealed it 13 months later. I never doubted that Nixon was the ringleader and driving force behind the Watergate crimes and mind-set. The evidence on previous tapes, the testimony at hearings and trials, and the memoirs of his closest aides made that clear. But Dean’s book seals that conclusion, perhaps forever. He brings the microscope as close to the Nixon of Watergate as anyone has, and he has done so in a generally dispassionate presentation of hundreds of pages of content from the tapes, plus quotations and scenes from previously released recordings, including conversations in which he participated. “The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It” by John W. Dean. (Viking) “Watergate,” Dean concludes, “as the overwhelming evidence revealed, was merely one particularly egregious expression of Nixon’s often ruthless abuses of power. Had Richard Nixon not encouraged his aides to collect political intelligence by any means fair or foul, or insisted from the moment of the [Watergate] arrests that there must be no coverup, neither would have taken place. Nixon was not only responsible for all that went amiss during his presidency, he was in almost every instance the catalyst, when not the instigator.” The new tapes depict a White House full of lies, chaos, distrust, speculation, self-protection, maneuver and counter-maneuver, with a crookedness that makes Netflix’s “House of Cards” look unsophisticated. Dean himself was eventually charged with obstruction of justice and served four months in prison. Describing himself and Nixon’s other top aides in the spring of 1973, he writes: “We had become something of a criminal cabal, weighing the risks of further criminal action to prevent the worst while hoping something might unexpectedly occur that would resolve the problems. Watergate conversations had become like the devil’s merry-go-round with the same basic tune played over and over while various people climbed on and off.” The book contains no new blockbusters, but the new tapes suggest that the full story of the Nixon administration’s secret operations may forever remain buried along with their now-deceased perpetrators. For example, on Oct. 10, 1972, Carl Bernstein and I wrote in The Washington Post that Watergate was not an isolated operation but only part of a massive campaign of political espionage and sabotage run by the Nixon reelection committee and the White House. Dean writes that the story “reframed Watergate as more than a mere bungled burglary at the DNC.” The broad extent of the malfeasance was evident in a conversation that Charles W. Colson had with the president the same day, according to the book. Colson, Nixon’s shadowy operative and special counsel, told him almost gleefully that “nothing in that article this morning has anything to do with my office. The things that I have done that could be explosive in the newspaper will never come out, because nobody knows about them. I don’t trust anybody in my office.” Nixon did not ask what these might be. Three months later, after the president won reelection, Colson bragged to his boss: “I did a hell of a lot of things on the outside, and you never read about it. The things you read about were the things I didn’t do, Watergate” and the sabotage and espionage operations against the Democrats run by California lawyer Donald Segretti. “But you see, I did things out of Boston,” Colson said, referring to his home town. “We did some blackmail and — ” “My God,” Nixon interrupted. Even he was apparently surprised. “I’ll go to my grave before I ever disclose it,” Colson continued. “But we did a hell of a lot of things and never got caught. Things that — ” Colson abruptly stopped, and Nixon inquired no further. In a footnote, Dean writes that he had a similar conversation with Colson, who said that his “secret activities” could send him to jail if they were ever revealed. Colson died in 2012. Dean shows White House chief of staff H.R. “Bob” Haldeman and the top domestic adviser, John D. Ehrlichman, at one moment denying to the president any role in clandestine, criminal activities, then acknowledging it. The tapes also capture Nixon shading the truth after admitting knowledge of the activities. On April 14, 1973, Ehrlichman told the president that, based on his own investigation of the Watergate cover-up, “there were eight or 10 people around [the White House] who knew about this, knew it was going on.” He told Nixon that “Bob [Haldeman] knew, I knew, all kinds of people knew.” “Well, I knew it, I knew it,” Nixon replied. But then he quickly tried to backtrack. Dean writes: “Realizing what he had just confessed, and possibly realizing that it had been recorded, the president immediately tried, rather awkwardly to retract it.” Nixon is then heard on the tape saying, “I knew, I must say though, I didn’t know it.” This type of classic doubletalk appears time and again on the new tapes. “The Nixon Defense” offers tantalizing hints that White House aides were gleaning information from the telephone wiretap that had been secretly placed in the DNC’s Watergate headquarters. On March 16, 1973, Ehrlichman told the president that it was his “hunch” that key campaign and White House aides, including former attorney general John Mitchell, were receiving reports from the wiretap. “And there’s some pretty juicy stuff in there,” Ehrlichman said. The fruits of the bug have not been made public. Dean notes that the National Archives is holding back some material, citing privacy and because it was obtained using an illegal wiretap. On April 9, 1973, three months before the secret White House recording system was revealed publicly, Nixon instructed Haldeman to get rid of all the tapes. “I think we should take all that we’ve got and destroy them,” the president is heard saying on tape. “I don’t want to have in the record the discussions we’ve had in this room about Watergate.” As Dean writes, “Had he destroyed the tapes he would have survived, tarnished but intact.” But the order was not carried out. Nine days later, Nixon repeated his request. “I would like you to take all these tapes, if you wouldn’t mind,” he said, as if he were asking Haldeman to perform a routine task. He wanted Haldeman to destroy most of the tapes. “Would you do that?” “Sure,” Haldeman said. But Nixon did not pursue the matter. The White House was chronically prone to insufficient follow-through, and Nixon was often indecisive as he tried to untangle himself from the Watergate crimes. Not only did the tapes escape the trash bin, but the president kept the secret recording system going through the spring of 1973 while he directed the cover-up. During those months he developed another, deeper illegal obstruction of justice — the cover-up of the cover-up. After White House aide Butterfield publicly disclosed the existence of the secret recordings to the Senate Watergate committee on July 16, 1973, Nixon told his new chief of staff, Alexander Haig: “Al, I’ve thought about this all night. Maybe Alex Butterfield has done us a favor. These tapes will be exculpatory. I know I never said anything to anybody that could be interpreted as encouragement to cover things up. Just the opposite.” This is preposterous and indicative of Nixon’s state of denial. Although an abundance of tape material now exists, it is likely that still more evidence is on the horizon. Some tapes or key sections are inaudible and defy reliable transcription. Improved technology could someday retrieve additional content. In addition the National Archives, which houses the tapes, may eventually release more of them. Dean, as always the model of precision and doggedness, has performed yeoman service in this more-than-700-page monster of a book. Even for someone who has covered Watergate for 42 years, from the morning of the burglary through the investigations, confessions, denials, hearings, trials, books and attempts at historical revisionism, Dean’s book has an authoritative ring. Page after page of taped dialogue reveals the rambling, ugly fog of scandal as Nixon and his top aides scramble to deceive one another and save themselves. The new tapes provide even more incontrovertible evidence of the administration’s illegal conduct. Look no further than a May 23, 1973, tape in which Nixon addressed his initial authorization of Tom Charles Huston’s top-secret 1970 plan to expand break-ins, wiretapping and mail openings. “I ordered that they use any means necessary, including illegal means, to accomplish this goal,” Nixon told Haig. “The president of the United States can never admit that.” He just had, of course, and the new tapes show him making admissions of criminality again and again. Bob Woodward is an associate editor of The Washington Post, where he has worked for nearly 43 years. He is the author or co-author of 17 books. Four are about Watergate, including “All the President’s Men” and “The Final Days,” both co-authored with Carl Bernstein. Evelyn Duffy contributed to this review. Read more from Outlook: Books on tapes: ‘Chasing Shadows’ and ‘The Nixon Tapes’ Friend us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. THE NIXON DEFENSE What He Knew and When He Knew It By John W. Dean Viking. 746 pp. $35
LA cop loses shot gun, man who found it arrested. Typical police behavior. Blame someone else for your f*ck up!!!! Sadly the folks in the "Peoples Republic of California" have pretty much lost their right to keep and bear arms, something we still have here in Arizona. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lapd-find-missing-shotgun-20140801-story.html LAPD finds motorcycle cop's missing shotgun; man arrested By Ryan Parker contact the reporter CrimeLos Angeles Police Department Missing LAPD shotgun that fell off motorcycle recovered; man accused of taking it is arrested Los Angeles police found a shotgun that fell off an officer’s motorcycle and on Friday arrested the man accused of taking it from the area. Takee Williams, 43, was arrested for grand theft after officers were able to track down the shotgun a few miles from where it came off the officer’s bike, according to a news release from the Los Angeles Police Department. The shotgun was lost about 1 p.m. Thursday when, due to a faulty lock, it was dropped in the area of South Vermont Avenue and West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Police closed down the area Thursday while they searched for the loaded gun. During the search for the gun, an LAPD officer was severely hurt when he was bitten by a police K-9 and had to undergo surgery, police said. Williams was held in lieu of $35,000 bail, police said. Follow @theryanparker for breaking news
Facebook down??? Call 911??? I guess a lot of the "love your government" morons expect the government to solve ALL their problems. You wouldn't call the Mafia to have them fix Facebook. Why on earth would you call 911 to fix Facebook??? http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-911-calls-about-facebook-outage-angers-la-sheriffs-officials-20140801-htmlstory.htm 911 calls about Facebook outage angers L.A. County sheriff's officials By A Times Staff Writer Crime Law Enforcement Officials at one Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department station were not happy after getting calls from residents because Facebook went down Friday morning. "#Facebook is not a Law Enforcement issue, please don't call us about it being down, we don't know when FB will be back up!" Sheriff's Sgt. Burton Brink of the Crescenta Valley station wrote on Twitter. In a later tweet, he said an unknown number of people called 911 about the outage. Facebook went down early Friday morning. The company responded to the outage, issuing a statement saying, "Facebook is currently experiencing an issue that is affecting all API and web surfaces. Our engineers detected the issue quickly and are working to resolve it ASAP. We'll update shortly." Service was restored a short time later.
1st Amendment null and void in your doctors office??? "government officials in Florida and across the country argue that normal First Amendment rules don’t apply to licensed occupations" In general I think folks in govenrment are idiots and crooks. But the one thing that does impress me about our government rulers is all the creative ways they can come up with to flush the Constitution and Bill of Rights down the toilet to justify themselves do anything they damn well feel like doing. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/02/opinion/censorship-in-your-doctors-office.html?hpw&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well Censorship in Your Doctor’s Office By PAUL SHERMAN and ROBERT McNAMARAAUG. 1, 2014 WHEN a doctor asks her patient a question, is the doctor engaged in free speech protected by the Constitution? If you think the answer is obvious, think again. According to a recent decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, everything a doctor says to a patient is “treatment,” not speech, and the government has broad authority to prohibit doctors from asking questions on particular topics without any First Amendment scrutiny at all. The case, Wollschlaeger v. Governor of Florida, concerned the constitutionality of the Florida Firearm Owners Privacy Act. That 2011 law threatens doctors with professional discipline if they ask patients whether they own guns or record the resulting information in a patient’s files when doing so is not “relevant” to a patient’s medical care. What may or may not be relevant is unanswered by the statute. Reasonable people can disagree on whether those questions are necessary to provide effective medical care. Opponents of Florida’s law, including the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, believe that asking patients about gun ownership is a legitimate means of promoting public health by giving doctors the opportunity to share firearms-safety tips. Proponents of the law, the National Rifle Association among them, believe that whether a person owns guns is none of his doctor’s business. The N.R.A. may well be right. Many patients probably prefer not to discuss their gun ownership with their doctor, just as others may not want to discuss their sexual activity or alcohol intake, particularly if they believe the doctor’s inquiries are motivated more by a political agenda than by medical necessity. But the First Amendment generally doesn’t let the government outlaw the asking of annoying questions. Instead, people can refuse to answer or decline to associate with those who insist on asking such questions. The theory behind Florida’s law, by contrast, is that patients faced with questions about guns will be too cowed by their physician’s power and prestige to talk back or even just find a different doctor. That’s hardly a flattering view of gun owners, whom we generally believe to be made of sterner stuff. Nevertheless, it is a theory a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit found persuasive. By a 2-to-1 vote, it concluded that when doctors ask questions of their patients, those questions constitute medical treatment wholly outside the First Amendment. As the majority argued, medical treatment “may begin with an inquiry (‘Do you smoke?’), followed by a recommendation and some amount of counseling (‘You should quit smoking because smoking has been shown to cause cancer’).” And none of that, apparently, is “speech.” While some of our fellow Second Amendment advocates may be tempted to celebrate this ruling, it is, at most, a symbolic victory for gun rights. And it comes at the cost of a serious and dangerous defeat for the First Amendment. Indeed, it’s hard to overstate the sweeping effect of this rule. Imagine if tobacco companies successfully lobbied for a law that prohibited doctors from asking patients whether they smoke. Some doctors may want to know so they can conduct lung examinations, while others may just want to urge their patients to stop. But everyone should recognize that a law outlawing a simple question infringes on speech. Fortunately, the line of argument followed by the 11th Circuit has been rejected by the United States Supreme Court. In 2010, the court considered the constitutionality of a federal law that made it a crime to give expert advice — including even legal advice — to designated terrorist groups. Although the government defended the law by arguing that such individualized advice was conduct rather than speech, the court rejected that argument. Despite this clear rule, government officials in Florida and across the country argue that normal First Amendment rules don’t apply to licensed occupations — a position that is serving as cover for increasingly broad-ranging censorship. The Texas state veterinary board, for example, has used a rule that prohibits licensed veterinarians from dispensing veterinary advice about an animal they have not examined. This silences vets who use the Internet to advise pet owners who would otherwise lack access to veterinary care. Even people giving ordinary advice aren’t safe. Last year, the Kentucky Board of Examiners of Psychology sent a cease-and-desist letter to the newspaper columnist John Rosemond, claiming that his widely syndicated parenting column was the unlicensed — hence criminal — practice of psychology. Is Dear Abby next? The ruling by the 11th Circuit panel is another dangerous step in this censorial direction, and it must not be allowed to stand. If the 11th Circuit does not grant a rehearing before the entire court and reverse the panel’s ruling, the Supreme Court should grant review and make clear that the protections of the Second Amendment do not trump those of the First Amendment. Paul Sherman and Robert McNamara are lawyers at the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm.
This is a post from from Ken Larsen an atheist libertarian I know in Utah. He can be contacted at: kencan@xmission.com And the atheist libertarian listserver he posted it on is: atheist_libertarians@yahoogroups.com 15 years ago I co-authored a research article showing that marijuana is medicine. The drug I studied, Ajulemic Acid (google it), is a combination of aspirin and THC. Without touching any of the benefits of aspirin or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), it prevented any, yes any, visible damage to the gut. 300 times the anti-inflammatory dose of Indomethecin, a NSAID, killed all the rats I gave it to. 10,000 times the anti-inflammatory dose of Ajulemic Acid didn't phase any of my 5 subjects. Other researchers have shown that it also inhibits some kinds of cancer. I'm sure Ajulemic Acid is off your shelf because it would make you test positive for pot. If you have any stomach problems from aspirin or other NSAIDs, you are a casualty of the drug war. Whatever you pay for Prilosec, Tagamet, or doctor's help, is part of our cost of the drug war. Can you get this to Sue? JPET, 1999: Vol 291 31-38. My research was mostly financed by Atlantic Pharmaceutical, the developer. But it was also sponsored by the US government because I did the work at the VA hospital in Salt Lake. Isn't Sue Sisley just like those ancient scientists who got "fired" for claiming the Earth was round? We humans are noted for firing truth-seekers. Ken ----- Original Message ----- From: atheist_libertarians Sent: Friday, July 18, 2014 7:22 AM Subject: [atheist_libertarians] Marijuana researcher appeals UA's firing Marijuana researcher appeals UA's firing We certainly don't want logic and reason to get in the way of the "War on Drugs", which is a full employment jobs program for cops, judges, prosecutors and prison guards. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/2014/07/17/marijuana-researcher-appeals-uas-firing/12821261/ Marijuana researcher appeals UA's firing Ken Alltucker, The Republic | azcentral.com 8:54 p.m. MST July 17, 2014 A University of Arizona researcher who claimed she was dismissed after she lobbied for her study of marijuana for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder is fighting to get her job back. Sue Sisley has filed a formal appeal with the University of Arizona asking that she be reinstated as assistant professor with the Department of Psychiatry, assistant director of the Arizona Telemedicine Program and as a researcher. And a Change.org petition to bring back Sisley so far has collected more than 31,000 signatures. Sisley blames political pressure that she believes came after she clashed with state lawmakers over her research. The University of Arizona has denied political pressure played a role but otherwise would not discuss Sisley's expiring contracts, saying it does not comment on personnel matters. "The main goal is to get me reinstated to conduct research that is so important to the veterans of this state," Sisley said. "I'd be back tomorrow to implement the study." Sisley's lawyer, Jason Flores-Williams, acknowledges the appeal to reinstate her UA employment for a non-tenured position likely has little chance of success. Flores-Williams said university officials have stonewalled his attempts to get documents, e-mails or other written material that may shed light on why Sisley's contracts were not renewed. In the absence of such information, her written appeal inferred that outside political pressure was to blame for her dismissal. "The university can put an end to these inferences if it provides the reason for her dismissal," Flores-Williams said. The university allows non-tenured professors to appeal within 15 days of receiving notice of a decision to not renew a contract. A university dean or provost will decide whether to reinstate Sisley, who won't get a hearing or other external review. Flores-Williams said if the appeal is unsuccessful, Sisley would likely pursue a case in federal court. UA spokesman George Humphrey said outside political influence wasn't a factor, adding the university has supported medical-marijuana research. "To my knowledge, the UA has not received political pressure to terminate any employee, or any research we do, or who does it," Humphrey said in a written statement. Humphrey said that UA supported legislation last year that allowed university researchers to conduct medical-marijuana research on campus. He added that the university contacted the non-profit organization that is sponsoring Sisley's research, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) of Santa Cruz, Calif., to bring the clinical trials to fruition. "The University of Arizona is committed to ensuring the medical-marijuana research gets done," Humphrey said. Sisley's study evaluating the benefits of medical marijuana as a treatment for veterans suffering from PTSD received approval earlier this year from the federal Public Health Service. Sisley then lobbied on behalf of state legislation that would allow the Arizona Department of Health Services to partially fund her study with fees collected from medical-marijuana patients and dispensary operators. The legislation sailed through the Arizona House of Representatives and was assigned to the Senate Education Committee, chaired by Sen. Kimberly Yee. Yee refused to place the bill on her committee's agenda because of "significant concerns" voiced by members of the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys' Advisory Council. That prompted medical-marijuana advocates and veterans to launch a short-lived attempt to recall Yee. Although the effort fizzled, Sisley said university administrators began to question whether she was involved. On April 4, UA's senior vice president for health sciences, Joe "Skip" Garcia, asked Sisley to account for her political activism related to marijuana research, Sisley said. Garcia cited a flier to recall Yee that included a University of Arizona logo, Sisley said. Sisley said she told Garcia that while she has freely talked about barriers to medical-marijuana research, she was never involved in Yee's recall effort and had nothing to do with the UA logo that appeared on the recall flier. "I made it clear that I'm not a fan of her (Yee's) choices. I never suggested she should be recalled," Sisley said. Garcia, who also serves as the UA College of Medicine's acting dean, could not be reached on Wednesday. Sisley's written appeal noted that she has received positive performance reviews and that her efforts have brought national recognition to the UA. "The decision to effectively terminate seemed to take place in an environment of outside political pressure, but these assumptions cannot be verified due to the university's aforementioned refusal to provide grounds, evidence or a hearing," Sisley's appeal said. Sisley said her contract does not end until the last week of September. If she is not reinstated, she will look to land another academic research position and will take her $1 million study with her. She said she has had preliminary talks with Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University, and she also has communicated with out-of-state universities. "Everyone keeps asking me, 'Why would you return there,' " Sisley said. "I'm an Arizonan. I lived here for over 30 years. I refuse to turn my back on these veterans, many who have stood shoulder to shoulder with me." If a professor is terminated from one Arizona university, that does not prevent another Arizona university from hiring that person. That's a decision of the hiring university. "There is no policy that would preclude ASU or NAU from hiring Sue Sisley," said Katie Paquet, vice president for public affairs and external relations for the Arizona Board of Regents, which oversees the state's universities. MAPS, the non-profit backing Sisley's research, also has asked UA administrators to reinstate Sisley. MAPS Executive Director Rick Doblin said in a letter to UA that Sisley has worked on the research project for more than four years, gaining key approvals from the Food and Drug Administration, Public Health Service and UA's Institutional Review Board, which provides oversight to medical studies. A Change.org petition by Iraq war veteran Ricardo Pereyda had collected more than 31,000 signatures as of Thursday evening. Pereyda, who did not return a call or an e-mail, said in the petition that he is "outraged that the university is putting politics before the care of our nation's veterans."
California Asks: Should Doctors Face Drug Tests? I guess the People Republic of California wouldn't let John Hopkins the founder of the prestigious John Hopkins Medical Institute work there. John Hopkins was a heroin addict. Same goes for Doctor Sigmund Freud an Austrian neurologist who became known as the founding father of psychoanalysis. From what I have read he was a cocaine addict. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/02/us/california-asks-should-doctors-face-drug-tests.html?hpw&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well California Asks: Should Doctors Face Drug Tests? By ADAM NAGOURNEY AUG. 1, 2014 LOS ANGELES — At a time when random drug testing is part of the job for pilots, train operators, police officers and firefighters — to name a few — one high-profile line of work has managed to remain exempt: doctors. That may be about to change. California would become the first state to require doctors to submit to random drug and alcohol tests under a measure to appear on the ballot this November. The proposal, which drew approval in early focus groups, was inserted as a sweetener in a broad initiative pushed by trial lawyers that also includes an unrelated measure to raise the state’s financial cap on medical malpractice awards for the first time since 1975, to $1.1 million from $250,000. In California, it is permissible to bundle various measures into one ballot initiative, as long as they address a single subject. The stage has thus been set for a battle that is being closely watched by doctors across the country. The medical industry, including doctors, hospitals and medical insurance companies, has already raised more than $35 million to defeat it. Lawyers, aligned with some consumer watchdog groups, say they cannot match that level of spending but they have signaled an equally aggressive campaign with YouTube videos asking why doctors should not have to “pee in a cup” when firefighters and pilots do. Given its potential to set a national precedent and the provocative questions it raises — substance abuse is a well-known issue in the medical profession — Proposition 46, as it is known, is drawing national attention and debate. It has been endorsed by some of the state’s most powerful Democrats, including Senator Barbara Boxer and Representative Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader. Its opponents include unions, the state Chamber of Commerce and the California chapter of Planned Parenthood, which fears Proposition 46 would drive OB-GYN doctors into fields of medicine less subject to risk of litigation. The drug-testing provision, its sponsors said, is an inducement that bubbled up in the course of a freewheeling focus group of voters testing arguments that could persuade people to support a higher damage ceiling in malpractice lawsuits. The enthusiasm voiced in the focus group, strategists for the campaign said, suggested that the clearly popular idea could overcome medical industry advertisements warning that raising malpractice award limits would push up insurance rates and costs to local government. Under Proposition 46, the ceiling for pain and suffering awards in medical negligence suits, set at $250,000 by the State Legislature in 1975, would be raised to $1.1 million to reflect inflation. The results of random drug tests on doctors would be reported to the California Medical Board; hospitals would be required to report the names of doctors suspected of abusing drugs or alcohol. Doctors would also be required to consult state prescription databases before prescribing controlled substances to patients, to guard against “doctor shopping.” Doctors predicted that voters would see through what they called political trickery. Dr. Richard Thorp, the president of the California Medical Association, described the measure as a “money grab by trial lawyers.” He added, “The decision about drug and alcohol testing shouldn’t be made by political consultants — it should be made by stakeholders in a careful, thoughtful way.” Asked if California doctors could support drug testing in any form, Dr. Thorp said: “That’s a great theoretical question. But we’re not dealing with a theatrical initiative. We are dealing with this state initiative. We cannot pass this initiative as it is written today. It is a flawed, deceptive ballot initiative, with one goal in mind: to increase money for trial lawyers.” Still, the measure threatens to put the medical profession in the difficult position of having to argue against the kind of scrutiny that an increasing number of workers — particularly in jobs affecting the public well-being — routinely undergo. Backers of Proposition 46 have begun putting out a steady stream of news releases about cases involving doctors with a history of drug and alcohol abuse. “It’s crucial: I can’t believe we haven’t done this already,” said Arthur L. Caplan, a medical ethicist at New York University. “We can argue about how often that is, and what to do if you are positive. But the idea that we wouldn’t be screening our surgeon, our anesthesiologist or our oncologist when we are going to screen our bus drivers and our airline pilots strikes me as ethically indefensible.” Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, said in an interview that there should be random drug testing across the medical profession, given the access in hospitals to controlled substances. “I don’t think that a carve-out when it comes to the medical field is sensible public policy,” he said. “No one should be above suspicion or below suspicion. I think we all need to play by similar rules.” In California, major laws are routinely made at the ballot box, and initiatives like this can be as hard-fought as a race for governor. Both sides expect this contest to dwarf anything else on the ballot, including the lopsided race for governor (Jerry Brown, a popular Democrat, is widely expected to win re-election). “From a national perspective, this is really historic,” said Jamie Court, the president of Consumer Watchdog, one of the groups supporting the initiative. “It will give the public a chance to put doctors in the same category as pilots and truck drivers and other workers who are tested for impairment because they have public-safety jobs. That will spread like wildfire if the voters of California give it a nod.” Dr. Thorp of the California Medical Association said the issue was so important that the coalition opposing it was “very committed to ensuring that this ballot initiative doesn’t get passed.” A big part of the battle will be how to frame the multipart measure for voters. It will be titled: “Drug and Alcohol Testing of Doctors. Medical Negligence Lawsuits. Initiative Statute.” The first sentence of the official description says it “requires drug testing of doctors,” before listing the other provisions. But it also warns that the initiative could impose costs on state and local government “ranging from tens of millions to several hundred million dollars annually, offset to some extent by savings from requirements on health care providers.” Gale Kaufman, a California political consultant helping to run the campaign against the measure, said that people would vote against it because of the potentially high cost. She noted that, as a rule, it is easier to defeat than to pass an ambitious initiative like this one. “Voters always figure out — always figure out — what the real motivation is,” she said. “This has nothing to do with drug testing of doctors.” Chris Lehane, a consultant working for the trial lawyers, disputed that. “Both sides can say what they want to say,” he said. “But there is no dispute about what will actually be in the black-and-white print on the ballot for the voters to consider.” And Mr. Court of Consumer Watchdog argued that there was nothing wrong with drafting a proposition that reflected what voters would support. “The other side likes to say it’s all about playing for the polls,” he said. “The reality is, if you are doing a ballot measure for the public, you should give the public the type of reforms they are seeking.”
New Yorkers push for charges in police chokehold death This incident is why the Founders gave us the Second Amendment. And of course this incident is exactly why the royal rulers of New York State and New York City have flushed the 2nd Amendment down the toilet. They don't want their serfs to be able to defend themselves against government tyrants. I am not a psychic, but I will make a prediction on this case. No charges will be filed against the cop. And if there are the cop will get a slap on the wrist at the most. Of course based on past behavior of the courts and police in the country you don't have to be a psychic to make that prediction and get it right. Last I have an almost perfect record on my predictions such as this. Not because I am a freaking psychic, but because I have been around the block once or twice and know how the police and courts work. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/02/new-yorkers-push-for-charges-in-police-chokehold-death/13513513/ New Yorkers push for charges in police chokehold death Natalie DiBlasio, USA TODAY 12:52 p.m. MST August 2, 2014 Furious New Yorkers are calling for criminal charges after a man's death in a police chokehold was ruled a homicide. "They killed somebody," neighbor Charlene Thomas said. "Why? Because they're cops, they gotta get away with this?" Officer Daniel Pantaleo and another officer tried to arrest Eric Garner, a 6-foot-3, 350-pound father of six, for selling untaxed cigarettes on a Staten Island street July 17. Video shot by a passer-by showed Pantaleo, an eight-year NYPD veteran, grabbing Garner, 43, around the neck as he and his partner wrestled him to the ground. Police rules forbid chokeholds. Garner was transported to a medical center, where he was pronounced dead. Medical examiner spokeswoman Julie Bolcer said Friday that Garner died from "the compression of his chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police." Asthma and heart disease contributed to his death, she said. Ramsey Orta, a friend of Garner's who videotaped his struggle with police, said the medical examiner's ruling wasn't surprising. "I knew that was the cause because I saw it," he said. "Now somebody should get charged." Garner's family will be joined by the Rev. Al Sharpton to address the medical examiner's ruling Saturday. "Thank God the truth is finally out," Garner's wife, Esaw Garner, told the Daily News. The medical examiner's finding increases the likelihood the case will be presented to a grand jury to determine whether Pantaleo or any other officers involved in the confrontation will face criminal charges. A spokesman for Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan said prosecutors were still investigating the death and awaited a full autopsy report and death certificate from the medical examiner. Donovan will have to determine whether to impanel a grand jury and charge officers in Garner's death. Pantaleo's attorney, Stuart London, declined to comment. Pantaleo was stripped of his gun and badge pending the investigation, and another officer was placed on desk duty. Two paramedics and two emergency medical technicians were suspended without pay for not responding to Garner's need for medical attention. Contributing: Associated Press
If you look at who ran this ad, it's the usual group of people that make their wallets fat by throwing people in prison for victimless drug war crimes. American Society of Addiction Medicine - They get lots of government money to treat people with "drug problems" The National Association of Drug Court Professionals - Most of these folks would be flipping burgers at McDonalds if the "War on Drugs" didn't give them their high paying jobs in the criminal justice (make the injustice) system http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/08/02/coalition-runs-full-page-new-york-times-ad-to-dispute-pro-marijuana-editorial/ Coalition runs full-page New York Times ad to dispute pro-marijuana editorial By Niraj Chokshi August 2 at 8:00 AM A coalition of groups is running a full-page advertisement in the New York Times this weekend, advocating against the maturing movement to legalize marijuana. The ad comes in response to a New York Times editorial series launched last weekend arguing for an end to marijuana prohibition. In it, the newspaper’s editorial board advocated for an end to the federal ban on the drug. The ad, pictured below, features a businessman with the pasted-on head of a hippie, a visual metaphor for what the groups warn is the disconnected perception and reality when it comes to legalization. “The legalization of marijuana means ushering in an entirely new group of corporations whose primary source of revenue is a highly habit-forming product,” the ad reads. “Sounds a lot like another industry we just put in its place. Many facts are being ignored by this and other news organizations. Go to GrasslsNotGreener.com to see why so many major medical associations oppose marijuana legalization.” The website, which contains resources about the dangers of marijuana, is affiliated with Project SAM, which stands for Smart Approaches to Marijuana. The nonprofit was co-founded by former congressman and former head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Patrick Kennedy and former Obama administration drug policy adviser professor Kevin Sabet. It advocates against legalization, but in favor of dropping mandatory minimum sentences and removing criminal penalties while expunging records for low-level users of the drug, and pushes for better access to treatment, education and prevention. The group contends that legalization risks the creation of a predatory industry “In the marijuana business, the values of the flower children have been quickly replaced by the values of Wall St. power brokers,” Sabet said in a statement. “We’re on the brink of creating the next Big Tobacco. We feel like this is an important message most Americans have not considered.” The implementation of legalization by Colorado officials–some of them at least initially opposed to it–has been described as a success, though it’s too early to assess the public health impact of the law itself. In Washington, the only other state to also legalize pot, the drug went on sale this month. Legalization is on the November ballot in Oregon and Alaska. The coalition behind the new website includes: The American Society of Addiction Medicine, a group that boasts more than 3,000 addiction physician and professional members The National Association of Drug Court Professionals, a nonprofit whose members include judges, attorneys and clinical specialists National Families in Action, a group dedicated to getting state laws passed to prevent marketing of drugs and drug use to children. Parents Opposed to Pot.
I have written software all my life, and I love computers. But in general I don't think "computers" are good teachers by themselves. Books and humans are much better teachers then computers. Of course if you are learning how to do something that involves computers, such as learning how to write computer programs or learning how to use AutoCad or Photoshop then you need a computer. But in general old fashioned books are much better at teaching people stuff then computers. It's kind of like teaching a child how to to math the old fashioned way using paper and pencil. Sure when you first start it's harder to do math with a pencil and paper. But once the kid learns it he can always do the math even if you take the paper and pencil away. But if you only teach a kid how to math with a calculator. If you take the calculator away from the kid the kid won't be able to do math. http://www.alternet.org/education/why-one-school-district-throwing-all-its-student-laptops-away Why One School District Is Throwing All of its Student Laptops Away Is giving students laptops a terrible idea? July 30, 2014 Inside Hoboken’s combined junior-senior high school is a storage closet. Behind the locked door, mothballed laptop computers are strewn among brown cardboard boxes. Others are stacked one atop another amid other computer detritus. Dozens more are stored on mobile computer carts, many of them on their last legs. That’s all that remains from a failed experiment to assign every student a laptop in this northern New Jersey suburb of New York City. It began five years ago with an unexpected windfall of stimulus money from Washington, D.C., and good intentions to help the districts’ students, the majority of whom are under or near the poverty line, keep up with their wealthier peers. But Hoboken faced problem after problem and is abandoning the laptops entirely this summer. “We had the money to buy them, but maybe not the best implementation,” said Mark Toback, the current superintendent of Hoboken School District. “It became unsustainable.” None of the school administrators who initiated Hoboken’s one-to-one laptop program still work there, but Toback agreed to share Hoboken’s experiences so that other schools can learn from it. Despite tight budgets, superintendents and principals around the country are cobbling together whatever dollars they can to buy more computers for their classrooms. This year alone, schools are projected to spend almost $10 billion on education technology, a $240-million increase from 2013, according to the Center for Digital Education. Educational technology holds the promise of individualizing instruction, and some school systems, like Mooresville, North Carolina, and Cullman, Alabama, have shown impressive student learning gains. But districts like Los Angeles and Fort Bend, Texas, who jumped on the tech trend without careful planning, have had problems with their programs to distribute a laptop or a tablet to every student, and are scrapping them, too. By the time Jerry Crocamo, a computer network engineer, arrived in Hoboken’s school system in 2011, every seventh, eighth and ninth grader had a laptop. Each year a new crop of seventh graders were outfitted. Crocamo’s small tech staff was quickly overwhelmed with repairs. We had “half a dozen kids in a day, on a regular basis, bringing laptops down, going ‘my books fell on top of it, somebody sat on it, I dropped it,’ ” said Crocamo. Screens cracked. Batteries died. Keys popped off. Viruses attacked. Crocamo found that teenagers with laptops are still… teenagers. “We bought laptops that had reinforced hard-shell cases so that we could try to offset some of the damage these kids were going to do,” said Crocamo. “I was pretty impressed with some of the damage they did anyway. Some of the laptops would come back to us completely destroyed.” Crocamo’s time was also eaten up with theft. Despite the anti-theft tracking software he installed, some laptops were never found. Crocamo had to file police reports and even testify in court. Hoboken school officials were also worried they couldn’t control which websites students would visit. Crocamo installed software called Net Nanny to block pornography, gaming sites and Facebook. He disabled the built-in web cameras. He even installed software to block students from undoing these controls. But Crocamo says students found forums on the Internet that showed them how to access everything. “There is no more determined hacker, so to speak, than a 12-year-old who has a computer,” said Crocamo. All this security software also bogged down the computers. Teachers complained it took 20 minutes for them to boot up, only to crash afterwards. Often, there was too little memory left on the small netbooks to run the educational software. Hoboken math coach Howard McKenzie says he also had problems with the software itself. “We wanted to run a program for graphing calculators, but it didn’t work very well; it was very sticky,” said McKenzie “We kind of scrapped it.” Ultimately, the math teacher just showed it to the class on a Smart Board, an interactive whiteboard. Superintendent Toback admits that teachers weren’t given enough training on how to use the computers for instruction. Teachers complained that their teenage students were too distracted by their computer screens to pay attention to the lesson in the classroom. Michael Ranieri, a junior at Hoboken’s high school, aspires to be an electrical engineer. He said when he did use the computers for schoolwork, it was mostly for word processing and Internet browsing. He would write an essay on the laptop for English class, for example, or research information using Google. “We didn’t really do much on the computer,” said Ranieri. “So we kind of just did games to mess around when we had free time. I remember really big was Crazy Taxis that we used play. If we found solitaire on line, we used to play it.” Ranieri said he was relieved to be free of the stress of keeping track of his laptop. Families had to sign papers agreeing to be financially responsible if the computers were lost. Every week Ranieri roamed his classrooms looking for his. “It was usually under my desk in English class,” he said. Superintendent Toback inherited the laptop program when he arrived in 2011. At first, he tried to keep it going. But he faced skyrocketing costs, which hadn’t been budgeted for. The $500 laptops lasted only two years and then needed to be replaced. Toback said new laptops with more capacity for running educational software would cost $1,000 each. Licenses for the security software alone were running more than $100,000 and needed to be renewed every two years. And the final kicker: the whole town was jamming the high school’s wireless network. “A lot of people knew the username and password,” Toback said. “So a lot of people were able to walk by the building and they would get wireless access. Over a period of years, you had thousands of people. It bogged it down, it made it unusable.” Allison Powell says Hoboken’s headaches are not unusual. Powell is a vice president for state and district services at iNacol, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, where she works with school leaders on how to use computers to personalize instruction by delivering different lessons to each child. But Powell says many schools are continuing to make Hoboken’s mistake of shopping for technology without a plan to make teaching in the classroom more effective. “Probably in the last few months I’ve had quite a few principals and superintendents call and say, ‘I bought these 500 iPads or 1000 laptops because the district next to us just bought them,’ and they’re like, now what do we do?” Powell said. Back in Hoboken, the school staff will spend the summer going through the laptops one by one, writing down the serial numbers and drafting a resolution for the school board to approve their destruction. Then they’ll seek bids from recycling companies to figure out how much it will cost Hoboken to throw them away. Read moreabout how schools are bringing technology into the classroom. Jill Barshay, a contributing editor, is the founding editor and writer of Education By The Numbers, The Hechinger Report's blog about education data. Previously she was the New York bureau chief for Marketplace, a national business show on public radio stations.
An ex-police Sergent tells how and why you should fight ALL speeding fines This is true about the criminal justice system too. No make that the criminal injustice system. Something like 99 percent of the people plead guilty by accepting plea bargains. If everybody plead innocent and demanded a jury trial the system would crash and burn. "if about 10% of all drivers booked follow my specific instructions, then the entire system will crash and become unworkable" http://thefreethoughtproject.com/ex-police-sergent-tells-fight-speeding-fines/ An ex-police Sergent tells how and why you should fight ALL speeding fines DriftSpec.org August 2, 2014 My name is Stan. I am a retired Sergeant of the Police force for 14 years. I was also a police prosecutor at times, so I know what I am talking about. I spent half my life in Magistrates Court during my time in the Force. I was only ever a very fair copper, and I am proud of my time in the job, looking after the interests of citizens, often to the detriment of my family and my health. I never booked any driver for a trifling offence “ever”. People committing trifling offences commonly used to get a warning and a licence / vehicle check. It had to be serious before I booked anyone. I am so annoyed at what is happening these days, in what I call “Indiscriminate revenue gathering” It is absolutely disgusting. The government and the Police Force need to hang their heads in shame. If you did a survey of current serving members of the police forces in this country, you would be hard pushed to find many who disagree with me. I know how the legal system works, and I know how to beat the system. This is how to do it, and if about 10% of all drivers booked follow my specific instructions, then the entire system will crash and become unworkable to the extent, that the government will have no choice but to stop issuing fines for every type of traffic offence. The whole lot of them. Seriously. I do not feel guilty about coming out with this information, as I think it’s about time someone stood up for hard working, civil minded, law abiding taxpayers in this country, who are being screwed. This is very simple and very basic. The idea is to clog up the system in the traffic camera office and the courts by drivers exercising their rights to remain innocent until proven guilty. SIMPLE BASIC LEGAL STEPS TO FOLLOW……………. 1. Do not accept the alleged offence. There are numerous valid reasons to dispute every single alleged offence. Often the charges are incorrect or the evidence is illegally or incorrectly gathered. 2. Challenge it, tell them that you are going to defend the matter. Make them earn their miserable $150 or $200 or whatever. They have to prepare evidence and witnesses. Just the wages for the camera operator or the Policeman on the day of the court, will be more than the actual fine. You are also taking a camera operator or a member of the Police Force off the street for the day. But it won’t get to that point…..read on…. 3. If a court date is ever set, and it does not suit you, do not accept it, ask for a delay to a time and place that suits you. 4. When they re set the date, delay it as often as possible. keep pleading not guilty all through the process. You have every right to be sick, or go for an adjournment if the day does not suit for any legitimate reason. For example you may have pressing family or work commitments which prevent you from attending a particular court on a particular day. 5. If it ever actually gets to court, (which is unlikely if everyone does this) and if you are unwell that day, ring the court in the morning and tell them that you cannot make it as you are sick. The camera operator, and a police prosecutor will already be at court, and will be greatly inconvenienced, by having to come back another day. The whole time this is going on, the amount of paperwork involved at the traffic camera office is huge. Several staff are involved, and it rapidly becomes very costly, probably running into thousands. …..with me so far…..keep reading……. 6. The court system is then placed under such a massive load by people who wanted “their day in court” that it simply will not be able to cope unless they open up about another 50 magistrates courts, and this is obviously going to cost the government a lot more than any revenue raised. If all the above fails, which is highly unlikely….and you actually go to court and get convicted……you have a right of appeal. Make sure you appeal the conviction. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see what happens. They are not going to spend millions chasing hundreds. 7 Tell everyone you know to challenge their alleged offences, and the entire system will crash within a few weeks. 8. Please pass this on. AND ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY AND THAT THERE IS A VERY HIGH PROBABILITY THAT THE EVIDENCE USED AGAINST YOU IS WRONG. YOU HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO CHALLENGE ANY ALLEGED OFFENCE. THIS IS WHY COURTS EXIST….SO USE THEM……A LOT. Regards, Stan
Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies???
Is Billy Hayes willing to find the "truth" in my case of the David Dorn lies??? I am a "truther" by default, meaning I seek the truth, the bottom line if you'd rather phrase it that way. https://www.facebook.com/notes/901570869857736/ The Plan, Vol 1 Ch 1 August 2, 2014 at 4:23am Please do not let my appearance or "past" on paper confuse you or mislead you in any way, I am not who you think I am. I am not the person you see out in the streets, or at a NORML meeting, or a Safer Arizona meeting or some other "pro-pot" meeting wearing Dickies and a cannabis t-shirt waving the "free the weed" flag. I am not that guy. I am a "truther" by default, meaning I seek the truth, the bottom line if you'd rather phrase it that way. I could care less about the fluff or spin of or on the issue or agenda, I don't care, what is the bottom line?! So, here, right now, and for anyone lucky enough to read this in the next day or so while I move accounts from this page to the other page, I am going to share some "truth" for the masses to absorb. By "masses" I am speaking to all of you, from the solo patient who never does anything other than get a card every year and go to dispensaries to the dispensary owner, all of you. Make no mistake, I am not an accident or an unfortunate set of circumstances, I have an agenda, I always have, long before MPP or Andrew Myers was a thought in this State, long before Gordon Hamilton every fathomed the concept of the ADA, I was here, on the ground floor of that agenda, putting in work. Here it is, my agenda, laid out for everyone to see, now, unstoppable by default. My agenda is simple folks, nothing shy about it, those that worked for me in the past or have worked with me on projects know what I am about to say to be true, 110% accurate and complete; I am here to take over this industry, the mj industry, the whole thing, the entire fucking show folks, it will be mine, and I will tell you how and why in the following series of "notes". Call it a free book, call it a manual, call it a mastermind RICO scheme if your an attorney for the State lol, I don't care what you call it, the same phrase applies every time you get to that bottom line I spoke about above and that bottom line is domination. Complete and total industry domination. A one man wrecking crew, industrial assassin, marijuana merc, corporate hitman, call me what you will, I get it done and I am relentless. In this first edition in the series I want to talk about my past, "sketchy" is what I am generally called and I am ok with that, sketchy men and woman have progressed our planet farther than the norm ever have. We don't think outside the box, we re-create the box, with no walls or boundaries, we think infinitely in nature, always searching for that bottom line of truth. Yes, I have been to prison for marijuana. Yes, that is what got me interested in the law and practice thereof. Yes, I have smoked cannabis all my life. Yes, I have a family. Yes, I am married. Yes, I have a daughter outside of my marriage by another woman, I am proud of them both. Yes I have children with my wife, two girls. Yes, I have a son by another woman who I see neither of sadly. No I am not a martyr. I am smart, I did my homework. I did it all before any of the "players" in the industry ever thought about becoming players. Which by the way dispensary owners, have you figured that out yet? You cannot control an industry you did not help create, you have no authority here outside of that which we, the real cannabis industry allow you to have. Never forget how we graciously allow you to exist in our industry. Never forget who really funded this "start-up", who actually controls it, the "black market", the "gray area" you have nightmares about. That is why I am here folks. I had the foresight to realize what was happening with cannabis worldwide in relation to various geopolitical issues happening across the globe. Have you all forgotten the 60's and 70's already?! Hell, that's where they made me at. I came to merc the bullshitters, those who seek to control and then destroy our movement of truth and healing, those who wish to exploit the "medical" marijuana industry for profit, not for patients. Those who seek to endorse corporations as people, rather than people as individuals and individuals as individual patients. I am the wind that blows from the four corners and I arrived on a pale horse, years ago. Every move the industry sought to make, I was prepared for. How and why are the pertinent questions that remain for you I would guess and those answers are coming I assure you. The "why" is stated above actually, domination, complete and total market then industry domination. The how, that will take a little more explaining. Smart people will figure it out or already have. I have infiltrated every single organization that exists in this industry in one way or another. Knowledge is power and I have a majority of it in this industry. Very few things are a surprise to me, nor have they ever been. People are easy, organizations are easy, the State was easy, the industry, very misled, on purpose. I am going to un-screw your brains however between now and tuesday when the next NORML in Arizona State meeting takes place. You won't want to miss that meeting ladies and gentleman. Especially you dispensary owners, you should really show up, hell, I won't even charge you for the info and that info is guaranteed to increase your profit margin. Which by the way, I am a dispensary owner, don't forget that. All this time you have been demonizing me for what I do you have failed to see past your greedy financial blinders and failed to recognized I have the ability to make you far more money than you are currently making because my intent was to always make money as a dispensary owner, foolish little simple minded corporate fools, you have been cutting your own throats by working against me instead of with me. One of the most popular dispensaries with patients was also the first collective and became a household name because of the work that happened PRIOR to them ever becoming a dispensary. Work done by three people; myself, Matt D. and Bryan C., the original AZCS team/crew. Make no mistake folks, the partner I trusted that stabbed me in the back, well that knife didn't cut too deep, I had heard it was coming from a couple I did some consulting for close to new Mexico, so for the most part I was prepared, the timing was a shock though, he did get me there. I figured the shank would come after the permit Damon, not before buddy, reckless to say the least, most have been Todd's advice lol. So why was or should I say why IS AZCS so popular now? Me, my agenda. With minor exceptions AZCS has stayed the course I designed simply because Damon, the backstabbing partner, had no plan, other than mine, my "black binder" was what was in my head, or a piece of it anyway. Nothing was in his head other than to steal the biz from me, the person that made it what it was in the two years prior to his involvement. Even that sexy window in to the grow room from the lobby ;) So, knowing that someday through swift and painful litigation I would regain control of the business, I moved ahead with phase two of my plan. Who better to run a pro-use lounge than a dispensary owner?! Ahhhhhhhhhh, the lens just focused some didn't it folks?! How many people know or should I say knew about the kiosks inside the vapor lounge? How many knew that we were working hand in hand with a state registered dispensary? Patients had a try before you buy system that the AMMA and AZDHS R&R didn't accommodate for, one I created as part of my agenda. From paraphernalia to meds they could try before they buy, and the dispensaries got to enter a market region previously not available to them. So all you dispensary owners reading this, look for my "peace offering" seminar coming up, it will cost WAY LESS that those ADA member dues you are paying and getting nothing for. Me, I will promise you make twice as much money within thirty days of attending. The meeting coincidentally will also be the first RAMMP State meeting, you can meet your consumers, hear what they have to say about you and your performance. Might want to bring a box of tissues. Be ready Arizona. Be ready for more truth about how things really work in this state because this series will expose it all as my agenda progresses. There will be fireworks. There will be broken hearts. There will be dispensaries targeted and closed. There will be reports of collusion. There will be high level state employees and dispensary owners involved. Members of the ADA will potentially be indicted for some of the data I release. I mean seriously, did the dispensary owners really think it would be ok to employee local dealers for their start ups and then fire them once they were up and running with another supply line as if it would be alright?! LMAO! Every move the RDAA and ADA have made has been countered, it's hard to make a move I don't know about when I already know what your agenda is. I hear your phone calls, I read your emails, your waiter at the fancy restaurant tells me every word of your business dinner conversation because I give them free meds, and loyalty, something you seem to never offer them. You cannot move without me knowing about it first, period. Quit looking for the rat in your group ADA, there isn't one, there are 42 ;) Not all dispensary owners support the ADA folks however openly supporting the flip side can cost them so they stay quiet, they feed me instead, the merc, the hired gun. Slowly sniping away at the insurgents of the cannabis industry. Taking the industry back is the first part of the agenda, handing it over to the consumer, that is the second part, that's where we are now ladies and gents. It is our time to stand up and take back what is ours and we will start with NORML, OUR voice, our servants of advocacy for safe access to affordable high grade cannabis. Join ME at the very next NORML meeting and help me take back what is ours Arizona!! I worked for someone as a young man that made a great impression on me, he said something that stuck with me for the rest of my life. I hope it sticks with you and I hope those that need to see it and understand do so... "The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." Ralph Nader I am here for the consumer, always have been Arizona. |